Endgame Lessons - King and Pawn vs. King and the Theory of Opposition

Hello, thought i'd make a couple of instructive endgame videos for fun, and the first one I'll do is king and pawn vs. king. Almost all of these endgames are based on a special relationship between the two kings called the opposition.

Ususally, the opposition is solely important in King and pawn endgames(except in rare cases) and is mandatory knowledge if you want to win this kind of endgame.

But what is the oppostiton?

When the two kings are on the same diagonal, file, or rank, with an odd number of squares between them, this relationship is described as the opposition. A player is said to have the oppositon if such a position is on the board, and it is not his turn to move. This is important, because the other king must subside and allow the opponent to get into his position.

Let me show you an example of what I mean.

I see you like studying the endgame as well, if so you should buy a book called Dvoretsky's endgame manual 2nd edition.

Thanks for that! - very helpful.

Thanks! ill be sure to go over this a couple hundred times till it sinks in!

nice

Although way too many exclamation marks. If Kd7 gets !!, what does a queen sacrifice get?

Yes, I know that that works as well, and quicker; however, I thought I'd show the slightly easier way to grasp.

third(ed?)

6. kd6 is an alt.  Thx for posting this.

Love this tutorial, especially the interactive board at the end. Creating it is a skill I can't even approach. Many thanks.

The Rook Pawn is a draw as long as the King can reach any of the three files (a/b/c or f/g/h respectively). Naturally we are excluding the case where the Pawn can simply push straight in.

Even with White to move, this is drawn, because the Black King can reach the c-file.

Opposition - The Most Important Endgame Concept...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/opposition

White to win

Thanks for the article. I guess it is the rectangular opposition that some websites like chess kid.com mention as irregular opposition.

I am not sure why you have used Queens in the diagram to show the opposition of Kings . I think they are Neo-wood pieces on Chess.com.