English Chess Forum

Hi I am new to the Forum

Have been playing league chess for over 35 years but just one local tournament a year. I have suddenly got back into playing tournaments and have recently played two e2e4 tournaments (excellent events) where with the time controls of 30 second increments, you seem to play more proper endings.

Anyway to the point. My ending play is not to the standard of the rest of my game ( 170 s ecf) and I thought maybe its about time I improved it ( I did not even know in the endgame pawns should generally go on opposite colour to the bishop, I was putting them on the same colour to take squares away from the bishop as per middle game)

What training material , books , youtube videos , even online coaching would you recomnend to improve your endings . I am looking more general principles and instructional games rather than specific endings, but whatever you think is the best course. looking to spend say 2 hrs a week

David,
I`d be tempted to focus on your strengths...openning and middle game presumably. If you can gain sufficient advantage at these stages, then you may not need to chase end games.
However, the old addage...practice makes perfectus still stands.
Go online, and play in some of the tournaments.. I use Gameknot.com If you enter the `expert` sections of the monthly tournaments, you`ll meet quite strong opposition upto circa FIDE 2300...but generally nearer 1800 in early rounds.
You`ll get bags of practice on these..
There is an arguement for more `adjournments` in league chess...they would certainly give you some great endgame studies, and are much better than the present `shootout` lottery chess we now have in many league...but thats another topic.
Rejoin your local club to give you more OTB practice, and the chance to discuss chess with fellow players. Its always interesting at the end of a league match to watch games in progress.

I learnt most of my chess from Chessmaster. It's really good actually.

There is a book called the endgame manual, by a famous Russian author whose name I will not attempt to try and spell, which is regarded as one of the best endgame books ever written. I am sure it will soon be mentioned.

If you are not into reading (fewer people have the time or inclination for it these days) then I think chesstempo.com has some endgame puzzles you can do to help improve your play in a more fun way.

David Gostelow wrote: What training material , books , youtube videos , even online coaching would you recomnend to improve your endings . I am looking more general principles and instructional games rather than specific endings, but whatever you think is the best course. looking to spend say 2 hrs a week

Analysing your own games may help. It's something of an incentive to study when games that are equal become lost and games that are winning become drawn. It's an obvious thing to say, but if you play in adjudication leagues, you may rarely see an ending that has to be played out and the same applies in adjournment leagues if a result is agreed or conceded at the end of the first session.

As you suggest, increment games are more likely to result in endings being played to the bitter end as time shortage can force players to call off winning attempts in quick play finishes.

David Gostelow wrote:What training material , books , youtube videos , even online coaching would you recomnend to improve your endings . I am looking more general principles and instructional games rather than specific endings, but whatever you think is the best course. looking to spend say 2 hrs a week

I've been studying endings in earnest for a couple of years, spurred on by fellow forumite and clubmate, Jonathan Bryant, whose knowledge in this area is greater than mine.

A few book suggestions:
Mikhail Shereshevsky - Endgame Strategy. The seminal text to which many refer. Has chapters: "Do not hurry", "Schematic thinking", "The principle of two weaknesses"...
Muller and Pajeken - How to play Chess Endgames. Covers much of the same ground as Shereshevsky's book and more.
de la Villa - 100 Endings You Must Know. Great in concept and construction; lousy in writing (but still recommended).
Hawkins - From Amateur To IM. Goes deeply into a number of specific endings - such as rook and bishop vs. rook and 4 vs. 3 rook endings where one side has an outside passed pawn. Thoughtfully written and a pleasure to read.

Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual is a reference guide which many players cite. It's a bit dry and sometimes when I've referred to it I've found less than I wanted.

I found Rate Your Endgame by Edmar Mednis and Colin Crouch useful, along with Practical Chess Endings by Irving Chernev.

Angus French wrote:
Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual is a reference guide which many players cite. It's a bit dry and sometimes when I've referred to it I've found less than I wanted.

That's the one I was thinking of, good work on getting the spelling right, I can never do those crazy Russian words.

I think it was Cappablanca who said something like "always get up from the board and go for a walk before you begin to play the endgame". I think the point he was making is that it involves a different mindset to the middlegame, which is down to individual creativity in choosing a plan, in the endgame it generally pays to examine ALL possible moves if you have the time as most of the time there are forcing variations that can make the differences between wins and draws.

Basic Chess Endings by Reuben Fine is a good book. It would keep you busy for quite a while !

When teaching children I always find Pandofini's Endgame Course very useful. Well written and lively. Maybe not as thorough as Fine or Chernev but far more readable.

If you can still find it James Howell's book was the benchmark until DEM came out - and more readable than its successor.

Reading books on endings is all very well and good but if you're not the sort of person who likes a top-down approach it can be very unfulfilling.

What I prefer to do which is much more practical, is cull positions I reached from the start of an endgame from my own play. These can be with material imbalance (exch sac for pawn, piece for 2 pawns, whatever) or normal. And I make out like it's a final exam. So I open Notepad next to the board, and don't move the pieces.

But here's the thing. I don't just write reams of pseudo analysis.

I write down all my thoughts too. The plan of the position according to the imbalances, the feelings of what moves should be positionally desirable, etc. Then I use that to funnel my thoughts into analysing each candidate on 1. I branch out, mark potentially interesting lines, etc.

Then, and only then, do I set Deep Shredder 11 (a positionally oriented engine) to play the position out with me. It can be something long, say 90minutes for 30 moves, because if not at long time control, why do you even bother practising? The idea is to test out your best lines, and just do a few moves at a time, but keep the focus on HGIYC sort of analysis. That way I have been able to tell that often at the board, the pressure of the situation clouds my judgement, whereas in my comfy chair with music on, I can easily find the right moves. This sort of positive experience fosters greater knowledge by application, and as a backup, gives me some positional intuition to go on should I ever have to blitz an ending. The interesting bit is how quickly it changes your thought process - often within a few days I find my game has changed markedly for the experience, so I recommend only doing it a few days (maybe a week's worth at a time with a few positions) in a month or two

Barry Sandercock wrote:Basic Chess Endings by Reuben Fine is a good book. It would keep you busy for quite a while !

Yes, though outdated in some matters (obviously) it still has lots of good stuff in it that holds up just as well today. Recommended

Matt Mackenzie wrote:

Barry Sandercock wrote:Basic Chess Endings by Reuben Fine is a good book. It would keep you busy for quite a while !

Yes, though outdated in some matters (obviously) it still has lots of good stuff in it that holds up just as well today. Recommended

Benko revised, corrected, and updated it. And cast it into FAN. But it seems to be out of print.

There's a plethora of endgame books, any one of which is good enough to learn theory from -- Fine, Averbakh, Keres, Silman, Dvoretsky, Flear, Nunn, ....