As you increase your knowledge of which endgame positions are good or bad, you enrich your ability to make middlegame plans. You'll give yourself a deeper understanding of those positions to aim for, and those to avoid. And that will help you in deciding how to structure your pawns, where to place your pieces, whether to trade down pieces, and whether to make or accept sacrifices. It's often been said that positional play is the art of steering toward a winning endgame. That's awfully hard to do if you don't know much about the final phase of the game.
Endgames are beautiful.
You'll find a lifetime of aesthetic enjoyment in the study of endgames. This part of the game rewards deeper and deeper examination, revealing astonishing contradictions and surprises that will enrich your love of chess as a whole. Your appreciation of master-level chess will certainly benefit, and you might even be tempted into the enticing world of composed endgame studies. You'll thank yourself when you do. Take me back to the Understanding Endgames Index .