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Winning Pawn Endings – Rule 1 for a Pawn on the fifth rank

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In this article I’ll explain the first rule for winning the ending when you have a King and Pawn against your opponent’s lone King. I have previously given some general rules about how to win with a King and Pawn against a King. In this article, I want to get into more detail and show you what to do when your Pawn reaches the fifth rank.

So here are three rules for winning when you have a Pawn on the 5th rank, and your opponent has no pieces but his King. They are:

  • Get your King to one of the critical squares in front of your Pawn
  • Push your Pawn to the 6th rank only when your King is on one of the escort squares or when you take the “opposition” by moving the Pawn
  • Push your Pawn to the 7th rank only when you do not give check by moving the Pawn

Follow those three rules, and you will always have a good plan for this ending. We’ll review the first of these rules in today’s blog post, and the second and third rules in future blog posts.

Before we explore these rules further, there are a couple of matters that need to be cleared up for beginning players.

What is the “fifth rank?”

 

When I refer to the fifth rank, I mean the rank that runs from a5 through h5 for White, and a4 through h4 for Black. If we say that the Pawns start on the second rank (a2 through h2 for White, a7 through h7 for Black), then moving a Pawn one step forward puts him on the third rank, another step on the fourth rank, etc., until the Pawn ultimately reaches the 8th rank where it promotes. So the “fifth rank” doesn’t refer to a rank in absolute terms, it refers to a rank in relative terms: it’s one rank for White and another rank for Black. It refers to the fifth rank counting from your side of the board. If you’re White, then it’s a5 through h5; but if you’re Black, it’s a4 through h4. See the diagram below.

Chess diagram showing the fifth rank

White's fifth rank is highlighted in red; Black's fifth rank is highlighted in green

What are the critical squares for a Pawn on the fifth rank?

A second matter to clear up is the term “critical squares.”

I use the term “critical square” for a square that, if occupied by your King, guarantees a favorable result. (Some writers, Averbakh, for example, call these “key squares.” Quoting Averbakh:

These … squares … are called — in the theory of pawn endings — key squares, since the occupation of any one of them by the white King leads to the attainment of White’s ends (the promotion of the pawn).”

Yuri Averbakh, Chess Endings: Essential Knowledge, p. 40.

For the stronger side (the side with the Pawn), there are three critical squares when the Pawn is on the fifth rank. Those squares are the square directly in front of the pawn and the squares on either side of that square. So for a Pawn on e5 (as in the diagram below), the critical squares are at d6, e6, and f6.

Diagram of the critical squares for a Pawn on the fifth rank

The critical squares for a Pawn on the fifth rank

Get your King to one of the critical squares in front of Your Pawn

So here’s the rule: for Pawns on your 5th rank, you must first get your King to one of the critical squares, i.e., the square directly in front of the Pawn, or one of the two squares on either side of that square. If you can do that, you can always win.

We’ll look at more rules for this ending in future blog posts.

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Passed Pawns – To Push or Not to Push: That Is the Question

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We have probably all heard the advice about passed Pawns: “Passed Pawns must be pushed.” But this is not always the case!

Many times, inexperienced players will heedlessly push their passed Pawn, completely oblivious to the opponent’s defensive resources. They may have read Irving Chernev’s classic book for beginning chess players, “Logical Chess: Move by Move.” (It’s the first book I read with any understanding – every move for every game is explained.) He said (several times, if I recall correctly), “passed pawns must be pushed.”

That is true, but not always true, and not true of King and Pawn v. King endings. For these endings, it’s more important to push the King! Max Euwe said this:

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A Good Way to Practice Checkmates

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Practicing checkmate patterns

If you’ve played much chess at all, you have probably gotten to the point where you understand that being a piece down (or even a couple of pawns down) means you’re probably going to lose. Unless there is some strong edge or the possibility of an attack, being significantly down in material means you’re going to lose. And you resign.

And your opponents feel the same way. You win a Knight; opponent resigns.

Or you get to an endgame with a good passed pawn. Winning ending; opponent resigns. You Queen a Pawn; opponent resigns.

And so it goes. Most games played with long time controls end with either very simple mates (Queen and King against King) or one of the players resigns in an obviously losing position. (Unless, that is, the game ends in a draw.)

In any case, relatively few games end with checkmate or the impending threat of checkmate.

So how is the average player to get practice with checkmate patterns when the opponent always resigns long before checkmate?

One solution is just to get a book with checkmate patterns (such as Reinfeld’s book 1001 Brilliant Ways to Checkmate). But that isn’t quite the same as practicing against an opponent.

The solution – Play Speed Chess

The solution to the problem of practicing checkmates against a live, resisting opponent, is to play speed chess. Preferably 5-minute games or shorter.

A much higher percentage of fast time-control games end in checkmate than longer games do. The reason is because of the time control. With a short time control, your opponent knows that though you may be a Knight ahead, turning that Knight into a win might be difficult — it might not be obvious what to do to win with that extra Knight, and you end up losing on time. A lot of speed chess games end with one of the players losing on time, but a lot of them end with checkmate. The reason is because players are less likely to resign when behind by a Pawn or even a piece. The possibility of winning (or drawing) the game because the opponent’s time runs out keeps players playing in positions that they would otherwise resign.

The way to use this to your advantage is to take advantage of the increased possibility of studying interesting mating patterns. If you play even a few speed games, you will likely have one or more games end in checkmate. After the game, review the game, especially the checkmate, and see if you can learn anything about the pattern. Is there a better way to do it? Did the opponent have a defense he overlooked? Then review the mating pattern a few days later.

You could even make a database of checkmate patterns from your own games. I find this to be very helpful for review.

How to win with a King and Pawn against a King

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Is a single Pawn so very important?

Even a single Pawn can be the difference between winning and losing. This simple fact is vital for beginning chess players to understand. The material at your disposal is important — and that means every Pawn is important. Just winning a Pawn can be the edge that allows you to win; and losing a Pawn can be the edge that allows your opponent to win.

That little material advantage — a single Pawn — often comes down to the question of winning the King and Pawn vs. King ending.

Of course, knowing how to defend the ending can be the difference between a loss and a draw — but that will be the subject of a future blog post.

Use your King to fight!

The first simple rule to remember in most King and Pawn endings is this: get your King in front of your Pawn. If you do just that, you’ll win a lot more endgames. (And this rule applies to more than just King and Pawn endings.)

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Texas Tech Has a New Grandmaster

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Here’s an item from newswise.com about a Texas Tech student, who is the world’s newest chess Grandmaster.

Davorin Kuljasevic - Newest Chess Grandmaster at Texas Tech

International Master Davorin Kuljasevic scored five wins and four draws at the 2010 Pula Open in Croatia to become the first Knight Raider to enter the elite ranks of the approximately 1,000 grandmasters worldwide.

The news item says that Kuljasevic is Coratian, and as I couldn’t find him listed on the “top” lists at uschess.org, he has likely played in the U.S. only very recently.

Nevertheless, it’s a great achievement for Kuljasevic, Texas Tech, and the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence.

Free Online Chess Database — 365chess.com

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365chess.com logo

I found a really nice free chess database online. It’s 365chess.com.

The site boasts a 3.5-million game database, which is regularly updated. It has several nice search functions The site has a very clean appearance and the interface works very well. Registration is free, though registration is required to search the database.

You can search the database by player names, by a particular board position, or using the opening explorer.

The one down-side is that you must be a “supporter” (i.e., pay for the service) in order to download games as pgn files. The up-side is that the service costs only $10.00 per year. Very inexpensive database!

Overall, the site is very nice and can allow you to do a lot of opening analysis for free.