Chess Calculation Training Volume 2: Endgames

Publisher: Thinkers Publishing, 2017, Pages: 270, Paperback

This book focuses on endgames. There are a lot of things to learn “by heart” about them — but they are oft en difficult to apply at the board, unless you get exactly the same position as you studied. This is why I believe it is an  interesting approach to present an endgames book as a series of exercises, with instructive but practical positions. As in Volume 1, a lot of calculation will be required. The major difference between middlegame and endgame training is, of course, the limited material on the board. This means the patterns you discover in training are much more likely to appear in your games — so you should try to imprint them somewhere in your memory!

With ordinary tactics, the purpose of exercises is almost solely to improve your calculation skills. Solving the exercises of this book will help the reader improve on his endgame knowledge and understanding as well. There is a lot to learn from studying each solution, even if you failed to find it yourself; this is why answers here are even more detailed than in Volume One. Nevertheless, the solutions are always concrete. This book contains 10 chapters. The first, as in Volume 1, is a warm-up. Then we will work on endings from all possible angles: technical wins, tactical wins, drawing moves, and so on. Another very important chapter is “Test your refl exes!”. I believe refl exes are a key element in becoming a good endgame player. The more good refl exes you develop, the more other things become refl exes too! To prepare this book, I looked at a huge number of games and pre-selected around 800 positions. By analyzing them more deeply than I would normally do just watching a game online, I discovered an incredible number of new ideas. These I pass on to you!

Throughout the book, the most challenging exercises are marked with a (*). The theoretical positions, which it is essential to memorise, are marked with a (T). You will find a help section at the end of the book, giving guidance (if needed) for any exercise marked with an asterisk. I hope this book will be an excellent complement to the pure knowledge you may gain from other more general endgame books!

Romain Edouard
September 2017