A typical game ending is when a player has one pawn and the king and the other one just got a king. If this endgame is played wisely, the player with the pawn can promote it to queen and then finish the game quickly, but a player who is not very good will end up either losing the pawn or forcing a draw game.
By knowing defensive techniques you can improve your game and easily know how to defend against this game. It is an easy to remember and master technique, no need of advanced playing to know how to defend or attack from this position. Once you know them very well you can use the previous moves to get to the position you will need later.
The most obvious is when the pawn can be captured before promoting to queen before the king can defend it. The following picture illustrates this very well:
In the above position, black king easily can capture the enemy pawn before white king can support it. It doesn’t matter at all who is moving first, because the game will end up in draw unless black king moves away from the pawn allowing it to promote to queen.
Then, there is a more complicated version of the same, when the king can support the pawn. If so, the defending king has to “block” the way of the pawn. It looks so simple, but if the defending king effectively blocks, the game usually ends up in draw. Knowing how to properly block is something that must be instinctive in a chess player.
This situation reflects very clearly the “blocking” technique. Let’s assume it is black’s turn. Most beginners will play Ke4 to “attack” the pawn right away, but this move will leave white the chance of moving Kc4 to defend the pawn and win the game. On the other hand if black king moves Ke6 will be able to force the draw.
It is necessary to know how to count the moves you need to catch a pawn before it queens. If the pawn and the king are very close it is very easy to know if the pawn will promote or not, but when they are apart it is easy to make a fatal mistake and leave a pawn with enough space to promote. To know if the king will be able to reach the pawn you can just use the rule of the square.
Mentally draw an equal-sided square from the actual position of the pawn to the promotion position towards the king. If the king is inside this square or is its turn to move and can move into the square, the king will catch the pawn, but if the king is outside the square and can not move into it, will lose and the pawn will queen. This is a very easy way to know if the pawn will be able to queen without needing to count position by position, it never fails.