Put the kings on the same file with one square between them. Neither can come closer - kings may never stand next to each other - so whoever is to move must step aside and let the other king through. That is what having the opposition means: you hold it when it is not your turn to move.
Calculation gives two different results for the very same position. With White to move it is a draw: the white king has to step aside, the black king gets in front of the pawn and holds it. With Black to move White wins: now it is Black who has to give way, and the white king marches forward.
Hence the main rule of pawn endings: do not hurry with the pawn. First the king goes in front of it and takes the opposition, and only then does the pawn advance. A pawn move is very often exactly the move that hands the opposition to the opponent.
Once the stronger side's king has got in front of its pawn on the sixth rank, there is no need to count the opposition any more: the position is won whoever is to move.
Checked by calculation: White wins both with White to move and with Black to move. The same holds if the king stands not directly in front of the pawn but beside that square, on c6: the position is won in both cases.
In this position c7, d7 and e7 are called key squares: once the king reaches any of them, the pawn is guaranteed to promote. The practical lesson is that in a pawn ending you fight not for the opposition as such but for these squares; the opposition is only the way to get there.
The kings do not have to be close. If there is an odd number of squares between them on the same line, the opposition still belongs to the side that is not to move, and as the kings approach each other it stays with that side.
This is the distant opposition. The only difference from the direct opposition is the distance: the mechanism is the same, it simply takes several moves before the kings meet, and all that time the parity has to be kept.
In practice this means that in a pawn ending you have to count from the very first move, not once the kings have already met. A single tempo lost early on turns the result upside down.
There is a trick that saves you counting squares every time. Picture a rectangle with the two kings on opposite corners. If all four corners are the same colour, the opposition belongs to the side that is not to move. If the colours differ, the opposition goes to the other side.
The rule works on a file, on a rank and on a diagonal - which is why people speak of vertical, horizontal and diagonal opposition. Counting by square colour is easier than counting squares: the colour is visible at a glance, while being off by one in a count is easy.
A convenient check is the position from the first section: kings on d3 and d5, and the corners of the rectangle are the same colour. So the opposition belongs to the side that is not to move - exactly what the calculation confirms.
There is one ending where all this technique fails: the edge pawn. Its promotion square is in the corner, and once the defending king gets there the position is a draw regardless of the opposition.
Calculation: a draw with White to move and with Black to move. The white king blocks its own pawn, and as soon as it gives up a square it lets the black king out. Trying to force the pawn through ends in stalemate.
So in endings with an edge pawn the defence comes down to one task - reach the corner - and the attack comes down to keeping the king out of it. More on stalemate - stalemate in chess.
The opposition sticks through your hands, not through reading: play the same position out to the result a few times, switching who is to move, and watch how the outcome changes.
A position to practise on - king and pawn against king in the board editor. You can set up your own position in the chess board editor.
Next come pawn endings with several pawns, where breakthroughs and the outside passed pawn join the opposition - pawn endgames for beginners.
It means being in a position where your opponent is the one who has to move. The kings stand on the same line with an odd number of squares between them, neither can come closer, and the side to move is forced to give way. The side that is not to move has the opposition.
Picture a rectangle with the two kings on opposite corners. If all four corners are the same colour, the side that is not to move has the opposition. If the corners are different colours, the opponent has it.
Only the distance between the kings. In the direct opposition there is one square between them, in the distant opposition three or five. The mechanism is the same: parity is what matters, and as the kings approach each other the opposition stays with the side that held it.
The opposition is the means, key squares are the goal. As soon as the stronger side's king reaches the square in front of its pawn on the sixth rank, the position is won whoever is to move, and there is no need to count the opposition any more.
The promotion square of an edge pawn is in the corner. The defending king gets there in time and cannot be driven out: the attacking king blocks its own pawn, and any attempt to force a way through ends in stalemate. It is a draw no matter who is to move.
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Endings - the rule of the square, pawn endgames, endgames for beginners. Tool - online board.
