25 Essential Endgame Positions
These twenty-five positions are the "vocabulary" of chess endgames, the positions that every titled player knows by heart. Learning them transforms your endgame from guesswork to technique. This guide connects to our detailed articles on each topic.
King and pawn (1–8)
- Opposition, direct, distant, and diagonal.
- Key squares (critical squares), the squares the king must reach to guarantee promotion.
- Rook pawn + wrong bishop, the classic draw.
- Two pawns vs one, with connected vs split pawns.
- Rule of the square, can the king catch the pawn?
- Réti manoeuvre, the king goes forward and backward simultaneously.
- Trebuchet, mutual zugzwang.
- Pawn breakthrough, sacrificing pawns to create an unstoppable passer.
Rook endgames (9–16)
- Lucena position, build a bridge.
- Philidor position, third-rank defence.
- Rook behind passed pawns, Tarrasch's rule.
- Cutting off the king, using the rook to isolate the king.
- Active rook principle, activity over material.
- Short-side defence, defend from the shorter side.
- Rook + pawn on 7th vs rook, the drawing technique.
- Connected passers vs rook, when connected passers on the sixth win.
Minor piece endgames (17–22)
- Bishop + wrong rook pawn, the classic draw (bishop can't control queening square).
- Opposite-coloured bishops, drawing tendencies.
- Same-coloured bishops, bad bishop technique.
- Knight + pawn vs knight, blockade and zugzwang.
- Bishop vs knight + pawn, long-range vs short-range piece.
- Bishop and knight checkmate, the technique every player should know (driving king to the correct corner).
Queen and other endgames (23–25)
- Queen vs rook, the winning technique (third-rank Philidor, staircase check).
- Queen + pawn vs queen, drawing zones and winning pawn types.
- Fortress positions, the defensive resource that saves lost endings. These 25 positions are the foundation, see 50 Endgame Rules and Endgame Secrets for more.