Silman's Complete Endgame Course: From Beginner to Master

Jeremy does a great job of making end games understandable. From the simple to the complex he covers the fundamentals you need for end game play He does not cover bishop and knight versus king as this ending is rarely seen and most players never experience it. The book is broken down by rating level, so you can start with beginner fundamentals and work your way up through the complex endings that can occur at higher levels.

First let me say that some of the criticisms others have mentioned are true. As Mr. Harding says, this book doesn't have many examples of more complex endings. Ideas like pawn breakthroughs, etc. are certainly covered in this book, but until you see them in more complex settings you probably won't fully appreciate the concept. Van Perlo's book "Endgame Tactics" covers this kind of thing much better. I guess it can be said that this is a book about theoretical endgames. Its true that there are other kinds of endgame manuals - books covering what Aagaard calls "Technical Chess", but that is not the emphasis of this book. And as John says, this book does leave out a lot that others may find important (he lists many in his review). Even fairly thin books, like Averbakh's "Chess Endings: Essential Knowledge", covers many endings not covered in Silman's book. OK, that's a valid point, but Silman is deliberately trying to limit the material to the kinds of endings likely to come up in over-the-board play. Despite these valid points, I nevertheless, think this book deserves 5 stars. I really consider it the best guide to the endgame for class players. First, Silman is just a great teacher. He has a way of bringing the student along that takes the drudgery out of learning, and everything really does seem quite straightforward. Now, of course the student will have to set some of these endings up on his computer and practice them - no one said practice was not required. But Silman's explanations convey the basic information as well as any I've seen. Secondly, the simple idea of breaking down the material by difficulty level rather than by material may seem trivial, but its an enormously powerful innovation in teaching endgames, and really sets this book apart. In every other area of life we learn the easier stuff before we learn what is harder. Averbakh's book, for example, covers simple concepts like the square of a pawn on one page and on the next is discussing queen verses rook endgames. Don't get me wrong, I think Averbakh's book is excellent, but I would never give it to a novice (or even a class C or B player) as a book for them to learn endings from. Overall, I think Silman's book is the best for class players to learn from. If they wish to go further in endgames, then Van Perlo's book (for students who are about class B or better) can help with more complex endings. By the time a student reaches class A, the book by Averbakh would certainly be a good addition if he wishes to pursue theoretical endings further.

I'm a 1400-1500 player. This is the first book I've really studied on endgames. I've looked through other endgame books, and few describe the strategy, principles, and ideas in simple english the way this one does. The book is easy to follow, and although it is divided into sections for various strengths, I completed it all the way up to the master level, where I stopped. It's not that I can't handle the master sections (Silman's teaching is so easy to understand, that you can work way past your level), but my time is better devoted to other chess topics (I'm going through Silman's Reassess Your Chess 4th Edition now). This book is like a textbook. You really need to study the ideas and work the problems. I recommend putting the positions in a strong engine (I used Rybka 4) and playing them out. If the position is a forced win, play it until you can force the win against Rybka (~3000 strength) everytime over and over until it's borring. This does wonders for your confidence to know that if you can achieve this type of endgame, you WILL WIN, there's nothing your opponent can do. BTW, this is a major point of the book (and it's excellent): - You learn to recognize a theoretical draw or win even though it may be 30+ moves away. You don't have to calculate. You know a particular position is a win, and all you have to do is reach that position and then follow the correct strategy to force a win. I can now look at a "complex position," recognize the principles, and fight to achieve the theoretical win/draw position. Once achieved, I can force the win/draw against Rybka even though sometimes it's well over 30 moves away! Before reading this book, I would have had no idea what to do, and I would have definitely lost everytime. Although I give the book 5 stars, it does have some flaws. A few diagrams are in error, there's some typos, and Silman gives the wrong answer to a few exercises (I discovered this because I was practicing against Rybka 4). Silman has published an Erata sheet that corrects most of the errors. If you hate endgames because you think they are borring or you think you have to calculate 30 moves ahead to understand why an innocent looking pawn/king move is an instant blunder/loss, this book is definitely for you because that's what I used to think. I love endgames now.

I can't understand the negative reviews. Silman has used his many years of coaching experience to teach players the essential endgame knowledge for their level up to mastery. He then provides a reading list which includes Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual and Fundamental Chess Endings by Muller & Lamprecht. He does not overwhelm improving players with esoteric and boring endgames, He does, however, treat some rather rare endings because knowledge of the properties and powers of the pieces involved is necessary for players at that level to progress further. The book is not designed for masters nor does it overwhelm the 1400 player with 100+ "positions you must know." Truth be told, at that level most of us rarely survived to an endgame, but if we did we could win by not butchering a basic king & pawn or rook ending, or accindentally stalemating our opponent when a queen ahead. Many years ago, I started with Capablanca's A Primer of Chess. The great Cuban is correct in his assertion that simple endings are a great tool for learning the properties of pieces. It is strange how often I have been able to beat higher ranking players in an endgame. Basically, my understanding of the powers of the king is better than theirs. I am not a whiz at bishop and knight endings, but they rarely occur and few players at the local club and tournaments are. Those guys are better at tactics and openings, too. I have seen Grandmasters disparage endgame knowledge. First, Fischer and now Carlsen rose to the top by proving that even strong GMs are weak in the ending and can be outplayed in the middlegame because of that weakness. Silman is right, a relatively small amount of study can pay big dividends. I have forced myself to wade through several books on the ending and abandoned several others part way through. I wish this book had been available 40 years ago. It could have saved me a lot of time and frustration.

I love the fact that Silman’s books are structured as much for the 1000 rated player as they are for a 1800-2000 player. This endgames book is the only one I’m aware of that isn’t solely written for those with a rating of 1800 or more. As your rating improves, the more you can get from his books. My rating has improved over 400 points, from 800 to mid 1200s, and Silman’s books are a major factor in the improvement. Highly recommend for those players really interested in developing a stronger chess game.

I love the idea of progressive introduction of material, in the endgame and anywhere else, and adopting rating ranges as indicators is brilliant (like all simple ideas we didn't think of). I enjoyed the book, learned a great deal, and I think it is correctly well regarded and worth every penny many times over. Why drop a point from a Book of the Year then? What is the most important single position in endgames? Surely most people would say Lucena, since almost all your rook and pawn endgame technique revolves around getting or avoiding the position. But the presentation of how to play the Lucena position as the attacker in the book is inadequate. Someone relying on this treatment alone could easily get foiled in time trouble by one of the swindles. I think Silman should have done a more thorough presentation of this one position at least. Emms' Survival Guide to Rook Endings covers Lucena pretty completely in 3/4 page (p17) including a diagram! Silman took 5 pages and doesn't mention a single swindle. It wasn't until I read Emms that I realized how vulnerable I would have been relying on Silman alone. That's it - my only criticism, but you might consider topping up this fine book with Emms' little gem for completeness. And don't resign a Lucena without at least trying a swindle - you're lost, but go down swinging!

Exactly what it’s supposed to be

Excellent End Games for all levels of Chess Play