Customer Reviews

Chess Endings: Essential Knowledge

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a must have book I think for anyone U1800... Figure the lower you are the more you need to get this book :)... This is like Crib Notes to the Endgame to be really honest with you... He makes it really simple and the book has lot of chapters making it easy to look stuff up... You can get a pretty good idea how to play the Endgame from this book... This is like the DNA to the Endgame... The building blocks that you need to go to the next level... Yes he deals with mating with King, Bishop and Knight vs. King... He does not give much time in it but if you play out the example enough... Once You understand the basic technique its really not that hard... He breaks down the book and gives least 1 example for just about anything...

The book is only about 100 pages so you will not be blitzed with too much info... I figure you get this book and if you need something more advanced later on so be it... This should get you to the stage of playing least a decent endgame... If You understand the concepts in this book you should be pretty set...

This book helped take my endgame from a disaster into winning lost endgames :)... Also just teaching the basic concepts and expanding on them really helped... The small chapters make it easy to find what you are looking for fast...

This book attempts to provide a foundation of endgame information for the beginning chess student. After an introduction and a brief discussion about the scope of each piece the book presents five chapters meant to introduce the reader to the basics of endgames. Since there is no "Search Inside" option for this book the table of contents is reproduced here:

1 - MATING THE LONE KING
Mate with a Queen
Mate with a Rook
Mate with Two Bishops
Mate with Bishop and Knight
Mate with Two Knights
2 - VARIOUS PIECES IN COMBAT
Queen versus Rook
Queen versus Minor Piece
Rook versus Knight
Rook versus Bishop
3 - VARIOUS PIECES IN COMBAT WITH A PAWN
Queen versus Pawn
Rook versus Pawn
Minor Piece versus Pawn
4 - QUEENING A PAWN
King and Pawn versus King
King, Minor Piece and Pawn versus King
Knight and Pawn versus Knight
Bishop and Pawn versus Bishop
Bishop and Pawn versus Knight
Knight and Pawn versus Bishop
Rook and Pawn versus Rook
Queen and Pawn versus Queen
5 - PRACTICAL ENDINGS
Pawn Endings
Knight Endings
Bishop Endings
Bishops of the Same Colour
Bishops of Opposite Colours
Endings with Bishop versus Knight
Rook Endings
Queen Endings

One of the best things about this book is that it is the perfect size for digestion in just a few study sessions. For those starting with little or no endgame knowledge this means that at least a basic understanding of endgame concepts is attainable in a reasonably short period of time.

If you are inexperienced with endings, the information in this book is sure to not only increase your confidence at the chessboard but also provide a nice bridge to other more advanced endgame books. After studying this book one could move on to Seirawan's "Winning Chess Endings", which is still aimed at the beginner but contains slightly more in-depth information, or the superb "Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual" by Dvoretsky, which is more suited for the advance player.

Any beginning student of the chess end-game should read this book. It focus primarily on simple minor piece endgames, simple king and pawn endgames, and simple imbalanced endgame. The book is incomplete without being supplemented by a more thorough text, but is gives the beginner a solid introduction to the subject.

I refrained from writing a review for this book until I finished it (just two days ago). I am now undecided as to whether I should move on to another book, or simply go through it again! I thoroughly enjoyed reading/playing through this book, and I shall explain why.

This book is small, indeed. However, I should emphasize that it is extremely *dense*. This book has no anecdotes, no analogies, and few sentences that do not directly relate to the discussion of a given endgame position. Some may not like this, but that is fine for them; they are going to miss out on a good book. After reading such an informative book such as this, one can only wish, as I did, that Mr. Averbakh had written more. This, however, would be contrary to his goal of creating a book of "essentinal" knowledge taken from his vast amounts of endgame material. Indeed, along with Alexander Kotov and another gentleman, Mr. Averbakh originally wrote a book titled Shakhmatnye Okonchaniya, available from Amazon as Shakhmatnaya shkola, it seems.

This book is also very compelling with its examples, especially to a beginner such as myself. In fact, I think I developed a certain fascination for the endgame after reading this book. I eagerly anticipate working on endgame puzzles and reading/playing through more volumes on the endgame, which brings me to my next point.

Realistically, I do not think that there is any need to move on to another book! As Mark Dvoretsky advises (and I am sure others do, as well) that one should know relatively few endgame positions, but understand them totally and to be able to execute them expertly. In this manner, and as a beginner, I could follow this advice and stick to this book for some time and not suffer from a lack of endgame knowledge.

Through a small part of the beginning, I played through the varations on my chess board, but after a bit I skipped them in favor of merely acquainting myself with the positions and ideas, since this was my first undertaking of actual endgame theory. (I caught a glimmer of it in various parts of Chessmaster 9000, but nothing as serious as what is in this book.)

From my estimation, all one would need for endgame theory is this book and one more advanced or exhastive book for later study. Highly recommended.

I've earned 2017 fide initial rating without this book, but i was lucky.
Here we have everything a tourneament player MUST know about endings, and something more. As an example you don't have to know how to defeat a computer in a Q vs R ending, so you can avoid that part of the book, in real games it's hard to find an under 2200 player that will play the perfect defense with the Rook. Maybe you don't have to know the B+N mate, I still have never seen a B+N vs K position in my tourneys. Anyway this book give you an EASY way to understand that mate. Thanks to this book now I know how to deliver this mate, the other 2 books i've studied weren't enough.
Here we have a book with just 100 pages that gives you what it promises.

Very poor quality printing and paper. It reminded me of the pirated books I had noticed in Asia!

Among the many chess books available that focus on end game technique, few excel in both application and concept. Chess Endings by Yuri Averbakh provides adequate instruction yet falls short of providing any significant guiding principles to apply to your end game strategy

Averbakh covers all the varying end games piece by piece, from king-pawn endings to complicated rook and queen endings. There is easily value to be found running through many of the examples if for nothing other than to become more acclimated with the thought process of Grand Master play; however, this could be said about any selection of annotated Grand Master games available and hardly differentiates from any common chess book. To really stand out, a chess ending book should provide the reader with guiding principles that enable one to acquire the vision necessary to implement effective strategy, yet I found nothing of the sort in this book. I highly recommended seeking alternative books such as those offered by Silman, Capablanca, and Chernev.

I have played chess for more than 20 years but never had the chance (or the willingness) to read a chess book. I play very well for a amateur, but I started to get serious and join some tournaments. I won some games from players around FIDE 1800-1900, but I also lost many others, since I lack the fundamentals and tournament experience. So, my chess professor, said that I should start my chess education with endings and tactics. This was my first chess book that I have ever read in my life, and I found it amazing. After studying carefully all the diagrams I asked myself why I haven't studied this book before, I would have benefit from it so much. I have just to agree with a comment that I read that the author approaches rook vs queen endings in the begnning of the book, which is quite difficult and took me many hours of practice to get used with the position and the many variations possible. I have also checked the positions with Nalimov tables, and practicaly the book has no mistakes. I have also like the author's approach for pawn endings using the key squares theory. My chess professor's book, called "The Final Countdown", and the Fundamental Chess Endings from K. Muller, both also used this modern approach. In the overall this is a must have book.