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Crowning Glory: Mastering King and Pawn Endgames in Chess (Part-1)
IMPROVE IN CHESSHey guys, Allen here! The article for today is about basic king and pawn endgames. This is one of the fundamental things that every chess player must know. I write an email chess newsletter/magazine asdmagazine.substack.com. Consider subscribing to my chess magazine to get notified every time I post a new article. Also follow me on twitter Allen to get updated with the latest chess news. Without further ado, let’s get into the blog!
Before you go ahead and read the article, I would like to say one thing. Mastery over these endgames come only with practice. No matter how much I teach you, it is you who have to learn it, and learning comes with practice. Endgame is an ocean and what I’m gonna teach you is just one drop of it. I’ll try to give you a shortcut and generalize the concepts wherever possible, but once you are done with this article, practice it with an engine and try different positions.
“Information is not knowledge. The only source of knowledge is experience. You need experience to gain wisdom.” - Albert Einstein
1. +2 pawns endgame
This is the case where one side is having a 2-pawn advantage over the other side. This is winnable in most of the cases. I’ll also cover the cases where it’s not possible to win even with a 2-pawn advantage. Let’s look at each case one-by-one:
a) Connected pawns
By connected pawns, I mean pawns in the adjacent files (like e and f-pawns). This is winning 99% of the times. This could end in a draw if white overextends one of his pawns and the opponent does the king opposition correctly.
Position-1
- Step-1 Advance your such that either the pawns are in the same rank or in the neighboring ranks (4th and 5th ranks).
- Step-2 Once the movement of your pawns is restricted, white should advance his king such that the pawns and king form a right triangle (To break the opposition).
- Step-3 Once step 2 is done, you should be able to advance both of your pawns by one rank. Once it’s restricted, repeat step-2 again until the farther advanced pawn reaches 7th rank.
- Step-4 Once your pawns are on e7 and f6, then bring your king to g6 (Knight’s position to the farther advanced pawn).
- Step-5 Then it’s a matter of checkmating the opponent’s king with your queen.
(STEP-1)
(STEP-2)
(STEP-3)
(STEP-4)
To make things clear, I’ll give you a sample line which can help you understand it better:
1. e4 Ke7, 2. f4 Ke6, 3. e5 (Step-1). 3..Kf5 (If Kxf4, then e6 wins), 4. Ke2 Ke6, 5. Kf3 Kf5, 6. Ke3 Ke6, 7. Ke4 (Step-2). 7..Ke7, 8. f5 Kf7, 9. e6+ (Step-3). 9..Kf6, 10. Kf4 Ke7, 11. Ke5 Ke8, 12. f6 (Step-3 repeated). 12..Kf8, 13. e7+ Kf7, 14. Kf5 Ke8, 15. Kg6 (Step-4). After this, white can move his king to f7 and promote the pawn.
Practice this position with an engine, make small changes (like having c and d pawns). Also try the exact same position by having f-pawn as your farther advanced pawn. Try multiple positions and get a hang of it.
Position-2
Now, this is a bit modified compared to the last one. But there’s a huge difference in this position compared to position-1. Can you spot it? Do you want a hint? Can your h-pawn be the farthest advanced? Can you have 2 queens? Try it out, both the cases are absolutely not possible.
If your h-pawn is the farther advanced, then you end up stalemating black. And in this particular position, the white king doesn’t have 2 knight positions, it has only one. It so happens that if white wants to win, he has to sacrifice his h-pawn.
(STEP-1)
(STEP-2)
(STEP-3)
(STEP-4)
Let me show you how it’s done. 1. g4 Kg7, 2. h4 Kg6, 3. g5 (Step-1). 3..Kh5, 4. Kf2 Kg6, 5. Kf3 Kf5, 6. Kg3 Kg6, 7. Kg4 (Step-2). 7..Kg7, 8. h5 Kh7, 9. g6+ (Step-3). 9..Kh6, 10. Kh4 Kg7, 11. Kg5 (Step-3). 11..Kg8, 12. h6 Kh8, 13. g7+ Kh7 (If 13..Kg8, 14. Kf6 Kh7, 15. Kf7 and white wins), 14. Kf6 Kg8, 15. Ke6 (Step-4). 15..Kh7, 16. Kf7 and white wins.
