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Posted by ssisyphus
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4/24/2008
02:34:54

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Subject: Endgame Book

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Does anyone know a good book on endgames?

Thanks in advance.


Posted by torre_tinorete
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4/24/2008
04:04:42

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Silman Endgame Book

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If there is an endgame book that I will recommend, it would be Silman's "Complete Endgame Book". This book is different from other endgame books in terms of presentation. Other endgame books categorize endings accoring to pieces i.e., rook endings, bishop endings etc. However, Silman divided the material according to rating. This has its benefits. For one, you only need to learn endgames within your rating range. Once you go over your rating, then its time you learn other "advance" endgames. Still, there is no harm in reading the book in its entirely. For me, its easy to read and comprehend.

Hope this helps


Posted by torre_tinorete
blitzbrain.net

4/24/2008
04:07:31

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Title Silman endgame book

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Made a slight error. The correct title of the endgame book of Silman is "Silman's Complete Endgame Book"
———
Dortmund Begins — The Sparkassen Chess-Meeting (an odd name, to be sure) began Thursday in Dortmund. Though the chess tournament is not at the level of Linares or Corus, it still attracts top players, notably Vladimir Kramnik, the former world chess champion from Russia. Kramnik has been associated with Dortmund, as the chess event is often referred to, for many years because he has won the tournament nine times, far more than any other. He first won it in 1995 and is the defending champion this year. The tournament is a double-round robin this year, meaning each competitor plays all the others twice, once with each color. In addition to Kramnik, the No. 4 chess player in the world, the field includes ...
Posted by marinvukusic
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4/24/2008
07:35:30

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The only book I ever used

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Keres: "Practical chess endings"
Great for a practical player. Books on endgames tend to be huge and not exactly practical, this one has everything that is needed.

Silman's concept sounds good and if the book is really well written you can give it a go.
———
Zhao and Zatonskih Lead Chess Championships — Anna Zatonskih, the defending chess champion, took the lead of the U.S. Women’s Championship on Wednesday, while Parker Zhao, the ninth seed, solidified his grip on the U.S. Junior Championship. The two chess tournaments are being held concurrently at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. Zatonskih had shared the lead for the last few rounds with Irina Krush, the top seed. But in Round 5 on Wednesday, Zatonskih beat Iryna Zenyuk, while Krush only drew against Camilla Baginskaite. Zatonskih now leads with 4.5 points, while Krush and Tatev Abrahamyan, who beat Abby Marshall on Wednesday, have 4 each. In the junior championship, Zhao, who ...
Posted by lighttotheright
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4/24/2008
10:37:16

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Silman's endgame book is the best one that I've seen in years. I highly recommend it. I would have bought it myself, if I wasn't already so familiar with the material.
———
A Chess Odyssey — One single square can make a big difference in a chess game. It helped me to launch one of my longest combinations against Anatoly Karpov in Caracas 40 years ago. It was a memorable chess tournament for both of us. Karpov arrived in Venezuela as the reigning world junior champion. He played well enough in Caracas to become the world's youngest chess grandmaster at that time, at age 19, and his brilliant career began to take shape. In 1971 in Moscow, he clinched the first major tournament victory, sharing first place with the three-time Soviet champion Leonid Stein at the prestigious Alekhine Memorial tournament. In 1975 he was crowned the world chess champion. This year ...
Posted by jstack
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4/24/2008
13:36:17

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Dvoretsky's book

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I would say Dvoretsky's end game manual is the best end game book I have seen since I started playing chess. I have not seen Silman's book.
———
Fast Pace Continues at Two U.S. Chess Championships — The top two seeds in the U.S. Women’s Chess Championship could make no headway against each other and drew their Round 3 game on Monday. But their two nearest competitors lost, so Irina Krush and Anna Zatonskih now lead the chess tournament by half a point over Tatev Abrahamyan, Alisa Melekhina (who lost to Abrahamyan on Monday) and Iryna Zenyuk, who lost on Monday to Beatriz Marinello. In the U.S. Junior Chess Championship, which is being held concurrently at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, Warren Harper, the seventh seed, is the surprising leader after three rounds with a perfect score. His play so far has been stellar and on Monday he demolished his ...
Posted by thaumaturgy
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4/24/2008
14:34:59

