His endgame book is unbelievable. If you think you know everything about, say, bishop endgames, check out this book. I had been playing for 35 years when I bought it, and I was reading things I never dreamed of, and I had read my share of endgame books. This one is unique. A great talent has been lost, RIP.
Dvoretsky’s books are a hard read for many players. They were designed for advanced players, 2000+ Elo, rather than for the average guy. To get the most out of the books, you have to have a deep base of knowledge and skill sets to start with. Many people get frustrated when doing the analyses required to solve the problems and puzzles. He does not say it explicitly, but the most value you get is from the process of solving rather than the correct completion of the exercises. One has to develop a strong character to do the work, take the criticism from others, and begin the self-criticism necessary to become a strong player.
Several of the works are collections of articles and lessons from the training sessions that he, Arthur Yusupov, and others gave to the students who attended his or Botvinnik’s “schools” or chess camps. Here the best and brightest students were taught the inner workings of high level chess. The exercises they were given to do were designed to turn the students into first rate masters, IM’s, and GMs. The final chapters in some of the books showed example games of some of the up and coming students. While not all of them became title holders, the early games of these players showed much more dynamic and skilled players than comparable games from most kids from western Europe or the US at similar ages. Graduates from these “schools” often went on to become trainers themselves.
You can read Dvoretsky’s books over and over again and discover new nuggets and insights. It takes a while for the information to gel but when you are ready for it the concepts seem natural. My favorite books are “Positional Play” and “Attack and Defense.” In the first book is a detailed explanation and examples of prophylaxis in chess, which is at the heart of his methodology. The “Secrets of Chess Training,” has many examples of the art of adjournment analysis of difficult endgames. This book seems to be the one that morphed into the “Endgame Manual.” Each edition of his works has differences as he tried to improve on the previous edition with corrected or improved analyses by himself and his students. One of the signature features is the exercises that you can try from either side with friends or students. Most books with “Secrets” in the title try to give a short cut or two and often disappoint. In Dvoretsky’s books you find no short cuts but have to really work hard. In the end you come out a better player.
If you cannot hack the writing style or approaches within Dvoretsky’s many works, then you might find the writing of Jacob Aagaard more to your taste. Aagaard covers many of the same topics without the schadenfreude of Dvoretsky. Dvoretsky takes an almost malicious glee in pointing out GM mistakes, which he notes would never have happened had they read his books or been his students.
One relatively recent Dvoretsky book, while still very hard, is more accessible than most. Recognizing Your Opponent’s Resources (Russell Enterprises, 2015) can be read in bed if you don’t mind insomnia!
I’ve heard folks recommend the Endgame Manual to C players, which strikes me as ridiculous. After self-study with a book like Rosen’s Chess Endgame Training (perhaps supplemented by an intro to rook endings), then one might be ready for self-study of DEM.
But if the C player has a coach and has ambitions, then guided study of DEM is not at all crazy. Or if one does not have a coach, one could work through the theoretical (“blue”) endings first and put the rest of the book away for a year or so. So in that sense, DEM is a good place to start!
(EDIT: an IM is teaching a 12-week seminar on the first seven chapters of DEM right now (!) at the Marshall CC in Manhattan - see their calendar for details)
I’m not embarrassed to say that most of Dvoretsky is still too hard for me. But I’ve enjoyed studying what I could understand. Dvoretsky’s love of the game and his work ethic are apparent on every page. A terrible loss for chess.