It’s fashionable these days to use a variety of symbols – such as light bulbs – to illustrate key concepts, but sometimes, as in this book, they simply go off in your head as the author explains an otherwise unappreciated concept. The author provides many kernels of knowledge and pearls of wisdom that can be unearthed by the reader willing to take the time to study this book.

International master Jacob Aagaard is a prolific author, and his earlier work, EXCELLING AT CHESS, won Chesscafe.com’s Book of the Year award. While I found that an interesting work, EXCELLING AT TECHNICAL CHESS has, to me at least, more practical application for the average player.

The focus here is on key endgame concepts that go beyond the basic rook and pawn or king and pawn endgame. The author mostly seeks to expand and mainstream certain concepts found in previous books, in particular Shereshevsky’s ENDGAME STRATEGY. As a side note, if you are not familiar with this closet classic, I would urge you to beg, borrow, or steal it – I believe that I learned more about planning and thinking in the late middlegame and early endgame from that book than any other.

Here, Aagaard spends most of his time discussing what he calls seven technical tools in the endgame – schematic thinking, weaknesses, domination, prevention of counterplay, passed pawns, arranging the pawns in the endgame, and what he calls “freaky aspects of the endgame.” This touches on zugzwang, stalemate, fortresses, attack on the king, and some other absurd examples. The most extensive coverage is given to weaknesses, where the author focuses on pawn weaknesses such as islands and doubled pawns. However, there are concepts covered here that players should know but likely have never seen elaborated, such as hooks, which are advanced pawns that allow a counter thrust, often from a pawn sacrifice, that open up the position behind the pawn. The author provides the sort of examples that will allow the attentive reader to build this concept into their own play.

This discussion was, for me, one of those light bulb examples I spoke about. I had a hard fought game several years ago against another master where my position as black seemed quite promising but quickly came unraveled after a g2-g4 pawn thrust exposed my f5 pawn as a hook that quickly opened lines to my detriment. At the time I chalked it up to a freak of nature, but I now understand that it was a well founded strategic concept, and I expect that I will be able to better use this knowledge in the future.

As noted previously, the author makes no pretense that these are new concepts.  Shereshevsky, for example, covered the concepts of creating two weaknesses and not hurrying, both of which are also found here. The author builds upon these and provides many concrete examples and useful explanation that should help the average player understand them and utilize them. 

For example, one of the extremely useful practical points the author makes is that it “it is not essential to have a winning position, it is sufficient to have winning chances.” All too often players disdain the opportunity to enter advantageous endgames or translate one type of advantage into another because there is no forced win. As the author shows through examples, the defense in these positions can be very difficult, and the side with the advantage often has several ways to continue to pose problems for the other player.  These are difficult positions to hold, especially in practice. If one learns nothing else from this book, it is a very useful lesson for tournament play.

While most of the book is spent covering the seven technical tools, there is both a more basic introductory chapter and a later discussion of more advanced concepts. The introduction touches on one key concept, that of keeping your strongest piece active.  While this is often a queen or rook, what sets the endgame apart is the fact that often it is the king. This is a fundamental concept that also gets overlooked by many players, but this book should help remedy that problem.

The final chapter touches on more advanced concepts, including a good discussion of the interplay between the bishop and knight in the endgame. As in the previous chapter, the examples are interesting and the author often presents the material in a fresh, conversational way.

One of the drawbacks of many instructional books is a tendency to use the same types of examples of the same types of concepts over and over. That is not the case here; in most cases, these topics have not been covered in other instructional books; even where they have, the author provides much practical guidance and examines the topics with more depth and perspective than is often found. In short, the author comes across as a teacher who respects his audience and doesn’t want to talk over their heads or down to their feet.  I think he does it just right.

In conclusion, this book fills a useful void for players who want to go beyond the simple basics of endgame theory and wish to learn more about the strategy of that part of the game. The concepts are nicely developed and explained, and there are lots of practical tips and ways of thinking to be found as well. This is an excellent look at an important part of the game that is sure to benefit the majority of players.