You were winning. Then the queens came off. You know the basic mates. You have looked at the Lucena position more than once. And you still turn winning endings into draws, and drawn ones into losses. The cure is not more theory. For this book, 10,563 online games between players rated 1200 to 1800 were checked with an engine. In the 1,936 that reached an ending, a player had a clearly winning position 1,886 times and failed to win 341 of them. The Lucena position, or anything close to it, turned up in three. Below master level, endings are decided by whose king is active, who handles the passed pawn correctly, and who trades the wrong piece. Win the Won Ending teaches eight principles that tell you what to look at first in an ending you have never seen before: 1. Activate the king before anything else. 2. Passed pawns must be pushed, or blockaded. 3. The opposition and the spare tempo. 4. Rooks belong behind passed pawns, yours or theirs. 5. Trade pieces when you are winning, pawns when you are worse. 6. Two weaknesses beat one strong piece. 7. Opposite-colored bishops and why "winning" positions draw. 8. Do not hurry: zugzwang, triangulation, and the move that does nothing useful. Every chapter has the same shape: one page that explains the idea in plain language, three model endings under fifteen moves with every move explained, and eight exercises whose solutions name the principle as well as the move. Nearly every position, 116 of 118, comes from a real game between club players, with the mistakes left in, because their mistakes are your mistakes. A one-page checklist for use at the board and thirty mixed test positions finish the job, and a closing note tells you which theory to learn next and where to find it. Inside: - 8 principles, 24 fully explained model endings, 94 exercises with solutions - 153 large diagrams, plus a small reference diagram beside every solution - Solutions always start on a fresh page, so you never see an answer by accident - A one-page at-the-board checklist - Algebraic notation throughout, and no long engine lines This is a book about deciding. It will not teach you the Lucena or Philidor positions. It will help you stop losing the endings you were already winning. A ChessTerra book from Haselton Media Group.