Practical Chess Endings [Paperback]

Irving Chernev (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1969

300 practical endgame situations, ranging from very simple to masterpieces by Capablanca, Reti, Tarrasch, Lasker, more.

Product Details

• Paperback: 318 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (June 1, 1969)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 048622208X
• ISBN-13: 978-0486222080
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #758,402 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excelent, if slightly flawed, book, February 20, 2002

By 

GB Guitars "gbroulet" (Colfax, Ca United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Practical Chess Endings (Paperback)

I should give this book 5 full stars as it really is one of the best endgame book available. At our local chess club the Masters give lectures on Thursday nights. During their endgame series of lectures I was able to find every example they used in this book. The master's lecture concept was that rather than building up an opening repetiore, the beginning player would do better to build up an ending repetiore. By studying the endgame you learn how to attack and you learn the purpose of the middle game. And, since the end game occurs when you're usually in time trouble, the ability to play the endgame like a machine while your opponent must calculate every move is a great advantage.

However, I do have a few small gripes about this book.
1. I have found perhaps half a dozen endgames where I've come up with alternative lines where a win is not forced. Chernev does give variations on how to win many variations, but there are times when it appears that the opponent is not playing the best possible line.

2. Endgames often center around a theme or technique. Chernev gives you several endgames which demonstrate a technique, but he never specifically says "This position contains these key points which will lead us to use this particular technique". It is left up to the reader to figure out what the actual techniques used in the examples are. More importantly, it's left up to the reader to determine what factors require which techniques.

3. Occasionaly a term is used without explaination. For example: "1. K-B6 and the white king is said to have the opposition". But what is "opposition?" It is not explained. As in point #2 this is left for the reader to figure out. (By the way, there is an excellent description of Opposition in Jeremy Silman's book "How To Reassess Your Chess")

However, even with these faults, this is still one of the best endgame books available. Study the pawn endings until you can do them in your sleep, and then study the Rook endings. Then follow up with the rest of the book. This is the book you use to build up your "endgame repetiore".

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Tool to Improve your Endgame, August 6, 2006

By 

David De Sousa "The Automation and Control Guy" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Practical Chess Endings (Paperback)

Anyone no matter their skill level can benefit from this book. The author describes the techniques employed in the most important and typical endgame situations, presenting more than 300 positions that clearly describe how a good player will solve the problems encountered in each one of them.

A good part of the book is devoted to king and pawn endings, but also enough coverage is given to endgame positions where the knight, the bishop, the root, and the queen play the important role of helping promote a pawn or acting to accomplish a mating solution.

As the author states "the book is designed to improve the skills of the practical player who is interested in wining the ending clearly, simply and efficiently."

I bought this book as part of a used chess book collection on an auction, and I was not disappointed at all with this title. The book systematically showed me how to think and analyze typical positions that as a matter of fact I have encountered during actual play.

The book uses descriptive notation, but I guess this is just a matter of preference and it actually doesn't affect the quality and usefulness of the information presented. Nevertheless you should take this into account in case you prefer algebraic notation.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars classic textbook on the endgame, March 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Practical Chess Endings (Paperback)

The reader gets 300 diagrams for the beginner or expert.There are practical basic endings that everyone should know and beautiful studies all designed to raise the readers understanding of chess and the endgame. One diagram per page makes it easy to read. This dover book is well bound and will last. Anyones appreciation of chess would be inhanced by owning this book.