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7 ENDGAME BOOKS
1) DVD – ENDGAME TURBO 2: NALIMOV TABLEBASES
2) ENDGAME CHALLENGE
3) CHESS ENDGAME TRAINING
4) TEST YOUR ENDGAME THINKING
5) CHESS ENDINGS MADE SIMPLE
6) WINNING CHESS ENDINGS
7) MODERN ENDGAME PRACTICE
DVD – ENDGAME TURBO 2: NALIMOV TABLEBASES
ChessBase 2003
$49.50
One of the most impressive endgame products that I’ve seen, and one that I’ve already made considerable use of in writing, is the Nalimov Tablebases DVD from ChessBase. The five discs that make up the product contain the exact solutions to literally every endgame with five pieces or less, the kings counting as pieces. They also include some endings with six pieces such as knight and two pawns versus rook, rook and two pawns versus rook, and the like. By “solutions” I mean that every possible move from every possible starting position from these endings is written out on the disc. Thus when you use a ChessBase playing program such as Fritz, Junior, Shredder, etc. or the analytical engine within the ChessBase program, the solutions appear instantly (with not the slightest actual analysis required by the machine) in the analysis window. You can use the tablebase 'engine' directly in ChessBase to get not just the two best moves, but every possible move with the evaluation and number of moves to mate. Not only is there an instant solution to any 5-piece ending that you put on the board, but the “Endgame Turbo” allows the program to anticipate the table solutions in analysis and thus know whether to go into a particular endgame. There are a few qualifiers, e.g., the “anticipatory” function works with the stand-alone programs but not directly with ChessBase. Furthermore, only Fritz8 and HiArcs can use the 6-piece solutions.
You can use the tablebases right off the CD, or you can install them on your hard disk. You won’t likely install them all for space reasons. For example, I have the 3- and 4- piece endings and what I consider the most common and useful 5-piece endings on my hard disk. They use up 1.38 GBytes on my hard disk. If I chose to install all of the tablebases (all five discs) it would use up nearly 24GBytes! That’s a bit much for most of us, and the space-devouring 6-piece endings can be efficiently run off the CD anyway.
Here’s a simple example that I took from John Nunn’s recent book Endgame Challenge. It’s a study, with White to move and win:
WHITE TO MOVE AND WIN
The tablebase find 1.Ka3! instantly, announcing mate in 23 moves. It assesses all other moves as draws (otherwise the study would be busted – use of these tablebases has led to surprisingly many such busts and doubles). In a normal ending (not a study) there would likely be multiple moves leading to a win, listed according to how many moves there would be until checkmate. Back to the example: after White plays 1.Ka3, we find a panoply of legal Black replies in the order of their assessment. Thus 1...Kc6 is the mate in 23, all the way down to 1...Nf8 which yields mate in 6. Because it’s a study, only one White move will win by force, for example, 1.Ka3 Kc6 has only one solution: the amazing 2.Ka2!!. Perhaps an engine without access to tablebases would eventually find this solution, but only after a long search and many false assessments.
The solution (with best play) goes 1.Ka3 Kc6 2.Ka2 Kc5 3.Nd6 Nf6 4.Ne4+ Nxe4 5.e8=Q, and here it’s still 18 moves until White mates but you get the idea.
ENDGAME CHALLENGE
Author: John Nunn
256 pages
$24.95
Gambit Publications (2002)
This segues into Nunn’s book, which deals about finishing off the game although not so directly as a traditional endgame book. The title, incidentally, varies only slightly from John Hall’s Endgame Challenge! (with it’s final “!”) that I reviewed in an earlier column. Nunn’s brilliantly organized and explicated book is a collection of 250 studies with 200 pages of solutions! I’m going to steal the key points of his Introduction since it describes the material in the book better than I could. I looked at only 3 of these studies and couldn’t solve any of them, my only excuse being that I lazily jumped to the solutions before giving the positions enough thought. But there’s absolutely no way that I could have solved the great majority in any reasonable time, since they tend to contain numerous brilliant ideas rather than a single one. In fact (looking at the solutions) I can see that sometimes a study with variations on a known theme is actually harder to implement than a study without such themes, because the subtle solution of the former involves the avoidance of so many tempting maneuvers that one has seen before but aren’t effective in the exact situation. This is a terrific if somewhat esoteric book for the lover of beauty in chess. It is also good mental exercise for the developing player if he or she can maintain the discipline that is required by such advanced material.
CHESS ENDGAME TRAINING
Author: Bernd Rosen
176 pages
$19.95
Gambit Publishing (2003)
The next books are aimed at teaching the students by examples. The first is CHESS ENDGAME TRAINING by Bernd Rosen. This fairly basic book came out in German in 1995 with a second edition in 2001. A training book tends to be centered around exercises, and this book is no exception. Each chapter has examples (as many as 20) that emphasize particular themes, with the solutions at the end of the chapters. Rosen logically devotes the most time to pawn endings and rook endings, about half of the book. Those endings are not only frequent and fundamental, but they are more easily categorized than others. All of the most common endgame themes are illustrated, normally by master games and studies. Rosen used this material in courses about the endgame. I like this book and think that it’s best used by players who are no longer rank beginners but at any other level up to 1800 or so.
