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64-453: Chess Informant published two issues per year in 1966–1990, three issues per year in 1991–2011 and four issues per year since 2012. Each issue offers several hundred games or fragments of games from master play, mostly annotated by the players themselves. A board of leading players selects the best games of each issue, and these are republished in the next issue often with more extensive annotations. Each issue since Chess Informant 5 has included

128-544: A time control , there are other ways a draw can occur. In chess games played at the top level, a draw is the most common outcome of a game: of around 22,000 games published in The Week in Chess played between 1999 and 2002 by players with a FIDE Elo rating of 2500 or above, 55 percent were draws. According to chess analyst Jeff Sonas , although an upward draw rate trend can be observed in general master-level play since

192-462: A "lust to expand". An outside passed pawn is particularly deadly. The point of this is a deflection – while the defending king is preventing the outside passed pawn from queening, the attacking king wins pawns on the other side. Opposition is an important technique that is used to gain an advantage. When two kings are in opposition, they are on the same file (or rank ) with one empty square separating them. The player having

256-522: A chess player corresponded with the ascent of Chess Informant ' s popularity. Other world champions, including Anatoly Karpov , Vladimir Kramnik , and Viswanathan Anand , attest that Informant is central to their tournament preparation. From millions of games played at some of the most important tournaments at the globe, more than 110,000 games have been published in first 112 volumes of Chess Informant series (1966–2011). Among contributors there were more than 5,000 notable chess players including all

320-530: A combinations section with problems from recent play. A similar endings section has also become a standard feature. For two decades prior to the emergence of computer databases, Chess Informant publications were a leading source of games and analysis for serious chess players. The publication routinely appears in the bibliography of texts on specific chess openings and other chess texts. Former world champion Garry Kasparov asserted, "We are all children of Informant " and then explained that his own development as

384-578: A comment on the fact that a small advantage in a rook and pawn endgame is less likely to be converted into a win. Mark Dvoretsky said that the statement is "semi-joking, semi-serious". This quotation has variously been attributed to Savielly Tartakower and to Siegbert Tarrasch . Writers Victor Korchnoi , John Emms , and James Howell , attribute the quote to Tartakower, whereas Dvoretsky, Andrew Soltis , Karsten Müller , and Kaufeld & Kern attribute it to Tarrasch. John Watson attributed to Tarrasch "by legend" and says that statistics do not support

448-532: A common type of endgame in practice, occurring in about 10 percent of all games (including ones that do not reach an endgame). These endgames occur frequently because rooks are often the last pieces to be exchanged. The ability to play these endgames well is a major factor distinguishing masters from amateurs. When both sides have two rooks and pawns, the stronger side usually has more winning chances than if each had only one rook. Three rules of thumb regarding rooks are worth noting: An important winning position in

512-586: A decisive incursion by White's bishop) 4... Bd7 5. Bxg6! Two rules given by Luigi Centurini in the 19th century apply: The position in the second diagram shows a winning position for White, although it requires accurate play. A knight pawn always wins if the defending bishop only has one long diagonal available. This position was reached in a game from the 1965 Candidates Tournament between Lajos Portisch and former World Champion Mikhail Tal . White must defend accurately and utilize reciprocal zugzwang . Often he has only one or two moves that avoid

576-453: A definite conclusion, given enough skill and time. An error in a king and pawn endgame almost always turns a win into a draw or a draw into a loss – there is little chance for recovery. Accuracy is most important in these endgames. There are three fundamental ideas in these endgames: opposition , triangulation , and the Réti manoeuvre . This is one of the most basic endgames. A draw results if

640-416: A draw at any time. Ethical considerations may make a draw uncustomary in situations where at least one player has a reasonable chance of winning. For example, a draw could be called after a move or two, but this would likely be thought unsporting. In the 19th century, some tournaments, notably London 1883 , required that drawn games be replayed; however, this was found to cause organizational problems due to

