THE END GAME.
As before stated, the game of Chess consists of three parts:
The Opening, i.e., the strategical disposition of the forces; the Middle Game, i.e., the campaign, and the End Game.
The Middle part of the game commences where the Opening ceases, and here the player is thrown upon his own resources.
The End Game commences where the Middle Game ceases, and this latter stage of the game is a study in itself. In the majority of cases the treatment of the End Game is a matter of intuition. The student may, however, be assisted by the knowledge of general principles, and by familiarity with certain standard positions, which frequently occur in practice. Examples of these positions, and the methods of dealing with them, will be given in the following pages.
KING AND PAWN AGAINST KING.
In the majority of games, either one or the other player remains at the close with a pawn, which has to be queened. Fig. 13 illustrates an ending in which White is a pawn ahead, and if he had the move, would win with 1. R to R 2, checkmate. It being, however, Black's turn to move, he is able to exchange both Queen and Rook, and if he can stop White's pawn from reaching the 8th square and becoming a Queen, he may draw the game. There
is a simple method of ascertaining this at a glance without calculation (by means of the imaginary "square" depicted in Fig. 14). Black forces the exchange of pieces thus: