Endgame Guide

Start with the four fundamental checkmates and the most common pawn endgame. The four mates are: King + Queen vs King (drive the king to the edge), King + Rook vs King (the box method), King + Two Bishops vs King (a diagonal wall pushed forward), and King + Bishop + Knight vs King (drive the king to a corner of the bishop's color — this is the hardest mate). Then learn King + Pawn vs King with opposition — this single concept decides roughly 8% of all games that reach an endgame phase. Together these five positions cover the vast majority of endgames a club player will ever face.

Opposition. When the two kings stand directly opposite each other with one square between them, the player NOT to move has the opposition and usually wins or draws. Direct opposition is one square apart, distant opposition is three or five squares apart. Mastering opposition lets you calculate whether a pawn endgame is won, lost, or drawn without analyzing every move — it's a binary rule that solves entire classes of positions. From there, learn the rule of the square (whether the king can catch a passed pawn), triangulation (losing a tempo with the king to seize the opposition), and key squares for each pawn.

These are the two most important rook endgame positions ever discovered. The Lucena Position (named after Luis Ramírez de Lucena, 1497) is the winning technique for the stronger side in Rook + Pawn vs Rook — you 'build a bridge' with your rook on the fourth rank to escort the pawn through to promotion. The Philidor Position (named after François-André Philidor, the 1700s world's best player) is the drawing technique for the defender — keep your rook on the third rank to prevent the enemy king from advancing, then drop to the eighth rank with checks when the pawn pushes. Rook + Pawn vs Rook is the most common piece endgame in chess; learning these two positions alone saves more half-points than any other endgame study.

Yes. Every endgame guide on chess.lc is fully free with no signup, no paywall, no daily limit, and no premium tier. No credit card, no email, no account. Open any endgame, study the key concept, and move on. For interactive practice, our PGN viewer and board editor let you set up any endgame position and step through it in your browser — also free, also account-free.

Three free, no-signup tools cover the entire workflow. Use our board editor at chess.lc/tools/board-editor to set up any endgame position from scratch — drop pieces by FEN or by clicking. Use our PGN viewer at chess.lc/tools/pgn-viewer to step through endgame sequences move by move. For full Stockfish evaluation of any endgame position (to verify whether it's winning, drawing, or losing), paste the FEN into chess.rodeo — free, unlimited, no account. Combine these three and you have a complete endgame training rig for $0.

Rook on the seventh rank. A rook on the opponent's second rank (the seventh from your perspective) attacks pawns, restricts the enemy king to the back rank, and frequently creates mating threats — Capablanca called the seventh-rank rook 'the absolute seventh.' After that, study Rook Endgame Activity (the rule that an active rook beats a passive rook even when material is equal or down a pawn) and Rook + Two Pawns vs Rook (where connected pawns usually win but split pawns often draw). These three concepts together solve roughly 60% of all rook endgames at the club level.

Club players rated 800–1800 — the range where endgame technique decides the most games. Beginners (800–1200) should start with the four fundamental checkmates and King + Pawn vs King opposition. Improving players (1200–1600) should add the Lucena and Philidor positions, opposite-colored bishop fortresses, and the wrong-bishop-with-rook-pawn drawing trick. Tournament players (1600–1800) should master rook endgame activity, the seventh-rank rook, knight outposts, and good-bishop-vs-bad-bishop maneuvering. Master-level endgame theory is referenced where relevant but never assumed as required.

Use chess.rodeo — free Stockfish analysis with no daily cap and no account required. Endgames are where Stockfish is most reliable, because the lower piece count lets the engine calculate to tablebase-perfect accuracy in seconds. Paste your PGN, jump to the endgame phase, and Stockfish will tell you exactly which move turned a winning position into a draw (or a draw into a loss). For positions with seven or fewer pieces, the engine's evaluation is literally proven optimal — there's no better source on Earth.