100 Endgames You Must Know<\/em><\/a>. This is a simpler, earlier-stage companion, written for players who found that book too advanced or who have never studied endgames. If you already handle basic theoretical endings comfortably, the original is the more appropriate book.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nDe la Villa comments about his reasons for writing the current book as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA frequent suggestion is that [100 Endgames You Must Know] could have been simpler. In fact, when I put it together, it was my intention that it should be simpler than the ones I had studied, but clearly it is very advanced for those who are just starting out in the world of chess, or who have never studied endgame theory.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nFrom those considerations, and at the suggestion of my editor, who also thought that it was a good idea, there has emerged the need to make this new book, in which I\u2019m attempting to compile the 100 most basic endings which are at the same time the most useful in practice.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nRegarding the content of the book, the author writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMost of the endings we are going to study are very basic. They are ones that an experienced player can handle, or should be able to handle, with ease, and which are essential to know, in order:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n1)\u2002not to suffer continual disappointments through being unable to exploit advantages accumulated in the middlegame; and<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n2)\u2002more importantly, not to face the simplification stage with uncertainty.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nThis book is the basic endgame survival kit.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
What’s Inside – Contents<\/h3>\n 17 chapters, closing with a basic-level exercise set · 248 pages<\/p>\n
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\n \n \n Introduction<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n \n Chapter 1<\/td>\n Mating the lone king<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n \n Chapter 2<\/td>\n The struggle between two lone queens<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n \n Chapter 3<\/td>\n The battle of the pieces with no pawns<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n \n Chapter 4<\/td>\n Pawn endings: king and pawn vs king<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n \n Chapter 5<\/td>\n King and two pawns against king<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n \n Chapter 6<\/td>\n Pawn endings: blocked pawns<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n \n Chapter 7<\/td>\n Pawn endings: passed pawns<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n \n Chapter 8<\/td>\n Pawn endings: advanced concepts<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n \n Chapter 9<\/td>\n Queen vs pawn<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n \n Chapter 10<\/td>\n Minor piece and pawn against lone king<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n \n Chapter 11<\/td>\n Fortresses<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n \n Chapter 12<\/td>\n Rook against pawns<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n \n Chapter 13<\/td>\n Minor piece against pawn<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n \n Chapter 14<\/td>\n Rook endings<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n \n Chapter 15<\/td>\n Opposite-coloured bishops<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n \n Chapter 16<\/td>\n Bishops of the same colour<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n \n Chapter 17<\/td>\n Exercises \u2013 basic level<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n \n Colophon<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n <\/tbody>\n <\/table>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nAs can be seen from the Table of Contents above, the book starts with the basic task of mating the lone king, and how this can be done easily and efficiently. Interestingly, the checkmating technique with a bishop and knight is not covered, presumably because it is too complicated for beginners.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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One scope note.<\/b> The book deliberately leaves out the bishop-and-knight checkmate, presumably as too complex for a beginner audience. If you want that particular technique, you will need another source.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
The author has included some key features in the book that enhance its use as a teaching tool. Each chapter starts with an introduction to the material to be covered, and conclusion sections are included as appropriate to summarise the contents of the chapters. Another important feature of the book is the inclusion of suggested Elo ratings and levels of usefulness of the examples. He writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEach chapter opens with a very brief introduction, to put us in the right frame of mind to begin. In it, I classify the level of complexity and usefulness of the endings in that chapter. I shall divide the level into Low (up to 1000 Elo rating), Medium (between 1000 and 1500) and High (above 1500), but in some cases there is a further assessment. The usefulness is\u00a0Maximum\u00a0<\/strong>(when it is not possible to play without knowing these positions),\u00a0High\u00a0<\/strong>(when you are going to come across them frequently or when they are necessary in order to understand others),\u00a0Medium\u00a0<\/strong>(when you will normally encounter them only occasionally) and\u00a0Low\u00a0<\/strong>(when they don\u2019t occur often but are useful in order to have an overview of endgame theory and to facilitate the study of other endings in the future).\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nEach chapter uses the above classifications to categorise the examples in the chapter, so that readers can focus on the essential examples in a first reading of the chapter and later expand their knowledge of the material as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The book includes statistics on how common each ending is and how players performed (win\/loss\/draw) when playing the endings in practice. The final chapter contains 92 test positions for readers to solve. These are split into four levels, and detailed solutions are given.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As expected from the author, the annotations in the book are very well done and contain a good balance of verbal and analytical commentary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two examples from the book are given below, with annotations from the book. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe author introduces the first example as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn the struggle of rook against pawn, there is one position (or three \u2018twin\u2019 positions, as we understand it) which makes the calculation much easier, and which is reached in a large number of cases…<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe result in this easy-to-remember position has no exceptions (although there are a few different manoeuvres, according to the file where the pawn is situated). That\u2019s why it\u2019s so useful to understand it well.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe key principle is: if it\u2019s the side with the rook to move, and he can give check with the rook on the file, then he wins. But if it\u2019s the side with the pawn to move, then it\u2019s a draw.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n
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