Top 10 Chess Endgame Principles (Crash Course)

Welcome into the quick crash endgame course. These are the top 10 most important endgame patterns that you need to know in order to dominate your current opponents. I'm Grandmaster Igor Smirnov and let's go ahead and get started. The first pattern is rather basic, but nevertheless a must-know for anybody. It's a staircase checkmate, which you can use with two heavy pieces, either two rooks or two queens, or a rook and a queen. So here, how do you checkmate the black king? Well, first off you need to cut it off either horizontally or vertically, but nevertheless you wish to limit the king somehow. Let's say you play rook to f2 and cut off the king that way. On the next turn you start to attack it delivering checks. So you play rook to e1. Notice that we keep the rooks in such a way where they do control these both files, pushing the king to the side. So the king goes and then you keep repeating the same check. Rook to d2. The king is still cut off vertically, therefore it still has to move left. If it goes somewhere here, then you just keep delivering checks all the way till it's a checkmate. If instead the king moves here and attacks your rook, then you certainly need to be careful. You do not want to give one more check and give up your rook. In this case, you just move your rook out of danger as far as possible from the king, and then you're ready to continue the same pattern. If he tries to stop your rook from delivering this check, then you do the same thing. You lift it up. Notice that I'm putting it diagonally to each other, so that you are able to deliver checks and the rooks do not stand in the way of each other. So now after the king moves, you just keep delivering these checks, forcing the king to move all the way till it's a checkmate. You can use the same staircase technique with queens, of course. It's even easier. This time you deliver a check by the queen. The king needs to move right. This time we're dragging the opponent's king to that side of the board, then one more check, the other one, and finally it's a checkmate. Which also brings us to the next point. Avoid a stalemate, especially when you are ahead of material. Sometimes your opponent has just one king left while you have two queens or a ton of material. Notice that if I try the same staircase technique right here unthinkingly, I can end up with a stalemate, where there is no check and the king has no squares to go to. Therefore, it is just a stalemate, meaning a draw. In this game, Magnus Carlsen was playing black and he's up a pawn in a totally winning endgame position. He's pushing pawns forward, now undermines white's pawn chain. In case white captures this pawn over here, black would take this one and that would start pushing pawns. Black is also easily winning here in the actual game. Instead, white decided to just do nothing. He kept playing with his king back and forth. Here Magnus played pawn to b6, probably expecting white to just resign as now white is in C1. His king needs to move which would drop this pawn on c4. However, instead white played a tricky move, king to a4 and Carlsen was so surprised that he started laughing and then even walked away from the board. He couldn't believe that he could draw this absolutely easily winning endgame because here it's actually a counter trick. Now black needs to do something with the king and the only meaningful move king takes c4 actually leads to a stalemate. So even the strongest one fall for this trap and you should always watch out for a stalemate if you are about to win the game. Now, let's go to more practical positions. And what is the main endgame plan? It is known as a 3p rule. Push past pawns. If you've got a passed pawn, meaning a pawn with no opposition, no opponent's pawn on the same file or adjacent files. And there is nothing that prevents this pawn from possibly moving forward all the way till the 8th rank. If you've got a passed pawn, just push it forward. At some point, this will force your opponent to put his pieces to passive defensive positions and even if your pawn could not be promoted immediately, he'll just bring more forces and support this pawn's advancement. Ultimately, it will be promoted and you will win the game. Now we're going to take it one step further. So we've got a very practical endgame position where there is nothing particular that you can do. You don't have any passed pawns and these type of positions are the ones that confuse people the most because you can't checkmate your opponent's king. They have no obvious weaknesses and it's unclear what you're going to do here. So here is the right plan. Again, it's still the same thing. You want to push past pawns. Now, what if you don't have any? Well, then you need to create some, right? So first off, let's look at our position and evaluate all the pawns that you have, asking yourself which one has the highest probability of becoming a passed pawn. And in this case, it is this pawn over here that at least has no opposing pawn on the same file. And yes, it's not a clear pass or pawn as if we try to advance it forward, we can't easily do that as if we push it to c5, he will certainly capture it by the b-pawn or by the rook. But nevertheless, since there are no opponent's pawns at least along these two files, it has a potential to become a passed pawn and that's what we're trying to achieve. Now, think about this. Once you have that clear guideline, all you're going to be thinking about is how to make this pawn to be a passed pawn. And once you have a clear guideline in mind, it's much easier to carry on