Unpublished Work © 2026. Alex Povazh. All rights reserved
The article in the book is more than 50 pages long and is not presented here in full, only for initial review.
Unpublished Work © 2026. Alex Povazh. All rights reserved
A pawn as a part of the chess science. Pawns: the game makers. Pawns: the opening makers. Pawns: the king’s protection. En-passant accidents. Any move of any pawn has its merits and demerits. Pawns are cheap reconnaissance assets as well as attack resources. The umbrella pawn. Pawns are instrumental in capturing space and creating outposts for dominating knights. Why pawn endgame studies are so important? Richard Réti’s pawn endgame studies. R+P vs R endgame. The Universal Winning Strategy for rook & pan endings. Barbier-Saavedra position. The Lucena Position.
The Philidor Position. The Square Rule. Triangulation. Zugzwang. Key Squares. King Opposition. An introduction to a pawn endgame. How not to be afraid to start a game. Playing white pieces you want to go for center control. Playing black pieces you want to fight back for center control. Don’t move the same piece twice in the opening without a good reason. Key factors for assessing a chess position. Don’t be afraid to play Open Games. Develop your pieces as soon as possible, knights first. Centralization
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| White to play and win | Black to play and win | White to play and win |
 Image: Wikipedia, public domain François-André Danican Philidor (1726 – 1795), often referred to as André Danican Philidor | Before Philidor, chess was a game of arrogant all-in attacks with pawns as cheap battering rams. Philidor developed the positional style of play. Philidor believed that instead of reckless attacks, a reasonable chess player should keep building a stable position and deliver precisely calculated blows to the weak points of the opponent’s position, if necessary, resorting to exchanges and simplifications if they lead to a favorable endgame (what fantastic Capablanca would exactly do some later). The correct position, according to Philidor, is, above all, the correct placement of pawns. In his book “Analysis of the Game of Chess” (1749), Philidor wrote …the Pawns: They are the soul of Chess: They are the only ones who form the attack and defense; on their good or bad arrangement depends entirely the gain or loss of the game (1749, Analysis of the Game of Chess). FR: …les Pions : Ils sont l’ame des Echecs : Ce sont eux uniquement qui forment l’attaque et la defence, et de leur bon ou mauvais arrangement, depend entierement le gain ou la perte de la Partie (1749, l’Analyse du jeu des Échecs). |
Pawns: the game makers
Now what? You can analyze this game on your own, then computer-analyze it. Or just use the computer without doing any independent analysis. Which is better? By training yourself to analyze on your own, you learn to think. Analyzing with a computer, you just see a hint… The ideal solution for you as a beginner chess player would be to combine your brain with the capabilities of a computer. Analyze the position yourself, and toggle the computer on later only to check your plan. You should use this strategy until you have played your thousands of wild games. Otherwise, you’ll never LEARN TO THINK.
With the unlimited time control, level 8 computer (full power), select white pieces and play the game to check how good is your memory.
Pawns protect pieces and still give chess a chance to survive. Pawns protect both players from direct threats, protect both kings from quick checkmates. With pawns on the board it takes more time, resources, creativity and persistence to develop a game. In order to play reasonable chess we should learn ways how to do it. This brings us to the logical conclusion: it’s about time to invest more time to studying and training.
Pawns: the opening makers
It is assumed that control over the center gives you the game initiative. Fantastic José Raúl Capablanca, the chess machine, writes, “It is well always to bear this in mind, since it will often be the reason of a series of moves which could not otherwise be properly understood”.
Just a few playable lines for the very first moves after 1. e4 e5
José Raúl Capablanca (1888 – 1942), primarily nicknamed the “Human Chess Machine”, the third World Chess Champion, was known for his very fast play and almost unbeatable performance of 73.5% of overall winning percentage according to CHESSGAMES.COM.
| Paul Morphy 83.8% Alexander Alekhine 73.8% Emanuel Lasker 73.3% Robert James Fischer 72.5% Garry Kasparov 69.5% Anatoly Karpov 65.0% |
| Nona Gaprindashvili 63.5% Magnus Carlsen 63.2% (Dec ’25) Dommaraju Gukesh 64.9% (Dec ’25) Zhongyi Tan 60.5% (Dec ’25) Ju Wenjun 64.0% (Dec ’25) Ding Liren 60.5% (Dec ’54) |
Fantastic Capablanca was known to navigate his games middlegame-to-endgame knowing the patterns inherent to certain chess openings (initial stages of a game). There Capablanca outplayed his opponents with his home-built endgame knowledge and tactical vision.
