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.)

So the first rule is to get your King in front of your Pawn. A corollary to that rule is that you should not move your Pawn until your King is in front of your Pawn. Rather than impulsively pushing your Pawn as quickly as possible, you should advance your Pawn only when the way has been prepared by your King, driving the enemy King back to unfavorable positions.

The critical squares

In order to quickly decide whether you can win a King and Pawn ending, you should know that your Pawn has a critical square — in fact, it has three critical squares. The squares are called “critical” because you can win the game if your King can occupy one of those squares, while you will probably draw the game if you can’t. (Your opponent might blunder, of course; but analysis should never proceed on the hope or belief that your opponent will make a mistake.)

Note that these critical squares are only for the King and Pawn v. King endgame. There are different critical squares for different kinds of King and Pawn endgames.

The critical squares for all the Pawns except the Rook-pawns (i.e., Pawns on the b- through g-files) is the square that is two squares in front of the Pawn and the squares immediately adjacent to that square — unless the Pawn stands on the fifth rank, when the critical squares are moved back one row, directly in front of the Pawn. We’ll cover how to promote the Pawns on the c- through f-files in this article. The Knight-pawns (Pawns on the b- or g-files) and Rook-pawns (Pawns on the a- or h-files) have slightly different rules and procedures. We’ll cover those in a future blog post and video.

Here is a diagram showing the critical squares for a White Pawn on e2.

The Critical Squares for the White Pawn at e2

The d4, e4, and f4 squares are called “critical squares” because if White can occupy any one of them, he is guaranteed to win with best play. On the other hand, if Black can prevent White from occupying any of the critical squares, he is guaranteed a draw with best play. (Black need not occupy the critical squares — he need only prevent White from occupying the critical square in order to draw.)

The ending would proceed something like this.

• 1.Kd2 Ke7
• 2.Ke3 Kf7

Black realizes he can’t prevent White from getting his King to one of the critical squares, so he maneuvers to get the opposition.

• 3.Ke4 Ke6

How Does White Make Progress?

Now White has occupied the critical square, but Black has the opposition. How does White make progress?

• 4.e3!

White to Move and Draw - Black to Move and Lose

Now White has the opposition! Black must give way. (We should note that if it were White’s move in this position, Black would be able to draw the game. As it is, he must allow the White King to advance.)

It is also important to note that when the Pawn moved forward, the critical squares also moved forward. White must keep his King in front of the Pawn! His new objective: get the King to one of the new critical squares on d5, e5, or f5. Black moves:

• 4… Kd6
• 5.Kf5! Ke7
• 6.Ke5 Kd7
• 7.Kf6 Kd6
• 8.e4 Kd7
• 9.e5 Ke8

Now White has to “squeeze” Black off of the promotion square. This is a critical moment, and beginners can go wrong here. 10.e6?? would be a big mistake that throws away the win. Black would play 10…Kf8, and now 11.e7+ Ke8 and now White must choose between 12.Ke6 stalemate and moving the King away so that Black can capture the Pawn. Remember the rule: King in front!

• 10.Ke6 Kd8
• 11.Kf7

The White King in Position to Escort the Pawn to the Promotion Square

From this square, the King protects all the squares leading to the promotion square. The Pawn just marches in.

• 11… Kd7
• 12.e6+ Kd8
• 13.e7+ Kd7
• 14.e8(Q)+ …

And White wins.

In the next installment, we’ll see how to defend this position — to get a draw when you’re Black.

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(Video below the jump.)

Often a game of chess will end with two Kings and one Pawn: King and Pawn vs. King. And very often in those situations, the question is simply this: can the King catch the Pawn?

The rule is called the “square of the Pawn.”

The way to quickly decide the race of the Pawn vs. the King is to visualize in your mind a square where the Pawn is at one corner, and the diagonally opposite corner is on the Pawn’s 8th rank (the rank where the Pawn would promote to a Queen).

(The square of the Pawn is the blue shaded area in the diagram.) The rule works like this: if the King can move into the square of the Pawn, then the King can catch the Pawn.

So in the diagram, with Black to move, he has only one move that allows him to catch the Pawn: Ke4. (If you don’t understand chess notation, read my article entitled “Chess Notation Part 1” to learn about reading and recording chess moves.)

You can use the square of the Pawn in many situations like this, and it will help you to visualize and evaluate many endgame positions much more easily.

If you want to watch a video with a discussion of the square of the Pawn, check out the video below. Also, see this important caveat about calculating the square of the Pawn when the Pawn stands on its home square!

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It is very common for chess games to come down to an endgame, and very often those endgames amount to a single Pawn or a Pawn for each side (plus the Kings, of course). In order to win more chess games, you must know endgame strategy.

Queen v. Pawn strategy

Take a look at this endgame diagram:

The players each have a simple overall strategy for winning (or drawing) this game. White’s strategy is to capture Black’s pawn. In order to do that, he must do two other things: he must first prevent Black from promoting his Pawn, and he must attack the Pawn with both his King and Queen (the Queen alone can’t safely capture the Pawn as long as Black’s King guards it). In order to do this, White must bring both his King and Queen to bear on the Pawn; both must attack the Pawn at the same time.

Preventing Black from promoting the Pawn can be done by pinning the Pawn and keeping Black busy with checks against his King. Bringing White’s King closer requires that Black have his King in front of his Pawn, physically blocking the Pawn from the promotion square. This will give White a free move (a tempo) to move his King closer to the Pawn. Each time Black’s King sits on the promotion square, White has a free move to bring his own King closer to the action.

