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Finals

For an intermediate player like me, it's a good idea to study finals? If yes, how?
Sure, learn the basic mating patterns like two rooks and king vs king or queen and king vs king. Also get familiar with king opposition along with queening in a king and pawn vs king situation. These patterns will help you know what to be aiming for in the middle game and they come up often enough to be practical.
Here is very general endgame truth I know, besides the above, which is important:

1. Advancing pawns should be backed by rooks (protecting advancing pawns with rooks horizontally or from above the pawn is not good)

2. The king should go to the center when the endgame starts, if the position requires it.

3. The King leads pawns, not follows.

4. Count steps if you are unsure.
Hi, endgames are in my opinion the most important thing to study, as the knowledge applies to other areas of the game as well. I recommend Dvoretsky's endgame manual or Silman's complete endgame course (both of which have full pdf's available online). Learn the basic mating patterns, Rook endgames, pawn endgames, important theoretical positions, etc... Endgame puzzles on chesstempo.com are a great way to practice and cement your knowledge. Also, Peter Lilac has a good endgame course on youtube, which covers some basic ideas and specific piece endgames (www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL70993586E3E01AE7).
Good luck!
It is never a bad idea to study endgames. Read Pandolfini's Endgame Course, Averbakh's Chess Endings: Essential Knowledge, Shereshevky's Endgame Strategy and Chernev's book on Capablanca's Endings. In that order. That is all you need to know about endgames, unless you have ambitions to become a titled player. All four books are available online.
I can't find a free pdf of any of those 4 books, F_D89. I guess they are available for download/torrent. Do you have any links?
I went and dug around. I found everything but Pandolfini's book, which isn't the end of the world. It's basically the same content as Silman's, and everyone recommends Silman's because he's an easier read. Pandolfini apparently has maybe 2 positions he discusses that aren't included in Silman's, but Silman chose not to include them because it's quite rare for them to ever arise out of an actual game (i.e. they were likely study positions constructed by Pandolfini rather than taken from any actual games).

Silman's Complete Endgame Course

http://ja.scribd.com/doc/109469498/Jeremy-Silman-Silman-s-Complete-Endgame-Course#scribd

Averbakh's Chess Endings: Essential Knowledge

sanet.me/blogs/tungkon/chess_endgame_books_by_yuri_averbakh.827538.html

Shereshevky's Endgame Strategy

drive.google.com/file/d/0BxILtRDcxKmeZmFlODY3NDctYzg0My00MTI3LTlmNzctMmJlYWM3MmMyYzg0/view

Chernev's Capablanca's Best Endings.

drive.google.com/file/d/0BxILtRDcxKmeNWNiZTE3MTctMDBjZC00M2ZlLWI3ZWQtOTRhYWNmYWFhMWRh/view

My assumption is these books are old enough to be in the public domain in most of the world, so I am posting them. Obviously many have been reprinted, so there may be some copyright issues in your country. Use your own discretion.
Oh, forgot to remove the ja from that Silman's link. Probably the link will display right if you just remove the initial ja from the ja.scribd.com

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