Endgame: 10 Common Mistakes You Often Make!

The endgame is often the final stage of a chess game, where the objective is to promote the remaining pawns into queens and use your king as an attacking piece, however, the endgame is harder than it seems, as it is very easy to blunder, which could change the entire endgame negatively for you. So here are some common mistake people make in the endgame and how to fix them so you can destroy your opponents during the endgame.

1. Stalemating Your Opponent

Picture this: you've promoted a pawn into a queen and you're ready to checkmate that lonely king, but in the process, you accidentally lead him into a position where he's not in check, it's his move and he can't make any legal move. This is known as stalemate, and this results in a draw, and you were winning! This is a stalemated position:

To fix this, you can just put your opponent in check to force it into the corner and then deliver checkmate, but be careful not to draw in any other way in the process, such as threefold repetition, or 50-move rule. Another thing you can do to fix this mistake is not to be greedy and not promote too many pawns into queens. Also, sometimes, you may have to underpromote a pawn into something like a rook to prevent stalemate, so think carefully when you promote.

2. Not Defending Your Pawns

This is important in all stages of the game! The pawns might be useless little chaps who are only worth 1 point, but they get more important in the endgame, and if you don't defend them well enough, the game might end in a draw or even a loss. In this situation, White is using their pawns wisely, Black isn't.

Use your rooks (which hopefully you protected to guide your pawns to the end of the board and act like a bodyguard. This cuts off the king from capturing your pawn as if he does so, he'll be captured. But just remember to place your rooks behind your pawns, and if you don't have any rooks or queens, use your king!

3. Not Knowing How To Checkmate King + Rook or King + Queen

This is essential as most endgames start with very few pieces left, and the rooks and queens are the most powerful ones! If you don't know how to checkmate with these pieces, you can end the game in a draw by 50-move rule (mentioned in mistake number 1) and destroy your winning chances.

To checkmate with either one, make sure to cut off the king from moving away from the corner. This prevents him from roaming around free. Also, you want to keep your king close to that piece, so it can't be easily captured. Here, White is doing a good job in checkmating Black.

4. Making Incorrect Exchanges

Often in chess, you might want to make an exchange, as long as no other pieces are taken in the process, but you will also need to think on what will happen after the exchange. Making an exchange in the endgame can lead to horrible events, often for both players, which often results in a draw. So never offer and exchange if you have the disadvantage because the other player can just use their remaining pieces to beat you. In this situation, Black is offering a rook trade, but White shouldn't do it, because it gets the Black king closer to the passed pawn.

In the endgame, you shouldn't mainly focus on capturing as many pieces as possible, you should focus on doing anything you can to checkmate the opposing king.

5. Expressing Your Emotions

In chess, you will often have a plan, whether it is to capture an important piece or checkmate your opponent, but you shouldn't make it obvious by smirking or something. It is also bad to worry too much if you make a blunder because your opponent might be able to see it. Everybody makes blunders in chess! Even professional grandmasters such as Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura and Garry Kasparov.

6. Resigning When A Draw Could Happen

You shouldn't resign to your opponent. With a little perseverance, your opponent could blunder and make a draw! Not all hope is lost yet. This happens very often in chess because if people are losing, they want to resign to end this pointless match as soon as possible. In this position, White resigned, because Black pinned their queen to the king, however, White shouldn't have done that, because even in these horrible moments, White can save the situation by forcing a draw. Can you figure out how?

It is very important to look for tactical draws, even in positions where you are severely losing to save the game. In chess, anything could happen. By the way, did you know that after 3 moves in chess, there are 121 million possible positions?!

7. Overlooking Zugzwang Positions

"Zugzwang" is a German word which means "Compulsion to move". This means that there is a position where you or the opponent are put in a disadvantage because of the obligation to make a move which is bad. Especially in endgames, this is a horrible position to be caught in, as it can worsen your position and as a result, place you in checkmate. Here is a situation where Black is in a Zugzwang position.

This mistake is often made when players don't look all around the board enough, and not considering future moves. One way to avoid Zugzwang is by making your king an active piece, which is one of the most important principles of an endgame.

8. Having A Horrible Pawn Structure

This is very important, as pawns are the only pieces which become more valuable as the game goes on. Even in the middlegame, consider your pawn structure by avoiding doubled pawns and isolated pawns and creating passed pawns and pawn islands. At the same time, you should also attempt to ruin your opponent's pawn structure. In this example, White has a better pawn structure, than Black.

This helps in all phases of the game, as pawns can support each other and work together with the other pieces to promote to queens later on while building a good defence.

9. Missing Tactical Opportunities

In chess, you've definitely had a moment before where you thought, "Why didn't I do this? I'm so stupid!" We all make mistakes and they help us improve next time. To gain the advantage in the endgame, you also have to look all around for tactical opportunities, including forks, skewers and pins. These are important to avoid but important to use against your opponent. Here, White may have forked Black's rook and pawn, but they forgot a strategic black knight fork which places Black in a better position than it originally was.

Missing opportunities or falling for traps can even make the difference between a win and a loss, which means you have to keep your eyes peeled for any traps available. Don't be afraid to even make a major sacrifice to win material or deliver checkmate!

10. Ignoring Piece Activity

It is very easy to make this mistake! It's like homework: you might leave it to the last minute and then you get stressed when you have to do it. In chess, you could easily take your mind off a piece, such as a faraway passed pawn and then end up regretting your decision as the opponent decides to march that pawn forward with defence. In this example, White decided to forget about that passed pawn because it will never promote without the rook capturing it, but little did they know, they should've stopped it as soon as possible when Black added a rook to defend it.

To fix this, you should learn to shift between an aggressive and a defensive style to play, while also planning to claim checkmate, as they can lead to easy mistakes that will hinder you throughout the game.

Some of the chess positions are really weird. Can't believe they came from Magnus's mind!