How do I balance tactics study and endgame study?
These answers restate the rules implemented by our open-source engine, which follows the WXF laws and is regression-tested against the official 110-diagram repetition casebook. Where an answer refers to a specific position, that position lives on the linked reference page, where the build verifies it against the engine before publishing.
Direct answer
Weight tactics more heavily, but do not skip endgames entirely. Tactics decide the majority of games below expert level and reward ongoing volume, while the endgame material table is a comparatively fixed, learnable body of knowledge that pays off in a handful of focused sessions rather than needing constant repetition.
Why the split is not fifty-fifty
Tactical pattern recognition genuinely improves with repeated exposure over a long period, in a way endgame knowledge does not; once you know that a lone cannon cannot mate, further repetition of that specific fact adds little. Time is better spent on ongoing tactics with occasional endgame sessions layered in, in the spirit of how to get better at tactics.
What the endgame sessions should cover
The material table, what wins and what draws, and the handful of basic mating techniques. That is a finite, front-loaded amount of study rather than an ongoing daily practice, which is exactly why it fits well alongside daily tactics.
Related questions
Should complete beginners study endgames at all yet?
The basic mates are worth an afternoon early on; the fuller material table can wait until tactics are more solid.
Does this balance shift as I improve?
Somewhat, endgame judgement becomes more valuable at higher levels, but tactics never stop mattering.
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