I’m looking to try to improve my endgame play. Based on my play on Chessmaster, I’m basically on the border of Class E/D. I have Silman’s Complete Endgame Course, Larry Evan’s Endgame Quiz, and Starting Out: Pawn Endgames. I’m strongly considering buying Starting Out: Minor Piece Endgames and Starting Out: Rook Endgames.
Does anyone have any suggestions of what books might be good buys, or maybe even some software that is good for endgame training?
Thanks in advance,
Scott
Just focus on the Silman endgame book. At your level, understanding basic endings is all you really need to focus on.
I studied the middle game a while back, and realized that studying the engame, at a level above the basic endings, isn’t so much about memorizing specific endings like the Lucena Position or Philidor Position, but rather understanding spacial relationships. Basically when you start to get better in the middle game, you can use your endgame knowledge to try and manuver the game into an ending you can win.
It becomes more apparent when you go through the book “Reasses Your Chess”, that good middlegame knowledge can help you form plans that last to you get to the endgame.
Lower level players often play the opening, then the middle game, then the ending without a clear understanding of the transitions between them. Especially the lower level players often try and play for either an opening trap, or keep looking for some game winning tactic (due to an opponent blunder) to win. Reasses Your Chess explains and teaches how to formulate plans that make tactical opportunities possible even when your opponent is playing very good. (its all relative anyway. Lets face it, Rybka can find middle game tactical crushers against GM level players).
So don’t look at learning the endgame in a way that you have to become a Pal Benko. Its more about learning the basic endings really well, and understanding spacial relationships on a nearly empty board. Probably around the “B” level lessons in your Silman endgame book.
Thanks for the advice. The Silman book does seem to be a pretty good one. It has tons of information to be sure.
So, would you recommend buying How to Reassess Your Chess? I’ve considered buying it a couple of times, but just never have actually bought it. I have recently come to the conclusion that one of my biggest weaknesses is that I often don’t approach the game from the right angle. (If that makes any sense.) Would that book help me to correct that?
Reasses Your Chess is very good. I’d recommend it to anybody.
Its supposedly for players at least a solid “C” or low “B” in strength, but I found that its actually very very good. I was a “D” player when I went through the book. I’m planning on going over it again, since its been a while and I forgot alot of the lessons now, although I still remember good chunks of it.
My play on FICS improved mightily after I initially went though the lessons. Its not a quick book though. Silman tooks all his knowledge about basic middlegame stratagy and wrapped it up into the book. On one hand, I feel like Silman is practically teaching me himself, but on the other hand, at 33 lessons, its going to take 2 or 3 months (at 2 to 3 lessons/week) to properly go through the book and digest all the information.
In the book, Silman mentions that a person really needs to go through the book more than once for the information to really get into your long term memory. So re-doing the book at a later date is ok.
EDIT: Yes, the book Reasses Your Chess would indeed help you in both the opening and endgame. Although its about middlegame stratagy, its basic principles can be applied in both the opening and early endgame phases. I’m not saying the first few moves of a chess game, but even after 4 or 5 moves, you’ll start appling the knowledge you learn from Reasses Your Chess. You’ll have a much better understanding of why all opening moves are made, even the first move.
I agree. You can’t go too far wrong with Silman’s books. I would add a good game collection book, too. Just to get a feel for master-level chess, if nothing else. My favorate is Understanding Chess Move by Move - by John Nunn.
Here’s my problem with book recommendations. I think people recommend and buy too many books - and then they don’t read them. It becomes a mountain too high to climb. I think a library should contain the basic 4 books: an opening book, a general theory book, an endgame book, and a game collection. This covers theoretical knowledge. Then a good collection of tactical problems for practice.
One other point: I’m not sure that printed books is the best medium for chess communication going forward into the future. My objections: 1) User-friendly. You have to constantly shift your attention from the printed page to the chess board. 2) Lack of coverage/lack of space issues. Publishing costs prohibit complete coverage of many issues. 3) Cost. Chess books are too thin and too expensive. (I exempt from that criticism the books recommended above.)
I think that software is the medium of the future. Software programs do address the problems of (1) and (2) above. Not 3 yet. The problem here is that software and books are comparable priced and both are too expensive in my opinion.
I’d agree that too many players are more intersted in seeing how large thier library is, rather than focusing on the books they already own.
That said, there is a definate curve for books. Some book, like Reasses Your Chess… and other books, clearly are heads an tails above other books.
The best way to use printed books is to just find out which few books can or will help your game the most. One decent book on openings. (I still haven’t figured out which is the best book for that). Another for Middle game play, and lastly one for endings. I think the Silman Ending book is about as good as you can get that strikes a good balance to teach both lower level and intermediate level players. For more advance end game stratagy, probably the Dvoresky Endgame Manual. (I haven’t seen it, but most reviews are pretty positive.)