If you mastered position-1, then mastering this is like a cakewalk. All you have to do is to remember one main point— Don’t have your h-pawn as your farther advanced pawn. And the rest is same. Next, we will look at a different case.
Position-3
Now, in these type of positions, you have to consider one thing— Can you save the advanced pawn? If yes, then go ahead and protect the pawn. Once the pawn is protected, all you have do is to follow the steps mentioned in position-1. What if the pawn cannot be protected?
In the above position, if it was white’s turn, then white can save the e6 pawn with 1. d4 Ke7, 2. d5...the rest is simple. If it was black’s turn, then white cannot save the pawn and we end up in +1 pawn endgame which will be covered in part-2. That is all about connected pawns, next let’s go to disconnected pawns.
b) Disconnected pawns
This is a case where one side has a 2-pawn advantage but both are disconnected (like b and e-pawns). If the pawns have a difference of more than one file in-between them, then it’s relatively easy. But if the difference is only one, then it’s slightly complicated compared to the former. Let’s look at each case one-by-one.
Position-1
This is also an easy and straightforward endgame, very similar to previous cases. The key to winning these endgames is to stick to one pawn, support it with the king and use the other pawn to break opposition. I’ll give you a sample line, this will help you understand it better:
1. d4 Ke7, 2. Ke2 Ke6, 3. Ke3 Kd5, 4. Kd3 Kd6, 5. Ke4 Ke6, 6. d5+ Kd6, 7. Kd4 Kd7, 8. Ke5 Ke7, 9. d6+ Kd7, 10. Kd5 Kd8, 11. Ke6 Ke8, 12. d7+ Kd8, 13. f3... followed by Ke7 and white wins.
(STEP-1)
(STEP-2)
Wasn’t it easy. There is another and much simpler way, but I won’t recommend it for the beginners as it requires better understanding and calculation skills. But, the first method is more conditional and is slower. The second method is much faster and universal. I’ll give a sample for this one as well:
1. d4 Ke7, 2. f4 Ke6, 3. Ke2 Kd5 (If 3..Kd6 or Kd7, then 4. f5. If 3..Kf6 or Kf7, then 4. d5. If 3..Ke7, then Ke3, a general rule, if the opponent king stays in the center file of the two pawns, advance the king and don’t touch the pawns), 4. f5 Kd6, 5. Ke3 Ke7, 6. d5 Kf6, 7. d6 Kf7, 8. Ke4 Ke8, 9. f6 Kd8, 10. f7 and white wins.
(STEP-1)
(STEP-2)
(STEP-3)
(STEP-4)
The same applies for b and e-pawns, b and g-pawns. You support one pawn with your king and use the other to break the opposition or, you advance both the pawns and use your king to make some waiting moves. And keep this in mind, whenever you have one of your pawns in the corner-file, never advance them. You them to break opposition or use the fact that they are usually harder to catch. Don’t support that pawn for promotion.
That’s it for today guys. I wanted to include doubled pawns and some special cases into this article, but the article was already nearing the limit. So I decided to stop here. Bear with me if this was too basic for you. I will be starting the advanced topics soon. If you are a beginner, please practice this with an engine, analyze them and get it injected into your brain forever. Don't forget to visit my chess magazine asdmagazine.substack.com and consider subscribing to it. Your support means a lot and gives me the motivation. If you enjoyed this article, consider liking this post and share it to your friends. I’ll need your suggestions for my next article. Drop your suggestions down in the comments section. Let me know if this article was useful for you. I will see you in my next article.
Signing off— Allen
