Pawn Endings

"Pawns are the soul of the chess" - François-André Danican Philidor (1726 – 1795)

Philidor

Chess ending is a quiet and very complicated arena of the game. "Pawns are the soul of the chess" is an old chess saying coined by the great player of 17th century François-André Danican Philidor . And the importance of pawns is growing up when the game is going to its end. Alas, nothing has changed over the centuries on it. Every novice of the game has huge knowledge of many opening systems even if he doesn't understand properly how his pieces and why got on the positions where they are. Situation becomes desperate when he gets into the endings. Endings are most neglected area of the game. 
I just want to help and thus I have created this website, where you can find not only the basics. Today however, we start just from basics - King and Pawn versus King. Deadly easy? We will see. Let's have a look at the first position which I borrowed from the excellent book of Hungarian grandmaster Lajos Portisch "Six-Hundered Endings":

 
If in the same position White is to move, the game ends up draw again:





The trick is that Black is able to keep so called "opposition".

The reader can find some more theoretical aspects of pawn endings on the following link which is fully dedicated to chess coaching.

Prokop J.F. 1958

1.Kc6!! Ke4 

[1...a5 2.Kb5 a4 3.Kxa4 Ke4 4.Kb5 Ke5 5.c4 Kd6 6.Kb6+-]

2.c4 a5 3.Kb5 Kd4 4.c5! a4 

[4...Kd5 5.c6 Kd6 6.Kb6 a4 7.c7! (7.Kb7? a3 8.c7 a2 9.c8Q a1Q 10.Qd8+ Ke6=) 7...Kd7 8.Kb7 a3 9.c8Q+ Kd6 10.Qf8++-]

5.c6 a3 6.c7 a2 7.c8Q a1Q 8.Qh8+ Kd5 9.Qxa1 1-0