Customer Reviews

Silman's Complete Endgame Course: From Beginner To Master

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm a 1900+ USCF Player. I've had this book for awhile and have finally decided to review it. To begin with, I'll say that I feel this book tries to "dumb-down" too many things, and that turned me off initially. I don't love super-complex stuff either--I have DVORETSKY'S ENDGAME MANUAL but it's a bit too "heavy" for my liking.

SILMAN'S COMPLETE ENDGAME COURSE is a GOOD book. Why it's so huge I don't know, considering that for its size it doesn't cover that much...but that's a different issue.

Silman comes up with seemingly a good idea of separating endgame knowledge into rating level. I basically agree with his choice of material in Part One (Unrated-999), Part Two (1000-1199), and Part Three (1200-1399). He presents this material very well, and I could recommend those parts to my students without reservation.

In the future parts I tend to disagree with the author's choice of what chapter certain topics are located in, but Silman anticipates this in his Preface. Taking the book as a whole, I believe that the most important stuff IS covered, somewhere. My advice for, say, a 1600 player, would be to go through everyhing (with the possible exception of the "Master" chapter) in order to ensure that 1600 player gets what they should get out of the book.

A big problem I have with this book is that once the author reaches Class C and Class B there should be, in my opinion, more examples with "many pawns." I just don't think Silman provides enough "complex" examples. He does the basics extremely well, but I wouldn't dare tell anyone 1800-2200 "this book is all you need for the endgame." Maybe it's true, but I doubt it.

This has made me want to do a Listmania! of endgame materials to study, but a couple of the materials I'd recommend are not on Amazon!

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Recommendations for those beyond Part Three of Silman's book:

THEORY AND PRACTICE OF CHESS ENDINGS by Convekta
-This CD is the best-kept secret EVER on endgame learning. Everybody needs to have this. Grandmasters would do well to review parts of it. The material was created by GM Alexander Panchenko who ran a chess school in the Soviet Union in the '80s that produced over 30 GMs/WGMs. I have never learned so much about the endgame (in two weeks!) as I did with this CD. The CD teaches you how to play EVERY kind of endgame imaginable. All of the PLANS are explained. Not only that, it contains 50+ brilliant examples of "Multi-piece Endings." It's a travesty more chessplayers don't know about this work.

A CHESS LIBRARY FOR PRACTICAL PLAYERS: THE ENDGAME by GM Marat Makarov
-Another work not on Amazon, sadly. You'll have to get it from Chess-Stars (the little-known Bulgarian publishing company that produces the highest quality of chess books for SERIOUS players). Makarov doesn't cover the basic mates, but everything after that, and quite a number of advanced topics! The material is presented briefly, but the emphasis is on PRACTICAL positions/techniques/setting problems for the opponent. A motivated 1200 player could begin working with this book, and the examples are so well-chosen a 2300 could benefit.

ESSENTIAL CHESS ENDINGS by GM James Howell
-Check out my review on Amazon.

ENDGAME STRATEGY by IM Mikhail Shereshevsky
-I will review this on Amazon shortly.

ENDGAME VIRTUOSO by GM Vasily Smyslov
-Check out my review on Amazon.

CHESS SCHOOL 4: THE MANUAL OF CHESS ENDINGS by GM Sarhan Guliev
-I will review this on Amazon shortly.

The review written on February 7th, 2007 covers many of the points I would have raised. Rather than repeat all of them, I will take a different tack.

Most chess players of intermediate level or lower don't study endgame books. They'd rather study an opening book, because you can usually see your new opening ideas come to fruition in a short period of time.

However, even if a player wished to study an endgame book, the choices were not appealing. Many endgame books were not user-friendly.

Silman has rectified that with this book. He has divided the book into various sections, based on the playing level of the reader. More advanced readers will read most of the book; beginners need only read the opening chapter. As your play improves, you consult the next section of the book to see what additional lessons you must master. Indeed, you must thoroughly assimilate all of the material in each section before going on to the next section.

A special note for chess teachers, and those who wish to have lessons from chess teachers: I have used the general content of the first three sections of this book as the basis of my lessons with students for many years. (Unlike Silman, I didn't write it down in book form.) So, buying this book is a good substitute for instruction from a teacher.

The book has too much white space, in my opinion, and has an 'airy' feel to it. The words and diagrams are not crowded on the page. This was done, on purpose I think, so that the reader would not feel 'constricted' while reading this book. Indeed, the white space allows the reader to write comments on the page.

In conclusion: This is the greatest chess instruction book that I have seen in the last 20 years.