704-425: A draw . In games played under time control , a draw may result under additional conditions. A stalemate is an automatic draw, as is a draw due to impossibility of checkmate. A draw by threefold repetition or the fifty-move rule may be claimed by one of the players with the arbiter (normally using his score sheet ), and claiming it is optional. The draw by fivefold repetition or the seventy-five-move rule

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768-431: A draw is to first make a move, verbally offer the draw, then press the clock . The other player may decline the draw offer by making a move, in which case the draw offer is no longer in effect, or else indicate acceptance. The offer of a draw should be recorded by each player in their score sheet using the symbol (=) as per Appendix C.12 of FIDE Laws of Chess . In early tournaments, draws were often replayed until one of

832-429: A draw, the defender (the side with fewer pawns) should try to avoid situations in which the queen and rooks are forcibly traded into a losing king and pawn endgame . If there are no pawns, the position is usually drawn, but either side wins in some positions. A queen is equivalent to a rook and bishop plus one pawn. If the queen has an additional pawn it wins, but with difficulty. A rook and bishop plus two pawns win over

896-412: A few pawns. ( Haworth, Guy M C (2009). "Western Chess:Endgame Data" . CentAUR . ) The procedure can be long and difficult. In competition, the fifty-move rule will often result in the game being drawn first. The endgame of king and three knights against king will not normally occur in a game, but it is of theoretical interest. The three knights win. Two of the most common pawnless endgames (when

960-424: A losing position. Black was unable to make any progress and the game was drawn on move 83. Endings with bishops of opposite color , meaning that one bishop works on the light squares, the other one working on dark squares, are notorious for their drawish character. Many players in a poor position have saved themselves from a loss by trading down to such an endgame. They are often drawn even when one side has

1024-512: A material advantage tries to exchange pieces but avoids exchanging pawns in the endgame. Some exceptions to this are: Usually, endings with pawns on both sides of the board are easier to win and the first player to promote a pawn to a queen wins if the opponent is unable to do so on the turn immediately after. Max Euwe and Walter Meiden give these five generalizations: Many endings without pawns have been solved , that is, best play for both sides from any starting position can be determined, and

1088-416: A material configuration. Some problem composers believe that the endgame starts when the player to move can force a win or a draw against any variation of moves. Alburt and Krogius give three characteristics of an endgame: Mednis and Crouch address the question of what constitutes an endgame negatively. They believe that the game is not in the endgame if these apply: Generally, the player having

1152-439: A pawn by advancing it to the eighth rank . The king , which normally is kept safe during the game, becomes active in the endgame, as it can help escort pawns to promotion, attack enemy pawns, protect other pieces, and restrict the movement of the enemy king. Not all chess games reach an endgame; some of them end earlier. All chess positions with up to seven pieces on the board have been solved by endgame tablebases , so

1216-463: A pawn, see Queen versus pawn endgame . The queen and pawn versus queen endgame is the second most common of the "piece and pawn versus piece" endgames, after rook and pawn versus rook . It is very complicated and difficult to play. Human analysts were not able to make a complete analysis before the advent of endgame tablebases . This combination is a win less frequently than the equivalent ending with rooks. The difference in material between

1280-453: A point, which is similar to how repetitions are sometimes forbidden in xiangqi , shogi , and Go . (Lasker's original proposal was only for stalemate and bare king; it was supported by Richard Réti and considered not harmful – though unnecessary – by Max Euwe . Capablanca thought that doing this for stalemate would be enough.) Engine tests by Kaufman using Komodo suggest that at over-the-board human World Championship level, this would lower

1344-400: A position is considered to be a draw if best play leads to a draw – the difficulty of the defence is not taken into account. Soltis calls these positions "drawable". For instance, under that criterion the rook and bishop versus rook endgame is usually a theoretical draw or book draw, but the side with the bishop often wins in practice. In this position from an actual game, the only move to draw

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1408-432: A queen. There are many cases for a lone piece versus pawns. The position of the pawns is critical. Draw (chess) In chess , there are a number of ways that a game can end in a draw , neither player winning. Draws are codified by various rules of chess including stalemate (when the player to move is not in check but has no legal move), threefold repetition (when the same position occurs three times with