Pawns: the king’s protection
1970s chess set by Ausma, Riga, Latvia
En-passant accidents
Any move of any pawn has its merits and demerits
Lewis chessmen, Queen
Derivative work, modified from the original by User: Finlay McWalter
CC BY-SA 3.0
Pawns are cheap reconnaissance assets as well as attack resources
Black hits the center with 6… c7-c5 in order to make white’s d-pawn to move d4-d5. That way black’s dark-squared g7-bishop would have a chance to join the action controlling the longest dark-colored diagonal, which is very good for black… Why exactly 6… c5 and not some other move instead? Because playing too aggressively, white still hasn’t castled their king, i.e. for their activity white pays with their compromised king safety. White’s king is still stuck in the center, that is king is vulnerable. That is the first thing that should come to mind for a player with black pieces. The logical solution here is to hit the center to make the player on whites nervous and white’s king unhappy. This is one of those situations when good old chess fundamentals really work and assist in finding a logical solution. White’s king cannot castle kingside right away because of the light-squared bishop still sitting on f1. Atop of the white’s problem it is black to play right now… Is your Visualization ready for its job? So, 6… c5 hitting the center while the opponent’s king is still stuck in the center. If white takes 7. dxc5, then black retakes the material: 7… dxc5. Now, you are playing black pieces. The center is burst open and chess fundamentals supposed to love it. Nope. Hitting and bursting open are two different things. If black bursts open the center, then white could just go trading pieces in order to simplify the situation and make things better for them realizing that the opponent on black pieces was no way a noob and knew how to punish the white for their risky play. Another nice line for white is move the light-squared bishop f1-d3 in order to shield the white’s queen and let the king to castle. White’s e4-e5 hitting black’s f6-knight is another unpleasant turn for black as it shuts the dark-squared g7-bishop just forever… So. Take a look at the diagram once more. 6… c7-c5 7. d4xc5. Is there some way for black to keep the situation tight and still attack the center? Yes, it is there. 7… Nb8-a6. It attacks white’s c5 pawn, it doesn’t block the black’s light-squared bishop’s way for development c8-d7 or pinning white’s f3-knight against white’s queen. A knight on the rim is grim meaning Don’t put your knight on the edge of the board is the common wisdom that works most of the times, but not now as then-a6-knight has its way for white’s queenside en route a6-b5-c2.
The main task of the side attacked by the opponent’s pawns is to stop them right in time. The same rule applies to dealing with an opponent’s pawn or pawns that are capturing space advancing toward your position.
The umbrella pawn
Pawns are instrumental in capturing space and creating outposts for dominating knights
The more squares your pawns control, the more cross-equator outposts for your knights you have, the more lines and diagonals you have for your pieces to run on… and the fewer options for your opponent to maneuver their pieces.
Position below: black’s e-pawn has managed to make it zigzagging all the way up to f3. One of the outposts allows black (Alexander Alekhine) to end the game with an unexpected tactical blow. White has just played 35. Rc2-h2 attacking black’s queen. Black to play.
1… Qg2+ 2. Rxg2 fxg2#
Why pawn endgame studies are so important?
Pawn endgame studies help in developing tons of skills like calculation, positional judgment, opposition, key squares, zugzwang… etc.
Image: commons.wikimedia.org, Lewis Chess Pieces by Paul Hudson from United Kingdom, © Creative Commons Attribution 2.0
Richard Réti endgame study
White to play and draw
2… Kb6. White’s king has no chance to catch up with the black’s pawn,
so black can afford to attack the white pawn
What do we learn from this study?
From h8 to h2 white king has six moves to go, moving both directly or zigzagging. But thanks to zigzagging multiple threats are created and white forces black to spend two tempos responding to the threats. As a result white manages to neutralize black’s queening h2-pawn.
White to play and draw
Chinese proverb: If you chase two rabbits, both will escape. But the Réti’s brilliant chess studies break the common wisdom as the side to lose is going to take care of two problems in a single action. The side with material disadvantage is apparently in dire straits with no opportunity windows. The appearance of this position says that the weakest side has no single chance to draw the game because of the huge material disadvantage. This is a perfect example of the helplessness of material advantage due to the bad placement of the strong side’s pieces and the first move advantage of the weak side. The idea became known as the Réti Maneuver. White’s king makes multiple threats and takes more than one path to make miracle happen and draw the game.
What do we learn from this study?
In chess the straight path is not always the shortest. In pawn endings the king is a very maneuverable piece capable of turning tables.