"SILMAN'S COMPLETE ENDGAME COURSE:From Beginner to Master" By IM Jeremy Silman --
Noted chess author, International Master Jeremy Silman has written one of the best endgame books to date. It is a "Complete Endgame Course" and is written in a very easy to learn and student friendly format. But this is not what makes this book fascinating and unique. Instead of giving you an encyclopedia of all possible endgames, this book is sectioned by rating and player strength, and it's so very easy to read with no long and tedious paragraphs.

In this book are great bullet pencils and Summing Ups (to ensure you don't miss the important points), Tests and Solutions (you have to practice what you learn), and inserted note placards (reminders of basic chess principles and even chess tips) throughout the book as needed. The diagrams are also effectively used and wonderfully simplistic (in case you are more visually oriented).

I especially enjoyed learning from the note placards and Summing Ups... as an amateur chess player who doesn't have much time to study--or rather doesn't make much time to study, I've had more, "Wow, I didn't know that!", in this book that any other chess book I've tried to read. Note the `I've tried to read'. I haven't finished this book, because I'm not supposed to until I've mastered each section of endgame material. I love that. Then I need to learn, or re-learn in my case, other chess basics to be balanced. So far, so good. IM Silman brings up the point of information `overkill'... or for my amateur chess brain--`over Fill!' Give me simple every time... which Silman does very effectively in this great endgame book.

I definitely give this book 5 stars for beginners to masters for endgame study!

I'm certain many will not agree with me, but here goes:

This book is good, not great. Karsten Muller, for example, does an explanation of key squares for the King to occupy to ensure promotion that is both much shorter and actually ~much~ more complete and useful OTB. Where Silman indicates be ahead of the P with the oposition to win, Muller shows you what squares win, and they are not just the one in front of the pawn. Maybe Silman includes diagonals as "in front" but that is ambiguous and clarified nowhere. Moreover, the Dvoretsky / Muller key square concept works whether you have the move or not.

Another important item is that many times Silman shows a line and tells you a move in that line, not pointing out that this is the ONLY move that does not throw away the advantage - Where the Nunn convention gives an exclam to indicate such, we see nothing here. A sentence or two would be usefull to say what is the only move and why that is the case. There is plenty of space in this large book for that, and some places where things are verbosely analyzed out to the end would have been good to trade for these key points. Run the positions through Fritz and you will see this, or anything else that implements the tablebases.

Silman has an easy-to-read style and does teach well, so please, I am not slamming the book overall with these gripes. Just no way it can earn 5 stars with some incompleteness mixed with some unnecessary repetition and verbosity.

It is a good book, but needs to be supplemented with other material, which seems odd given its large physical size.

The sheer amount of material makes it well worth the cover price.

Would I buy it again, yes, certainly.

Would I recommend it, yes certainly, and with the notes above.

Best to all...

i'm surprised no one thought of this concept before-- dividing study material by approximate rating. of course it's a great idea. silman is a tremendous author, in that he knows what to explain and how to break things down.
additionally, the book itself is lovely: heavy paper, nice font, good amount of white vs black space (sounds trivial, but these things are important when you are spending time reading a book)
my only criticism is that there are a surprising number of typos. (seems weird to me that the book wasn't written as a computer file on chessbase, which would presumably eliminate the possibility for typos, but ??) mostly you can figure out what he means, but still.

This book is a must have for any player, regardless of playing strength. The instructional material is appropriately broken down by player ratings (<1000; each of the classes E, D, C, B and A; Experts; and even for Masters playing greater than 2200). The fundamentals are sound and the lessons are straight forward and compounding in nature. The building blocks are laid with future blocks and understanding depending on the firm grasp of those covered previously. To be honest, I am a class B player who palys inconsistent at times, that is sometimes I have handily beat Class A types and even Expert folks over 2000 one day only to turn around and play like a complete patzer against the Class D players the next. I suspected my endgame capabilities were in need of instruction. As is so often the case in Chess literature, my learning experience from many books thus far has proven to be fragmented with key basics sometimes receiving short coverage in the body of many so-called great books. Mr. Silman's book does not share this distinction. Just reading through the lower levels of Beginner through Class C levels, I quickly realized the enormous gaps that were present in my endgame knowledge. The reading level is user friendly and approachable, as the material is grouped appropriately. This book is not stuffed with the usual drool of long lines of variations and what-ifs that are so often coughed up by the bulk of chess authors. This one is fun to read and with a minimal investment of 10-20 minutes per day you will see an improvement. Happy Chess.

This is a step by step guide to the endgame. There has been a competition between two types of endgame books - those that want you to memorize thousands of positions and those who want you to understand various concepts and memorize only a couple positions. The problem becomes that the first is very time consuming but straight forward and the later is much faster but very difficult to understand.