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Silamn's book

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Silman's book is definitely worth the investment. It is the best endgame book money can buy. If you're just starting out, you can learn basic endgame strategies and theory. If you're already an accomplished player, then you can study advanced/expert endgame concepts all the way to master level play. Definitely a tremendous book!
———
Anatoly Karpov out for a fight — Anatoly Karpov and some supporting chess federations have filed a lawsuit against FIDE in the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne. Karpov's lawyers, White & Case, are a global firm based in Manhattan. They seek nothing less than the disqualification of the incumbent FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov who is standing for a fifth term. The rules demand that at least one member of a Presidential ticket be female and Ilyumzhinov's choice is American WIM Beatriz Marinello. Supporting documents indicate Ms Marinello was not nominated by the US Chess Federation but by her native Chile and Brazil. Karpov contends she is not even a member of either chess federation. Karpov's lawyers also ...
Posted by longbow57
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4/24/2008
14:41:08

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Basic Chess Endings

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The book I like is Reuben Fines Basic Chess Endings, written in 1941 I have been playing Chess over 40 years,that was the only book we had on endgames, boy times have changed so has the World, now we have the internet for openings and end games and to study chess, for the better I hope. Thanks

Posted by taufiq
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4/26/2008
01:28:09

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Endgame

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Someone told me, this would be a great book for studying endgames (I haven't got the book, but I'm willing to purchase it) -->
"Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations & Games", written by father Polgar..

--> www.chesshouse.com


Posted by wschmidt
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4/28/2008
13:00:13

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No,

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The Polgar book isn't an endgame book. It's mainly a collection of mating combinations - one, two and three move checkmates. It's great for that, but it definitely isn't an endgame book.

Posted by taufiq
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4/29/2008
01:59:12

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Ah, ok wschmidt ; I didn't knew that :) Sorry for posting it :)

Take care !


Posted by heinzkat
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4/29/2008
02:06:50

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Well,

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László Polgár has compiled another book called 'Chess Endgames', which contains (a 'dump' of) 4,560 positions (they are categorized though). Done in the same way as the 5,334 problems, combinations & games, I suppose. What I didn't like about it, is that nothing is explained, only the positions are given with a very 'dry' solution section (no commentary, just moves with +- evaluations). But it IS a very thorough book, and I definitely should do more from it (compared to the 'nothing' now!)

Posted by ionadowman
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4/29/2008
14:08:31

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A few centurries ago...

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... Batsford put out a series of endgame books each specialising in types of material involved: Rook endings, Queen endings, minor piece endings and the like.
I bought just two of them: Levenfish & Smyslov's "Rook Endings" and Averbakh's "Queen and Pawn Endings".

I don't know whether these books were specially commissioned by Batsford, or whether they were tranlations of Russian/Soviet publications. It seems that Paul Keres's "Practical Chess Endings" is from the same stable.

I have found both the volumes that I own useful and informative, beginning with "schoolboy" theory to begin with then gradually becoming more advanced and complicated. Most of the endings are taken from actual games, but a few studies are also presented. And they have helped in endings on GK.

In a game ionadowman vs sranderson a year or so back, I found myself a pawn down in a Q+Ps ending, with a completely passive position , but fortunately the enemy didn't have a passed pawn. Averbakh's book at least gave me some clues what to strive for and what to avoid, though I have to admit, the idea of sacrificing my Q-side pawns to activate my game was largely my own. When my opponent timed out (I noticed he was cutting things more and more finely), he was still a pawn ahead, but I still had the means to set problems, and was starting to think I might yet hold out for a draw...

