Amateur chess players often neglect the study of endgames because they consider them boring and irrelevant. Indeed, if you were always managing to checkmate your opponents in the middlegame, then there would be no reason to study this part of the game. Yet, this is never the case and therefore, you must do your homework. There are several reasons why the study of endgame is rewarding for a chess player. First, endgames are a matter of knowledge. If you know how to draw an endgame that's it - it does not matter if you are playing against a beginner or a grandmaster. Second, not many players study endgames carefully, so if you get better at this phase of the game, you have good chances to overplay your opponents here. Third, chances are that you are going to play endgames with little time on the clock, and you might not have the time to calculate everything until the end. Forth, they are an excellent way to train calculation (as good as tactical exercises), as usually you have to find a very precise winning manoeuvre. Fifth, once you learned endgames, you get better at playing the middlegame; in particular you comprehend when and when not to exchange pieces. Finally, you will learn useful geometrical patterns and techniques. In the next posts, I am going to discuss essential endgames. I will take the most interesting examples from Paul Keres' book Practical Chess Endings. We will focus on queen and rook endgames for the moment, beginning with queen vs. pawn.
Let's start with queen vs. pawn on the 6th rank.
The rule is easy: White always wins, except specific cases where his own king interferes with the queen winning manoeuvre. For instance, if White's king was in g7 instead of b8. The queen winning manoeuvre is meant to stop Black to push the pawn on the 2nd rank (in this particular position, that would be a draw). Therefore, in the position above White needs to start with a forcing move 1.Qh1+ Kb2. Now the important pattern. White pins the pawn along the diagonal with 2.Qh8 (diagram).
To avoid losing the pawn, Black can only play either 2...Kc2 or 2...Kb3. Harmless is 2...Kc2, as the king stops the pawn from getting to the 7th rank (White could just bring his king closer to the opponent's pawn). Against 2...Kb3, the easiest thing is to play 3.Qd4 and against 3...c2, 4.Qa1 (diagram). Once White controls the square c1, he has won (he will play Qc1 next, and then come closer with the king in order to win the c2 pawn).
In the next examples, we will discuss queen vs. pawn on the 7th rank. Here the situation is a little bit different. The result depends on which column is the pawn.
Queen vs. pawn on the 7th rank, central (or b and g columns)
This is the easiest case, as White always wins against a central pawn. White gives checks to get close with the queen. 1.Qe5+ Kf2 2.Qf4+ Ke2 3.Qe4+ Kf2 4.Qd3 Ke1 5.Qe3+ (diagram) and now Black has to go in front of his own pawn stopping it from promotion. White uses this tempo to come closer with his king and then it repeats this manoeuvre several times until he wins the pawn.
Queen vs. pawn on the 7th rank, rook column
In case of a rook pawn, the manoeuvre that works against a central pawn does not work now. Even if we give many checks and get close with the queen, White does not have time to come closer because of stalemate.
White only wins when his king is placed within an imaginary border (a5, b5, c5, d5, e4, e3, e2, e1). The reason why the position of White's king is important is that White cannot really stop promotion. The winning idea is to allow promotion, but forcing checkmate.
For instance, 1.Qg2+ Kb1 2.Kc4 a1=Q 3.Kb3! (diagram) and Black cannot stop checkmate (e.g., Qc2#) even if the material is equal. Cool!
Queen vs. pawn on the 7th rank, bishop column
Against a bishop pawn, the manoeuvre we have seen before against the central pawn does not work. The reason is that Black has a defensive idea based on the stalemate. Instead of moving his king in front of the c-pawn, he will play Ka1! and the queen cannot capture c2 without causing stalemate.
Therefore, the situation is more complicated. In fact, White only wins if two conditions are simultaneously realised. White's king should be located within an imaginary area (a5, b5, c5, d5, e4, f4, g4, g3, g2, g1) and Black's king should be along the long side (d-h).
Once again, the idea is checkmating after allowing promotion. For instance, 1.Qa2 Kc3 2.Qa3+ Kd2 3.Qb2 Kd1 4.Kf3! (diagram)
4...c1=Q 5.Qe2# (diagram)
It is important to understand why Black draws if his king is on the short side and learn this defensive technique.
In the position above, White will start trying the manoeuvre we have just seen 1.Qg2 Kb1 2.Qe4 Kb2 3.Qe2 (diagram).
Now, 3...Kb1? loses after 4.Kb4! c1=Q 5.Kb3 and Black cannot stop checkmate. The only drawing move is 3...Ka1! based on the idea that White cannot capture without causing stalemate. Now 4.Kb4! c1=Q 5.Kb3 does not work because 5...Qb1+ is a draw.
Therefore, White has to stop promotion with 4.Qd2 Kb1 5.Kb4 c1=Q (diagram) and the game is draw because White does not have the time to play Kb3, as his queen is under attack. As you can see, knowing endgame can help you saving a lot of points and half points.
This is about everything you need to know queen vs. pawn endgame, but study it carefully!
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