This book gives the speed of learning concepts with the straightforwardness of memorizing positions. Silman has out done himself this time.

The only downside to this book is that it does not show how to checkmate with Knight and Bishop vs King but how many times have you actually been in this position? My guess is none and if you have been in it, odds are you never will be again.

I recommend this book for people of skill level from beginner to master.

I'm a 1400-1500 player. This is the first book I've really studied on endgames. I've looked through other endgame books, and few describe the strategy, principles, and ideas in simple english the way this one does. The book is easy to follow, and although it is divided into sections for various strengths, I completed it all the way up to the master level, where I stopped. It's not that I can't handle the master sections (Silman's teaching is so easy to understand, that you can work way past your level), but my time is better devoted to other chess topics (I'm going through Silman's Reassess Your Chess 4th Edition now).

This book is like a textbook. You really need to study the ideas and work the problems. I recommend putting the positions in a strong engine (I used Rybka 4) and playing them out. If the position is a forced win, play it until you can force the win against Rybka (~3000 strength) everytime over and over until it's borring. This does wonders for your confidence to know that if you can achieve this type of endgame, you WILL WIN, there's nothing your opponent can do. BTW, this is a major point of the book (and it's excellent):
- You learn to recognize a theoretical draw or win even though it may be 30+ moves away. You don't have to calculate. You know a particular position is a win, and all you have to do is reach that position and then follow the correct strategy to force a win. I can now look at a "complex position," recognize the principles, and fight to achieve the theoretical win/draw position. Once achieved, I can force the win/draw against Rybka even though sometimes it's well over 30 moves away! Before reading this book, I would have had no idea what to do, and I would have definitely lost everytime.

Although I give the book 5 stars, it does have some flaws. A few diagrams are in error, there's some typos, and Silman gives the wrong answer to a few exercises (I discovered this because I was practicing against Rybka 4). Silman has published an Erata sheet that corrects most of the errors.

If you hate endgames because you think they are borring or you think you have to calculate 30 moves ahead to understand why an innocent looking pawn/king move is an instant blunder/loss, this book is definitely for you because that's what I used to think. I love endgames now.

I bought this book for a specific purpose: to learn more about drawing Rook vs Rook + pawn endings. I've been working through Convekta's Chess Endgame Training and have found that many exercises end in a position declared a draw but that would still leave me nervous as the weaker side. One strong player told me that every Russian schoolboy know those drawn positions. Oh, to be a Russian schoolboy.

IM Silman's book does indeed address these positions in some detail. Initially, I was not able to find the information, having relied on a quick scan and a look in the index, which has no entry for 'draw'. I sent IM Silman's an email asking why such important information had been omitted. I was surprised to receive a warm and helpful email in reply that explained that, in the spriit of the book itself, infromation about R vs R + P endings was introduced in stages throughout the book. He also mentioned Emms book on rook endings which contains the same material but compacted into one place over 13 pages.

I prefer IM Silman's treatment because ultimately the collected pieces form a more thorough whole.

Overall, the book is a treasure. I don't know of another work that is so accessible, yet complete. Previously I had to make due with the interesting but error-ridden Endgame Course by Pandolfini. One thing I do like about Pandolfini's book is the catchy names he applies to endgame techniques and positions. IM Silman also uses that mneumonic technique but to a lesser extent.

I had also previously relied on Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual. That is a superb reference book but not friendly to someone learning the ropes. For example, Dvoretsky has a page on corresponding squares. It became clear that I was not comprehending the nuances of what he was saying. I tried and tried. In the end I bought Müller and Lamprecht's Secrets of Pawn Endings which covered the same concept but over the course of a dozen pages. Then I got it. I think.

IM Silman's book, on the other hand, is designed so that there are no unresolved mysteries at each stage. Its a nice concept and well done.

The only thing that keeps me from giving the book a full five stars is the single-column format. The book is beautifully laid out and with generous diagrams but I remain convinced the a two column layout is superior.

I'm not going to repeat what everyone else has said in their reviews.

Yes - brilliant concept, sorting endgames by playing strength. Stroke of genius. Why hasn't anyone thought of this before. Etc

I'd just like to say how liberating it is to read an instructional chess book and know that I can stop after a certain number of chapters because I already know more than enough.

There are not many chess books that explicitly state: "you already know enough about this - now go and practise some tactics and come back when you get a few games under your belt".

The hardest part about studying the endgame is knowing when to stop.

This book tells you what you DON'T need to know as well as what you DO.

Lucena position - don't worry about it just yet - get your rating up first.
Knight and Bishop versus Lone King - it ain't gonna happen.

How refreshing!