Understanding Chess Endgames

Confused by the welter of endgame manuals out there? Frustrated, and perhaps bored, by the ones you have on your own shelf? THIS IS THE ONE YOU WANT! I haven't read the entire thing yet, but I have no doubt that I will, and that alone makes it an unusual endgame book. The only other one I've managed to get to the end of is Pandofini's Endgame Course, and that one is so filled with typos and errors that I can't really recommend it (unless you go online and find one of the pages with errata).I like this book because: 1) It is very clearly written, in the style Dr. Nunn is justly renowned for. 2) It's format is very conducive to study. There are two columns per page (print version). At the top of each column is a diagram, and under each diagram is an explanation, often quite detailed. Perfect for reviewing and quizzing yourself. The diagrams are grouped under topics such as "Two Bishops vs. Bishop and Knight," with generally four diagrams per topic on facing pages. 3) It is not and doesn't try to be encyclopedic. I won't come away from this book knowing everything there is to know about endgames, but I will come away from it knowing a whole lot more than I know now. Will I have a "master's knowledge" of endgames? I don't know. That would be for a master to say. 4) Many of the diagrams are from real games. To know that Smyslov or Botvinnik or Fischer or Anand or Alekhine or Petrosian once faced this very situation over the board keeps me motivated to understand it.It's taking me a long time to get through this book because it has piqued my motivation to actually learn endgames. I'll set the position up on a board, play through the notes supplied by Dr. Nunn, and often come away thinking, "Okay, but why can't Black just do this?" (Being from real games, some of the endgame situations are pretty complex.) And then I'll sit down and figure it out. Each time I come to one of those, I'll think, "Aha! I've got you this time!" But nope, not yet. I'm learning a lot.I like this book so much that I've subsequently bought Nunn's Understanding Chess Middlegames, which I've read a little of, and have high hopes for. I'll review it when I've read more of it. I bring this up because I'm going to make the obvious proposal. One could become quite an outstanding chess player, it seems to me, by reading nothing but books by John Nunn, including these two as well as Understanding Chess Move by Move, and (perhaps) John Nunn's Chess Course (I don't have this one yet so have only seen the preview). There is an obvious volume missing: Understanding Chess Openings.I know Dr. Nunn has written books on openings, including the well received NCO, but there are none in the style of Understanding Chess Endgames and UC Middlegames. In fact, I'm unaware of ANY opening book in this style. I'm not talking about books that plow through opening after opening and present the "ideas behind the Giuoco Piano" and then the "ideas behind the Two Knights Defence" and then the "ideas behind the Four Knights Game," etc. There are plenty of books like that. I mean a book that presents situations that are faced in the opening phase of the game, regardless of what the exact opening might be, and then explains what the significance of the situation is and how to deal with it. I have no idea what situations might be included (which is why I need the book!), but I suspect it might include things like developing with tempo, pawn tension in the center, exchanging a bishop for a knight, stonewall formations, and so forth. Surely, there are at least 100 of those!GMs and chess instructors are always telling us to study ideas and not opening variations, but then they give us books laden with variations! I'm getting so fed up with "variations" that I'm beginning to think it might be better if chess went the way of checkers, and at the beginning of the game you drew a card with the opening variation on it, real play taking up where that leaves off! Or maybe we should go to Fischer Random. (I'm a academic with an advanced degree in experimental psychology, and I DON'T LIKE TO MEMORIZE. Nor do I like my students to memorize. That's not learning!!)If anyone could write such a book and make it comprehensible to "lowly amateurs" such as myself, I bet it would be Dr. Nunn. So there you go. Don't tell me that wouldn't be a best seller!! And it would make a nice trilogy with UCM and UCE. (If it's been done, someone PLEASE clue me in!)