Black, on the other hand, wants to promote his Pawn to Queen (which would result in a draw). In order to do that, Black wants to both protect his Pawn from capture while leaving the promotion square open so that if he gets a chance, he can push the pawn to e1.

Black’s strategy is simple; and while White’s strategy is equally simple, executing the strategy requires careful maneuvering.

Here are the moves for finishing this mate. The starting position is in the diagram above. Also listen to the video for my additional comments about the position and White’s techniques for winning the game.

1. Qf6+ Kg1
2. Qe5 Kf1
3. Qf4+ Kg1
4. Qe3 Kf1
5. Qf3+ Ke1

White has driven the Black King in front of the Pawn (which Black has resisted as long as possible), preventing Black from promoting and giving White time to bring up his King. Achieving this position is one of White’s intermediate strategic objectives. Watch how White brings about this position several times in order to give his King opportunities to move closer to the action.

6. Kb7 Kd2
7. Qf2 Kd1
8. Qd4+ Kc1
9. Qe3 Kd1
10. Qd3+ Ke1
11. Kc6 Kf2

Avoiding Kf1, which would be moving into a pin and would give White a “free move” to bring the King closer.

12. Qd2 Kf1
13. Qf4+ Kg1
14. Qe3 Kf1
15. Qf3+ Ke1
16. Kd5 Kd2
17. Qf4+ Kd1
18. Qd4+ Kc1
19. Qe3 Kd1
20. Qd3+ Ke1
21. Ke4 Kf2

Now the White King is close enough to help in both attacking the Black Pawn and delivering checkmate to the Black King. You can’t give checkmate with the Queen alone … the Queen needs some help (from either friendly or enemy pieces) to checkmate the King.

22. Qf3+ Kg1
23. Qe2 Kh1
24. Kf3 Kg1
25. Qg2# …

This ending works every time against a Knight-pawn or center-pawn (the b-pawn, d-pawn, e-pawn, or g-pawn). The Rook-pawns and Bishop-pawns can be more tricky and sometimes impossible to win. That will be the subject of another post soon.

This chess endgame is very important to know, and it is surprising how few average tournament players know this ending. If you play enough chess, this will come up. You should know this well enough to be able to play it without thinking. Well … at least not thinking too much.

You can find this endgame in Reuben Fine’s masterwork, Basic Chess Endings (look at diagram number 544).

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I faced the same problem when teaching my children how to play chess, and I came up with a simple set of rules for checkmating the opponent’s bare king when you have a king and queen.

Here are the rules:

Get your king in the center;
Make the box smaller;
Cut off the row;
Get the king in position;
Checkmate with the Queen, 1, 2, 3.

The first rule is to get your king in the center.  If your opponent has his King in the center (and he should) you will need to use your Queen together with your King to drive him out, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to do.

The second rule is to make the box smaller.  What I mean by a “box” is this: if you draw imaginary vertical and horizontal lines from your Queen to the edges of the board, you will see 1, 2, or 4 rectangular boxes.  Your opponent’s King will be in one of those boxes.  He will try to keep his King in the biggest box; your job is to make the box that the opponent’s King is in smaller and smaller, one step at a time.  You do this by moving your King and Queen together to constrict the space your opponent has available.

Third, you cut off the row.  That is, eventually your making the box smaller will drive your opponent’s King to one of the edges of the board.  When your opponent’s King stands on a square at the edge of the board, use your Queen to occupy the adjoining row (it can be either a vertical row or a horizontal row), which will keep him permanently stuck on the edge.

Fourth, get your King in position for the checkmate.  Specifically, move your King to a position directly opposite your opponent’s King.

Fifth, checkmate with the Queen, one, two, three.  “One, two, three” refers to the pattern that the pieces will make in the final position.  The opponent’s King will be on the edge of the board, one; your Queen will be in a line next to the opponent’s King in the next row, two; and three, your own King will stand next to the Queen, protecting it from capture.

The ability to checkmate your opponent is one of the first chess strategies you should master.  You can look at the video I’ve uploaded to see how to do this; I even show how my seven-year-old daughter used these rules to checkmate me … in practice, of course. 

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Chess play can be divided broadly into strategy and tactics.  Tactics refer to the exact moves required to win material (a pawn or a stronger piece) or gain a particular objective. Strategy, no the other hand, tells you what to do with that extra material or what objectives you’re aiming for.

A strategy might be thought of as a plan, and might be thought of without thinking of particular moves. A strategy can usually be put into words; tactics usually requires thinking of a line or lines of moves.

Chess strategies might include any of the following:  endgame strategies, middlegame strategies, opening strategies, what to do with extra material, pawn strategies, or how to conduct an attack on your opponent’s king.  One can even include meta-strategies, such as how to learn tactics, how to think at the board, clock management, etc.

One of the best strategies is to add to your library of good chess literature.  If you’re just starting out in chess — and even if you’re an intermediate player — one of the best books to give you a good foundation is Learn Chess: A New Way For All.; The book covers all the basics for the beginning player (including the rules of chess and chess notation), a good section on tactics, opening strategy, and suggestions for ways to progress to advanced chess knowledge.

This is a must-have book for any chess player who wants to begin to take the game seriously, as it covers the basic chess strategies essential to a good foundation.

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