Secrets of Rook Endings

[Javier]

 

ISBN: 1.901983.18-8

Publisher: Gambit

Date of publication: 1999 (first edition in 1992)

Pages: 352

 

With the aid of an endgame database GM John Nunn explains the most common rook + pawn vs rook endgames (by the way, no other rook endings are covered, so the title "secrets of rook endings" is missleading at best. I guess "secrets of rook and pawn endings" wouldn't sell as well, but I hate it when publishers lie to people like this).

Unfortunately his work is so meticulous that one wonders whether the sentence in the back cover of the book which says "This is no computer print out" is really true, I have my doubts...

Personally I found the book of little practical value. One might as well get the CD-ROM and use it as reference. Nunn doesn't put much effort into the didactic aspect of these endings or how one should go about learning them. Apparently, his suggested method is "learn everything!". Humans don't learn or think like that, at least ordinary humans!

Perhaps this was a personal challenge for himself.

This book represents a titanic effort by John Nunn, but a book like "survival guide to rook endings, by GM John Ehms, will teach you a lot more than this.

With that in mind, I can only give this book 6 points. (don't forget that the book has been reprinted several times and translated to other languages though, so this is just my opinion...)

 

 

(Review originally posted on June 26, 2002)