Best endgame book?

Originally posted by gaychessplayer
Fine's book is a classic, but it it more of a reference book than a book to be read from cover to cover. (Although anybody who read the whole thing and understood it all would probably be about 2600-strength in the endgame.)

Yeah - this is exactly how I use Fine's book. Its a reference for how to play the vast majority of basic endings. For example, If I start getting close to a basic position here, I start using Fine's book to brush up on things.

Having said that, I learned most of my elementary endgame play (K vs. K+P, K+B, vs K+B+P, etc.) from Fine's book. I find it really hard to follow for more complicated endings, especially in king + rook endings

Originally posted by emperor31
hey paul,

How did the Speelman books change your thinking? That's a very interesting line and if you've got the time, I'd like to hear more.

The first thing that interested me about Speelman's approach was his section V of Endgame Preparation. It's only 5 pages or so, but he offers guidelines about how to approach, and what to think about, in endings.

He offers very simple but cogent "one liners" about material imbalances, the theory of corresponding squares (which he covered in detail earlier in the book- the first time I had been exposed to the subject), hoarding tempi, approaches to defending in the endgame, attitudes on how to approach typical pawn structures, and a host of other ideas.


All of the previous endgame books basically just broke down endings into categories and then covered them in sections. GM Speelman's approach was far more holistic- it was like he had stepped back to talk about the endgame in the abstract, and then demonstrated how those abstractions manifest themselves in practical endings.

It was the first time I had thought about the endgame in the abstract, rather than "in this position I do this" kind of stuff.

It was his second book- the first was Analyzing the Endgame, and in that book he gave examples of endgame analysis, part of which included analysis of very specific endings- one was the first Spassky-Fischer game from their first match.

Some of it is dated in that he "did by hand" what computers can now do at the push of a button, but is was reading about his thinking and approach to the ending that I learned so much. He didn't just give the answer; he actually demonstrated his method for how he approached the ending, from his initial ideas to the end of his analysis.

Speelman himself said that the first book was a "collection of analytical dishes" while the second was a "catalogue of cooking methods", and the description is apt.

Hope this helps!

Originally posted by Erekose
Yeah - this is exactly how I use Fine's book. Its a reference for how to play the vast majority of basic endings. For example, If I start getting close to a basic position here, I start using Fine's book to brush up on things.

Having said that, I learned most of my elementary endgame play (K vs. K+P, K+B, vs K+B+P, etc.) from Fine's book. I find it really hard to follow for more complicated endings, especially in king + rook endings

Amazingly, Fine whipped out BCE in three months.

Originally posted by tonytiger41
Amazingly, Fine whipped out BCE in three months.

Fine was an unappreciated genius!

Silman's Complete Endgame Course, hands down