A particularly interesting and difficult R+Ps ending occurred in agmac vs ionadowman, again with my having the pawn less. Now, I've had quite a lot of R+Ps endgames on GK, and have thereby built up a fund of experience in them, but this one was quite complicated as there were a lot of pawns. Gradually reducing material I finally got to a point where a known drawn position was in sight - identified by Levenfish & Smyslov as such - which I managed to steer for and obtain. A limitation, perhaps, of such books, is that they aren't always comprehensive in their analysis of such positions, so, when agmac, having arrived at the "drawn" position, deviated almost at once from the "main" line, I had still some work to do to secure the half-point. Which was probably just as well, as it gave me further insights into how such endings work.

You could do worse than to get hold of these books if you can.

Cheers,
Ion



Posted by doctor_knight
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4/29/2008
20:54:50

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I don't know what your particular needs are, but I really liked Purdy's "On the Endgame". Very good writing with clear explanations. It basically has two sections: the first is an endgame course to teach you what Purdy would consider everything you need to know about endgames to start off. The second section is mainly endgame studies. The editors of the book recommend going through the endgame course and then referring back to the second section to study particular endgame studies that relate to endgames that you encounter in your real games (maybe I should start doing this lol).

Posted by taufiq
blitzbrain.net

4/30/2008
04:50:02

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...

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ionadowman; I've found your game against agmac, and indeed, it's very learnfull !
(for the people who are interested; the game ended 21-Jan-06).

If I look through such games, it's very clear for me, there's a lot more to learn !!
Still a long way to go ! :)


Posted by lighttotheright
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4/30/2008
06:52:26

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...regarding Laszlo Polgar's book.

Although it is not an endgame book, it does have a endgame specific section within it. It is only about 140 problems from simple endgames; but it is there.

Some people don't like the style of not explaining anything with just problems. I find this style most useful. The only way to truly learn chess is to just do it. This forces you to do just that. The problems expand your learning horizons.

It's funny! I've always viewed mating positions (which most of his book it comprised of) as a form of endgame.


Posted by chuckychess
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4/30/2008
23:24:04

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For the sub-1800 player, I would recommend "Essential Chess Endings Explained Move by Move, Vol 1", by Jeremy Silman. Every move of most of the basic endgames that B players and below need to know are commented upon by Silman. It is available at www.labatechess.com


Posted by bogg
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5/01/2008
03:58:36

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GM Flear

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Has a new book that looks valuable, 'Practical Endgame Play - beyond the basics'. Rather than writing another book on theoretical endgame play he has written a book that covers positions with a bit more material on the board, one or both players has two pieces.

CTC


Posted by ionadowman
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5/07/2008
13:31:49

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It seems likely...

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...that GM Flear has begun to fill a gap that exists in the literature: namely, how to play the early ending, when there remains quite a bit of material on the board, but the middlegame has "clearly" passed. Perhaps it might be better termed, "how to play 'simple' positions - "simple" meaning with pawns and not more than 3 pieces remaining.
Of course, any such book would be general in nature, since there is an infinitude of variety still to be found so late in the game. And you would be amazed at just how complicated and exciting 'simple' positions can become! Some of the Fischer-Smyslov battles of 1958-1959 were thrillers.
Cheers,
Ion


Posted by wschmidt
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5/08/2008
13:13:10

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The Flear book is excellent.

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I recently had a GK game that was headed for a rook and pawn vs rook and knight with pawns on both sides endgame. I started going through the examples in the Flear book when I realized this. I didn't get any specific moves from my study but did get a feel for how such endgames can progress and how the pieces interact within different pawn structures. Highly recommended.

Posted by alxthgrt
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8/22/2008
16:49:14

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Yassier Seirawan American Number one

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his book is quite good, it covers basic mates to rook vs pawn and rook ending

Posted by alxthgrt
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8/22/2008
16:50:28

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*its called winning chess ending sry*

Posted by cutawhant
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9/27/2008
07:52:59

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Recommendation

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For starters: Endings Made Simple, by Ian Snape