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The Endgame is the last stage of chess, and arguably the most important. Even if you succeed in the opening and middle stages of the game, not knowing the skills to turn the resulting endgame into a checkmate can cost you many wins, turning many otherwise easily won positions into draws or even losses. For this reason, we recommend devoting a good portion of your study to endgames.

If you're still beginning your chess studies, the Basic Checkmates section should be enough to cover the simplest scenarios appropriate for your level. More complex situations are covered in the second part of this manual, suitable for those who already have a decent grasp of the easy checkmates.

Basic Checkmates

These include positions that have no pawns. When one side is ahead in material and has pawns, the easiest winning plan is typically to queen one or more pawns and use them to checkmate.

The situations where one has a king and queen, king and two rooks, or king and rook versus a lone king occur very often and it is essential to know how checkmate is achieved in such cases. The other cases, with minor pieces (bishops and knights) are more rare and more difficult to perform, but nonetheless are covered here for completeness.

More Advanced Endgames

These are situations that occur less commonly in games, but are still very important. Most intermediate to advanced players are expected to have at least a basic understanding of how these endings work.

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