Can you play pawn endings?

by Frederic Friedel
6/27/2025 – They are absolutely vital. Gukesh won the World Championship with one – or we could say Ding Liren lost his title because he misplayed it. So can you understand and play pawn endings proficiently? Take a look at this position: White has six legal moves, all with his king. But only one of them ensures the win. Which one? We have four instructive and entertaining positions that will test your skills. And hopefully leave you a better, more effective player.

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In the following positions you can try achieve what is required against the diagrams – which will try to make things as hard as possible for you by playing the black side. Please try to find the required win or draw yourself. We will add full video explanations for each position in this report, a few days after publication.

Here's the first position for you to solve:

Problem one
White to play and win

There is a single way for you to win here – if you do not follow the narrow path, you will end up with a draw or actually lose. It is clear that you have to figure out a way to promote a pawn. Can you do it, against stubborn resistance by Black? 

Problem two
White to play and win

Black cannot eliminate the two white pawns, but he is threatening to promote one of his pawns and actually win the game. So how do you stop that from happening – and actually win the game?

Problem three
White to play and win

The question here is where to move the king. You have six options, but only one of them will allow White to win. You really have to understand opposition to be able to take the full point.

Problem four
White to play and win

This is a very entertaining puzzle. Obviously White can easily promote the h-pawn, and there is nothing that Black can do about it. Or is there? Try it against the diagram and see what it comes up with. And find a way to overcome its defence. 

Analyse without engines

If you want to analyse the above positions without the interference of the diagram playing Black you can do it on the boards below. Naturally the engine is shut off, so you have to work everything out all by yourself. 

Problem one
White to play and win
Problem two
White to play and win
Problem three
White to play and win
Problem four
White to play and win

Here are the solutions to all four problems, very nicely explained by Volclus, in video shorts:


Editor-in-Chief emeritus of the ChessBase News page. Studied Philosophy and Linguistics at the University of Hamburg and Oxford, graduating with a thesis on speech act theory and moral language. He started a university career but switched to science journalism, producing documentaries for German TV. In 1986 he co-founded ChessBase.
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