Of late, more attention has been paid to topics previously overlooked, and this and other works addresses endgames for the average player. CHESS ENDINGS MADE SIMPLE provides a stripped down version of the information necessary to play typical chess endings, and while other works may provide more content, this may be a practical choice for the time-challenged reader.

The author was active as an English junior player and now, years later, has resumed his chess activity and achieved the International Correspondence Chess Federation International Master title. He has also played in three British Championships.

According to the introduction, this book is targeted at those who would like to make a significant improvement in their endgame play and are willing to put in some time to do so, based on learning patterns, concepts, and plans rather than memorizing or calculating. To accomplish this, the book is split into two parts, with the first 83 pages devoted to the theory of various endgame types, and the next 49 devoted to 100 exercise positions and their solution.

The theory begins with certain pawnless endgames: mating with bishop and knight, queen versus rook, rook and bishop versus rook, and rook versus a minor piece. Given the audience, I was surprised that mating with two bishops was not included. As a side note, while all of the examples covered have merit, I have never had to contest either side of the bishop and knight mate, and I’ve occasionally wondered about players who have spent countless hours attempting to master it. On the other hand, I have been on both sides of rook and bishop versus rook, and it is not an easy defense, which this book confirms.

Brevity is the order of the day in the book’s theoretical discussions, and I was skeptical the author could pull off the second chapter, on king and pawn endgames, in 11 pages. I was pleasantly surprised by some of the useful information he provides. The basic discussion of the opposition was straightforward, with examples also explaining distant opposition, triangulation, tempo moves, and key squares.

The chapter also covered a variety of other necessary concepts, such as promotion tricks, entering the square, and “the shoulder charge” (a term I hadn’t previously come across). This is really an interference concept. As the author puts it, “as a general rule, if there are alternative routes that the king can take to a target square, it should take the route that most impedes the opposing king.” This is a useful and practical general rule that the author illustrates with a couple of examples. This is the sort of helpful guidance the book provides from time to time that can make a noticeable difference in the reader’s endgame play.

Generally, one gets the same brief but acceptable coverage of what’s important in later chapters as well. I was certain that key concepts would suffer in rook and pawn endgames covering just 23 pages, but I didn’t find too many glaring oversights. All the key positions – Lucena, Philidor, Saavedra’s underpromotion, Vancura, short and longside defenses, etc. – are covered with sufficient depth for the reader to get a basic grasp of their use. The author also explains key concepts relating to rook pawns, drawing ideas against multiple extra pawns, pawn advantages without passed pawns, etc. Some topics, such as rules relating to a cut off king, could use more coverage, but that’s the trade-off for keeping things simple.

The chapters are based on the type of piece(s) encountered. Particular attention is paid to the peculiar challenges each piece brings to the endgame – knight mobility, drawing patterns in opposite colored bishop endgames, perpetual check ideas in queen endgames, etc. While depth isn’t great, the breadth of practical examples and positions is reasonable for this type of work.

The abridged nature of this book, however, means that some important endgames are not addressed. These include pawn endgames with rook versus a minor piece (or pieces) and double rook endgames. With the rise in use of exchange sacrifices, rook versus minor piece endgames are becoming more common, and there are key defensive techniques that a player must know. Likewise, double rook endgames are fairly common and require the knowledge of various attacking and defensive schemes to be successful.

The exercises are useful and give the reader a chance to apply the concepts covered in the first part. Many are from high-level play, and it’s not unusual for even the world’s elite players to mess them up from time to time. In working through the exercises, I had my share of misses (I’ve made a mental note to brush up on distant opposition), which, for the earnest reader can use as clues on parts of chapters or specific examples to work through a second time.

Since endgame theory (at least at the basic level) isn’t really evolving much, the inevitable question will arise as to which of the several books geared toward this audience is best. In my opinion, there are niches that they can fall into. I really enjoyed Soltis’ GRANDMASTER SECRETS ENDINGS (Click to see Silman’s and Watson’s reviews of this book), but I think it works best for an older audience; it also provides more of the complex examples missing here but doesn’t have the breadth of basic coverage of Snape’s book. Alburt and Krogius’ JUST THE FACTS! is a much bigger book (over 400 pages) with lots of color, symbols, discussion, etc. I think it works for younger players or those willing to invest more time into endgame study (and the book!). Probably in between Snape’s and Alburt and Krogius’ (in terms of amount of coverage) is Flear’s MASTERING THE ENDGAME (click HERE to see Donaldson’s review of that book). In this case, all of these are good books and the reader won’t go too wrong by choosing any (but probably doesn’t need all) of them.

In conclusion, CHESS ENDINGS MADE SIMPLE provides brief but useful information on most key endgame concepts. Study of its theory and exercises should equip the average player with the basic knowledge necessary to advance this part of their game. While it is a start, its brevity requires sacrifices in terms of coverage, and endgame specialists and more advanced players (over 2000 ELO) should look elsewhere.

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