The first thing anyone needs. Without this technique an extra rook gives you nothing: your opponent simply runs around with the king until the fifty-move rule makes it a draw.
A three-step plan: cut the king off with the rook along a file or a rank, bring your own king up close, and push the enemy king towards the edge, shrinking the box step by step. Mate arrives when the kings face each other and the rook checks along the last rank.
The main mistake is chasing the king with endless checks. A check is only worth playing when it takes a rank away from the enemy king. The full technique is in basic checkmates.
With a queen everything is easier and more dangerous at the same time: pushing the king to the edge is simple, but stalemate happens all the time.
The working method is to move the queen in an L-shape, like a knight, staying a knight's move away from the enemy king. That pushes him towards the edge by itself, and the queen never takes every square away from him at once.
Before every queen move, check whether your opponent still has at least one square. If he does not, and there is no check either, that is stalemate and a draw with an extra queen. More on it in stalemate and draws in chess.
A way to see in a second whether the king catches a passed pawn, without counting moves on your fingers.
Draw an imaginary square whose side is the distance from the pawn to the promotion square. If the enemy king can step inside that square on his move, he catches the pawn. If not, the pawn gets through.
Two corrections people forget: a pawn on its second rank can move two squares, so the square is drawn from the third rank; and one of your own pieces in the way can ruin everything.
The foundation of every pawn ending. The kings stand one square apart facing each other, and whoever has to move loses: he has to give way.
The practical conclusion: in a pawn ending, do not rush the pawn forward. First the king goes ahead of it and seizes the opposition, and only then does the pawn follow.
The details, with key squares and zugzwang, are in pawn endgames.
Rook endings are the most common endings in real games, and the most useful technique in them is the Philidor defence, also known as the third-rank defence.
The idea of the defence: as long as the pawn has not reached the sixth rank, the rook sits on that rank and cuts the enemy king off. The moment the pawn steps onto it, the rook drops to the first rank and starts checking the king from behind - from that distance there is nothing to drive it away with.
This one technique saves half of all rook endings that look lost.
The other side of the same coin: you have an extra pawn on the verge of promotion, the enemy king is cut off, and his rook keeps checking to stop the pawn. The solution is called building a bridge.
The method: first the rook goes to the fourth rank - it will be needed as a shield. Then the king steps out from in front of the pawn to meet the checks, and when a check comes along a file, the rook blocks it.
1.Rg4! Ra1 2.Kf7 Rf1+ 3.Kg6 Rg1+ 4.Kf6 Rf1+ 5.Kg5 Rg1+ 6.e8Q
On the fifth move the king has reached g5, and the rook on g4 shields it from checks along the g-file. There are no more checks and the pawn promotes. The whole construction rests on the rook having taken the fourth rank in advance.
A common situation after the pawns come off: one side has a rook, the other a knight. It is worth knowing in advance that this is normally a draw - and not throwing away points trying to win it at any cost.
The defensive rule is simple: the knight must stay close to its own king. The danger arises exactly when the knight strays and gets trapped at the edge of the board or in a corner.
The stronger side should only play for a win after a clear mistake - driving the king to the edge and trapping the knight at the same time rarely works.
After that come the endings that turn up more rarely, but still turn up:
Endgames are better trained with your hands than by reading: set the position up on a board and play it out to a result several times in a row. Five run-throughs teach you more than an hour of theory.
The mates against a lone king: with a rook and with a queen. Without them an extra piece does not win you points. After that come the square rule and opposition in pawn endings, then the rook endings: the Philidor defence and the Lucena position.
A defensive technique in rook endings: as long as the enemy pawn has not reached the sixth rank, the rook sits on that rank and refuses to let the king forward. Once the pawn steps onto it, the rook drops to the first rank and checks the king from behind. This saves a great many positions that look lost.
A position where the stronger side has a pawn about to promote, but his own king is in the way and the enemy rook keeps checking. The solution: the rook goes to the fourth rank in advance, the king walks out to meet the checks, and at the right moment the rook shields it - after which the pawn promotes.
With correct defence it is a draw. The weaker side has to keep the knight next to its own king: losses happen almost always because the knight strayed and got trapped near the edge of the board.
By setting the position up on a board and playing it out to a result several times in a row, not by reading about it. Doing it with your hands is what makes the technique stick.
No arbiter skills required. The app takes over the part that usually stops people from running tournaments at all: who plays whom in each round and who finishes first.
works for ten players and for fifty
for a small group that wants to play everyone
for those who do not need a bracket at all
The bot is constantly improved based on real tournaments. If you need a feature that isn't there yet, message the developers right inside the bot with the /support command. Many features appeared exactly because organizers asked for them, and useful ideas get added quickly.
Endings - pawn endgames and basic checkmates. Starting out - learning chess from scratch and tactics for beginners.
