Musings on law, tech, chess & other topics by a geek

Finding good endgame books to study is tough.  There are a lot of useless endgame books out there that cover esoteric position you will never see in a real game.  There are also a lot of endgame books that do nothing to explain what is going on.  They will simply have long strings of moves followed by a +- symbol.  I need positions explained in plain English to learn chess.  Several years ago I found one book, that was recommended to me by Charles  Schulien, that was very good at explaining endgames in simple terms that book is Essential Chess Endings, Explained Move by Move Volume 1 Novice thru Intermediate by Jeremy Silman (PS Volume 2 is by another author and is junk).  Unfortunately the book tough to find and not great print quality.  When asked by a parent recently What to recommend I was lost until I noticed that Silman has completely redone the book in a much better format.  The new book is:

Silman’s Complete Endgame Course: From Beginner to Master is Great! The book is expanded to cover content from the very basic through master level and has very strong explanations and with stragies and lots of practical quizzes. Silman even covers how to use the book and at what levels to learn which parts. I recommend Silman’s Complete Endgame Course for players from just starting to 2200 ELO and to chess coaches.

One final note, unlike tactics endgames are tough to study on your own.  To study them right and learn you really need to practice them against someone.  Some people will swear by using a chess computer for this but I have to strongly disagree.  Ideally you want to find another chess player  to practice with, someone that will try different approaches and help translate the moves into strategies.  I will be adding two days a week  of endgame practice work to my chess study plan. If anyone wants to join me at a coffee shop here in Seattle to work through the first few chapters please ping me Brian at BrianRowe dot ORG,