After doing a bit more research it seems that Shereshevsky's Mastering the Endgame volumes would provide me with the direction I'm looking for. Shame these books are very difficult to get hold of!
Openings that lead to favourable pawn structures in the end game

i tend to favor openings where im quite likely to get a qside majority, either as white or black. For example, the alapin or QGA has an excellent chance for this. (also I play a version of the panov caro kann where i push c4-c5 instead of Bd3 quite often) Then i get good endgames fairly often with a distant passed pawn. Of course its rather speculative and fickle so it shouldnt be what dictates your opening but yeah its nice if you can get similar types of endgames a lot.
I refuse to base opening selection on one feature, whether it be Queenside Majorities, better pawn structure, direct attack on the King, etc. That's thinking too one-dimensionally.
If this is how you think, may I suggest you become a fan of "One Dimension" concerts rather than Chess!
Anyway, chess is about 64 squares. It's about an Opening, Middlegame, and Endgame. Anybody that plays for the shear sake of arriving at an endgame, or achieving a Queenside majority, or thinking they are the greatest tactican or positional player, are all making a horrible mistake.
The openings I play are openings that I play because I understand the ideas of the middlegames that result from them, not because I get some stupid majority on one side of the board. If one could force the 4-on-3 Kingside majority against the 4-on-3 Queenside majority of the Exchange Ruy Lopez down to a King and Pawn ending, everybody on the planet would play the Exchange Variation and people would quit playing 3...a6 as Black! I play the Exchange Ruy Lopez because I understand all the middlegame nuances, not just the pipedream ending that White wants.
If I was going to base openings on one feature instead of the big picture, and let's say that one feature was a Queenside Majority, I'd play the Grunfeld (going for the lines where Black grabs on a2 with the Queen) and Najdorf Poisoned Pawn in a heartbeat. Hey Everybody! I have a Queenside Majority! I'm in Heaven! Yeah, Ri-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-ight! I'll just sacrifice my Queen there on h7 and slash that Black King in the throat while you are busy dilly-dallying with your Queenside Majority!
If you want to call yourself a chess player, you better know how to execute the following:
- Pawn Majorities (on both sides)
- Symmetrical Positions
- Tactics
- Positional Ideas - Like outposts, backwards pawns on open files, hard to reach weaknesses that aren't an issue, Moving the worst placed piece, etc.
- Strategy - Plan of Attack, Knowing when and when not to transition to an endgame (pre-meditation to do so ASAP at the start of the game is a Loser's strategy), Proper Exchanges (when to trade like pieces, unlike pieces of equal value such as B for N or B+N for R+P, and unlike pieces of unequal value such as R for B+P or N+P, Q for 2R, or even a game I won as Black a few years ago where I gave up Q+4P for R and 3 Minors and won - Don't recall if it was RBBN or RBNN, I want to say the latter, for QPPPP), etc.
- Strong knowledge of all endings (K+P, R+P, Q+P, N+P, Rvs2Minors, BvsN, OCBs, SCBs, Qvs2R, QvsR+B, R+B vs R+N, Q+B vs Q+N, etc.)
- A diverse enough opening repertoire so that different positions and pawn structures occur so as not to cause your ability to strategize to go stale.
Other than what you are going to play on move 1 as White in a given game, any form of pre-meditation is a VERY bad thing!

i tend to favor openings where im quite likely to get a qside majority, either as white or black. For example, the alapin or QGA has an excellent chance for this. (also I play a version of the panov caro kann where i push c4-c5 instead of Bd3 quite often) Then i get good endgames fairly often with a distant passed pawn. Of course its rather speculative and fickle so it shouldnt be what dictates your opening but yeah its nice if you can get similar types of endgames a lot.
I refuse to base opening selection on one feature, whether it be Queenside Majorities, better pawn structure, direct attack on the King, etc. That's thinking too one-dimensionally.
If this is how you think, may I suggest you become a fan of "One Dimension" concerts rather than Chess!
Anyway, chess is about 64 squares. It's about an Opening, Middlegame, and Endgame. Anybody that plays for the shear sake of arriving at an endgame, or achieving a Queenside majority, or thinking they are the greatest tactican or positional player, are all making a horrible mistake.
The openings I play are openings that I play because I understand the ideas of the middlegames that result from them, not because I get some stupid majority on one side of the board. If one could force the 4-on-3 Kingside majority against the 4-on-3 Queenside majority of the Exchange Ruy Lopez down to a King and Pawn ending, everybody on the planet would play the Exchange Variation and people would quit playing 3...a6 as Black! I play the Exchange Ruy Lopez because I understand all the middlegame nuances, not just the pipedream ending that White wants.
If I was going to base openings on one feature instead of the big picture, and let's say that one feature was a Queenside Majority, I'd play the Grunfeld (going for the lines where Black grabs on a2 with the Queen) and Najdorf Poisoned Pawn in a heartbeat. Hey Everybody! I have a Queenside Majority! I'm in Heaven! Yeah, Ri-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-ight! I'll just sacrifice my Queen there on h7 and slash that Black King in the throat while you are busy dilly-dallying with your Queenside Majority!
If you want to call yourself a chess player, you better know how to execute the following:
- Pawn Majorities (on both sides)
- Symmetrical Positions
- Tactics
- Positional Ideas - Like outposts, backwards pawns on open files, hard to reach weaknesses that aren't an issue, Moving the worst placed piece, etc.
- Strategy - Plan of Attack, Knowing when and when not to transition to an endgame (pre-meditation to do so ASAP at the start of the game is a Loser's strategy), Proper Exchanges (when to trade like pieces, unlike pieces of equal value such as B for N or B+N for R+P, and unlike pieces of unequal value such as R for B+P or N+P, Q for 2R, or even a game I won as Black a few years ago where I gave up Q+4P for R and 3 Minors and won - Don't recall if it was RBBN or RBNN, I want to say the latter, for QPPPP), etc.
- Strong knowledge of all endings (K+P, R+P, Q+P, N+P, Rvs2Minors, BvsN, OCBs, SCBs, Qvs2R, QvsR+B, R+B vs R+N, Q+B vs Q+N, etc.)
- A diverse enough opening repertoire so that different positions and pawn structures occur so as not to cause your ability to strategize to go stale.
Other than what you are going to play on move 1 as White in a given game, any form of pre-meditation is a VERY bad thing!
Thanks Thriller and Sqod. I'm not looking to force winning end games from the opening as I'm sure that is unrealistic. I think you put it well sqod when you talked about opening lines which may statistically yield better pawn structures more often than others. As I've said, I don't want to get into opening theory too deeply, but just want to pick a small repertoire that I can start getting a feel for. I was hoping to choose those openings that perhaps increase the likelihood of a better pawn structure in the endgame over other types of advantages (although I understand that I can just easily be steered away from those openings depending on what my opponent plays!). At the moment it seems like the Ruy Lopez exchange variation and Caro-Kann Classical main line might be two such openings I can start experimenting with.