Chess end game

The endgame in chess

The end game is the last phase of a chess game. This part of the game is characterized by a relatively small number of pieces on the chess board.

The end game is the most analyzed part of the game. There is a huge volume of information about it, many chess books focusing specifically on this part of the game. The reason for this is that in end games certain patterns in positions appear to repeat themselves during games. That means that, because there are relatively few pieces on the board, a particular position may appear more than once in your games.

Many beginners make the mistake of overlooking this part of the game as they believe it to lack any spontaneities. They believe that this phase of the game is only about calculating the possible moves. That is not true. Although it involves the cold, mathematical like, analysis of the game, the end game can also contain amazing tactical procedures and combinations. If you don't believe me just look at the grandmasters : they all exceed at this part of the game.

Another argument in favor of studying more careful the end game is that in this part of the game, supposing you know how to play it, you could take benefit of even the smallest advantage you gained during the opening and middle game. Of course ,if you have a disadvantage you can sometimes end the game as a draw.

For example if you reach to a point where on the chess board there are only your two bishops your king and your opponent's king do you think you can checkmate his king? If you are familiar with this kind of an end game you probably will. But if you aren't I'm almost sure that you won't be able to checkmate. And this is just a basic example of a chess end game. There are countless more end games that you need to know in order to really know how to play chess.

This site has only a few basic end game examples for now. If you are really serious about wanting to learn the game I suggest you look for a good book that necessarily must contain more end games studies.

In the next articles you will learn about a few elementary concepts and about some simple checkmating patterns