1472-427: A rook and a minor piece is about two points or a little less, the equivalent of two pawns. If both sides have pawns, the result essentially depends on how many pawns the minor piece has for the exchange : In an endgame, two minor pieces are approximately equivalent to a rook plus one pawn. The pawn structure is important. The two pieces have the advantage if the opponent's pawns are weak. Initiative

1536-562: A series of checks from which the other player cannot escape—as a draw. Any perpetual check situation will eventually be claimable as a draw under the threefold repetition rule or the fifty-move rule; more commonly the players will simply agree a draw. By 1965, perpetual check was no longer in the rules. Although these are the laws as laid down by FIDE and, as such, are used at almost all top-level tournaments, at lower levels different rules may operate, particularly with regard to rapid play finish provisions. In games played with

1600-400: A two-pawn advantage, since the weaker side can create a blockade on the squares on which his bishop operates. The weaker side should often try to make their bishop bad by placing their pawns on the same color of their bishop in order to defend their remaining pawns, thereby creating an impregnable fortress . Current theory is that bishops are better than knights about 60 percent of

1664-492: Is a trivial draw, in that checkmate is not even possible. Likewise for king and knight versus king. Two knights cannot force checkmate against a lone king (see Two knights endgame ). While there is a board position that allows two knights to checkmate a lone king, such requires a careless move by the weaker side to execute. If the weaker side also has material (besides the king), checkmate is sometimes possible. The winning chances with two knights are insignificant except against

1728-400: Is in front of the pawn or sufficiently close. The defending king can occupy a square in front of the pawn of the opposite color as the bishop and cannot be driven away. Otherwise the attacker can win. This is a draw if the defending king is in front of the pawn or sufficiently near. The bishop is kept on a diagonal that the pawn must cross, and the knight cannot both block the bishop and drive

1792-472: Is less subject to change. Many endgame studies have been composed; they consist of endgame positions which are solved by finding a win for White when there is no obvious way to win, or finding a draw when White appears to lose. In some compositions, the starting position would be unlikely to occur in an actual game; but if the starting position is not artificial, the composition may be incorporated into endgame theory. Endgames are usually classified based on

1856-445: Is mandatory by the arbiter. A claim of a draw first counts as an offer of a draw, and the opponent may accept the draw without the arbiter examining the claim. Once a claim or draw offer has been made, it cannot be withdrawn. If the claim is verified or the draw offer accepted, the game is over. Otherwise, the offer or claim is nullified and the game continues; the draw offer is no longer in effect. The correct procedure for an offer of

1920-485: Is more important in this endgame than any other. The general outcome can be broken down by the number of pawns. Without pawns this is normally drawn, but either side wins in some positions. A queen and pawn are normally equivalent to two rooks, which is usually a draw if both sides have an equal number of additional pawns. Two rooks plus one pawn versus a queen is also generally drawn. Otherwise, if either side has an additional pawn, that side normally wins. While playing for

1984-648: Is not enough to win. Thus Kaufman calls this solution "terrible", going against "the very nature of the game": he writes that "The inferior side should be trying to draw, and to penalize Black for obtaining a good result is crazy. It makes chess like a game of ' chicken '; who will 'blink' first and play an unsound move to avoid the mutually bad result of a draw?" Nickel has likewise criticised this idea as "wholly inadequate", creating "an artificial and empty pressure at best", and creating unfairness and incentivising "game manipulations" in team events or double round-robins. Kaufman speaks more favourably of an idea by Ed Epp, which

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2048-484: Is that if the weaker side's king can get to the queening square of the pawn, the game is a draw and otherwise it is a win, but there are many exceptions. Generally (but not always), if the defending king can reach the queening square of the pawn the game is a draw (see Philidor position ), otherwise the attacker usually wins (if it is not a rook pawn) (see Lucena position ). The winning procedure can be very difficult and some positions require up to sixty moves to win. If

