I've said elsewhere that regarding endgame books, what matters most is how much work you're willing to put into the book, not which book you buy.  In other words, Silman's book could be the book for you if you find his style appealing to you.

I have a few one-volume endgame books, but have a hard time recommending any of them.  I know a few masters who worked through every position in Reuben Fine's Basic Chess Endings when they were young.  They agree with the criticism that Fine's generalizations were too general and his specific examples were wrong, but they also found that working through such a compendium critically really helped them to become better players.

I don't really care for Keres' Practical Chess Endings because I didn't care for his verbal explanations and realised he simply did not cover many of the positions that I thought were important.  Yet again, other strong players successfully learned from it.

I love Speelman's works on the endgame.  I fell in love with Analysing the Endgame because he really delved deeply into positions and explained them in a way that I appreciated.  I have read Endgame Preparation and recommend Batsford Chess Endings as an excellent one-volume endgame source.

The star of the class goes to Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual.  It is easy to read and contains many excellent illustrative examples. It also highlights certain key positions.  I especially enjoy his "tragicomedies" in which he shows world class players messing up seemingly simple positions.  It is indeed extremely dense and difficult for most people to work through.  The book is not intended as an encyclopedia, and many people use Muller's Endgame book as a complement. (Btw, I was not particularly impressed with Dvoretsky's endgame CD.)

There are some other endgame books that I have used and continue to use despite their negative reviews or narrow topics.

Averbakh's endgame series really helped me, especially his volume on queen endings. Pandolfini's explanation of how to win B+N mates was the only way I learned the mate, and the way I continue to teach it today.  I also use other books such as Test your Endgame and Rate Your Endgame even though I know they are mostly gimmicks.  I also love the sections on the endgame in Keres' Power Chess.

Levinfisch and Smyslov's Rook Endings remains the gold standard for any endgame book.  Having said that, Korchnoi's Practical Rook Endings is definitely useful for advanced (2200+) readers.

If you're looking for surprisingly clear writing and useful information, I also recommend Glenn Flear's works, Improving Your Endgame Play and Mastering the Endgame.  These works are designed for players who describe themselves as good club players who are looking to improve their endgame play.

I even use McDonald's Concise Chess Endings!

I also use another category of books that hasn't been mentioned here:  game collections!  For endgame work, I am especially fond of Rubinstein, Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal, Taimanov, Timman, Karpov, Shirov, and Stohl.

In other words, the endgame book or CD you choose will not be the most important factor in whether you improve your endgame skills.  The most important factor is how much work you put into learning and reifying the endgames.

Stigma wrote on 11/26/08 at 16:22:44:


I haven't looked closely at Silman's book.  Browsing it in a bookstore, it looked good, but I'd already gone through Dvoretsky.  Anyway, I;m interested in knowing what kinds of stuff that Silman covers that Dvoretsky omits.  Could you give some examples?

Quote:


That strength sounds about right.  Maybe someone as low as 1800 strength could profit from Dvoretsky if they were highly motivated to plow through it.

Chessmoby wrote on 11/25/08 at 23:32:04:


Wow, you are better than I am.  In fact, you may even be better than Korchnoi and Tal, who played a very famous, very complex pawn ending that has been analyzed at quite some length.  Muller and Lamprecht wrote an entire book, Secrets of Pawn Endings.  John Nunn points out that even with computer databases many Pawn endgames have not been "solved".  

If you can play these pawn endgames perfectly, then you are already on the road towards mastery of every endgame.

Here's one really simple example:  White: K a6, Ps:  c4 e4 Black: Kg6 P d6.  
White or Black to move and White wins.

And here's another, from GM play:

(Timman-Yusupov, 1996)
White:  Kf2 Pe3 Black: Kg6 Ps:  e4 f5
White to move draws, Black to move wins.

If two of the world's leading players decided to play this out, perhaps pawn endings aren't as simple as you seem to think.  

I don't think there are any strings attached to these examples, and yet they are indicative of how challenging pawn endings really are.


The first step to my learning is to admit that there are things I still need to learn.

I can recommend "Silmans Complete Endgame Course" to you. The book starts with real basic knowledge and the level increases quite moderatly. The material is clearly structured and well explained. At the end of each chapter you find a summary and useful testpositions to employ the new knowledege.

i play at about 1850 but im sure my strength would increase exponentially with a better understanding of endgames.
dvoretsky i have heard great things about and so ill give it a go.

i basically want to be competent in: Pawn endgames(winning and drawing)
Rooks (grr difficult)
Queens

i actually have a very good record with minor piece endgames (my old coach forced them down my throat.)

You did not state your approximate strength. Dvoretsky's "Endgame Manual" is a great book, and has all the basic, fundamental knowledge you need to know written in blue ink. Quite useful. However, players below a certain level might find it too difficult to wade through.