Is my endgame winning?
Two questions decide almost every king and pawn ending: can the enemy king catch the pawn, and which of the kings holds the opposition. This page gives both answers as checkable rules and then walks the conversion procedure in order.
| Position of the pawn | Defender's king | Square-rule verdict | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pawn on e5, moving to e8 | King outside the box, cannot enter on its move | Pawn promotes | Attacker wins |
| Pawn on e5, moving to e8 | King can step into the box | Pawn caught | Draw |
| Pawn on e5, moving to e8 | King already inside the box | Pawn caught without help | Draw |
| Rook pawn on a2, moving to a1 | King in the corner in front of the pawn | Corner cannot be cleared | Draw |
| Pawn on e5, king in front holding opposition | Defender to move, must yield | Key squares reachable | Attacker wins |
| Any pawn | Defender on the square in front of the pawn | Pawn blocked | Draw |
| Pawn on e5, attacker king behind the pawn | Defender can reach the block square | No opposition available | Draw |
Run two checks: the square rule for the race, the opposition for the position of the kings.
Start with the pawn. If the enemy king can enter the square whose side runs from the pawn to its promotion square, it catches the pawn and the race is won for the defender. The test takes one glance and needs no counting of tempi.
If the pawn cannot be caught on its own, the question becomes the kings. The attacker usually wins when their king stands in front of the pawn holding the opposition: the kings face each other on a file or rank with one square between them, and the side that does not have to move is the one holding it.
Two exceptions end the analysis early. A rook pawn on the a- or h-file is the classic draw, because the defending king cannot be forced out of the corner in front of it. And if the defending king already stands on the square directly in front of the pawn, the position is usually drawn as well.
One box, one glance, one verdict.
Imagine the square whose side runs from the pawn to its promotion square. On its move, if the enemy king can step into that square, it can catch the pawn. Nothing else about the position matters for this test: the attacking king, the file of the pawn and the rank it stands on are all irrelevant to the verdict.
The rule works in both directions. If the defender's king is outside the box and cannot enter it on the next move, the pawn promotes regardless of where the kings stand. Conversely, a pawn that has already been entered by the defending king cannot promote without help from its own king.
Because the test is positional rather than a count of tempi, it survives complications: a pawn race with checks, a pawn race with the kings on opposite wings and a pawn race in the corner all reduce to the same box.
Opposition is a relation between the kings; key squares are the squares your king must reach.
Opposition means the kings face each other on a file or rank with one square between them, and the side that does not have to move holds it. Holding the opposition means the opponent must give way, which is exactly what lets the attacker's king step forward.
Key squares for a pawn are the squares its king must reach to guarantee promotion. For a pawn on the fifth rank they are the three squares two ranks ahead of it: reach any of them with your king and promotion follows whatever the defender plays.
The two ideas interlock. The opposition is how you get to the key squares; the key squares are why getting there matters. A player who only knows one of them either wins positions they could draw or fails to convert positions they have already won.
The procedure runs in a fixed order; each phase has a defined goal and a typical way to fail.
Three positions that carry the whole method: a race, an opposition, a drawn corner.
Compiled from standard king and pawn endgame doctrine: the square rule, opposition, key squares, rook-pawn exception, blocking-square draw and the fifty-move rule.