2112-505: Is the final stage of a chess game which occurs after the middlegame . It begins when few pieces are left on the board. The line between the middlegame and the endgame is often not clear, and may occur gradually or with a quick exchange of pieces. The endgame, however, tends to have different characteristics from the middlegame, and the players have correspondingly different strategic concerns. In particular, pawns become more important as endgames often revolve around attempts to promote

2176-404: Is to golf." Any endgame with pieces and pawns has the possibility of simplifying into a pawn ending. In king and pawn endings, an extra pawn is decisive in more than 90 percent of the cases. Getting a passed pawn is crucial (a passed pawn is one which does not have an opposing pawn on its file or on adjacent files on its way to promotion). Nimzowitch once said that a passed pawn has

2240-451: Is to score draws as 0.4–0.6, equalising the expected score for White and Black; but while he writes that he is "all for this idea", he also admits that "the benefit would be small, most games would have the same outcome". Yuri Averbakh gives these combinations for the weaker side to draw: Andy Soltis discusses the vagueness of the terms "draw", "drawish", "drawable", "book draw", "easy draw", and "dead draw". In books and chess theory

2304-511: The rook and pawn versus rook endgame is the so-called Lucena position . If the side with the pawn can reach the Lucena position, he wins. There are several important drawing techniques, however, such as the Philidor position , the back-rank defense (rook on the first rank, for rook pawns and knight pawns only), the frontal defense , and the short-side defense . A general rule

2368-600: The World Championship finals and the Candidates' sections between 2010 and 2013, 82.3% ended in a draw. Since that time, draw rate in top-level correspondence play has been rising steadily, reaching 97% in 2019. Engine tests strongly suggest that the result of a perfectly played game is a draw, and that the draw margin is quite large: White cannot force a win without Black making significant mistakes. The high draw rate has often led to fears of "draw death", as

2432-407: The attacking rook is two files from the pawn and the defending king is cut off on the other side, the attacker normally wins (with a few exceptions). The rook and pawn versus rook is the most common of the "piece and pawn versus piece" endgames. The most difficult case of a rook and pawn versus a rook occurs when the attacking rook is one file over from the pawn and the defending king is cut off on

2496-455: The b7 square. Black to move draws starting with 1... Nc4 because White cannot gain a tempo . Bishop and pawn endgames come in two distinctly different variants. If the opposing bishops go on the same color of square, the mobility of the bishops is a crucial factor. A bad bishop is one that is hemmed in by pawns of its own color, and has the burden of defending them. The adjacent diagram, from Molnar–Nagy, Hungary 1966, illustrates

2560-409: The backlog. It is now standard practice to score a decisive game as one point to the winner, and a draw as a half point to each player. The rules allow for several types of draws: stalemate , threefold or fivefold repetition of a position, if there has been no capture or a pawn being moved in the last fifty or seventy-five moves, if checkmate is impossible, or if the players agree to

2624-440: The beginning of the 20th century, it is currently "holding pretty steady around 50%, and is only increasing at a very slow rate". The draw rate of elite grandmasters, rated more than 2750 Elo, is, however, significantly higher, surpassing 70% in 2017 and 2018. In top-level correspondence chess under ICCF , where computer assistance is allowed, the draw rate is much higher than in the over-the-board chess: of 1512 games played in

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2688-468: The concepts of good bishop versus bad bishop, opposition, zugzwang , and outside passed pawn. White wins with 1. e6! (vacating e5 for his king) 1... Bxe6 2. Bc2! (threatening Bxg6) 2... Bf7 3. Be4! (threatening Bxc6) 3... Be8 4. Ke5! (seizing the opposition [i.e. the kings are two orthogonal squares apart, with the other player on move] and placing Black in zugzwang—he must either move his king, allowing White's king to penetrate, or his bishop, allowing

2752-436: The defending king away. Otherwise, the attacker can win. Rook and pawn endgames are often drawn in spite of one side having an extra pawn. (In some cases, two extra pawns are not enough to win.) An extra pawn is harder to convert to a win in a rook and pawn endgame than any other type of endgame except a bishop endgame with bishops on opposite colors. Rook endings are probably the deepest and most well studied endgames. They are

