Minor piece endgame
A minor piece endgame is an ending in which each side has only bishops or knights besides the kings and pawns, so the fight turns on piece activity, pawn structure and king position rather than on heavy pieces.
With queens and rooks gone, the minor pieces carry the whole battle, and small details decide it. The first question is which pieces remain. Knight against knight, bishops of the same color, bishops of opposite colors and bishop against knight each follow their own rules, and the right plan for one can be wrong for another. After that, look at the pawns: how many are there, are they on one wing or both, and does either side have a passed pawn that a piece can escort. King activity matters more than in middlegames, because the king is now a fighting piece and can walk to the center or to a weakness. Typical winning methods are to create a second weakness on the other wing, to fix the opponent's pawns on the color of your bishop, or to push a passed pawn so that the enemy piece has to give up its post. Typical errors are to rush the king forward without protecting pawns and to forget that a knight can be shut out by a well-placed pawn. Whenever you plan to trade pieces, imagine the resulting pawn ending first and see whether it is worth entering.
It sits close to Bishop versus knight endgame. A bishop versus knight endgame is an ending in which one side keeps a bishop and the other a knight, usually with pawns, where the bishop tends to shine in open positions and the knight in closed ones.
A neighboring idea is Knight endgame. A knight endgame is an ending in which each side has a knight and pawns, where king activity and the pawn count usually decide the result, and where the slow, short-range knight makes the plan harder than in a bishop ending.
It sits close to Same-colored bishops. Same-colored bishops are bishops that move on the same shade of squares, so they can challenge, exchange and defend against each other, and an extra pawn is usually much easier to convert than with opposite colors.
If "Minor piece endgame" has cost you half a point, a first lesson is a good place to find the pattern behind it: George Li goes through your games and builds a plan.
Related terms
A bishop versus knight endgame is an ending in which one side keeps a bishop and the other a knight, usually with pawns, where the bishop tends to shine in open positions and the knight in closed ones.
A knight endgame is an ending in which each side has a knight and pawns, where king activity and the pawn count usually decide the result, and where the slow, short-range knight makes the plan harder than in a bishop ending.
Same-colored bishops are bishops that move on the same shade of squares, so they can challenge, exchange and defend against each other, and an extra pawn is usually much easier to convert than with opposite colors.
Opposite-colored bishops are bishops that run on different shades of squares, so neither side can attack or exchange the other's bishop, which makes endings with them notoriously drawish even when one side is a pawn or two ahead.
The two knights endgame is the ending with a king and two knights against a bare king, in which checkmate cannot be forced although it can sometimes arise by mistake.
Piece activity describes how much influence a piece exerts, measured by the squares it controls, the targets it eyes and the freedom it has to move, so an active piece is worth more than its nominal value.
Guides that go further
What to decide first, the questions to ask, what a first lesson should show and the red flags to avoid.
How much does chess coaching cost?
Published rates for private, group and subscription chess coaching, with the source and the date of each.
A game review, a read on your level and a written study plan from George Li.
Want to spot this in your own games?
A first lesson starts with your games: George reviews them and builds a study plan around what he finds.