Endgame Strategy

by Mikhail Shereshevsky

Shereshevsky's masterful guide to endgame play is an essential work for every aspiring player. Using classic examples from grandmaster practice, together with modern illustrations and instructive games by lesser-known players, Shereshevsky lucidly explains the basic principles of the endgame: king centralization, the role of pawns, exchanging pieces, suppressing counterplay, two weaknesses, and much more.

Genres: Chess, Games, Reference

228 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

To provide to soviet masters a good reference book about all the endgames, GM Yuri Averbakh (together with a couple of associates) was assigned to create five books (year-by-year), famously known as "the yellow books", which covered all the theoretically relevant endgames.
Shereshevsky's book was considered as "the missing 6th book", and if I remember well, Kasparov considered this book as one of the most important books in the history of chess.

[Evan Seghers · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first read this book, I hated it. I couldn't really say why, I just didn't think the examples were very instructive, because they weren't 'concrete' enough. It spoke to the endgame in general concepts, rather than the brute knowledge/memorization that I thought was needed.

Then 2 weeks after I read this book, I won a local tournament scoring 4/4, all 4 games conversions from drawn endgames into wins. I'm not really sure what messages really sunk in, but I feel better at endgames now. So I guess I'm an idiot, and this is a really great book.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book for how to play late middlegames/early endgames with several sets of pieces of the board. The author does a great job going through some common strategies as highlighted in several games.

[Keith Samuel Lim Zhi Wei · Rating 5 out of 5]

very clear explanation.

[Isha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic book recommended for every chess player.

[Hydra · Rating 5 out of 5]

All-time classic, gives you valuable insight in the endgame.

[Serge Pierro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having always been a fan of endgame play, I was always on the look out for books devoted to the subject. This book by Shereshevsky is one of the better ones. This isn't a beginners tome on the standard postions, but a strategic guide to playing endgames.

[Gabriel Victor]

Nice book...