When to start Moving Your King to the Center

When is a good time to do this?  You'll say, "Well, when the end game begins."

   But when is that?  I just watched a top game where both sides had 6 pawns, 2 rooks and a bishop or knight AND they headed toward the center with their Kings.

  Was that premature?  Is the answer, it's okay, so long as none of your pieces will BE beHIND your king and/or none of opponents pieces are likely to get behind your king?  If the opponent has a bishop, it seems dangerous to move the king too early.

 I don't know.  What do you think?  When's a good time to move your king toward the center? 

Two rooks apiece is quite a lot.  I'm sure the king advances were only possible because of how many pawns were left on the board.  In open positions (say 4 pawns apiece or less) where there are still a non-zero number of heavy pieces, you'd only want to move him out when there is 1 rook apiece.  (Heavy pieces are the queen and rooks).

For example in a Queen vs Queen endgame, sometimes you have some tremendous trumps (centralized queen, passed pawn) but your king is too exposed to escape the perpetual check draw.  I saw a game like this with Keres vs... I forgot... but it was in the Zurich 1953 tournament book.

Other than "in the endgame" the other general saying would be "when it's safe" i.e. when there are no mate threats.  In the GM game, I'm sure it was impossible for the opponent's pieces to coordinate an attack on the king.

When I had little knowledge of chess we say the best time to move your king is, when you have nothing to do. Otherwise, agree with @wafflle.

Ah, I found it on chessgames.com.

It may seem counter intuitive that white marches his king forward, but this is actually standard stuff for the player fighting for a draw in endgames involving two queens.  He would actually be more vulnerable pressed against the edge, and there is no danger of mate in the middle.  But most importantly, black's king is too exposed for black to claim any advantage.

Alrighty.  I guess "when it's safe to do so" is the best answer.

King of the Hill and in Endgames.

General rule: after queens are traded.

#7 already answered your question.

Note to move 33: "A quick glance at this position might leave one wondering how even Keres, with all his skill in queen endings, could save this game. However, there are two peculiarities in this position which ease White's task a bit: the black king's scanty cover, which means White is always threatening a perpetual check, and the solid position of White's queenside pawns--after all, they are three against two! The meaning of this latter circumstance will soon become clear." - Bronstein

That's probably more than you wanted.

Generally, tygxc is right. With queens on, king safety is really important to avoid perpetuals or attacks. However, I believe there are other cases as well. The best rule is probably something like: when my king is sufficiently safe in the center to avoid getting mated/checked to death. If there are two rooks each on the board, the center may be insufficiently safe or it may be just fine.

Paradoxically, sometimes the king is safest in the center (see Korchnoi-Tal, Yerevan 1962 when the king waltzed to the fifth rank despite the presence of heavy pieces).

Hopefully my rambling doesn't muddy the waters two much. Cheers!

Points are worthless it can't be captured

It's a general estimation of the king's fighting strength for illustrative purposes. It is also typically applied to the guard in Bulldog Chess or the mann from Courier Chess.

Also, I like your advice DigitalWarfare, though I would add that the king can go to the center even with queens on (see the aforementioned Keres-Taimanov, Zurich 1953 game) if it is the place with the most shelter.

figure it out through practice

this guy is at it again -_-