I’m not sure I’d recommend a book on combinations. There is so much free tactical stuff on the internet, its insane. The Chess Tactics Server is really good, in that most of its tactics are not mate-in-X problems, but rather stuff you’d find over the board.
I haven’t seen it, but I’ve read that “How to win against your dad in chess” is suppose to be a great book on tactics. According to one reviewer its actually a very good book on tactics. I’m actually thinking about buying it. (Sometimes you can’t judge a book by its name, according to the reviewer).
Now, books not withstanding… lets talk about computerized chess lessons.
I think computerized chess lessons excel in many respects. But they tend to be shorter and more focused than books. (and more expensive). So if your trying to get the same amount of lessons from computerized stuff (from say Chessbase.com), you’ll end up spending alot more money to say, cover the same material as in Reasses Your Chess.
But, don’t use that as an excuse to not get computerized lessons. I think computized lessons on specific openings are far better than any opening book I’ve seen. And I think even if you go through the Silman Engame book, you could still get alot more knowledge from computerized lessons concerning engames. Computerized lessons (esp endgame lessons), give you opportunities to actually play against the computer is pre-determined positions in which your expected to win or draw. That gives you the kind of hands on experience that you wouldn’t get from a book.
I haven’t done any computerized lessons concerning the middlegame, so can’t really comment on how much or how little it would compliment going through the Silman middlegame book. But there are tons of computerized lessons out there. For example, Chessbase.com has a lesson concerning O-O mating patterns. I would think that could compliment any book on middlegame stratagy.
I personally think both formats have their advantages and disadvantages. I have a few e-books (not exactly software, I know, but it doesn’t require a board in front of you) from Everyman Chess (the Starting Out series), and several hardcopy books, as well. It can get kind of awkward going back and forth from a book to a chess board over and over, but it does make me take my time and pay attention to what I’m doing. The e-books on the other hand, are very convenient, but I have to make sure I don’t go through the material too quick and miss the point of what’s being taught.
I’m not really sure which format I’d say I prefer, but I must say that the cost of software lessons has prevented me from buying any yet. (Though there are a couple that I’m looking at.)
BTW, I do tend to buy a lot of chess books, but unlike most people, I do read them. 
Two very good books for the aspiring chess player to read to improve his/her endgame skill are two inexpensive old books, still in print, by Irving Chernev. His books, “Capablanca’s Best Chess Endings” and “The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played” are filled with wonderful examples of how to play endgames. The books provide insight into how a whole game is played without becoming too bogged down in variations. But don’t expect miracles, you really have to spend some time reading them to get the effect.
Amen to that! And I say that to indict myself probably more than anyone else: if I had one rating point’s worth of ability for every chess book I own, I could give Knight odds to Kasparov and win. (Needless to say, I can’t.)
To the original poster: You listed a whole bunch of books. My advice is to start first with the Silman book or the Starting Out book. (Note: Don’t buy any more of the Starting Out endgame series until you know whether this one is better for you than the Silman book.) I’m not knocking any book, but everyone learns a little differently, so if Silman works well for you, stay with it; likewise if the Starting Out series works better for you, stay with that.
Remember that your task is to play better chess, not stuff the pockets of publishers. 
Leave Dvoretsky or Comprehensive Chess Endings or Fundamental Chess Endings until you’ve finished what you’re starting on now. You won’t need what’s in them for years, yet, and by then there may be a better book out. (Even so, I’d move towards something like Shereshevsky’s series before any of those, but that again is simply personal preference speaking.)
You’ll do fine with the books you already own; save your money for something more important, like tournament entry fees. 
I’ll join the recommendation that you should read the books you have, then buy more if you know why you are buying them. Especially a good game collection can last you a long time.
You don’t always need to have a board when you read these books. It’s better practice if you can train yourself away from the board. That is the best and most natural way I know of training visualization, a terribly important skill.
Since you don’t need a chessboard, there is much more opportunity to read the books. In the car with someone else driving, in the bathroom, in bed, wherever. That’s the real benefit of the hardcopy CL magazine too – its portability.
Regarding endgames, I’ll invert something said above. Endgames are great training for playing the middlegame! It is indeed about spatial patterns, literally learning more about how the pieces move on the board (what happens to knights near the edge or corner, how much stronger a bishop is on a long diagonal, the awkwardness or power of rooks, etc.) and interact with each other (R vs. N ending, mating with two B’s, domination strategies for N over B and B over N, etc. And that’s even without considering pawns, mostly. This stuff is going on in the middle game too and is often the reason for success or failure. Many combinations involve only two or three pieces, with the others serving as a distraction. You really will see it in GM middle game strategy and tactics once you learn to recognize it.
