Using your King in the Endgame

At our last Squad Training session, we looked at how you should use your king in the endgame. When many of the pieces have been exchanged, you should start thinking about your king as an attacking piece, and you must use it!

I want to show you the position we studied and then an example from the same training session of the king in action.

What do you think of this position ... would you prefer to be White or Black? If both sides play well, do you think that the game should be a win for White, a win for Black, or a draw?

With correct play, the game should definitely be a draw. White's bishop is not doing much at the moment, but he can bring it into play this move. The Black knight is quite well placed already. White's rook is on the seventh rank, in an excellent position. Black has to be careful because his rook has to defend the pawn on e7.

But which piece have we forgotten? Yes ... the kings! At the moment, neither side is using their king, so over the next few moves we should expect to see both kings being brought into position.

Let's watch what happens ...

White starts off with 1.Bc5

This is the best move. White attacks the pawn on e7 and Black has to decide what to do about this. What would you do?

Black decided to move the pawn out of danger ... he played 1...e6?

This isn't the best move. Black is forgetting about his king. He had an opportunity to bring his king into play with 1...Kf7, which would have been a good defence of the pawn. But now that he's moved his pawn, the white rook is controlling the seventh rank, making it much more difficult for Black to use his king.

Now can you suggest a good move for White?

White played 2.Kg2!

Well done if you wanted to bring your king into the game! Although White's rook and bishop are well placed, they need some help - and that means asking the king to lend a hand.

Black didn't know what to do ... and he decided to play 2...h5?

This is another bad move, because Black is playing without a plan. He had already made things a bit difficult for himself, but he could still get a draw as follows: 2...Rd8! Black wants to play 3...Rd7 next to challenge the White rook. It looks like this move is a blunder because of 3.Be7, but then Black can play 3...Rd7! anyway, a clever move that saves the day. And if White tries 3.Re7 instead, Black coolly replies 3...Re8. But see how hard Black made things for himself by his bad pawn move.

White continued his plan to bring up his king, and the game continued:

3.Kh3 e5
4.Kh4 Re6
5.Kg5 Nh7+
6.Kh6

Look what a difference the two kings make! Black's king is still stuck on the back rank, but White's king has advanced deep into Black's position. There is no chance that the White king will get checkmated because Black hasn't got enough pieces to launch an attack. In fact, White has got a winning position now.

White threatens to win the knight with Rg7+ or Ra8+ next move. If Black plays 6...Nf8, White still wins with 7.Rg7+ Kh8 8.Bxf8. And Black will lose lots of pawns after 6...Nf6 7.Rg7+ Kh8 8.Rxg6. So Black has to play the following desperate move.

6...g5+
7.Kxh5

White's king is still in a good position. If the knight moves, he will gobble up some more pawns.

7...Rc6
8.Be7

Another Black pawn is about to go, so Black counterattacks.

8...Rc2

There's just one more good move for White to play. But now that you know how important the king is, I don't think you'll find it difficult!

9.Kg6!

White's king goes on the attack again. The threat is Ra8+, followed by checkmate.

9...Nf8+
10.Kf5 Rxe2
11.Ra8

White will take the knight next move and win easily.

I found this example in a book How to Play the Endgame in Chess by Leonard Barden. It's quite an old book and is out of print. If you ever have a chance to get a copy, it's one of the best books on the endgame.

After we studied this endgame, we played some practice games. In one game, James Hobson managed to put his king to good use against Neil Deo.

We'll join the game with White about to play his 28th move. James is Black.

28.Ra7+

This looks like an obvious move, but White should remember about his king. White's king position looks a bit awkward with the knight about to do a discovered check, but if Neil had started off with 28.g4 and then played 29.Kg2, he would have been able to get his king out of danger.

28...Ke6

James knows that it's an endgame, so he must use his king! It would have been a terrible mistake to retreat, because then the White rook would have stopped the Black king from getting into the game.

29.Ra6+ Kf5!
30.Ra7 Kf4!

Just as in the example we studied, one player uses his king to great effect. We'll see in a moment that James has put his king in a fantastic position. White is in big trouble now.

31.Rxg7

White decides to grab a pawn ... but James has everything worked out. In fact, Black can now checkmate the White king. Can you see how?

31...Ne3+
32.Kh2 Nf1+
33.Kg1 Ng3+!
34.Kh2 Rh1 mate!

This is a brilliant finish. See how important Black's king position is. Black needs his king in f4 to protect his knight. Well done, James!