Practical Chess Endings: A Basic Guide to Endgame Strategy for the Beginner and the More Advanced Chess Player

by Irving Chernev

300 practical endgame situations, ranging from very simple to masterpieces by Capablanca, Reti, Tarrasch, Lasker, more.

Genres: Chess

318 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1961

Reviews

[Serge Pierro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chernev takes a slightly different approach to teaching chess endings, as this book deals more with practical positions that might show up in real games, compared to theoretical/composed problems that a player may never see in the course of his playing career. Good examples throughout. Unfortunately it is in descriptive notation.

[Thomas Radigan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Learning King and Pawn endings is actually a must for novice chess players, for they teach principles in a simple way without extraneous material. You learn how the King can be a fighting piece, and how the lowly Pawn can become valuable by promotion, and how position can be more important that material value, and how you can play and think you are winning until...oops.

Much of the book involves King and Pawn endings, though the rest entails endings with other pieces. Even when you have a Queen, it takes care to actually win against an opponent with a Pawn on the seventh rank and about to Queen. Some basic principles are taught in many of these situations.

The book isn't perfect; there are obviously contrived "artistic" endings and those which may not hold up under careful analysis, and the book fails to tell the most basic lessons such as how a King and Queen or King and Rook can force checkmate. Still a worthy addition to any chess book collection.

[Mark Kaprielian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the book that will help you get a feel for dealing with pawn endings. It is very easy to read and is very concise. It has example after example of various pawn endings, and chapters with a minor piece is involved.

One of this books best features is that it shows the best moves for the defending side as well.

The book comes in both descriptive and algebraic notation so be careful which you are getting.

This book gave me a solid foundation for endgame play. I re-read it about once a year.