Though I'm usually considered beyond novice level, I grabbed this bright-red paperback from a used-book store and read it thru. Why? Jeremy Silman is a friend of mine. And I know he values all my constructive criticisms about such things as his taste for justly unknown movies. And he has beaten me in enough blitz endgames. (However, I always had a winning strategy: never playing for money.) Besides, reading chess (never a newspaper) is my way of falling asleep at night.

I have to pronounce this book a big success. It delivers just what the title promises, covering all the basic endings, in clear and sometimes amusing prose. I even learned things about the distant opposition that I never knew. (Though why I would concern myself with opposition of a K on e1 to one on b8, I still can't figure.)

Readers will sharpen up their endgame play by mastering this book, complete with rules and test positions. They will vault to the head of their class - if they manage to reach the endgame at all.

For quibbles, I caught "it's" used for "its." Not usually worth mentioning, but I had to find some fault somewhere, and the proofreader is credited.

So, if your games make it into the ending at all, study ESSENTIAL CHESS ENDINGS to lord it over your erstwhile peers.