ENDING GAME

Instructions

1.

o 1

Move remaining pawns down the board to break through your opponent's defense. Capturing your opponent's pawns weakens his defense.

o 2

Control the center of the board throughout the game, but particularly near the end of a chess game. If you control the center, you can be the aggressor and force your opponent to react only to your moves.

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o 3

Advance a remaining rook into a central vertical file to keep your opponent's King restricted. Next to a Queen, a rook is most powerful.

o 4

Capture your opponent's rooks. It's very difficult to place someone in check without a rook involved.

o 5

Begin moving your King. While you spend most of the game defending your King, the end of the game means fewer threats due to fewer pieces. A King can even become part of your strategy to put the other side in check.

o 6

Box in your opponent's King. As you put the King in check, your opponent must move his King. Keep following him, forcing him to move one square at a time. If you've adequately set up your chess pieces for the end of the game, you can effectively surround your opponent's King and put him in checkmate.

When a player's king is threatened by an opposing piece, it is said to be "in check". When a player places the opposing king in check he should announce, "check". The object of a player is not merely to place his opponent's king in check but to make certain that every square where the king has a possibility of movement is also covered. This is called checkmate. The king is considered captured.

Either player may resign at any time. This generally happens when a player loses a major piece and the outlook for victory in his case appears bleak.

Stalemate is considered a tie. A stalemate occurs when a player's only move is to place his own king in check, but its current square is not threatened. As long as he can move another piece or the king can move to an open square, stalemate may not occur.

A draw also results when the only two pieces on the board are Kings, regardless of their position. If the pieces remaining on the board make check mate impossible, for example one cannot checkmate an opponent with only a king and a bishop a draw would also result.

Games from Irving Chernev's "Capablanca's Best Chess Endings"

The opening of a game is important - and hundreds of books are written on the opening. The opening leads to the midgame. The midgame is important - and hundreds of books are written on the midgame. The midgame leads to the endgame. The endgame is important - and *no books are written on the endgame*!

Yes, there are books, but they concern themselves with composed endings, or with theoretical (and for the most part artificial) positions. The composed endings are admittedly beautiful, but they are of limited value, as they have no relationship to practical play. Of the theoretical positions, many have their uses, but one must sift the wheat from the chaff. TO what use can we put such knowledge as the procedure for mating with a Knight and Bishop, or with the two Bishops, when an opportunity to do so may not occur in a lifetime? And why burden our minds with the manner of forcing mate with three knights (believe-it-or-not) or winning with four minor pieces against a Queen (sans Pans) when such positions as these have never yet been seen on land or sea? Capablanca himself says : "In order to improve your game, you must study the endgame before anything else; for whereas the endings can be studied and mastered by themselves, the middlegame and the opening must be studied in relation to the endgame." There are no books on endings from real life, no books from the practices of masters in actual play, let alone from the practice of a single master. This fact alone is enough to justify this book of endings, selected from the tournament and match play of the greatest endgame virtuoso the world has ever seen - the immortal Capablanca. Here are wondrous endings to enchant the reader, endings of breathtaking artistry. Here are endings of astonishing accuracy, whose relentless logic will inspire the earnest student to emulate a similar technique - the technique of seeking a clear-cut, efficient win, instead of a display of fireworks. The games are given in full, in order to show how a slight advantage acquired in the early stages, is carried forward and exploited in the endgame. I have annotated the endings in detail (a consideration they have rarely received before) for the better appreciation of the fine points of Capablanca's play, and have given credit to those who have anticipated my findings.Games from Irving Chernev's "Capablanca's Best Chess Endings"

The opening of a game is important - and hundreds of books are written on the opening. The opening leads to the midgame. The midgame is important - and hundreds of books are written on the midgame. The midgame leads to the endgame. The endgame is important - and *no books are written on the endgame*!

Yes, there are books, but they concern themselves with composed endings, or with theoretical (and for the most part artificial) positions. The composed endings are admittedly beautiful, but they are of limited value, as they have no relationship to practical play. Of the theoretical positions, many have their uses, but one must sift the wheat from the chaff. TO what use can we put such knowledge as the procedure for mating with a Knight and Bishop, or with the two Bishops, when an opportunity to do so may not occur in a lifetime? And why burden our minds with the manner of forcing mate with three knights (believe-it-or-not) or winning with four minor pieces against a Queen (sans Pans) when such positions as these have never yet been seen on land or sea? Capablanca himself says : "In order to improve your game, you must study the endgame before anything else; for whereas the endings can be studied and mastered by themselves, the middlegame and the opening must be studied in relation to the endgame." There are no books on endings from real life, no books from the practices of masters in actual play, let alone from the practice of a single master. This fact alone is enough to justify this book of endings, selected from the tournament and match play of the greatest endgame virtuoso the world has ever seen - the immortal Capablanca. Here are wondrous endings to enchant the reader, endings of breathtaking artistry. Here are endings of astonishing accuracy, whose relentless logic will inspire the earnest student to emulate a similar technique - the technique of seeking a clear-cut, efficient win, instead of a display of fireworks. The games are given in full, in order to show how a slight advantage acquired in the early stages, is carried forward and exploited in the endgame. I have annotated the endings in detail (a consideration they have rarely received before) for the better appreciation of the fine points of Capablanca's play, and have given credit to those who have anticipated my findings.