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Every now and then, the battle comes down to a materially balanced king and pawns endgame. When I first started playing chess, I would more often than not, lose these endgames. I think that I’m a bit better at it now, and there are some general heuristics that often helps, some of which can be demonstrated in this game I played today.

Firstly, in the endgame, the king is the most active piece, so it needs to lead! It has to be there where the action is thickest. The king can both capture pawns, of course, but it also creates a forcefield where the opponent king cannot intrude. Secondly, winning a king and pawn endgame is often about promoting a pawn to queen and thus, this becomes a race for who can do this first. From this, two general heuristics become evident – you need to advance your pawns when you can, and, you need to protect your passed pawns. In this game if you look at the Stockfish recommended moves for my opponent, it often involved pushing their pawns forward. My opponent, however, ended up shuffling their king a few moves, and that allowed me to move my pawns as a line closer to their side of the board. After trades where we were down to one pawn each, I was simply two steps ahead, and this made all the difference.

I hope you found this game interesting, and thanks for watching!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/40870794453

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.03.12"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Taptaptaparoo"]
[Black "vitualis"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C46"]
[WhiteElo "1281"]
[BlackElo "1296"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[EndTime "17:07:51 PST"]
[Termination "vitualis won by checkmate"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Bc5 4. Bc4 Nf6 5. O-O O-O 6. d3 h6 7. Nd5 d6 8. Nxf6+ Qxf6 9. Be3 Bd4 10. Bxd4 Nxd4 11. Nxd4 exd4 12. f4 Be6 13. Bxe6 Qxe6 14. f5 Qe5 15. Qg4 d5 16. exd5 Qxd5 17. f6 g6 18. Qf4 g5 19. Qxc7 Rac8 20. Qg3 Rxc2 21. b3 Re8 22. Rf2 Rxf2 23. Qxf2 Qe5 24. g3 Re6 25. Rf1 Qe3 26. Qxe3 dxe3 27. Re1 Kh7 28. Kg2 Kg6 29. Kf3 Rxf6+ 30. Kxe3 Re6+ 31. Kd2 Rxe1 32. Kxe1 f5 33. Ke2 Kf6 34. Ke3 Ke5 35. d4+ Kd5 36. Kd3 h5 37. Ke3 b5 38. Kd3 a5 39. Ke3 a4 40. Kd3 axb3 41. axb3 b4 42. Ke3 h4 43. gxh4 gxh4 44. h3 Ke6 45. Kf4 Kd5 46. Kxf5 Kxd4 47. Kg4 Kc3 48. Kxh4 Kxb3 49. Kg5 Kc3 50. h4 b3 51. h5 b2 52. h6 b1=Q 53. h7 Qxh7 54. Kf6 Qe4 55. Kf7 Qe5 56. Kf8 Qc7 57. Ke8 Kd4 58. Kf8 Ke5 59. Ke8 Ke6 60. Kf8 Qf7# 0-1