Understanding Chess Endgames

by John Nunn

Featuring the 100 most important endgame ideasNew interactive ebook every diagram is also a link to a lichess analysis board!One of the world's foremost chess writers provides everything you need to know about chess endgames!Assuming no specialized endgame knowledge, John Nunn presents 100 key endgame concepts, and explains how they are used to win games or save difficult positions. He covers all the main types of endgames and typical thinking methods, and so equips readers with all the skills needed to excel in this vital phase of the game up to good club level and beyond.The endgame is the stage of the game where precision is most important, and where errors are punished most drastically. It is also many endgame positions look too simple to require prior knowledge, but yet contain fiendish concealed pitfalls that can reverse the result of the game on the spot. Some key positions simply have to be memorized, as they can hardly be worked out at the board, especially when playing with today's faster time-controls.In such perilous terrain, an expert guide is necessary. John Nunn could not be better he is a battle-hardened grandmaster of top-level over-the-board chess and a solving world champion. From his wealth of endgame expertise, he has distilled a course of fundamental knowledge that is highly targeted on practical success for all levels of players.Dr John Nunn is one of the best-respected figures in world chess. He was among the world's leading grandmasters for nearly twenty years, winning four gold medals in chess Olympiads and finishing sixth overall in the World Cup in 1989. He is a much-acclaimed writer, whose works have won 'Book of the Year' awards in several countries. In 2004, 2007 and 2010 Nunn was crowned World Chess Solving Champion, ahead of many former champions."If there is ever to be someone to teach us the endgame, it is going to be John Nunn. Anyone who absorbs the contents of this book could well save some bad or even lost positions. Beautifully produced, and with lots of diagrams" - Bab Wilders, Nederlands Dagblad"a wonderful presentation of 100 key endgame ideas" - GM Lubomir Kavalek, Huffington Post"There's some excellent material on offer and I think players of all levels will benefit from reading this" - GM Stephen Gordon

Genres: Chess, Reference

897 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

John Denis Martin Nunn is an English chess grandmaster, a three-time world champion in chess problem solving, a chess writer and publisher, and a mathematician. He is one of England's strongest chess players and once was in the world's top ten.

Reviews

[TheF7Pawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nunn has written a wonderful endgame manual which is organized thematically. Here you will learn how to play endings ranging from simple and symmetrical king and pawn ending to more complex and materially-unbalanced situations. There are 100 total “ideas” which consist, generally, of four well-organized examples. Thus, the reader confronts a new idea every two pages. This keeps the book moving at a rapid and pleasant pace, although the curious reader could start and stop the book at any given location and pick up valuable lessons on how to play a particular position. Nunn generally opens each chapter with a broad explanation of winning or drawing techniques and then provides a series of examples and variants to illustrate the point. The examples are mostly from grandmaster practice and are well-annotated by the author, although he occasionally has to use long annotations to demonstrate how one player should have played. Nevertheless, this book is well worthwhile for either deep study, reference, or just casual perusal. Highly recommended.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before one start to work on Nunn's Chess Endings (Vol 1 & 2), this introduction is a must-read.
Even if you have already red a similar introduction to the endgames - it's a good habit to repeat the basics throuhg a new material (and Nunn is known as a writer who hates to use the 'overused' examples).
Maybe some chapters are redundant (the author was obviously trying to reach the 'magic number' of 100 chapters), but that doesn't spoil the overall very positive impression about this book.
On the positive side of the book, I would like to point out a rook endgame from the page 138. In the game Rochev-Nunn (Bunratty 2000) White made a mistake by misplacing his king.
The very same mistake Black made in the game Jovanic vs Dizdar (Croatian 1st league, 2010) - a clear proof that some mistakes appear time and time again (even among the GMs).

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Organized around 100 "ideas" this is a great book to pick up and study in bite-sized chunks as each section is a couple of pages and lets you quickly work through a few thematic and instructive examples.

[Dieter · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful book! It has been my steady companion over the past three months, during which I studied it carefully from cover to cover—thinking through each position before checking the solution, and replaying the more complex or longer endings on a physical board.

I am currently rated 1900 FIDE and already had a fair amount of endgame knowledge from various sources over the years. Philidor, Lucena, and Vancura positions were familiar to me, I could execute the knight-and-bishop mate, and I knew a handful of king-and-pawn endings.

Nevertheless, this book taught me a great deal. It filled many gaps in my knowledge—especially in queen endings—and the clear, insightful explanations often gave me genuine “aha” moments. A major strength is that most examples come from real tournament practice, which indirectly improved my practical endgame skills (e.g. patience, king activity, piece coordination).

Working through the material, reflecting on the concepts, and linking endgame themes back to middlegame positions has also deepened my overall chess understanding. In my own games, I now think more consciously about possible endgames when considering pawn structure changes, liquidations, or exchanges.

The results have been tangible: my online ratings have reached new highs, with my Chess.com rapid rating climbing by about 100 points to 2100 in the past three months—a development I doubt is coincidental.

We are fortunate that such a strong and accomplished player has devoted so much energy to writing. John Nunn’s didactic clarity, combined with his witty, no-nonsense style and willingness to tackle complex material, makes him my favorite chess author at present.

Thank you, Dr. Nunn, for this outstanding book. I can’t get enough—now on to Understanding Chess Middlegames!