I am working my way through the Silman Endgame book. I’ve gone through the D-Class section, and I’ve started the C-Class section (it’s much slower going there than the previous sections). I don’t know if there’s any connection, but my play over the last couple of days has been at a much higher level than my play before starting to work through the book. I’m defeating and drawing with personalities on Chessmaster that should be wiping me out (ratings of 1540-1600). Has anyone else had similar experiences with this book? I’m really beginning to wonder if the book may be driving home and solidifying things I alreadt knew but haven’t been executing well.
I also went ahead and bought How to Reassess Your Chess. I got it today. I’m interested to see what I may gain from reading it, as well.
You are way ahead of most players in your rating class, just by recognizing the importance of endings.
Many class players are so lacking in endgame knowledge, and so afraid of endings, that they will gladly steer the game into a lost middlegame in order to avoid a won endgame. In a case like this, lack of endgame knowledge costs the player a full point, even though the game never enters the ending.
Bill Smythe
[quote="Smythe Dakota"Many class players are so lacking in endgame knowledge, and so afraid of endings, that they will gladly steer the game into a lost middlegame in order to avoid a won endgame.[/quote]
That takes me back. When I was a class D/E, I stumbled across a thin volume (hardcover, I still have it) of Averbakh’s “Chess Endings, Essential Knowledge” and studied it until the binding started to give way. From that point on I began to steal half-points, and even full points, from others in my class. In nearly every tournament I’d win a drawn ending because my opponent didn’t know how to draw it (including, sadly, more than one K+P v K) and even win lost ones, again because my opponent didn’t know what to do.
And that began a long love affair with endgames. I still steal more than my share of points in the end, though not as many as before.
But with sudden death time controls and shorter time controls, the endgame isn’t as fruitful as it once was. Still, studying endgames is a great way to get familiar with the limitations and capabilities of each piece. With fewer pieces on the board, it becomes more important to use each one to the fullest extent.
A couple of won games that I lost because I knew so little about the endgame convinced me that the people who always talked about how important it was weren’t crazy. It may not be as much fun to study as the opening (and like most players of my stregth, I probably do spend too much time on openings), but I do know it’s critical.
The first endgame book I worked through was “Starting Out: Pawn Endgames.” It felt very tedious at times, but by the time I finished it, there was no question I had gained. It wasn’t long after that, that I played a couple of pawn endgames that I’m sure I would have previously would have lost but won instead.
I think it’s very true that endgames teach you about chess, that’s why I want to learn more. And besides, it is fun when you win a game in the endgame just because you have more knowledge than your opponent and you just out-skill them. 
I can’t believe no one has mentioned “100 Endgames You Must Know” by de la Villa. It’s a new book I think…maybe no one has seen it yet. I am familiar with every one of the other books mentioned in this thread and I must say the de la Villa book is the most impressive book on basic endgames I have seen. Not comprehensive, mind you, but delivers exactly what it promises in a concise and easily understood style. It’s palatable enough to read cover to cover. It seems ideal for, say an improving C-player on the way up the ladder. (I’m an expert and I’m learning from it) After finishing this, I think the reader would then be more ready for Dvoretsky or something more technical.
I was just looking though an old ending book " Batsford Chess Endings"
I am not sure if it is still around, but it is a good book for beginners, and even to refresh some of the old minds. 
It is precisely because of the fast time controls that endgame knowledge and experience are even more important. Very strong players used to get by knowing that once they adjourned a game, they would have time to research and analyze the endgame to find precise variations. With fast time controls and no adjournments the player with the best well rounded endgame can cash in half and full points. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen great positions crack up in time trouble with the better endgame player shaking his head and reeling in the point out of his busted middlegame position. Or a great novelty in the opening go to waste because of the inability to win a simple endgame.
Time spent on the endgame also gives you a better feel for the pieces in the middlegame. Amateur players in the 1200-1600 range usually make mistakes because they do not know what to exchange or when to exchange off pieces. They want to win a brilliant attack when winning a pawn will do just as nicely, with less chance of making an error in carrying out the technique.
Normally, younger players struggle to improve their endgame. They spend most of their time on openings and traps. When they start working on their endgames, that is when they really improve their ratings. One young man to watch is Magnus Carlsen. He does not hesitate to cross swords in the endgame. He plays every endgame to the death like Fischer. His excellent technique in spite of the fast time controls makes him very dangerous to his fellow GM’s.