2816-421: The defending king can reach the square in front of the pawn or the square in front of that (or capture the pawn). If the attacking king can prevent that, the king will assist the pawn in being promoted to a queen or rook, and checkmate can be achieved. A rook pawn is an exception because the king may not be able to get out of the way of its pawn. Knight and pawn endgames feature clever manoeuvring by

2880-518: The defense has a piece in addition to the king) are (1) a queen versus a rook and (2) a rook and bishop versus a rook. A queen wins against a rook — see Queen versus rook endgame . A rook and bishop versus a rook is generally a theoretical draw, but the defense is difficult and there are winning positions (see Rook and bishop versus rook endgame ). King and pawn endgames involve only kings and pawns on one or both sides. International Master Cecil Purdy said, "Pawn endings are to chess as putting

2944-448: The draw rate from 65.6% to just 22.6%. Other ideas have also been suggested, such as the "football scoring": 0 for a loss, 1 for a draw, and 3 for a win, which is equivalent to scoring draws as ⅓–⅓ rather than ½–½. This has been criticised, however. Kaufman argues that this solution misses the point: it reduces the incentive to draw, but the reason for the high draw rate is not one of incentives, but rather that White's first-move advantage

3008-399: The flank at the greatest possible distance from the attacking king. Nothing less than a distance of three files makes it possible for the rook to keep on giving check. Otherwise it would ultimately be attacked by the king. The defending king must stand on the smaller part of the board. (See the short side defense at Rook and pawn versus rook endgame .) The context of this quote shows it is

3072-407: The king and knight must be covering squares in the pawn's path. If the pawn reaches the seventh rank and is supported by its king and knight, it usually promotes and wins. In this position, White to move wins: 1. b6 Nb7! 2. Ne6! Na5 3. Kc8! N-any 4. Nc7# . If Black plays the knight to any other square on move 2, White plays Kc8 anyway, threatening b7+ and promotion if the knight leaves the defense of

3136-493: The king). Alternatively, they are positions in which the king can be used actively, but there are some famous exceptions to that. Minev characterizes endgames as positions having four or fewer pieces other than kings and pawns. Fine considers endgames to be positions without queens . Flear considers endgames to be positions where both players have at most one piece (other than kings and pawns) whereas Dvoretsky considers them to be positions in which at least one player has such

3200-411: The knights to capture opponent pawns. While a knight is poor at chasing a passed pawn, it is the ideal piece to block a passed pawn. Knights cannot lose a tempo , so knight and pawn endgames have much in common with king and pawn endgames. As a result, Mikhail Botvinnik stated, “A knight ending is really a pawn ending.” This is generally a draw since the knight can be sacrificed for the pawn, however,

3264-456: The move loses the opposition. That player must move the king and allow the opponent's king to advance. However, the opposition is a means to an end, which is penetration into the enemy position. The attacker should try to penetrate with or without the opposition. The tactics of triangulation and zugzwang as well as the theory of corresponding squares are often decisive. Unlike most positions, king and pawn endgames can usually be analyzed to

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3328-418: The original authors of Komodo ) and correspondence chess grandmaster Arno Nickel have suggested an extension of Lasker's proposal, which would score stalemate, king and minor piece versus king with the superior side to move (similar to the old bare king rule), and threefold repetition as ¾–¼ rather than draws – for threefold repetition, this means penalising the player who brought about a repetition with ¼ of

3392-411: The other side. Siegbert Tarrasch gave the following rules for this case: For a player defending against a pawn on the fifth or even sixth ranks to obtain a draw, even after his king has been forced off the queening square, the following conditions must obtain: The file on which the pawn stands divides the board into two unequal parts. The defending rook must stand in the longer part and give checks from

3456-492: The outcome (win, loss, or draw) is known. For example, the following are all wins for the side with pieces: See Wikibooks – Chess/The Endgame for a demonstration of the first two checkmates, which are generally taught in textbooks as basic knowledge. The last two are sometimes taught as basic knowledge as well, although the procedure for mate with bishop and knight is relatively difficult and many tournament players do not know it. The ending of king and bishop versus king

