Understanding Chess Endgames

by John Nunn

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.

Genres: Chess, Reference

224 pages, Paperback

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.

[Ken Jensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book on chess endgames. An eye opener.