I am good at getting a great opening position in chess, but I cant seem to deliver the checkmate. Any advice?

Question

I usually get everything set up perfectly, I even play well through the middle game most of the time. I can be up by many pieces, but just cant figure out how to win. It is very frustrating, especially when I am up the whole time and then my opponent still beats me because I get weak at the end. Do you have any end game specific advice for me? I think I finally narrowed down my problem in getting to the next level and it is all in the end game. Thank you

Answer 1

you should practise a lot and learn from ur experience.that's what i do to be the state champion....

Answer 2

This happens to me too. If your opponent has a rook or queen, make sure you move one of the pawns in front of the king. You may lose many times because they move their rook to the back rank and your king has nowhere to go.

There are many great sites on the web. Just google chess endgames, and you will get good.

Learn how to deliver checkmate with two rooks, a rook and a queen, a queen and a king, and a rook and a king. This will do you a lot of good.

Also, think about your moves before carrying them out. Often you face consequences for not thinking the move through.

Try to exchange off all of your foes' pieces if your are ahead: you want to leave him with just pawns so you can eat them up. If you are behind, try to exchange off all of the pawns so that he can't queen.

Get a rook behind a pawn when trying to queen it.

Hope this helped!

Answer 3

It sounds like you may be making the mistake of getting too caught up in your "game plan" to keep your eyes open for the opportunities for checkmate.  That happens to a lot of people.  It could also be because you don't have a lot of experience with end game play.  The best way to fix that is to get a book or two of chess puzzles and study them.  This will at least give you some familiarity with recognizing certain patterns that appear in the end game.  It would also be a good idea to find a couple of books on endgame play, which might provide some good tips.  It might be beneficial to study some of the games of the great grandmasters to see how they ended.  

Above all, don't get discouraged.  Learning the end game is just like learning the openings and the principles of the middle game.

Answer 4

You probably get too anxious near the end. You make moves that seem to put pressure on his king without really thinking it through all the way. Just stay calm, and there's no need to go for the checkmate always, just pick away at his pieces until he has nothing to attack you with.

Answer 5

You know one thing if you are just one pawn up it is sufficent to win the game if you are sound in endgame. So get any chess software CD and go for the Grandmasters games played in yester years and patiently you repeat the end game moves and get the idea of how to win or the winning sequence in the end game. Ofcourse in the ending you have to play accurately without wasting a move or with out giving any opportunity for your opponent to counterplay. End Game again full of theory like opening and your knowledge in that is very essential if you want to get reward for your good opening and middle game. So  go through as many end games as possible and comeout of your problem with flying colours.