The Resumption: Seven Endgames

How to start

1. Open your AI. Start a new chat in ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini. No paid plan required.
2. Paste the card. The coach sets the clock at ninety minutes and puts Board 1 on the table.
3. Call it, then play it. Say WIN or DRAW for the side to move, then name the method move. A wrong call costs time and caps the board; any move but the method one closes it.
4. Read the method. Every board closes with the written method and the reason the natural move fails.

Questions

How do you know the answers are right?

None of them were worked out by an AI, and none of them are worked out while you play. Each position was queried against public Syzygy endgame tablebases, which are exact for positions this small. The query returns the whole legal move list with the result after each move, so what got copied onto the card is not just the right move but the complete partition: the method move, every other move that still holds the result, and every move that throws it away. The coach compares your move to that written list, so it never has to evaluate chess, which is the part language models get wrong.

What are the Lucena and Philidor positions?

They are the two positions that decide most rook endings. In the Lucena position the attacker's king stands on the queening square with the pawn on the seventh, and the win is forced by building a bridge: check the king aside, put the rook on the fourth rank, walk the king out through the checks, and block the last one with the rook. In the Philidor position the defender's king is in front of the pawn and the draw is held by the third-rank defence: keep the rook on the third rank until the pawn arrives there, then go to the back rank and check from behind. This card gives you both from the diagram, one move at a time, and shows what the tempting alternative actually loses to.

I played a move that also wins. Why did the board end?

Because the board is a technique drill, not a game. Several moves keep the result in these positions and the card names every one of them, but only the method move carries the board on. Play a different holding move and the coach says so, banks one point, shows you the rest of the method, and moves to the next board. It will not play on from a position the card has not written down, which is the only way to guarantee it never invents chess mid-drill.

Do I need to read chess notation?

No. Say "rook to b8" or "king takes the pawn" and the coach translates. Every position arrives twice over, once as a plain list of which piece stands on which square and once as a FEN you can paste into any board viewer if you would rather look at it. The endings are standard club-level material, so a player who knows how the pieces move can attempt all seven.

How long does it take, and can I stop partway?

Twenty to thirty-five minutes for all seven boards. Say "save" at any point and the coach prints a save block carrying the clock and a seven-character string that records how each board went and, for boards still open, how high they can still score; paste the card and that block into a fresh chat and the session resumes. You can also pass a board you do not know and come back to it, though passing costs six minutes and lowers what that board can score.