The opposition occurs when the two kings are facing each other either vertically or horizontally with an odd number of squares between them. The side that doesn’t have to move has the opposition.
Chess endgames are exact, precise and have to be the basis of every player’s studies. As opposed to openings or the middlegame, there are specific rules which you simply have to follow in order to win (or draw). If you don’t develop your knight before your bishops in the opening, as the principle demands, nothing is going to happen. There are plenty of openings which neglect classical principles. But, if you fail to keep the opposition in a pawn ending, or misplay the Lucena position, you are in trouble! In fact, you lose immediately! That is why the endgame should be the starting point and and a part of your study which you devote a lot of time to.
The good thing about studying chess endgames is that the lessons are almost finite. That means that there is a set number of main principles, rules and positions which you have to learn, which you can then apply to most endgames which actually happen in your games. This cannot be said of the middlegame, and neither of the opening, since in them your opponent has a say! In the endgame, the rules are set, and often there are only moves which you and your opponent are going to have to find. That means that whoever has the bigger endgame knowledge base in his mind has a huge advantage. Endgames are won at home!
In this series, I will cover all major chess endgame types, and I will include more than enough examples in each chapter. I will be covering pawn, bishop, knight, rook and queen endgames, and all of their combinations. All together the series will be comprised of more than 50 videos.
For the introductory video I chose to cover the opposition, the most important of all chess principles without which you cannot comprehend the more complex types of endgames which happen in real games.
The opposition is what the endgame revolves around, and, no matter which pieces are still left on the board, you can bet that a strong player is considering his king position, the queening squares and whether he can get the opposition or not. Knowing endgame principles such as the opposition or the rule of the square saves you time during a game, and you basically know what to look for in an endgame if you already know what you have to achieve.
To practice the opposition, my advice would be to set up a simple position king and pawn versus king on the board (random squares!) and try to win it with one color and then draw with black. Devote time to it and try to come to a conclusion like: “If it’s white to play it’s drawing.”, or “If it’s black to play, black loses.” After you have concluded and are sure you are correct, put the position on an engine and see what it says. After twenty exercises like that, you will be the master of opposition!
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Any support is greatly appreciated! Thank you! The next tournament abroad I plan to play is at the start of July in Slovenia.
Thank you for the support so far!
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Great explaination!! Thank you ❤❤
Thank you!
Good work
thnx very much
Hoping to become a better after studying all your endgame videos
After 3 years this playlist still a masterpiece
Thankyou, elon musk.
i was about to buy chessable course on endgames but I saw you put a series on it – thanks a lot!
This was a great help. Thanks so much!
Best explanation of chess endgames – you talk so logically without any unnecessary information, just pure theory. Thank you, will watch them all, and I hope you keep up the good work!
There seems to be some camera glitches through the video. Sorry about that, will try to figure out what it is and fix it.
Sir,pls make videos on English opening…🤗
Hello
I mean….hello?😂
END GAAAAAMES!!!!!!
This is the exciting series you are going to make……
Really looking forward to it!!
Nice poster. I've just been studying the endgame for six hours yesterday (public holiday here).
Really great video ! As Casablanca said: You must study the endgame before everything else !
Love this new series! Just a small mistake: the position at 7:40 is not winning for white, it's a draw. Keep going and good luck for your upcoming tournament 🙂
More excellence!
Thank you.
Great Series! I am also looking forward to…
I love all of your videos
Thanks
Amazing
Hi Stjepan!
I‘m really looking forward to the next episode of this series. One thing that could make it even better would be a task a the end. For example, after talking about the Lucena position, you present a problem that involves this idea at the end of the video, and you reveal the solution at the beginning of the next episode.
Wow!!! Thank you for bringing this to us
Best explanation of this I've seen.
So does this mean that you are done with the middlegame series?
So glad you are doing endgames! Literally went through your playlists yesterday and was disappointed to not find endgame tutorials since your opening tutorials are so very good
Excellent video
Thank you very much for starting this series.
This the best video about opposition I've seen on YouTube !
On a sidenote, will you cover basic checkmates (QKvK, etc.) ?
I think most people know them except for BNKvK but I find it hard to spot the shortest mate and avoid stalemate in very short games and I was wondering if you had any tips.
YES!!! I AM SO EXCITED FOR THIS SERIES!!! I almost understand opposition but not quite. Thank you so much for your content it is absolutely fantastic and I don’t say that lightly. If I had any constructive criticism for you in your other series it would be that from what I have seen you cover openings mainly from the white perspective but I’d really appreciate maybe the same openings but more from the black perspective. Keep up the great work!
Sounds like a great series! For the first time ever I have pressed the you tube notification bell! No idea where you get the energy from, but keep it up!
When there are many Videos in the series, make chess endgames #1, chess endgames #2 and so on
I think it's a really nice idea!
Thanks for the useful knowledge and your time and effort.
By chance I started reading Capablanca's 'chess fundamentals' and used this opposition idea to win two games the same day, games that i would think to be drawn two days ago.;)
Thank you for the series! I'm reading the 1st book of Yuri Averbach's Comprehensive Chess Endings, the Pawn Endings, and I know your lectures will complement nicely somewhat dry and technical language of the book.
Finally! An endgame series
Very excited for this bro
Keep up the good work
may god bless you for this content
Nicely explained. I look forward to this series.
Thanks!!!!! Very Helpful!!!!
Any plans on creating a twitch channel?
In endgames, a lot of moves which are intuitive are wrong. On the other hand, the right moves are often counter-intuitive. It would be very helpful if you go into details of the "why" the intuitive idea is wrong and also the "why" the counter-intuitive idea works.
End game>middle game>early game, tako se sah uci i razumije
stjepan your videos helping me a lot and i am looking forward to improve my endgame knowledge thx for the great videos you are the best
Kindly make an introductory video on lucena endings when convenient. Also… include a Dutch defence repertoire in opening series if possible
Very cool, I’m really glad that u start endgame series
Wait a lot every video
Don’t u think that rook endings should be before bishop and knight?
2 great series just started
I will try and watch one of your videos every day. I think I will improve alot! Thank you for the content again!
Very informative and helpful. Keep up the amazing work!