Mini-review: 100 Endgames You Must Know
That's a slightly funny title for a slightly funny book, yet this effort by GM Jesus de la Villa may be worth your while. Allow me to briefly explain the humor, after which I'll summarize and evaluate the book. What's funny about the title is its vagueness. Maybe he's right that we must know these 100 endgames, but are they the 100 endings we must know, or are there more? (Can you say "sequel"?) Also funny, in the sense of being peculiar, is the ordering of the book's material. After a chapter on basic endings and a sort of pre-test, his first "real" chapter covers knight vs. pawn, while king and pawn endings (aside from the most trivial cases) are addressed only in chapter 12!
Despite the slightly strange - or perhaps only unusual - arrangement of material, there is much to commend in this book. First, the material selected does belong, and includes fare sometimes skipped in introductory texts. (His coverage of various rook and two pawns vs. rook endings is a useful example.) Second, he presents the information by multiple means: specific variations, verbal explanations, rules (he calls them "conclusions") and diagrams with various markings (numbered squares, stars of various shapes, etc.). This is an excellent way to help the reader really get the information and remember it - or at least increases the likelihood that learning will take place. Occasionally he offers tangential exercises for the reader (without solutions, which in the context of the challenges is actually a good thing), and the pre- and post-tests are also pedagogically useful.
So I think he has done a good job in presenting the material. But what is the material? Here are the chapter headings:
1. Basic endings (covers some elementary k+p vs. k endings, as well as some very simple, pawnless, rook vs. bishop and rook vs. knight endings)
2. Basic Test (this is essentially a pre-test for the whole book, not a review of chapter 1)
3. Knight vs. Pawn
4. Queen vs. Pawn
5. Rook vs. Pawn
6. Rook vs. 2 Pawns
7. Same-coloured bishops: Bishop + Pawn vs. Bishop
8. Bishop vs. Knight: one pawn on the board
9. Opposite-coloured bishops: Bishop + 2 pawns vs. Bishop
10. Rook + Pawn vs. Rook
11. Rook + two Pawns vs. Rook
12. Pawn endings
13. Other material relations (this one's a real grab bag, including but not exhausted by KBNk, KRBkr, and KQkrp)
14. Final Test
The ordering is non-traditional, and it's interesting that there's no section on N + P vs. N or on Q+P vs. Q. True, such endings arise rarely, but when was the last time you had queen vs. rook and pawn? I've never had it in a serious game, and I doubt I've had it occur more than five or six times in the tens of thousands of blitz games I've played in my life. Overall though, it's a very good presentation of many, maybe most of the fundamental, building-block endings that all tournament players ought to know.
The book isn't a substitute for works like Müller & Lamprecht's Fundamental Chess Endings or Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual, but it's worthwhile for what it does do. Recommended, especially to players in the 1400-2000 range.
A portion of de la Villa's Introduction can be read here (in pdf), and the book is available for purchase here.
Despite the slightly strange - or perhaps only unusual - arrangement of material, there is much to commend in this book. First, the material selected does belong, and includes fare sometimes skipped in introductory texts. (His coverage of various rook and two pawns vs. rook endings is a useful example.) Second, he presents the information by multiple means: specific variations, verbal explanations, rules (he calls them "conclusions") and diagrams with various markings (numbered squares, stars of various shapes, etc.). This is an excellent way to help the reader really get the information and remember it - or at least increases the likelihood that learning will take place. Occasionally he offers tangential exercises for the reader (without solutions, which in the context of the challenges is actually a good thing), and the pre- and post-tests are also pedagogically useful.
So I think he has done a good job in presenting the material. But what is the material? Here are the chapter headings:
1. Basic endings (covers some elementary k+p vs. k endings, as well as some very simple, pawnless, rook vs. bishop and rook vs. knight endings)
2. Basic Test (this is essentially a pre-test for the whole book, not a review of chapter 1)
3. Knight vs. Pawn
4. Queen vs. Pawn
5. Rook vs. Pawn
6. Rook vs. 2 Pawns
7. Same-coloured bishops: Bishop + Pawn vs. Bishop
8. Bishop vs. Knight: one pawn on the board
9. Opposite-coloured bishops: Bishop + 2 pawns vs. Bishop
10. Rook + Pawn vs. Rook
11. Rook + two Pawns vs. Rook
12. Pawn endings
13. Other material relations (this one's a real grab bag, including but not exhausted by KBNk, KRBkr, and KQkrp)
14. Final Test
The ordering is non-traditional, and it's interesting that there's no section on N + P vs. N or on Q+P vs. Q. True, such endings arise rarely, but when was the last time you had queen vs. rook and pawn? I've never had it in a serious game, and I doubt I've had it occur more than five or six times in the tens of thousands of blitz games I've played in my life. Overall though, it's a very good presentation of many, maybe most of the fundamental, building-block endings that all tournament players ought to know.
The book isn't a substitute for works like Müller & Lamprecht's Fundamental Chess Endings or Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual, but it's worthwhile for what it does do. Recommended, especially to players in the 1400-2000 range.
A portion of de la Villa's Introduction can be read here (in pdf), and the book is available for purchase here.
Posted by Dennis Monokroussos on
Sunday July 6, 2008 at 1:04am
Dennis,
Thank you for this wonderful review.
However I do want to ask a question about chess books, and its a rather earthly one. How can I purchase 2nd hand chess books to reduce the price? One important fact that I have to add is that I live outside the 2 main chess continents, those being, Europe and The United States.
Best wishes
A. Weiler
SBB
Diervf: Any particular reason why?
sbb1cpa: There's some redundancy, as fundamental endings are just that. From what I've gathered from your comments over the years, you're probably fine with Silman's book for now. I think that while 1400s can benefit from 100 Endgames You Must Know, Silman's more "talky" style is probably more beneficial to class C players. At the end of the day, I think someone who goes through the de la Villa book in full will be in better shape than the Silman reader, but for entry level endgame students Silman is probably the better place to start.
All: Here's another (positive) review of the de la Villa book that's also informative. (It's the third entry on the page.)