I'm currently putting some effort into rook endings. In general, like lots of players, I found enthusiasm for the study of endings hard to come by. Silman helped with that and boosted my confidence. Much like openings, I believe the internal feel is key to playing better. I had never really used You Tube videos but have found John Batholomew and Ben Finegold very watchable and thorough. For rook endings in particular, watching these videos, along with Seirawan and Polgar, has pushed my interest and I have now finished the long owned but only now read "Starting Out: Rook Endgames" by Chris Ward. I recommend it but as with other things, getting the book that makes you keen to read it is the key.

One might think that having a good grasp of the material in "Chess Endings:  Essential Knowledge" would already put you beyond most 1700 players.

Anders wrote on 05/16/10 at 18:13:28:

How is that series? I've been considering getting some of those DVD's, but I keep thinking I should finish reading Silman's Complete Endgame Course before spending any more money on endgame material. For a player at my level (1700's until recently, but dropping fast), I'm thinking Silman's book is probably enough for now - at least until I finish it.

See if you can find a copy of Mednis's Practical Rook Endings.  It's short, sweet, and all you need.

Btw, my bible for Rook endings is .... ummm...

Rook Endings by Levenfish and Smyslov. The critical positions are explained clearly, and I found it entertaining. But then, take a look at my handle.

The Korchnoi book is considered very advanced. 

I have looked at the Snape book; he definitely tries to be simple (and that's a good thing for the market he targets). A good intermediate step between Chess Endings Made Easy and Korchnoi is the rook endings chapter from Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual (and preferably the 2nd edition, since there were some changes in that chapter).

My basic source for rook endings (originally somewhat randomly chosen) has been Emms' Survival Guide to Rook Endings. In the end I really like his choices of what endings to cover (he went for practical value and basically covered everything he had encountered in his own games), but often find his explanations of what's going on vague or incomplete.

So my usual method now is to take positions from Emms' book and then compare his explanations to other authors, typically Dvoretsky (Endgame Manual) and Averbakh (Rook Endings)! The latter's work is often maligned as being "dry" and "boring". OK it's a big encyclopedia and most people (me included) won't go through every position, but Averbakh is actually a great teacher. There is now also an updated edition of his entire Comprehensive Chess Endings on DVD. For the particular endgame R+p vs R I have also used Nunn's Secrets of Rook Endings. Again an encyclopedia, but Nunn points out at the end of every chapter which positions are the really useful ones to study.

Emms' book was praised for his in-depth coverage of "4 vs 3" and "5 vs 4" rook endings, and on those it may still be the best (though Korchnoi's is even better for advanced players).

As with anything, begin with the basics.

Learn the Philidor and Lucena positions backwards and forwards. Study R+rook Pawn vs R.  Study when a lone pawn can beat a rook, then study R vs 2P positions.

When you're done with those, then you can start adding pawns. I actually jump from Lucena, Philidor and R+a&c pawns vs R to R+3 vs R+4Ps, with each side having 3 pawns on the Kside, and the extra a-pawn. 

When you've mastered that, go back to Philidor and Lucena.  Then go on to 4 vs 3 all on one side.

Then go on to other classics.  Remember, Capa claimed to have learned 200 Rook endings by heart.  If you just learn those few, you will already approach mastery!

Do not study Korchnoi's book on endgames until you have completely mastered the basics! Even he states that he expects the reader to know the basics before tackling his book!