How to train endgames?

Hello. I know it's a vague question, and I will clarify this question as much as I can. When I played some chess games, the most common mistakes i mades was between the endgame and the middlegame. Here, in the blue-squared area:



Before the theoretical endgame and after the middlegame, where there are like 7 pieces and 6 pawns each on the board. This is where I commonly blunder, because I don't know how to convert endgames properly and not blunder.

I will try to describe frustration of blundering: You're in an endgame where both sides have queen, DSB and 5 pawns. You have a passed h pawn. You try to push that pawn but miserably blunder the pawn because the enemy king blocked the queening square which is the wrong color of your DSB. So you now dumbly accept a queen trade and a bishop trade after losing the pawn. You think there's still hope because your king is active enough. You try to make a blockade of pawns and just try to make a perpetual. Your opponent tries another move, and then you make a normal-looking move, but you realize it loses after your opponent's move; You're in zugzwang, and every move you make is a bad move. And you try to delay it by pushing pawns but it does nothing, your opponent lets you move and then I'm forced to blunder to a losing king and pawn endgame and then you resign and ragequit chess.

What did I have to do in that game, how shall I convert a winning endgame and save a drawing or losing endgame and what are the concepts I need to remember to save the day?

>Introduction to Pawn Endgames | Principles of Chess Endgames | GM Naroditsky

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUqq7wSLE78

This is probably a good starting point.

Practice endgames
Play more

"What did I have to do in that game, how shall I convert a winning endgame and save a drawing or losing endgame and what are the concepts I need to remember to save the day?"

We have to see the game (I'm afraid descriptions don't usually add up to much).

The only things I know to do are 1. study endgame strategy in whatever book you pick then in another one then... and 2. when you lose a game due to misplaying 'something' find GM games with similar 'somethings' and play thru them until you can do a bit better next time.
Transitions are hard. That means that if you get better at them, you'll play them confidently and win more games vs those who haven't worked at it.

Study rook endgames, they are the most common ones. Also, regardless of which pieces are on the board, try to play active, meaning, try to be the attacker instead of the defender. If you seek activity, you will have more success.

But you have to give some sample games that are the norm of your mistakes, so we can tell, as every game is different and needs different approaches.

Foreword by GM Karsten Muller of the book Grandmaster Preparation: Endgame Play by Jacob Aagard.

"Every chess player faces the problem of how to study the endgame. Three possible approaches
are to ignore the endgame completely, or to read a theoretical manual like Dvoretsky's Endgame
Manual, or to watch videos or DVDs. In my opinion the first option is completely out of
the question, as studying the endgame will repay high dividends because your understanding
of the whole game and the capabilities of every single piece will improve dramatically. The
knowledge gained will remain valid forever and will not become outdated like opening analysis. I
recommend the other two options of course. But they are not the complete answer. They are only
the first step.
It is not enough to have read a solution in a book or seen it in a video clip. You can only do
it, when you can do it. For example, to mate with bishop and knight against a lone king, you
must be able to master it over the board with the clock ticking, and not by guessing moves while
watching a video clip.
Solving exercises is the second step on the road to endgame mastery and this is Aagaard's approach
in his excellent Endgame Play. The third step is to play endgames well over the board under
tournament conditions. Only then are you really mastering the endgame.
So I strongly believe in training by solving exercises and Jacob Aagaard is a real master here..."

I personally like the 100 endgames you should know as well as Silman's Complete Endgame Course. Now this serves as a reminder that I need to complete both!

The best way to train endgames is spar with a handicapped AB Engine. Start with Search Depth = 5 ply. Increase Search Depth as you improve. Start with positions in Endgame books.

@ Alientcp said in #6:
> But you have to give some sample games that are the norm of your mistakes, so we can tell, as every game is different and needs different approaches.

I was verifying in my own chess insights if I did well these days, and in the endgame phase the last 2 days, they were pretty high ACPL:



Then I took some of the games used to generate that insight: