100 Endgames You Must Know: Vital Lessons for Every Chess Player

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Most of the patterns Jesus de la Villa presents in this new book are from the phase of the game just before a theoretical endgame turns up. Knowing these practical endgame fundamentals will enable you to fully reap the benefits of what you learned in De la Villa’s widely acclaimed classic 100 Endgames You Must Know. The unique thing is the selection of puzzles. It is tough to find perfect chess puzzles, and Jesus De La Villa did an excellent job choosing 100 chess puzzles and test puzzles. The main unique thing about this book is if you do it properly, you don’t need to buy or study any other endgame book. I hope that this example convinced you that this endgame book is about much more than endgame technique. It learns you to calculate a variation tree and consider opponents moves. It will develop your visualization skills and give you a better feeling for the pieces and their coordination.

This book is a must-have endgame book is in your shelf. If you finish this book and revise it every six months, you are good to go in the endgame until you become FIDE Master. After reaching this level, you may need to focus on the high-level endgame book, like the Dvoretsky endgame manual. As you can see, the author covered everything related to basic endgame positions. What To Expect from this book? The benefits of endgame study are obvious, but where to start? IM Mark Dvoretsky wrote an excellent book on theoretical endgames ( Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual), but this book is large and difficult to finish. A lot of the endgames chosen are extremely technical and difficult, so difficult that GM Hikaru Nakamura claimed that a player should be 2450 FIDE before starting this book. 100 Endgames You Must Know is a lot more approachable. Instead of trying to teach you all the theoretical endgames a professional should know, it focuses on the most important endgames (organized by type), making it a lot easier for the club player to digest. 100 endgames you must know starts with a basic test and then systematically teaches you the 100 most important theoretical endgames. The fact that players think in patterns has an important side-effect: their endgame errors tend to repeat themselves. That’s why De la Villa has not just included examples from games of elite GM’s but also of amateurs. Errors are always instructive and working with this book will seriously reduce the number of typical mistakes you are prone to make. The many practical exercises that De la Villa has selected will help you improve and retain what you have learned. The instructional explanations, the many diagrams and the pleasant presentation make this endgame book an interesting publication for club players with a rating from 1600."

The book contains in total 300 exercises. Chapter 9 (rook + pawn vs. rook) and chapter 11 (pawn endings) rightfully are the largest chapters in the workbook with in total 106. Each chapter starts with a short introductory text and a number of important theoretical positions. This is followed by the exercises, often in the form of a question. All the exercises are from over-the-board games and are based on their practical value to the student. The analysis section contains the main body of work. The reader is not expected to memorize everything by heart; in fact, that is probably not a productive exercise. When going through a variation, it is best to stop at a point you think is appropriate, and that should always be the point at which you find that you have fully understood the position. The exercises in each chapter are organized in increasing level or difficulty making this book suitable for the average player to players at master level. In the chapter with Solutions a reference to the relevant chapter in 100 Endgames You Must Know has been included. This makes it easy to restudy the theory again if you have difficulty with solving these practical exercises. In what way is this book special? How can it make someone a better player? These are perfectly legitimate questions and whenever I buy a new chess book, I essentially ask the same ones. As I already told this book is perfect for almost all chess players. Generally, this book is ideal for you if you are between 1000-2000. If you are above 1800 players and if you have already finished this book, then better go for Dvoretsky Endgame Manual.

Although, this book is not perfect in all aspects. Many endgame books cover more detailed analyses and positions than this book. These books include Silmon’s complete endgame course and Dvoretsky Endgame Manual. Silmon’s endgame book covers a lot of positions that sometimes are not necessary for players to learn. Dvoretsky’s book is too high for beginners and sometimes even professional chess players. What Is A Unique Thing In This Book?This book aims to provide a complete overview of a 1.d4 repertoire against five main openings (King’s Indian Defense, Grünfeld Defense, Slav Defense, Benoni Defense, and Catalan systems after 1.d4 d5), offering analysis of classical games and typical tactical motifs to provide an in-depth understanding of the associated middlegames. A concluding chapter explores typical endgames that are likely to arise from 1.d4.