Richard Réti (1889 – 1929)
was an Austro-Hungarian and later Czechoslovak chess player, chess author and composer of endgame studies.
He was one of the principal proponents of hypermodernism in chess. With the exception of Nimzowitsch’s book My System, he is considered to be the movement’s foremost literary contributor.
R+P vs R endgame
Let’s try to derive some logical concepts, patterns of actions that can be applied in R + pawn vs R endgames
In many rook endings, the Universal Winning Strategy is: (1) use your rook to fight the opponent’s queening pawn(s) or blocking it/them; (2) to cut off the opponent’s king; (3) use your king to support your queening pawn(s) and assist your rook
Now black cannot capture white’s pawn 4… gxf5 because white’s c6-rook x-rays black’s king on the 6th. White should win this game. Go set this position on lichess.org – top menu – TOOLS – Board editor – set the position – CONTINUE FROM HERE – PLAY AGAINST COMPUTER – choose level 8 (2600+) – white pieces – Play against computer. Sparing like that with Stockfish is exceptionally useful for your improvement in chess!
Barbier-Saavedra position
Sometimes you need to think twice before promoting your pawn to the queen
How on earth can white win this game with black’s rook on the board capable of checking the white’s king forever?
Black’s rook wouldn’t let the white’s king off the hook wherever it goes on the c-file.
Image: Lewis chessmen in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, CC BY-SA 2.0 de
What do we learn from this study?
It is not over till it is over. Look for your chances in any seemingly hopeless situation. Never give up just because you don’t like your position. Learn to defend the most difficult and unpleasant positions, because only that way will you develop your fighting qualities, your tenacity, resourcefulness and other unpleasant for your opponents qualities. By giving up even in a hopeless situation, you miss the opportunity to train at the expense of your opponent and learn weak and strong sides of your opponent.
The Lucena Position
… is a key winning endgame of rook and pawn vs rook, achieved by advancing the pawn to the seventh rank, blocking the opponent’s king with your rook and creating a bridge for your king. The main goal is to make room for the queening pawn to promote while protecting your king from opponent’s checks.
(1) Cutting off the opponent’s king. You need to position your rook so that it blocks the opponent’s king’s path to your queening pawn. The opponent’s king must be cut off from the pawn’s promotion square.
(2) Use your king to support your queening pawn from behind, thus breaking the basic principle of supporting your passed pawn with your rook from behind: your rook in this particular ending cuts off your opponent’s king from reaching your queening pawn!
(3) Creating a bridge. When your pawn is on the 7th rank and the opponent’s king is pushed back, your rook must be moved along the file (vertical column of squares) to a rank (horizontal line of squares) further out of reach of your opponent’s king. When checked by the opponent’s rook, your king retreats to the 7th rank, then back to the 6th, while you are blocking the checks with your rook and simultaneously approaching or protecting your queening pawn. That way you create a bridge that prevents the opponent’s rook from attacking your pawn or king from behind until the pawn is promoted.
Your chances of success are reduced if your queening pawn is on one of the outer files on the a-file or on the h-file because it reduces your mobility.
The opponent’s rook must be cut off from the pawn’s promotion square.
In the endgame the king is the maker. Your king must be active to help your queening pawn.
The diagrams below show a winning position. But how do you get there?
You get there if your opponent lets you to do so
White wins in this position if they move now, otherwise black’s rook comes d8-e7 and stops white from cutting black’s king from the queening pawn. Go set up the position on the right and play it on whites. LICHESS.ORG – top menu – TOOLS – Board editor – set the position up – select white pieces (top right) – click CONTINUE FROM HERE – select PLAY AGAINST THE COMPUTER – from position – time unlimited – Strength 8 (top power!) – Play against computer (bottom)… When practicing winning positions, always play against the computer tuned to the maximum strength! When sparring against the computer, tune it to the strength you can fight against right now on your current level of chess.
Change the placement of pieces on the board, analyze positions and try to beat the computer if the position is winning. Learn to win Lucena positions with no problems. This will also teach you some basic principles of rook play in the endgame.
If the side with the pawn can reach this type of position, they can forcibly win the game no matter who moves.
The Philidor Position. The Square Rule. Triangulation. Zugzwang. Key Squares. King Opposition. An introduction to a pawn endgame. How not to be afraid to start a game. Playing white pieces you want to go for center control. Playing black pieces you want to fight back for center control. Don’t move the same piece twice in the opening without a good reason. Key factors for assessing a chess position. Don’t be afraid to play Open Games. Develop your pieces as soon as possible, knights first. Centralization