The endgame is the most important phase to improve on and yet is one of the most difficult studies to absorb as a beginner. Many novices struggle in learning basic theoretical endings. This is understandable since the endgame contains the very essence of chess (which is naturally complicated).
This is why having additional resources like a book can help you a lot when studying endgames, since it is so rudimentary having excessive knowledge can really bring in the results. I have compiled the best endgame books that you can find in the market, keep on reading if you want to improve in the endgame.
Table of Contents
Endgame book #1: Mastering the Endgame by Glenn Flear
This one is a more straightforward book with several illustrations and positional examples at every turn and I highly recommend this one, if you want to study theoretical endings then this is something to consider. This is probably the one you should go for early in the process since it covers the basics, but for advanced endgame studies you should choose another book.
This book provides eager students with the opportunity to strengthen their grasp of the endgame. It continues to explore topics that were already discussed by many books but not detailed enough.
Grandmaster Glenn Flear builds on principles he introduced in his former book, Improve Your Endgame Play, to create a book that is suited for coping to one of the most challenging parts of the game: the endgame. Drawing up a deep knowledge of the fundamental themes in the endgame generally takes several years of learning and actual play practice to achieve.
Throughout this book, Glenn Flear conveys this information to the student in a straightforward and digestible manner. This book outlines the theoretical principles that underlay all significant endgames; many test situations let readers to measure their progress; and a new layout enables readers to grasp the most essential concepts more effectively.
In addition to being a Grandmaster, Glenn Flear has a wealth of match experience and is the writer of several chess publications. His straightforward insights and uncomplicated style of writing make his books approachable to people of all skill levels. He has previously written for Everyman in the form of Improve Your Endgame Play and The Offbeat Spanish, among other titles.
Endgame book #2: Basic Chess Endings by Reuben Fine
If you find the above book difficult to absorb then this one will help you understand the most basic of ideas even without much prior experience. I understand that many beginners cannot comprehend complicated ideas since they still don’t have the intuition to completely grasp the concepts; this book is a more simplified version that may become more helpful.
Developed by International Grandmaster Reuben Fine and published in 1996, Basic Chess Endings is perhaps the most comprehensive book on endgame strategy and tactics. Advanced students of the sport will find this study to be unparalleled in terms of depth and scope.
Grandmaster Pal Benko has updated this classic with the most recent developments in the endgame and modified the book to algebraic notation, which is now available. The ultimate product is exactly what chess enthusiasts have been waiting for: a totally updated guide to the fundamentals of chess endings.
Basic Chess Endings is a pragmatic handbook for the realistic player, and it concentrates on the parts of the endgame that happen most often over the course of the game. It fosters awareness of the conventional posture and time-tested norms via the use of straightforward language. Plenty of illustrations make it simple to follow along with examples. Every chess player should have a copy of this book on hand.
This is the ultimate book on the endgame, and it has been a long time coming. All high achievers of the sport have been looking forward to it. Offered in concise, straightforward language and replete with memorable words, it is a phenomenal achievement in chess knowledge, and it is delivered to the reader at just the right time to assist the stressed competitor.
Endgame book #3: Fundamental Chess Endings by Karsten Muller
This book about the endgame is a little bit advanced, if you’re looking to step up your game then this is the one to go for. The authors of this book are endgame specialists and have crafted the material with advanced students in mind, leveling up your game will be much easier with this resource.
Two German endgame specialists have collaborated on a masterful one-volume compendium that includes all significant endgames, marking a watershed moment in the history of chess publication.
It’s the first genuinely contemporary endgame encyclopedia published in a single book. Endgame tablebases and computational engines that handle these tablebases are fully used; when earlier writers could only offer informed estimates, Müller and Lamprecht were sometimes able to proclaim the final truth, or go far closer to it.
Because new time constraints require competitive games to be played to a conclusion in a single session, it is extremely necessary for chess players to be familiar with the fundamentals of the endgame. This book is a thorough resource for those who want to learn more about the endgame.
While providing an abundance of technical analysis, the authors also stress the need of being practical when it comes to endgame play, giving general guidelines, general concepts and general thinking techniques.
Fundamental Chess Endings is both the ultimate endgame guide book and a reference that could be reviewed from beginning to end. It is divided into three sections: 1. Notably, current World Champion Magnus Carlsen spent a significant amount of time studying this same book during his formative years.
Karsten Müller is a grandmaster from Germany who participates on a regular basis in the Bundesliga as well as in international chess championships. In 1996, he placed third in the German Championship, and he came in second the following year.
He is well regarded as an expert in both conceptual and technical endgames. Frank Lamprecht, who is also from Germany, is regarded as a world-class martial artist. The author of Secrets of Pawn Endings (co-authored with Karsten Müller), he has been training chess players since 1983. He has also published many books on chess strategy.
