AndyFeng35 wrote on 08/27/23 at 02:32:29:


As others have advised, it has to be a combination of theory and practice (and diligent study of your practice).

There are now so many decent books on the ending that it's very hard to choose (and therefore hard to go wrong I guess).

For "exact" (or "precise", or "theoretical") endings, the cut-down ('Fast track') version of the Dvoretsky manual might appeal. 

I'm sure that most ambitious players only need to study one such book.

Even for practical endings (i.e. endings that are not yet  reducible to an "exact" ending) there is now a wide choice of good material out there, where once there was just Shereshevsky's "Endgame Strategy" and "Mastering the Edgame", plus Mednis's "Practical Endgame Lessons" (strongly recommended in its day by Dvoretsky). 

I can recommend De la Villa's fairly recent "100 Endgame patterns", since it's based mainly on his experience working as a coach to generations of promising Spanish juniors; he organises the material according to the typical patterns and themes that he's seen arising with some frequency in their games.

But as someone ('Katar' I think) wrote here a while ago, "The best endgame book is the one you actually read." 
"Many well-intentioned hobbyists have a collection of endgame-themed shelf ornaments.  The thicker ones can find utility as doorstops, or if hollowed out can securely store valuables."

How do you approach studying chess endgames effectively?