BACKGROUND: When I originally got this (2.5 years ago), I had only really been playing (a lot of) correspondence chess. I wasn't as serious of a player then, and at the time, I was merely looking for a book to give me some endgame pointers. As I had practically no chess literature experience then, I primarily got this on Nunn's authoring reputation alone.I'm now playing in USCF-rated tournaments and currently have a (still provisional) rating in the 2000s. Read around 20 chess books and have half-finished dozens of others. And I've now had considerable experience playing speed chess, first with some weaker club players, and eventually stronger ones.With time and experience, my opinion of this book has changed somewhat (for the worse).REVIEW: The book is designed to be an introduction to endgame basics. Hence, there's more breadth than depth of coverage: 100 endgame themes, each covering about 4 examples (some more, some less). Most important themes appear to be covered. Notable exceptions are some basic mating methods (King + Queen vs. King, King + Rook vs. King, King + 2 Bishops vs. King) and some rarer cases like 3 Minor Pieces vs. Queen scenarios.Each chapter starts with a 1-2 page summary of the important points discussed within.Mind you, for a book on endgame "basics", there are still quite a few technical details, especially if you're not used to endgame literature. But you'll undoubtedly come away having learned a lot.I learned, for example:1.) king + rook pawn vs. king is always a draw if the defending king can reach the queening square before the pawn.2.) it's usually better to have isolated, widely separated passed pawns in an opposite-color bishop endgame than it is to have connected passed pawns.3.) how to checkmate with king + knight + bishop vs. king.4.) how the 'wrong rook pawn' idea can sometimes be exploited to draw apparently hopeless-looking positions.In addition, Nunn's instructional style appears very down-to-earth. Indeed, most of his examples are culled from real games. While a handful of examples are contrived endgame studies, the overwhelming majority of theoretical examples cover absolute basics.COMPLAINTS:1.) Nunn doesn't use "key squares" to explain some very critical king and pawn endgame concepts. Although he changed this in his (more advanced) two volume series on endgames that he published after this, the omission here makes trying to understand his explanations unnecessarily more difficult. The book "Secrets of Pawn Endings" does a much better job of explaining the same concepts, for example.2.) His explanatory flow isn't as good as some other endgame books I've (now) gone through. "Silman's 'Complete' Endgame Course", for example, does a better job of explaining the Vancura Draw in rook endings, the key factors that make it work, and relating it to similar-looking (yet critically different) positions.3.) No exercises to test a reader's understanding of the endgame concepts discussed.CONCLUSION: For the money, this is a good endgame book, particularly for those in the 1300-2000 USCF rating range. Is it the best one that I've (now) read, though? No.Compared to competing titles, such as "Silman's 'Complete' Endgame Course" or Jesus de la Villa's "100 Endgames You Must Know", Silman's is probably all around the best and most helpful for the average club player. However, "Understanding Chess Endgames" does cover more 'complex' endings in addition to more complex (if also more esoteric) concepts, like the notoriously tricky bishop + knight checkmate.De la Villa's book is something of in-between in terms of its explanation quality, helpfulness, and depth of coverage compared to the aforementioned two books.So in general, I would advise most club players to AT LEAST get "Silman's 'Complete' Endgame Course" before getting this book, unless you're willing to sacrifice explanation quality and endgame exercises for more coverage of 'complex' endgames.4+/5

This book feels like a full treatise on endgames, with all the rules, tactics and strategies that go with it. I like that the book is arranged by the type of endgame (pawn endgames, Knights, etc). I have only completed pawn endgames but there are a lot of useful rules and ideas. Eg, if K and pawn on 6th rank, enemy king on 8th rank the outcome depends on who moves first, but if the pawn is on the 5th rank it is a win whoever moves first, and there is explanation to why this is the case.Ideas include like if you have a passed pawn on one wing, use that to distract the enemy king and then use your king to clean up the other pawns. Also in depth discussions of opposition, tempo (why it matters and how to use it) and triangulation. Actual endgames from tournaments are included along with the theoretical positions, and explanations of moves are given - how they demonstrate key points, and errors made and why they led to bad outcomes because they violated key principles that were given in the section.

Taught me many basics. I'm sure it goes well beyond this. Was recommended to me by a senior player as the basis for endgame play. I'm not dissapointed

A top grandmaster, Nunn is one of the clearest writers on chess today. In this ambitious work, he attempts to distill endgame knowledge---a field in which he is an acknowledged authority---into 100 basic position types, each with four detailed annotated examples. He covers the waterfront, from king and pawn v. king to tactical concepts such as forcing stalemate. The four examples of each theme are well chosen, starting with a simple illustration and moving on to three increasingly complex examples. This does not replace Fine or Mueller or for that matter Nunn's upcoming multi-volume series on the endgame. It does serve as an excellent overview of the essential material. It will probably be most useful to players below 2200 rating.

Entièrement satisfait de la version Kindle. Livre dont les diagrammes sont très clairs, les textes aérés. Le livre commence bien évidemment par un petit rappel des bases, puis les difficultés viennent au fur et à mesure. John Nunn reste une référence dans ce domaine. Je conseille vivement. Je n'attribue que 4 étoiles car, par principe, je considère que rien n'est parfait...L'application Kindle est un outil formidable permettant de télécharger des extraits du livre gratuitement afin de vérifier son contenu et la qualité de l'impression. Par la suite il nous est possible de télécharger toute l'oeuvre bien souvent à un prix très avantageux bien que pour certains livres, plus complexes, je privilégie la version papier. Je conseille donc aux internautes le téléchargement de l'appli. Kindle sur Amazon. De plus, elle est gratuite. J'espère que mes appréciations vous auront éclairé.

Zum ersten Mal habe ich ein Endspielbuch das nicht durch lange Ausschweifungen ermüdet sonderdie Themen gleich auf den Punkt bringt.Das Buch beginnt mit elementaren Einführungen zum Bauernendspiel die als Grundlagefür jeden Vereinsspieler zum "Standardwissen" zu empfehlen ist.Die Gliederung in Bauern-, Leichtfiguren-, Turm-, Mehrbauernendspiele ist sehr hilfreich, wobeiauch Dame gegen verschiedene andere Figuren (Ungleichgewicht) gezeigt wird.Ebenso wird das dynamische Gleichgewicht Figur gegen mehrere Bauern instruktiv dargelegt.Daher vergebe ich die beste Auszeichnung mit 5 Sternen.