3520-454: The outcome (win, loss, or draw) of best play by both sides in such positions is known, and endgame textbooks teach this best play. However, most endgames are not solved, so textbooks teach useful strategies and tactics about them. The body of chess theory devoted to endgames is known as endgame theory. Compared to opening theory, which changes frequently, giving way to middlegame positions that fall in and out of popularity, endgame theory

3584-426: The players won; however, this was found to be impractical and caused organizational difficulties. The 1867 Paris tournament even ignored draws altogether, effectively treating them as double losses. The 1867 Dundee tournament initiated the awarding of a half point for draws, which is now standard practice. A minority of tournaments use a different scoring scheme, such as "football scoring" where 3 points are awarded to

3648-455: The queen can escort it to the queening square alone. The advancement of the passed pawn outweighs the number of pawns. The defender must resort to perpetual check . These endings are frequently extremely long affairs. For an example of a queen and pawn endgame see Kasparov versus the World – Kasparov won although he had fewer pawns because his was more advanced. For the ending with a queen versus

3712-447: The same player to move), and the fifty-move rule (when the last fifty successive moves made by both players contain no capture or pawn move). Under the standard FIDE rules, a draw also occurs in a dead position (when no sequence of legal moves can lead to checkmate), most commonly when neither player has sufficient material to checkmate the opponent. Unless specific tournament rules forbid it, players may agree to

3776-501: The statement. Benko wonders if it was due to Vasily Smyslov . Attributing the quote to Tarrasch may be a result of confusion between this quote and the Tarrasch rule concerning rooks. The source of the quote is currently unresolved. Benko noted that although the saying is usually said with tongue in cheek, it is truer in practice than one might think. In queen and pawn endings , passed pawns have paramount importance, because

3840-416: The time in the endgame. The more symmetrical the pawn structure , the better it is for the knight. The knight is best suited at an outpost in the center, particularly where it cannot easily be driven away, whereas the bishop is strongest when it can attack targets on both sides of the board or a series of squares of the same color. Fine and Benko give four conclusions: This is a draw if the defending king

3904-496: The top players draw an ever-increasing percentage of their games and the game becomes played out: such sentiments have been expressed by World Champions Emanuel Lasker , José Raúl Capablanca , Bobby Fischer , and Vladimir Kramnik . All four advocated changing the rules of chess to avoid the problem, and with the advent of modern chess engines playing at an extremely high level, their ideas have been tested. Based on tests in correspondence and engine play, GM Larry Kaufman (one of

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3968-458: The type of pieces that remain. There is no strict criterion for when an endgame begins, and different authors have different opinions. The former World Chess Champion Alexander Alekhine said, "We cannot define when the middle game ends and the endgame starts." Using the standard system for chess piece relative value , Speelman considers that endgames are positions in which each player has thirteen or fewer points in material (not counting

4032-461: The winner and 1 point to each in the event of a draw. For the purpose of calculating Elo rating , these tournaments are treated as if they were using standard scoring. Article 5 of the 2018 FIDE Laws of Chess gives the basic ways a game may end in a draw; more complicated ways are detailed in Article 9: There is no longer a rule defining perpetual check —a situation in which one player gives

4096-978: The world champions from Max Euwe to Anand. The Chess Informant system of codes for the classification of chess openings, and its system of symbols have set the international standard for organizing chess information and communicating this information across language barriers. The system of codes is explained in ten languages on the front of each issue of Informant , the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings , and other publications. On April 1, 2008, Chess Informant issued its one-hundredth issue. Starting from Volume 113 (2012), Chess Informant has introduced major changes in its structure, including several authors' columns written in English, e.g. "Garry's choice" by Garry Kasparov, "Top Five" by selected top grandmasters, "Labs- theoretical surveys" by ten selected grandmasters, etc. Chess endgame The endgame (or ending )

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