TEST YOUR ENDGAME THINKING
Author: Glenn Flear
Everyman Chess
$19.95
160 pages
TEST YOUR ENDGAME THINKING by Glenn Flear is similarly organized around exercises, with solutions in separate chapters at the end of the book (which is not very user-friendly). Right off we see that it is aimed at a higher-level audience, beginning with rather complicated tests of strategic thinking. Even the “Basic Endgame” chapter is well beyond what is usually associated with that term. Flear’s goal is to teach one how to think about endgames and develop a sense of strategy and planning in ones play. Unfortunately, I don’t see much of this beyond the first two excellent chapters, and the “hints” that accompany the later exercises in Chapters 4 and 5 (wrongly entitled “hints for Chapters 5 and 6”) are primarily one-line tips that have nothing to do with strategy. This is a well-written book, but I would recommend Flear’s earlier work IMPROVE YOUR ENDGAME PLAY, which includes more basic theory while examining endgame ideas in a more thematic fashion. That book has a great deal of briefer but clear and specific advice. Flear’s Mastering the Endgame is also a good choice, but it is a collection of endgames and a more advanced book that bypasses a lot of basic theory.
CHESS ENDINGS MADE SIMPLE
Author: Ian Snape
144 pages
Price: $19.95
Gambit Publications (paperback, 2003)
Ian Snape’s CHESS ENDINGS MADE SIMPLE is the most basic book in this list (Seirawan’s is comparable but lengthier). Even its considerable section of exercises from master games sticks closely to the basic endgames he discusses. That is unusual in an endgame book, where the exercises are usually far more difficult than the theory presented. Snapes begins with pawnless endgames, although he skips the basic mates and attacks the more difficult cases of the knight-and-bishop mating process, queen versus rook, and rook-and-bishop versus rook. Thus even this book is not appropriate for absolute beginners. But every elementary aspect of king-and-pawn endings is explained (opposition, triangulation, the square, etc.), and the most elementary endings with bishops (including those with the same and opposite colors) are covered clearly and simply. Similarly, rook-and-pawn endings are given a very brief but clear treatment, including even the Vancura position.
The only issue with CHESS ENDINGS MADE SIMPLE is that the material has been covered in so many books over the years, usually with a bit more depth. The range of players addressed seems to me to be from just past beginner to a developing player who is not ready for something like Rosen’s work above. This would be a good book for a teacher to use in a first course on endgames, depending upon whether he or she prefers Snape’s style over other books aimed at this level.
WINNING CHESS ENDINGS
Author: Yasser Seirawan
$19.95
239 pages
Everyman Chess
I have included the other two books on my list because they have their own admirable qualities. Yasser Seirawan’s WINNING CHESS ENDINGS is an excellent example of giving the absolute standard basic endings in a systematic fashion. It is well written and chatty, the key idea being to present “nothing but the facts”. Seirawan does cover some unique positions (e.g., queen-versus-queen with several pawns) and incorporates a discussion of the effect of computers. Nevertheless, the point of the book is to make a friendly presentation of everything the average player might need and thus provide a good reference book at the same time. An unpretentious and successful idea, and perfect for an instructional text.
MODERN ENDGAME PRACTICE
Authors: Beliavsky and Mikhalchishin
208 pages
$19.95
Batsford (2003)
Alexander Belyavsky and Adrian Mihalchishin have written a number of books that I haven’t liked, but their MODERN ENDGAME PRACTICE is an exception. With a host of great examples from master practice over the years, the authors show endings from the usual categories but also discuss some issues such as the realization of advantages, typical mistakes in various endgames, and mistakes that young players make. In general the book isn’t tightly organized and doesn’t deliver systematic theoretical instruction. What I really like is their extensive collection of master-level positions that were misplayed and the lessons to be learned from them. These are spread throughout every chapter of the book, with one chapter specifically entitled “Grandmaster Mistakes in the Endgame” and a short one called “Shameful Mistakes”! I enjoyed this book, which is made for a browser’s pleasure and edification.
Click if you would like to buy any of the following fine endgame books:
DVD - ENDGAME TURBO 2: NALIMOV TABLEBASES
ENDGAME CHALLENGE by John Nunn
CHESS ENDGAME TRAINING by Bernd Rosen
IMPROVE YOUR ENDGAME PLAY by Glenn Flear
MASTERING THE ENDGAME by Glenn Flear
CHESS ENDINGS MADE SIMPLE by Ian Snape
WINNING CHESS ENDINGS by Yasser Seirawan
MODERN ENDGAME PRACTICE by Beliavsky and Mikhalchishin
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