"Essential Chess Endings" by James Howell,
Batsford, 1997, ISBN 0 7134 8189 7 Price: £11.99
Want to improve your endgame play, but daunted by the large endgame encyclopedias? This book, targeted at club and tournament players, provides a user-friendly introduction to endgames. The author is skilled at giving verbal explanations of endgame strategies - a useful skill, which I imagine he may have developed by experience in coaching others. The author's abilities in this respect, and his conversational style, make this book far more approachable than many on the endgame.
An especially attractive feature of this book is the author's plentiful use of examples from actual play - blunders and all. Making us realise how often good players throw away points in the endgame is an excellent teaching method. An amusing example is the Diagram below (from page 16) (White to move).
|
I shall not repeat all the author's analysis, but suffice to say that White's pawn falls. A counterattack on the Black pawn is to no avail, since after the White King reaches c6, Black can play ...Ke5 shouldering the White King away. So, what is White to do? Well, in the actual game, in the diagram position, White Resigned. But the position is totally drawn! All White had to do was to play defensively, and when the Pawn falls (...Kxd5), then White plays Kd3 taking the opposition. Though Black is now a pawn up the position is an easy draw. White, who was rated 2005, appears not to have noticed this - perhaps because of the habit we often have of always looking for the most active continuation, and ignoring the more passive or defensive possibility.
I spotted a couple of small analytical slips (I almost wrote "unforced errors" - the Wimbledon tennis tournament is on TV as I write this!) as I read through Howell's book. This is not to detract from the value of the book. Indeed, it is usually easier to find errors in an endgame book than an openings book - simply because endgame positions admit of definite assessment.
A small but instructive slip is on page 12 (see Diagram below, White to play).
|
After the continuation 1Kd4! Kd6 2f4 Kc6 (2...Ke6 3Kc5) 3Ke5 Kb5 4Kxf5 Kxa5, the author discusses the method of counting in analysing pawn-races. He writes: "rather than doing a head-spinning 'I go there, he goes there' calculation, a useful device for predicting the outcome of pawn races such as these is to do a separate count of how many moves either side will take to queen. White will take five moves: Ke4, f5, f6, f7, f8Q and Black, unfortunately, takes all of six moves: ...Kb5, ...a5, ...a4, ...a3, ...a2, ...a1Q".
Counting is indeed a useful method, and Howell is correct to draw our attention to it; but a danger in employing counting is that one will assume that both sides should just try to queen (again - the most active continuation), whereas in fact a defensive move can cost the opponent a vital tempo. Here, the slight slip is that 5Ke4? allows 5...Kb6! 6f5 Kc7 7Ke5 Kd7. White should of course play instead simply 5Ke6 or 5Kg6.
Another slip is on page 38 (see Diagram below) (White to play), from one of the author's own games, in which he had the Black pieces.
|
He writes: "I had just played ...Rb4-d4 to cut my opponent's king off as quickly as possible and had prayed that he didn't know how to defend. 1Rb7? My prayer was answered. After the correct 1Rf1 White is already threatening 2Rd1, eg 1...Kd5 2Rd1 Rxd1 3Kxd1 and Black's king isn't far enough ahead of his pawn to win."
Actually, after 1Rf1 Kd5 2Rd1, instead of 2...Rxd1, Black has 2...b4! and if 3Rxd4 Kxd4 4Kd2 b3 wins.
All in all, Howell's book is an excellent introduction to the endgame. Club players will find it easier to digest than many endgame works, and I have enjoyed and benefited from reading it.
