If you wanna lose all your joy in chess, go study endgames...
Actually as far as I am concerned it probably helped little or nothing overall. Endgame wisdom is useful in the endgame - so for most games it‘s useless (for me).
How do these two compare with Keres' Practical Chess Endings and John Nunn's Understanding Chess Endgames? Former is frequently mentioned as a classic and the other Nunn books I have read I rate very highly, so would expect same from his endgames book.
I THINK MARK DVORETSKY,S ENDGAME BOOKS ARE THE BEST ENDGAME BOOKS.
Prolly 100 endgames you must know, based on your level.
@Meriten #10
That reads like a misconception. Understanding and really working on 100 pages is always better than reading 1000 on autopilot, especially if the material is too complex.
There are lots of examples of famous players that learned unbelievable things out of mediocre books and really digesting one book has brought some guys 100 Elo points and more. Willingless to learn is more important than subtle differences in otherwise excellent training material. The real difference maker is the student.
That reads like a misconception. Understanding and really working on 100 pages is always better than reading 1000 on autopilot, especially if the material is too complex.
There are lots of examples of famous players that learned unbelievable things out of mediocre books and really digesting one book has brought some guys 100 Elo points and more. Willingless to learn is more important than subtle differences in otherwise excellent training material. The real difference maker is the student.
@Tae7
Out of those two you should go for 100 Endgames, by any means!
Out of those two you should go for 100 Endgames, by any means!
@Sarg0n thank you for saying that. By saying that it got clear to me I'll do the chessable course first before buying the book. I didn't know it was that much work.
@Tae7 Don't listen to #2. We both clearly need the Dvoretsky stuff, the other one isn't very good in my opinion. I can also recommend you a lot of endgame stuff, because I am focusing on it right now.
@Tae7 Don't listen to #2. We both clearly need the Dvoretsky stuff, the other one isn't very good in my opinion. I can also recommend you a lot of endgame stuff, because I am focusing on it right now.
#8 Thanks for your response, I will check out the vid.
@Meriten Have you read it?
@Proleet I can imagine that it can be dry though I haven’t read any chess books yet. So I assume you got to 2100 blitz without studying endgames ?!
#12 I also used to believe that there’s no need to study endgames as most of my games are decided in the middle game but recently I lost quite a few games due to silly errors in the endgame (pushing pawns when it was not necessary etc) which is why I think it would help if I learn some concrete positions...
#13 I’ve never heard of them but will check them out.
#15 Some say that Dvoretsky’s endgame is for players of all levels but I gather from this thread that its pretty hard going....
@Rawkward Alright :) I will start with that and see how it goes.
@xPhilosophusx lol...we probably do but it sounds very daunting and I haven’t got that much free time to invest into chess so I will start with EYMK. I would appreciate it if you can recommend some other stuff. I have literally zero knowledge on chess books :/
@Meriten Have you read it?
@Proleet I can imagine that it can be dry though I haven’t read any chess books yet. So I assume you got to 2100 blitz without studying endgames ?!
#12 I also used to believe that there’s no need to study endgames as most of my games are decided in the middle game but recently I lost quite a few games due to silly errors in the endgame (pushing pawns when it was not necessary etc) which is why I think it would help if I learn some concrete positions...
#13 I’ve never heard of them but will check them out.
#15 Some say that Dvoretsky’s endgame is for players of all levels but I gather from this thread that its pretty hard going....
@Rawkward Alright :) I will start with that and see how it goes.
@xPhilosophusx lol...we probably do but it sounds very daunting and I haven’t got that much free time to invest into chess so I will start with EYMK. I would appreciate it if you can recommend some other stuff. I have literally zero knowledge on chess books :/
It's funny you asked this as I bought both last night on chessable. I'm going through 100 EGYMK first.
Many elite players and chess trainers expound the virtue of studying endgames. Here's a good, short summary of the reasons why: thechessworld.com/articles/endgame/top-7-reasons-to-study-endgames-before-anything-else/
The one exception would be if you play exclusively blitz and bullet then when you reach endgames you'll be so low on time that sound chess doesn't matter. If this is you, why are you studying anything at all? You are pretty unlikely to actually improve playing only blitz.
I play a bit of correspondence (elsewhere, not on lichess), and I'm usually thinking about endgames very soon after we are out of the opening book. In OTB play, if I know my opponent is weak in endgames (which applies to almost all kids, btw) then I bully them with simplification offers that aren't good for them. I've saved many half points fighting in lost endings and completely stolen some points.
But most of all, I think endings isolate on your calculation and visualization ability like nothing else, because their variations are longer.
Many elite players and chess trainers expound the virtue of studying endgames. Here's a good, short summary of the reasons why: thechessworld.com/articles/endgame/top-7-reasons-to-study-endgames-before-anything-else/
The one exception would be if you play exclusively blitz and bullet then when you reach endgames you'll be so low on time that sound chess doesn't matter. If this is you, why are you studying anything at all? You are pretty unlikely to actually improve playing only blitz.
I play a bit of correspondence (elsewhere, not on lichess), and I'm usually thinking about endgames very soon after we are out of the opening book. In OTB play, if I know my opponent is weak in endgames (which applies to almost all kids, btw) then I bully them with simplification offers that aren't good for them. I've saved many half points fighting in lost endings and completely stolen some points.
But most of all, I think endings isolate on your calculation and visualization ability like nothing else, because their variations are longer.
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