Endgame book #4: Endgame Manual by Dvoretsky
As soon as it was released, Dvoretsk’s Endgame Manual was quickly acknowledged as one of the greatest works on the endgame ever written, attracting the attention of both beginners and experts alike.
It now has almost 400 pages of content in its third version, which has been rewritten and expanded to include all of the most crucial ideas for endgame mastery.
Mark Dvoretsky is widely regarded as the top chess coach in the world today, according to numerous experts. His chess books are always among the best-selling titles in the world of chess. He has worked with a large number of world champions, international masters, and grandmasters during his career.
Reading throughout this book will undoubtedly increase your endgame understanding, but it will also greatly enhance your ability to quantify variations, which is very crucial.What particularly strikes me about the book is the kind of in-depth research it contains. All I have to say is that this is an excellent book.
Endgame book #5: Complete Endgame Course by Silman
For more than a century, the world’s finest chess players and coaches have emphasized the importance of studying the endgame to their pupils. Using this book, instructors will teach players everything they need to grasp at their present rating level, and they will improve on that information for each defined stages of the player’s progression.
Jeremy Silman is an International Master, as well as an international instructor, speaker, and chess competitor who has earned the American Open, the National Open, and the U.S. Open.
He is also a member of the International Masters Association. He is the author of more than thirty-six popular publications, including How to Reassess Your Chess (which is unanimously regarded as a contemporary classic), The Amateur’s Mind, The Complete Book of Chess Strategy, and The Reassess Your Chess Workbook.
He is a member of the Chess Writers Association of America. Instruction for chess players, book reviews, theoretical essays, and specifics of his work on the production of the chess sequence in the film Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone are all available to visitors.
Endgame book #6: Grandmaster Secrets/Endings by Soltis
Soltis employs a Socratic teacher-student method in the personas of GM Noah Tall and Pat Sayre, focusing his remarks on the following topics: the different pieces, tactics, intentions, imbalances, norms, and how to get going, all addressed from the viewpoint of a chess grandmaster.
With many visuals and activities, everyone can learn the ideas more quickly, allowing you to make significant progress in a shorter period of time. Charts, graphs, and commented samples in algebraic notation will enhance your reading enjoyment by providing more information.
GM Andrew Soltis, who resides in New York, is among the most well-known writers in the United States, having written a slew of chess books that have become classics. In addition, he writes a chess weekly for the New York Times.
Endgame book #7: Capablanca’s best chess endings
Chess endings feature a sense of immediacy that is missing in chess endgames or chess problems: they are not conceptual or constructed situations, but real board positions, the moment in every match when the unnecessary is removed, leaving just the essential, as is the case with chess struggles.
José Ral Capablanca (1888–1942) did not need discrete creative theories or compositions; instead, he produced and developed chess art while he was actively playing the game of chess.
In his endings, he expresses his brilliance in all of its forms: intuitive, tactical, strategic, logical, and all of his art, as he himself was happy to announce, recommending people to pay close attention to them.
According to him, in order to develop your game, you must first study the endgame. “While the endings may be studied and learned on their own, the middle game and the opening should be examined and perfected in connection to the endgame,” he said.
Following Capablanca’s instruction is made easier by reading this book, which is the only one dedicated to his famous finishes. It has 60 full games, with an emphasis on the big conclusion but with annotations throughout.
When Irving Chernev writes about chess, he conveys the sense of mystery and amazement as well as the joy that comes from uncovering the unique, inventive mind of chess’s best born player again and again.
In his match and tournament games and finishes versus Alekhine, Steiner, Nimzowitsch, Lasker, Réti, and others, he has been praised for his “virtuoso,” “exquisite,” “deep,” “inspiring,” “beautiful,” and “devious inventiveness,” among other adjectives.
In his eleventh game in the 1901 Cuban championship (which he won at the age of 12), Capablanca outperformed “such other geniuses as Morphy, Reshevsky, and Fischer.” From age 12 into the last match in the book (a nearly four-decade-old match against Reshevsky at Nottingham, 1936), Capablanca creates endgames in a strained tournament ambience that appear like sensitive, accurate instruments dreamed up at leisure.
So, here is the core of Capablanca, broken down and studied for the benefit of chess players and the enjoyment of chess lovers. In addition to opening indexes, themes in the endings indexes, and opponents indexes, there is a bibliography as well as a history of competition and match performance. Capablanca is regarded as the pinnacle of the endgame by players, and as a fundamental chess study by readers.
At its core the endgame is probably the most important phase in the game of chess double iphone connect cell in the endgame they probably can do well in other phases that they may not have directly studied. This is why I recommend studying the endgame before anything else.
The books mentioned here will surely propel you to new heights as long as you use them correctly, it is important to note that you as a reader also have a role to play in making the objective successful. That is all for this article, thank you for reading.
