“If you want to win a game of chess, begin at the ending.” Chernev

Irving Chernev (1900 - 1981) was a Russian-born American chess author. Chernev was a national master-strength player.

If you are looking to improve your chess end game play, working on endgame puzzles can really help. These chess puzzles focus entirely on end games, which is one of the areas that separate a good player from a really good player. End game chess puzzles can really help the good player are usually trying to teach the player how to find the winning move more than an outright checkmate. Taking chess lessons can help a lot too because you get instant feedback on your games and it is tailored directly to you. But remember, nothing beats practice!

Chess end games are an overlooked part of many players’ games. Many players don’t usually get a chance to practice their end games because they are often way ahead or way behind by the time they get to the end game and the subtlety of good end game is not apparent at this point. The interesting part of end game play is the magnification of the importance of each move. Earlier on in the game, you may be able to get away with moving a piece to the wrong square, but in the end game, it can be devastating.

The chess end game puzzles shown below came from a chess book by Bruce Pandolfini, titled Padolfini’s Chess Challenges, 111 Winning Endgames. Bruce is one of the top chess instructors in the U.S. and was portrayed by Ben Kingsley in the 1993 movie, Searching For Bobby Fischer. I just published my first chess book, Chess 101, Everything A New Chess Player Needs To Know! and am proud to say that I have Bruce’s endorsement on the back cover.

Chess 101 was written for those who have just learned or want to learn to play chess. The book has been endorsed by top chess teachers and players alike, and provides all the basic information you need to know to learn and enjoy the game of chess.

Read more about Chess 101 and my other books at Dave Schloss.com

The answer is for black to play Q-c5 check. White is forced to trade queens and when black promotes his pawn on the next move, he wins white's queen, thanks to the skewer.

The answer is for white to play, K-f8. Both players promote but black's queen is lost. After K-f8, black plays d2, white queens, e8/Q, then black queens, d1/Q and white wins with Q-h5 check.

When you have a king against a king, bishop and rook pawn, it's a draw if; 1. the bishop is on the opposite color from the square that the rook pawn will promote on and 2. the opposing king can make it to the corner square in time. (This only applies to rook pawns.)

In this example, the "a" pawn will queen on a light square and white's bishop is a dark-squared bishop. This would be a draw if black could get his king to the corner square in time. However, white wins with B-d6 which effectively blocks black's king from the corner.

For instance;

1. B-d6 If 1. ...K-c8 then 2. a6 and white wins.

or

1. B-d6 K-d7

2. a6 K-c6

3. B-c5 K-c7

4. B-a7 K-c6

5. Kc4 Kc7

6. Kc5 K-c8

7. K-c6 K-d8

8. K-b7 and white wins

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