this plan. So, in order for this pawn to become a passed pawn, what would you need to do? What would need to happen? Well, you'd probably need to push this pawn and at some point to push it forward to c5. Can you do it straight away? Not really, because if you push this pawn to b4, it hands this pawn on c4, he'll simply take it. So you should not do it straight away. What do you need to do to push the pawn to b4, but not lose the other one on the c4? Well, you need to defend this one first. So you play King to c3, aiming to play pawn to b4 on the next turn. Now our pawn is guarded. He can't take it. All's good. Okay, he plays something. What do you do next? Again, your logical thinking is exactly the same. You wish to push this pawn to c5 and make it a passed pawn. Can you do it now? Well, he attacks this square twice by his pawn and rook. So if you capture it, push it straight away, he's going to capture it and win your pawn. You don't want that. So what do you need to do to make this happen? You need one more attacker to this square. So you can bring the rook over. Now you'll have two attackers to this square and on the next turn, you will be able to push the pawn forward. What if he tries to stop that? He goes like this. Now your rook is hanging. You'd love to play c5, but this would hand a rook. So you can't do that straight away. So after Ke6, what would you play here as white? Well, you need to guard the rook first. And then on the next turn, after whatever move of black, you finally push the pawn to c5 and the goal is achieved. Now after this trade, you do have a clear passed pawn. And you see that I'm explaining you the way of thinking of a grandmaster, but basically it's pretty straightforward and you can replicate it and play just that. Now, let's say your opponent plays something. What are you going to do next? Again, we're going to adhere to our plan. You've got a passed pawn. You wish to push it right here. Can you do it straight away? No, he's going to capture it. So we need to control this square first. So how can you do that? Well, you can bring the rook right here. He comes back. Can you push the pawn right now? No, the rook is going to be captured. So we need to defend it. You'll play something like this and on the next turn you'll basically keep repeating this operation and you're going to win the game. Which brings us to the next idea. Two connected passed pawns win the game. Why? We know that one passed pawn is already quite strong, but two is just an unstoppable force in an endgame. Because first up he can never blockade them. Notice that they do control all the squares in front of these pawns, making it virtually impossible for them to anyhow put a piece in front of the pawn and blockade it. Therefore, he can just push it forward. Plus, if your opponent ever tries to attack one of your pawns, the other one can just advance and support this attacked pawn. So there's really nothing that he can do to stop your pawns from rolling forward. Now, if you can't play c6 straight away, because this would drop this pawn, you can just advance the king forward and then after whatever moves of black, your pawns are going to be moving forward. And the final big advantage of having two connected passed pawns is that you actually get a new queen. If you only had one passed pawn, he could trade a rook for that pawn and the game would go on. However, in this case, even if he trades a rook for this pawn, you still have one more spare pawn, basically, to steal queen and you actually get a new clear queen. And now you will probably win the game, because you have a tremendous material advantage. Here comes the next rule. Activate your king. And here's a little bit helpful tip. Treat your king as if it was a knight, because in an endgame, your king is as strong as a knight. Just to illustrate the point, I reverted the position slightly. I reverted the king and the knight. Now, imagine you have this knight instead of a king on g8. Would you wish to keep it right there and do nothing with it? Certainly not. You'd wish to develop your knight, to use it actively, to probably move it forward somewhere to the center. You'd start attacking with this knight. That's what you wish to do. And you use the same logic for your king. Now I'm bringing the original position back and hopefully it is clear what should black do now. You need to develop your king. Right? So you move it forward and you start to centralize it. So first you wish to centralize it. And secondly, you wish to use it more aggressively, to attack something with your king. And here you've got an opportunity to do that. You can keep advancing it forward. And now you're attacking this pawn. On the next turn, you're going to capture it. And then after that, you're going to capture also this pawn on b4, keep pushing your path pawns, and you're going to win the game. Which brings us to the next rule, which basically is the flip side of the same coin. Cut off your opponent's king. Here you can play rook to d7, which not only attacks this pawn, because black can easily defend it, but even more importantly, it cuts off the black king on the last rank. Therefore, black can no longer move the king here, here, and centralize it and use it actively. Well, you still can do that. You can bring your king forward and attack them in one direction or the other. You're quite likely to win the game just because basically you outnumber your opponent. You've got two pieces in the game versus one. This position looks symmetric and drawish at first, but in reality, black is easily winning if you know the opposition rule. In chess, opposition