Winning Chess Endings

by Yasser Seirawan

Winning Chess Endings teaches endgame strategies in an exciting new way--by putting the player in the middle of the action with firsthand stories taken directly from famous matches. Pull up a chair and watch the world's most exciting chess endings. Then become an endgame master!

Winning Chess Endings explains how
*Relentlessly find checkmates, from easy to hard, in all basic endgame patterns
*Master the intricacies of King and Pawn Endings
*Win consistently in the most common endgame--the Rook ending
*Master the pros and cons of Bishop vs. Knight Endgames
*Seize the advantage in Rook Pawn and Queen Pawn endings
*Play like a grandmaster in solitaire endings

Genres: Chess, Nonfiction, Reference

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Yasser Seirawan is an American chess grandmaster and four-time United States champion. He is a published chess author and commentator. His peak FIDE rating was 2658, which he reached in November, 2011.

Reviews

[Murilo Andrade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good introduction to chess endings. It is not meant to be complete or to be used as a manual, but rather to serve as an introducion to main ideas in chess endings

As usual, GM Seirawan dissects chess positions with his traditional sense of humour and anecdotes. It is excellent as a first reading in chess endings. In my opinion this books lacks tests and quizzes, as endgames is all about practice, and the number of tests is by no means comprehensive.

Very easy to read, great for <1800 rating players.

[JHB · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not finish this, as the bug to study and improve at chess has left me for now. I love Yasser’s Winning Chess series though

[William Herbst · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of the earlier material in the book was helpful to my game but the later chapters on the more complex endings make my head spin and I'm afraid I get lost in the endless lines of variations.

[Ricky Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read lots and lots of chess books and Yasser Seirawan approach is by far the best I've read or come across.

Seirawan does not try to show you just how smart he is by throwing in all kinds of silly chess lingo.

Many chess expert love to hear themselves talk and it shows in their books. This comes off conceited, boring and exhausting as they ramble on and on in their books.

Another huge advantage of Seirawan book is he teaches you many moves that require almost zero memorization (most chess books require that you memorize countless moves). You can put these new moves to use right away and immediately see the results/advantage and the positive outcomes you gained!

Seirawan gets' right to the point and does not hold back on the many mistakes he's made on his way to learning the game and becoming the Grand Master he is today.

Most of us can relate to these mistake on our own adventures to learning to master one of the greatest game ever invented.

[Felipe Vidal Ekelund · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is required to any player above 1500 Elo, Yasser is a great author and the book is easy to read and full with anecdotes from him and his colleagues, therefore its enjoyable to read, i might add that in the end i was a bit overwhelmed with the extension on like rook against minor pieces examples and such, but the fundamental endgames are there and with very good notions i can say this is a worth-reading book.
Most of the ideas are sublime and they will help your endgames, loved the Bent Larsen one, with adjournment and all.
Now stepping on Capablanca's Best Chess Endings.

[JStanz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad endgame book, not a particularly good one either though, I thought. A big fan of this author, a couple of his books were so good that I expected them All to be.
Endgame books are a difficult challenge for any author. The depth of (most) any endgame seems to be infinite, how are you supposed to turn out a thorough and complete product? And whatever stone you fail to upturn, there's gonna be some vital stuff under there.

[Erman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Satrançta en azından 'yarı-profesyonel' seviyeye ulaşmış birine katabileceği şeyler sınırlı olsa bile, 'usta' olmaya 1 milyon ışık yılı mesafedeki biz faniler için oyun sonlarını değerlendirmek adına gayet faydalı bir başlangıç tabağı.

[Alberto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding ending book for beginners up to maybe 1600 ratings. Goes into a lot of really important positions. Best book in the series.

[Marwan Al Mounajjed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yasser is the keanu reeves of chess

[Lucas Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent. As a rule I'm not doing 5/5 for chess books but this is the highest quality rating I'm willing to give.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

The very BEST book on endings (and in fact one the the very best chess books of all time) is Jeremy Silman's Complete Endgame Course. BUT, thorough and effective though it is, you will find no discussion in it about mating a lone King with two Bishops (not as hard as you've heard...I can do it in my sleep now), or mating a lone King with a Bishop and a Knight (widely regarded as the hardest thing to do in chess…I STILL can't do it.) They are two extremely rare endings that--the story goes--even GMs might never need in a multi-decade chess playing career*. But in that rarity lies their appeal, and Seirawan's book discusses them! (Early, and at some length, I might add.) That alone was worth the purchase price for me.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
*You often hear about how rare this position is. But listen…to this: After administering an End-Of-Year state exam to a small class (this was June 10, 2015) a ninth-grader with decent knowledge of the game (probably about ELO 1000) was playing a complete novice, and was mere moves away from finishing her off when her ride arrived and she had to leave. The freshman clearly wanted his win and asked if I would take over for the departed girl, and I agreed. She'd left me with a Rook, a Knight, a Bishop, and a pawn, vs. his Queen, at least one Rook, maybe two Bishops, a least one Knight and a host of pawns. On a good day I'm about 1300-1350, but most of the time I play students, and they are often intimidated by the fact that they're playing a 50 year old chess coach. This freshman wasn't intimidated in the least, but neither was he especially familiar with basic tactical patterns. A few skewers and knight-forks later and I'd relieved him of all his pieces and pawns. (In truth, I relieved him of maybe half. The other half he simply gave away.) The difference in our abilities notwithstanding, it was a pretty cool comeback, and several other kids had gathered to see it unfold. Yet when the smoke cleared, it was *I* who had lost focus: by not protecting the one pawn I had, I had no hope of finishing the game, for I was indeed left with nothing but: you guessed it! Any disappointment I might have felt for blowing what should have been a crazy comeback win was obliterated by the realization that this position that I've been told I'd never see…I saw! (As I told the kid: "Let's call it a draw. There's a way to checkmate you with just these two pieces, but I sure don't know it!")

[Mihir Kumar · Rating 5 out of 5]

The plot thickens -- this is a very popular end game book , and now I know the reason . The Author explains the principles , gives some highly inspiring examples and then goes on to give sample cases.

It is interesting to note that seemingly simple positions are rich with complications !!

I dont think I will ever finish the book -- I mean every time I read it -- I still read it