- Blind mode tutorial
lichess.org
Donate

Endgame Studies for Fun and Profit

I don't read most of his books but Cyrus Lakdawala's Tactical Training in the Endgame is fab for this

I don't read most of his books but Cyrus Lakdawala's Tactical Training in the Endgame is fab for this

@LCY_DollyParton said in #2:

I don't read most of his books but Cyrus Lakdawala's Tactical Training in the Endgame is fab for this

Thank you! It looks like in that book it's not always composed studies (there are also excerpts from endgames manuals and from games), but what is important that they are graded from 1 to 5 (sometimes even using 0.5 steps). Have you tried solving them? Do you have an estimate as to how to difficult, say, level 1 is? And what is the split of problems between different levels?

A sample from that book can be found here: https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/8461.pdf

@LCY_DollyParton said in #2: > I don't read most of his books but Cyrus Lakdawala's Tactical Training in the Endgame is fab for this Thank you! It looks like in that book it's not always composed studies (there are also excerpts from endgames manuals and from games), but what is important that they are graded from 1 to 5 (sometimes even using 0.5 steps). Have you tried solving them? Do you have an estimate as to how to difficult, say, level 1 is? And what is the split of problems between different levels? A sample from that book can be found here: https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/8461.pdf

Several other books that were recommended to me after publishing the post:

  1. "Endgame Labyrinths" by Jacob Aagaard and Steffen Nielsen - contains 1002 endgame problems, all graded. However, the problems are on the difficult and messier side, even level 1 can be quite challenging. Sample: https://forwardchess.com/sample/endgame-labyrinths

  2. "Anthology of Miniature Endgame Studies" by Yochanan Afek. An amazing collection of 2000 endgame studies (all miniatures, i.e. <= 7 pieces), grouped by topic. Unfortunately they are not graded. Sample: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0478/2876/2775/files/Sample_Anthology_of_Miniature_Endgame_Studies.pdf?v=1673111692

Several other books that were recommended to me after publishing the post: 1. "Endgame Labyrinths" by Jacob Aagaard and Steffen Nielsen - contains 1002 endgame problems, all graded. However, the problems are on the difficult and messier side, even level 1 can be quite challenging. Sample: https://forwardchess.com/sample/endgame-labyrinths 2. "Anthology of Miniature Endgame Studies" by Yochanan Afek. An amazing collection of 2000 endgame studies (all miniatures, i.e. <= 7 pieces), grouped by topic. Unfortunately they are not graded. Sample: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0478/2876/2775/files/Sample_Anthology_of_Miniature_Endgame_Studies.pdf?v=1673111692

Some more books with graded/easier endgame studies:

  1. "The Chess Endgame Exercise Book" by John Nunn. Has 444 endgame exercises, all graded (1-5 stars) and grouped by topics and sets to solve together. Not all of them are composed studies, but it is still quite a good source of interesting positions!

  2. "The Soviet Chess Primer" by Ilya Maizelis has more than 40 studies at the end. They are not explicitly graded, but ordered by difficulty, so one can start from the beginning and solve until they become too hard.

Some more books with graded/easier endgame studies: 3. "The Chess Endgame Exercise Book" by John Nunn. Has 444 endgame exercises, all graded (1-5 stars) and grouped by topics and sets to solve together. Not all of them are composed studies, but it is still quite a good source of interesting positions! 4. "The Soviet Chess Primer" by Ilya Maizelis has more than 40 studies at the end. They are not explicitly graded, but ordered by difficulty, so one can start from the beginning and solve until they become too hard.