Survival guide to Rook endings

[Javier]

ISBN: 1857442350

Year of publication: 1999

Publisher: Everyman Chess

Pages: 160

 

Paperback - 160 pages 1 edition (December 1, 1999)

Everyman Chess; ISBN: 1857442350 ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.51 x 8.19 x 5.67

 

Just a few words about one of my favourite endgame books !

This small book about rook endings (edited 1999) is really good when you have been trying to study rook endings a little bit, and just got desperate and/or disgusted with major treatises on the subject. I remember trying, 20 years ago, to read Levenfish and Smyslov's book (at the time, it was only available in descriptive notation so you had to digest things like " if now 27. R-QB1? R-KB4, 28. R-QR1 R-KR4 wins, transposing into pos.56ter, ch.6". You guys from the "algebraic generation" don't know how lucky you are !

 

This book authored by J. Emms has in my opinion some nice features :

- not too thick !

- well chosen positions

- good paedagogic approach. A lot of text explanations, the authors give necessary variations, but no more.

- each position illustrates clearly a new idea

- there are exercises, some of them more difficult, but most are applications of the lecture. You can really work on them, the solutions are concise, and they will generally help you understanding the material, and not the opposite. (If french-speaking people know about Villeneuve's book, they will know what I mean)

- I enjoyed a little chapter on double rook endgames, a topic you rarely find in basic treatises.

 

If you need just a good introduction on the very basic principles of Rook endings (Philidor, Lucena, outside passed pawn) in about 50 pages, I consider Mednis booklet "Practical Rook Endings" as a "must".

 

But, if you want to go a little further, you should find the "survival guide to Rook Endings" very enjoyable.

 

It's worth noting that some kind of equivalent of Emms book, but on pawn endings, has been also edited by EVERYMAN CHESS : "Secrets of pawn endings" by Muller & Lamprecht .

 

I think the "teaching" quality of both books can be compared. Maybe "Secrets of pawn endings" is a more detailed, and some advanced chapters are not of immediate interest for average club players, but the authors had a great idea : they give in the introduction what you really have to know for practical play ("Crash Course"), that represents about 50 pages, and around 15-20% of the total book .

 

 

(Originally edited by Jean Saulnier on June 10 2002)