I've recently taken a step by dedicating more time to endgame puzzles. I've reached a respectable 2100 rating in endgame puzzles overall, but my weakness is pawn endgames. Despite watching several instructional videos and grasping the theoretical logic behind pawn endgames, I find myself unable to surpass an 1800 rating in this specific category. Perhaps I haven't practiced enough or there's a crucial aspect that I'm missing.
I'm seeking advice on improving my pawn endgame skills. If you have any tips, resources, or strategies to enhance my understanding and application of pawn endgames, I would greatly appreciate your guidance.
Pawn and Knight endgames are basicly brute force calculation. Yes there are triangilation manuvers and square rules which can cut the calculation task shorter but you have to calculate move by move.
Entering a pawn endgames in a otb game is the Moment in a game where I calculate Sometimes 15-20 moves ahead.
Quite often I need to calculate even before entering the pawn endgame phase to make sure I can arrange the piece trade in a way that lets me get an advantage - or avoid the trade if it would lead to a position I don't like. Good news is that while you need to calculate long lines, those are mostly easier to follow than most opening and middlegame calculations, even if those are much shallower.
Working on pawn endgames is somewhat overkill for a player of your strength. With that being out of the way...
You are already doing something very smart: You are working on practical endgames instead of theory (personally I advice people against seriously studying theory until they are way stronger than I am or maybe need the knowledge for OTB play). There are few books on endgame puzzles, but they are generally aimed towards strong players. There is a rather recent book by New in Chess "1001 Chess Endgame Exercises for Beginners: The Tactics Workbook that also Improves Your Endgame Skills" that might be better suited for now. I would try it myself, but I don't like the simple mate puzzles (what's that about?!).
Ambitious books: "Van Perlo's Endgame Tactics" and two endgame puzzle books by John Nunn.
Personally I would just keep practicing, but maybe indeed shift to books, because the puzzles might be more instructive.
As people pointed out correctly: It's about calculation. Luckily pawn endgames are great for improving your calculation, so keep at it. Just know that they can be very tricky even for grandmasters. One misstep and it's a draw or a loss instead of a win or draw. Still there are patterns that you will internalize over time. So just keep at it and you'll likely see improvement.
Daniel Naroditsky has a series of 16 free YouTube videos (you can donate) on pawn endgame and they are quite good.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhUoe2JBxco&list=PLT1F2nOxLHOfQI_hFiDnnWj4lb5KsviJ_&pp=iAQB<Comment deleted by user>
I find pawn endgames puzzles almost useless per se. Good to practice the stuff you already know.
Take a complete book on pawn endgames, any of them will work but I know:
- Glenn Flear: Pawn Endgames
- Karsten Muller, Frank Lamprecht: Secrets of Pawn Endings
- chapter on pawn endgames from John Nunn "Chess Endings".
Follow it with patience and work every example until you understand it well.
Bad news: it is a really difficult subject and it will take a long time. Lots of calculation are needed.
Good news: you will win many games, as it is a quite common endgame scenario. Also, when you see a winning pawn endgame you can confidently trade everything else. When facing an otherwise lost endgame, you can play for a draw.
I found working on pawn endings one of the most valuable things I've ever done, because it helps with other endgames, but also helps to understand pawn structures and make decisions in the late middlegame, and is good calculation practice. Plus some of the ideas are really beautiful and it's a lot of fun. Many studies depend on very subtle pawn moves.
If you want a serious resource that you can use for a while, I echo OctoPinky's rec of Secrets of Pawn Endings. It might be my favorite chess book. It starts with the basics, but if you only want the basics then you might be better off just looking at a chapter of a general endgame book.
If you want some free resources, I made some studies here while I was reading about pawn endings:
K&P v K:
lichess.org/study/EOqdyQeN/K&P v K&P:
lichess.org/study/EOOQ7TMr/K&2P v K&P:
lichess.org/study/R0UPGY2l/Pawn Races:
lichess.org/study/OX3hApYw/Fortresses:
lichess.org/study/AXFEM2vt/Rook Pawns:
lichess.org/study/LN2KAQOq/I collected some interesting puzzles into the following study. It doesn't have any explanations, and I made it just for fun, but I think you could learn some ideas from it.
Just to show they are indeed tricky, I just got this one that two 2000+ rated players failed to solve in their game (was Blitz but not that time pressed, and both players blundered!):
lichess.org/training/yV9eeme too. but i think it is pawns in general. they are the worst. don't like to eat where they would advance if nothing else around.
that alone makes for rooks not speaking their language well, and have to wait for enough pawn attrition or front shape gaps to start having a pressure role on opponent (without themselves falling from their diagonal blnd subspaces of the board plane).
I have tried confusing the issue by playing mini-games with only rooks full pawn initial ranks and king.
I think one can have the full experience of all sort of pure pawn battles and shape of pawn fronts, with only king and rooks biding their useless time..
how is that different from endgames?
