Pawn Endgame Puzzles

King-and-pawn endgames are chess stripped bare. Nothing is vague and nothing is forgiving: every position is winning, drawn or losing, and one wasted tempo flips the verdict. That purity makes them the best calculation training in the game.

The core concepts are a short list with a lifetime of depth. Opposition — kings facing off, and whoever must move gives ground. Key squares — reach one with your king and the pawn queens by force. The square of the pawn — the instant geometric test for whether a king catches a runner. Triangulation — losing a move on purpose to pass the obligation across the board. Breakthroughs — pawn sacrifices that punch a runner through a solid-looking chain.

Every other endgame you play is haunted by these positions, because trading the last pieces is always an option — and you can only evaluate the trade if you already know how the pawn ending ends. Puzzle by puzzle, that knowledge becomes reflex.

Solve the real-game puzzle on this page — count the tempi to the end — then train pawn endgames at your own level in the trainer.