HiveChess Lecture - Endgame Tip 5 & Friday Hivechess Tournament Today

Hello there,

Welcome back to the fifth episode in my HiveChess Lecture Endgame series, where I will be sharing another endgame tip that can be used when a chess game reaches the endgame stage, with fewer pieces on the board. Before I get started. I’d like to draw your attention to the chess tournament happening later today on Hive. It’s the Friday Hivechess tournament hosted by Hive account@stayoutoftherz.

For more details on the tournament taking place today, check out this link:
Reminder: Round 2 of the Hivechess Tournament S21, Friday 19h GMT

Also, if you want to read up on the previous endgame tips I have dropped in the past, here they are:

HiveChess Lecture: Endgame Tip 1

HiveChess Lecture: Endgame Tip 2

HiveChess Lecture: Endgame Tip 3

HiveChess Lecture: Endgame Tip 4

In this lecture, we will be looking at a new endgame tip and the last one for this Endgame series.

Don’t Push Pawns Without a Plan

In previous endgame tips, I have mentioned that when you have a passed pawn on board, they should be pushed because when they get to the end of the board, you get a extra piece in exchange for that pawn, a queen, rook, knight or bishop, although most people go for a queen since she is the strongest from the available option. What you need to know is that you need to have a plan for the pawn you just pushed.

Chess is a game where the best plan wins, and not just any plan, but plans for your pieces. You need to have it at the back of your mind why you move a particular piece, and where you plan on going with that piece. When it is a pawn, either a passed one or not, how do you intend to get it to the end of the board, and what will be your obstacle along the way? These are the things that should be in your mind when pushing a pawn.

Let's look at a game played from the ongoing Grand Chess Tour between grandmaster Praggnanandhaa and grandmaster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

1. d4 Nf6 2. Bg5 d5 3. Nd2 e6 4. e4 dxe4 5. Nxe4

A Trompovsky attack that shows from the get-go that white is coming out in an offensive style against black. I would say this is one of the most aggressive opening choices when playing 1.d4. An aggressive player like myself would not mind trying out this opening once in a while to see how it fares for me in my game; maybe I will give it a shot in this round of the HiveChess Tournament.

31. a4?

This is when white made a mistake of pushing a pawn without paying attention to the hanging pawn g2. Immediately, black captures the g2 pawn, making it an advantage for black, -3 advantage. Although the a4 pawn might seem like a passed pawn but black will catch up with the pawn in time and, at the same time, create space for his black pawns on the g and h files.

39. Na4

As I said, black catches up with the pawn and now has two passed pawns on the other side of the board. This is how black moved on to win the game and ahead off to the next round.

Vital lesson: Be mindful of the pawn you push and check if it is not at the expense of something more harmful.

Here is the game link:
Game Link

And the PGN game

[Event "Round 3: Madaminov, Mukhiddin - Garzon Camelo, Andres Santiago"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/broadcast/2025-grand-chess-tour-finals--semifinals/blitz-game-4/vju9Yk6R/d7ETcmlf"]
[Date "2025.09.26"]
[Round "8.1"]
[White "Praggnanandhaa R"]
[Black "Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "2785"]
[WhiteTitle "GM"]
[WhiteFideId "25059530"]
[BlackElo "2738"]
[BlackTitle "GM"]
[BlackFideId "623539"]
[Variant "Standard"]
[ECO "A45"]
[Opening "Trompowsky Attack"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. Bg5 d5 3. Nd2 e6 4. e4 dxe4 5. Nxe4 Be7 
6. Nxf6+ Bxf6 7. Bxf6 Qxf6 8. Nf3 O-O 9. Qe2 c5 
10. O-O-O cxd4 11. Rxd4 Nc6 12. Rd2 e5 13. Qe3 Bf5 
14. Bc4 Rac8 15. Bb3 Rfd8 16. Rhd1 Rxd2 17. Rxd2 h6 
18. h3 g5 19. a3 Kg7 20. Ba4 e4 21. Bxc6 bxc6 
22. Nd4 Bg6 23. Nb3 Rc7 24. Nc5 Re7 25. Nd7 Qf4 
26. Qxa7 e3 27. fxe3 Rxe3 28. Qd4+ Qxd4 29. Rxd4 Re1+ 
30. Kd2 Rg1 31. a4 Rxg2+ 32. Kc3 Rxc2+ 33. Kb3 c5 
34. Rc4 Rh2 35. Rc3 Bf5 36. Nxc5 Rxh3 37. a5 Rh1 
38. a6 Ra1 39. Na4 Bd7 40. Nb6 Be6+ 41. Kb4 Rxa6 
42. Kb5 Ra2 43. b4 h5 44. Kc6 h4 0-1

That is a wrap for this endgame series. See you at the tournament.

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_{I am Hive account@samostically, a chess player and writer. I love to share the experience I have gained from different battles over the 64 squares and the knowledgeable insights from books I have read. But most importantly, I am a Midnight Owl and I founded the community Midnight Letters.}

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Thanks For Reading!