Activate King
A good rule to keep in mind is as the game progresses, the king becomes stronger.
The only reason the king is cradled throughout the game is being every single enemy piece has the intention of checkmating it.
However, when those pieces are traded off and cannot easily checkmate the king, he can play an integral role in the game.
Let's look at some examples of this.
Rooks + Passers
It must be stated that including this principle, there are always exceptions. But generally a good thing to remember is that rooks should sit behind passed pawns.
Of course, passed pawns want to promote into a new queen. So putting a rook beneath that pawn to support its path to promotion is typically a good idea.
Lets quickly take a look at moments where this rule applies, and how there can be exceptions.
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Push Passers
Again, this principle will not always apply, but the closer a pawn gets to promotion, the bigger of an asset it becomes.
This leads us to another great endgame principle. Always look to push passed pawns.
This doesn't mean if you have a passed pawn, you push it. It simply means to always keep it in mind, as if the move is possible it can be an unbelievably strong threat for your opponent to defend.
Square Rule
The rule of the square is a handy tricky to help us judge whether or not a king will be able to catch a distant passed pawn or not.
Essentially, if you imagine a square on the board with the passed pawn as one point, and the promotion square as another point, you can draw an equal square with 4 sides.
If your king is within this square, the pawn will be stopped. If your king is outside of the square, the opponent will promote.
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Weaknesses
Chess is all about strengths and weaknesses. The endgame is the epitome of this fact because the phase is constantly on a razor's edge.
Going into endgames that seem equal, you want to create some kind of weakness for your opponent and try to exploit it.
There are several ways of doing this, like trapping pieces, doubling pawns, isolating pawns or dominating king activity.
Let's look at an example of creating weaknesses.
Opposition
Opposition is the most common principle that comes up in basic pawn endgames. Its absolutely necessary to know how to use opposition to your advantage.
Opposition is when a player can create an impenetrable fortress with their king's movement which stops the enemy king from invading its space.
This is usually useful for the side that is down material, especially a pawn in the endgame.
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Checkmates work a little bit different in the endgame. As the game goes on, pieces get traded off the board. This means, to deliver the knockout punch you need to know how to checkmate the enemy king with a single piece.
