Bishop Endings: An Innovative Course

Publisher: Thinkers Publishing, 2017, Pages: 180, Paperback

Being the ‘Editor in Chief’ of TP, I expected nothing less from such an experienced trainer as GM Grivas! Nevertheless, I was really pleased with how complete and well-chosen the games and positions he presents here are. This publication is an almost exhaustive collection of all you can find about bishop endings – it is ‘ready knowledge’: you will learn hundreds of rules, patterns and key positions. The author guides you through the examples in a highly instructive and easy-to-understand way.

Reading the whole book, you should focus on two important issues. The first, a temporary one; your knowledge of theoretical positions. Temporary because this requires refreshment over time, depending on your memory. This is normal - even the best GM’s in the world need to recheck many theoretical endgames from time to time.

The second, a permanent one; you will gain a general understanding of bishop endings that will give you a considerable head start in reproducing them in your own games, without the extra eff ort usually required. That is, if you work enough on the issues that you were struggling a bit to understand! Some of the exercises are also surprising - and I mean in a positive way! Again, I believe they are presented in the most instructive way – so take your time to understand the ‘maze’ of these bishop endings.

All-in-all, I was delighted to edit this book – and I am looking forward to the author’s next epic publication, with new pieces of the chess board being covered.

Thank you, Efstratios!

Romain Edouard 17.09.2017