♞Reflex Chess

Fewer pieces, nowhere to hide

The endgame is where rating actually comes from, and it is the part almost nobody trains, because it does not feel like it is about anything.

A middlegame mistake usually costs a pawn and a bad position. An endgame mistake costs the game, immediately and without argument, because there is no complication left to hide it in. That is the bad news. The good news is that the same absence of complication means endgame patterns are small, finite and learnable in a way that middlegame plans never are.

These six skills are drawn from real games rather than composed studies, so what they train is the endgame you will actually get: a rook and four pawns each, one side slightly better, and one accurate move that decides it.

Every motif in Endgames

Work through the section in order Fewer pieces, no hiding. This is where rating comes from. Five graded levels per motif, four positions a lesson. Open the course

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