Endgames
Endgame tactics
Half of all chess puzzles come from endgames, because half of all games get there. With fewer pieces the tactics are shorter and more forcing, and they are worth more: a pawn won in an endgame is often the game, where the same pawn in the middlegame is a small advantage.
How to spot it
The king is a fighting piece here and belongs in the middle. Most endgame tactics come from one of three things: a pawn about to promote, a piece too far from the action to come back, or zugzwang. Ask which of the three is available before you start calculating.
The positions
Easiest first. Every one is from a real game, and the rating under each board is what it costs the players who have tried it on lichess.
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1. Black to play Play it out →Answer
22...Rxb1+ 23.Kh2 Kxc7
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2. White to play Play it out →Answer
30.Ne7+ Kh7 31.Qh1+ Rh5 32.Qxh5#
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3. Black to play Play it out →Answer
31...Qh3+ 32.Kg1 Qh1#
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4. White to play Play it out →Answer
35.Qxb8+ Qxb8 36.Bxb8
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5. Black to play Play it out →Answer
49...Rf6+ 50.Rg6 Rxg6+ 51.Kxg6 d3 52.h5 d2 53.h6 d1=Q
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6. Black to play Play it out →Answer
30...Bf6 31.Rf5 Bxe7
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7. Black to play Play it out →Answer
27...Rxf1+ 28.Kxf1 Qd1#
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8. White to play Play it out →Answer
33.Bg4+ Kd6 34.Rxd7+
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9. White to play Play it out →Answer
24.Rd7 Re2+ 25.Bxe2
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10. White to play Play it out →Answer
37.Qe8 Qb2 38.Qxf7+
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11. Black to play Play it out →Answer
27...Qd4+ 28.Rxd4 Bxd4+ 29.Kh1 Rf1#
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12. Black to play Play it out →Answer
37...Qd4+ 38.Rf2 Ne2+ 39.Kh2 Qxh4#
Reading about a pattern is the easy half. Motify finds the positions where you missed one, by running your own lichess and Chess.com games through Stockfish, and puts each of them behind two or three puzzles on the same idea so you meet it having just found it three times. See how Motify works.
Positions from the lichess puzzle database, released under CC0.