I keep getting creamed in endgames. I'll enter the endgame with a won position, then either blow it entirely or let the opponent get away with a draw (not so much on here, mostly OTB). Similarly, I can't remember the last time I eeked out a draw when it was feasible.
For those of you who are good in the end game -- what sort of thought processes do you have? Is there always a flurry of calculating, or are there some basic principles that make finishing off a person in a winning situation a routine matter?
For me it's a matter of knowing end game patterns. Start with the basics... King and Rook to King... King and Queen to King... move out from there.
Once you start seeing patterns in your head you can start looking for mate easier.
The end game of course is where everything is decided, and often I hear teachers exclaim that their students are great in the beginning and middle but horrid in the end... which is why many teachers start students off WITH the end game.
There are several good books on end game play.
The endgame is the most important phase of the game. There’s a lot of material to master, however, if you do the work, the result is good endgame technique which will repay you handsomely. Lastly, schematic thinking (visualizing where the pieces will be most effective) is more important in most endgames than calculating reams of variations. The Russian trainer Shereshevsky outlines the whole process in his book, “Endgame Strategy.” Other good books are Chernev’s “Capablanca’s Best Chess Endings,” Kmoch’s “Rubenstein’s Best Games,” Fine’s “Basic Chess Endings,” and Smyslov and Levenfisch’s “Rook and Pawn Endings.”
