Endgame basics: the mates and pawn endings you must know

Published 20 October 2026

Most games between new players are decided long before the endgame, but the ones that reach it are often thrown away there. A queen up and still a draw. A pawn one square from promoting and still a draw. This page covers the handful of endings that turn up again and again. Each result stated below (win or draw with best play) was checked against an endgame tablebase, which is a complete database of every position with few pieces, so these are facts rather than opinions.

Why the king changes in the endgame

In the middlegame the king hides. Once the queens are off and only a few pieces remain, there is no longer much danger of a quick mate, and the king becomes a fighting piece worth roughly a minor piece. The first habit to build: when the position empties out, walk your king toward the centre. It defends your pawns, attacks theirs, and escorts a passed pawn. Many lost pawn endings are lost simply because one king arrived and the other stayed on g1.

King and queen against king

This mate is always possible and should take no more than about ten moves from any normal position. The method has two stages.

Stage one: shrink the box. Use the queen alone to restrict the enemy king. A good trick is to place the queen a knight's move away from the enemy king. That takes away a block of squares without giving check. Each time the king steps, follow it with another knight's-move position, and the king is pushed toward an edge. You do not need checks for this; checks often let the king escape back to the middle.

Stage two: bring your king. When the enemy king is stuck on the edge, stop moving the queen and walk your own king up until it supports the queen. Then the queen gives mate on the edge, protected by your king.

Checkmate in the corner. The queen on b7 is protected by the king on b6, so Black cannot capture her. (Black to move.)

The stalemate trap. The danger in stage one is taking every square from the enemy king without giving check. On the edge, with the king boxed in, look at the opponent's legal moves before every queen move. If the answer is "none" and the king is not in check, you have just drawn.

Stalemate. Black is not in check, but a7, b7 and b8 are all covered. Moving the queen to b7 instead of c7 would have been mate. (Black to move.)

The two diagrams differ by a single square. That is how close the win and the draw are, and it is why the last two moves of this ending deserve slow thought even when the result seems obvious.

King and rook against king

This one takes longer, at most sixteen moves with perfect play and usually more in practice, because the rook cannot cover diagonals. The plan is the same idea of a shrinking box, but the kings now matter more.

Use the rook to cut the enemy king off along a rank or a file. In the next diagram, a rook move to the fifth rank, such as Ra5 with check, keeps the black king on ranks six to eight.
Bring your king toward the enemy king. The rook stays at a distance so the king cannot attack it.
When the kings stand directly opposite each other with one square between them, give a check along the edge line. The enemy king must step back toward the edge.
If the kings are not opposite, make a waiting move with the rook along its line and let the enemy king step into opposition, or step your king closer.
Repeat until the enemy king is on the edge, then give the final check along the edge with your king facing it.

A typical starting point. White wins with correct play; the black king starts in the centre and has to be driven to an edge. (White to move.)

The finished mate. The rook covers the whole eighth rank, and the white king on e6 covers d7, e7 and f7. (Black to move.)

One safety rule: when the enemy king approaches your rook, move the rook to the far side of the board along the same line. It keeps the cut-off and cannot be attacked. Beginners often move the rook next to their own king for protection, which works but wastes moves.

King and pawn against king

This is the ending that decides many real games, because after all the trades one side often has a single extra pawn. Whether it wins depends almost entirely on where the kings stand.

The king in front of the pawn

The strongest setup is your king in front of your pawn, not behind it. If your king reaches the sixth rank in front of a pawn that is not on the a- or h-file, you win no matter who is to move.

White wins whichever side moves. The king on e6 clears a path for the pawn. (Black to move.)

For example, with Black to move, 1...Kd8 is met by 2.Kf7, and the pawn walks to e8 because the black king can no longer stand in front of it.

The opposition

When the kings stand on the same file with one square between them, the player who does not have to move is said to have the opposition. Whoever must move has to give way, and the other king gets past.

With White to move this is a draw: Black holds the opposition. With Black to move, White wins. (White to move.)

It is the same position, and the only difference is whose turn it is. If Black must move, the black king steps aside, the white king advances to d6 or f6, and the pawn follows. If White must move, Black simply mirrors the white king and stays in front of the pawn. A useful habit for the defender: keep your king directly in front of the pawn and, when the attacking king comes close, take the opposition.

Promote too early and it is stalemate

Stalemate. The pawn on e7 covers d8 and f8, the king covers d7 and f7, and Black has no legal move. (Black to move.)

This is the end of many defended pawn endings. The attacker pushed the pawn to the seventh rank with check, the defender went to e8, and the attacker had to choose between giving up the pawn or allowing this stalemate. If you are defending a lost-looking ending, aim for this picture.

The rule of the square

When a pawn has no king to help it, you can tell at a glance whether the defending king catches it. Draw an imaginary square from the pawn to its promotion square and across the same distance sideways. If the defending king can step into that square on its move, it catches the pawn.

With Black to move, Ke5 or Ke4 steps into the square and catches the pawn. With White to move, a5 shrinks the square and the pawn promotes. (Black to move.)

Remember that a pawn on its starting rank can move two squares, so count its square from the third rank instead.

The rook's pawn

A draw even though White's king is close. With a pawn on the a-file, a defending king that reaches the corner cannot be forced out. (White to move.)

A pawn on the a- or h-file is the exception to almost everything above. The attacking king has no room on the far side of the pawn, so if the defender reaches the corner square in front of it, the best the attacker can do is stalemate. When you are the one with the extra pawn, keep this in mind before trading into a rook-pawn ending.

A short practice plan

Set up king and queen against king against a friend or on a physical board and mate from the middle five times, counting your moves. Then do the same with a rook. After that, play the king-and-pawn positions above from both sides. Ten minutes of this practice saves more half points than any opening line. If you would like to see endings arise from a real game, the annotated example games show how the material comes off, and the strategy guide explains when trading down is a good idea.