Originally posted by vishyanandI have a magnetic board, what I do is I grab the pieces that appear in the endgame and throw them randomly at the board, you've imidiatly got a position you can study, (then rearange them a little so the position is legal and the varaiation doesn't end within 2/3 moves). Also try Silman's complete endgame course, it explains very well the most important subjects in endgames, those you mention and many others. The lucena and the philidor are very easy, you just need to know the general rules (e.g. philidor: rook on the 3rd, king in front of pawn, thats basically all you need to know about it)
There is lot of theory in endgame.Like for rook endings we have philidor, lucena, techniques like cutting-off king, opposition.How to master them? Play positions OTB(alone), try out different positions related to a theme.
How do you practice endgames?
I have a slightly unusual approach, but it has worked well for me as an OTB player. I use a book for an opening I play that has annotated games. These books usually have 2-3 diagrams per game. I set up the last diagram for each game on my board, and I pay special attention to how the end of the game was played.
My reasoning is that every opening has it's own pattern of endings (for instance, a Nimzo Indian player or a Ruy Lopez exchange player will rarely have two bishop endings, since they trade a bishop off very early), and by studying the endings games that feature the opening you play, you can learn the expected pattern of endings you are likely to see in an actual game.
It is very critical to know the fundamentals first (which you noted in your post), but I think this is a practical and useful next step.
I am not even close to mastering endgames, I'm useless. but I think the way to improve would be
1)to drill king and pawn endings and opposition etc. until it's a part of your nature, (hundreds of puzzles) then
2)move on to basic knowledge in rook endings (philidor, lucena, what to do with one pawn up, how to defend against a pawn on the 7th)
3)drill rook endings (hundreds of puzzles)
4)and finally start some real endgame study 🙂