is when you put your king in such a way where both kings face each other with only one square in between. And this situation puts your opponent in Zugswand, where any move would worsen their position. Basically, whatever they do, they'll have to give you space and this will allow you to outflank them and to start capturing their pawns. For instance, if the king goes right, now you can go left and pick up this pawn and then all the other pawns just as well. Let's take it back. If instead white tries to maintain the guard, they still had to give you space, control of this square. And now you can go right, outflank them, the king will have to move somewhere. Now you can start gaining space, approaching his pawns and ultimately winning them. And then you'll start pushing your passed pawn forward. And here's a quick test. This is black to play. How do you play here if you are black? It's a really classical position, which so many people ruined even though black is easily winning. The most natural and tempting move for black would be trying to push their passed pawn forward by playing pawn to e3. But that is a massive blunder, which only leads to a draw. Instead, you need to win the opposition, right? Putting your king to face the enemy king and to gain that opposition, where it would force the king to move away to one of the sides and then you'd move to the other side. And now nothing can stop your pawn from being pushed forward and you win. The next principle is opposite colored bishop endings are drawish because you can build a fortress. In this position, white is up two pawns. It looks like this passed pawn is very dangerous. But in reality, black drew the game. They even gave up the third pawn to white by going king to f5. So what's the catch here? Well, it turns out that once you own all the squares of the color of your bishop, there's nothing your opponent can do. Black will just go back and forth and white cannot break this fortress because their dark squared bishop can never attack light squares. In the actual game, white actually tried to do something but black just did nothing. They're going back and forth with their bishop and white realized that hey, they can't do anything. If they ever move the king away, that drops this pawn and after that black still goes back and forth and it's a fortress. It's a draw. The pattern number nine, which is very helpful. Rooks go behind passed pawns. Imagine you're playing this position as black and your opponent goes rook d5, hitting this pawn. What would you do here? Knowing this rule, it's pretty easy to understand that your rook should go behind a passed pawn so that not only it guards the pawn, but also it supports its advancement all the way through. Now it's really hard for white to do anything and you win the game. If instead black played a more natural move, just push this pawn forward and away from danger, this would actually be a massive mistake because now white can follow the same rule. Rooks go behind passed pawns. It doesn't even matter whether it's your pawn or your opponent's pawn. You wish to have your rook behind it. And now this rook is attacking the pawn and it's controlling all the squares in front of the pawn indirectly. Therefore, even if black, for example, guards the pawn, okay, cool. But what are you going to do next? How can this pawn move forward? There is no way black ever tries to push it forward. White will simply capture it. Black can't make any progress and it's a draw. And another really helpful pattern is how to win with a queen versus a pawn. Quite often in an endgame, you have something like this where you start capturing their pawn. They go against yours and then after some pawn race, and if you win the race, you end up with a position like that where you've got a queen so you're supposed to win the game. However, their pawn is about to be promoted. So how do you win the game? So here's the trick. First off, you wish to bring your queen as close as possible to the pawn using the zigzag method where you just deliver this check and then you keep delivering checks all the time approaching with your queen, their king. So at some point after one more check, the king will have to sidestep and then you can bring your queen even closer attacking this pawn. This forces the king to come here. But now with one more check, this forces the king to stand in front of the pawn, which is what you want. Because if the king goes that way, that just drops the pawn and you win. Therefore, the king would have to move right here. But now as the king stands in front of the pawn, it blockades their own pawn. That's why you wanted to create a position like that. And now it buys you time to bring your king closer. Now, if your opponent ever pushes the king this way, then notice that their own pawn is actually pinned. On the next turn, they cannot move it forward because it's pinned. Now, you just approach your king forward. You don't even need to do anything special. If they try to, you know, move the king away, now this pawn is ready to be promoted. Therefore, you need to once again start delivering checks and using the same zigzag method to bring your queen closer until the king goes back to the position where it blocks the king, blocks the pawn, and now you have time to bring your king closer. And once your king is really close, it's pretty simple. Usually you either capture the pawn or just win the game. If you want to have my complete blueprint for a middle game play, check out this free masterclass right there. And if you want to know how I went from 1600 to 2260 in just one year, check out this video.