64 Endgame Books

It has been a goal of mine to acquire 64 endgame books before I reach the age of 64. That birthday comes soon and I need one more. What shall I add to my existing collection? Will it gather dust on the shelf, or will it be one that I read?

The main shelf

The category of "endgame books" is not perfectly clear. Do works on checkmate patterns fall into this group? I keep those books separate, although checkmate exercises were called "end-games" in nineteenth century chess periodicals and books. I do include studies, although some would put these in a separate category.

There are some classics on my shelves and some books published in the past two months. Most are paperbacks, but there are a few hardcover. Missing from my shelves are four of the five volumes of Encyclopedia of Chess Endings published by Chess Informant. Last summer, seven of the eight volume series edited by Yuri Averbakh were added. I have had the volume on rook endings for several years. In the months since, I've spent some time working through the early chapters on bishop endings.

Part of a second shelf is needed

For decades, the only endgame book in my possession was Irving Chernev, Practical Chess Endings, which I purchased at B. Dalton in downtown Spokane in the 1970s as a high school student. In the mid-1990s, as I was getting back into chess with some seriousness of purpose, I bought a copy of Jenö Bán, The Tactics of Endgames. Even then, my study focus remained largely openings and tactics.

In the twenty-first century, two books provoked serious study of endgames on my part. First, Karsten Mūller and Frank Lamprecht, Fundamental Chess Endings, published in 2001 and acquired that year. Then with purchase of Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual shortly after it was published in 2003, I began to both work on and enjoy endgame study. When I started studying Dvoretsky, I was USCF C Class. Today, it is often suggested that Dvoretsky is too hard for a class player, who should begin with Silman's Complete Endgame Course. Waiting four years for Silman would have deprived me of many hours of productive study. In any case, I rarely read a chess book cover-to-cover. Dvoretsky improved my game (see "Ten Books to Achieve 1800+").

Sometime before then, I had acquired Reuben Fine, Basic Chess Endings, but I always found this book difficult to use with too few diagrams and small print lacking sufficient paragraph breaks. Even so, it was a reference I turned to often when a specific question arose.

As the number of volumes slowly increased, I became a collector, still favoring those that I think I'll read.

The newest book in my collection was published this year and is a reprint, edited with a light hand, of one of the oldest endgame books in existence. Carsten Hansen brought Horwitz and Kling, Chess Studies and Endgames (1851) back into print as part of his Alexander Game Books Classics series.

Endgame Bibliography

Aagaard, Jacob. Excelling At Technical Chess: Learn to Identify and Exploit Small Advantages. London: Gloucester Publishers, 2004.

_______. A Matter of Endgame Technique. Grandmaster Knowledge. Glasgow: Quality Chess, 2022.

_______. Conceptual Rook Endgames. Grandmaster Knowledge. Glasgow: Quality Chess, 2023.

Averbakh, Yuri, and I. Maizelis. Pawn Endings, trans. Mary Lasher. Dallas: Chess Digest, 1974.

Averbakh, Yuri. Queen and Pawn Endings, trans. K. P. Neat. London: Batsford, 1975.

_______. Bishop v. Knight Endings, trans. K. P. Neat. London: Batsford, 1976.

_______. Bishop Endings, trans. Mary Lasher. London: Batsford, 1977.

_______, and Vitaly Chekhover. Knight Endings, trans. Mary Lasher. London: Batsford, 1977.

Averbakh, Yuri. Rook v. Minor Piece Endings, trans. K. P. Neat. London: Batsford, 1978.

_______, V. Chekhover, and V. Henkin. Queen v. Rook/Minor Piece Endings, trans. K. P. Neat. London: Batsford, 1978.

Averbakh, Yuri. Chess Endings: Essential Knowledge, new algebraic edition. London: Everyman Chess, [1971] 1993.

Bán, Jenö. The Tactics of Endgames. Mineola: Dover, [1963] 1997.

Barden, Leonard. How to Play the Endgame in Chess. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1975.

Bezgodov, Alexey. Opposite-Colored Bishop Endings: 174 Master Classes. Elk and Ruby, 2024.

Missing from the shelves because I’m reading it

Chernev, Irving. Practical Chess Endings. New York: Dover, 1961.

_______. Capablanca’s Best Chess Endings: 60 Complete Games.  New York: Dover, 1978.

_______. 200 Brilliant Endgames.  New York: Fireside, 1989.

Donaldson, John. Essential Chess Endings for Advanced Players. Dallas: Chess Digest, 1995.

De la Villa, Jesus. 100 Endgames You Must Know: Vital Lessons for Every Chess Player. 4^th ed. Alkmaar: New in Chess, 2015.

_______. The 100 Endgames You Must Know Workbook: Practical Endgame Lessons for Every Chess Player. Alkmaar: New in Chess, 2019.

_______. 100 Endgame Patterns You Must Know: Recognize Key Moves & Motifs and Avoid Typical Errors. Alkmaar: New in Chess, 2021.

Dvoretsky, Mark. Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual. Milford: Russell Enterprises, 2003.

_______. Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual, 5^th ed. Rev. by Karsten Mūller. Milford: Russell Enterprises, 2020.

Emms, John. Starting Out: Minor Piece Endgames. London: Gloucester Publishers, 2004.

Fine, Reuben. Basic Chess Endings. New York: David McKay, [1941] 1969.

Fishbein, Alex. King and Pawn Endings. Macon, GA: American Chess Promotions, 1993.

Three on pawns

Flear, Glenn. Improve Your Endgame Play. London: Everyman Chess, 2000.

_______. Mastering the Endgame. London: Everyman Chess, 2001.

_______. Test Your Endgame Thinking. London: Everyman Chess, 2002.

Guliev, Sarhan. The Manual of Chess Endings, vol. 4 of Chess School. Moscow: Russian Chess House, 2021.

Horwitz, Bernhard, and Josef Kling. Chess Studies and Endgames, updated and ed. Carsten Hansen. Bayonne, NJ: Alexander Game Books, 2024.

Karolyi, Tibor, and Nick Aplin. Endgame Virtuoso Anatoly Karpov. Alkmaar: New in Chess, 2007.

Kasparyan, Ghenrikh M. Domination in 2,545 Endgame Studies, trans. A. Krivoviaz. Moscow: Progress Pubishers, 1980.

_______. 888 Miniature Studies. Belgrade: BeoSing, 2010.

Keres, Paul. Practical Chess Endings, with modern chess notation. London: Batsford [1974] 2018.

Lakdawala, Cyrus. Tactical Training in the Endgame. London: Gloucester Publishers, 2021.

_______, and Carsten Hansen. The Chess Wizardry of Wotawa. Bayonne, NJ: CarstenChess, 2022.

_______. Beyond Chess Basics: Endgame Planning. Bayonne, NJ: CarstenChess, 2023.

Levenfish, Grigory, and Vasily Smyslov. Rook Endings, trans. Philip J. Booth. Dallas: Chess Digest, 1971.

Matanović, Aleksandar, et al. Encyclopedia of Chess Endings, vol. 4. Belgrade: Chess Informant, 1989.

Mednis, Edmar. Practical Rook Endings. Coraopolis, PA: Chess Enterprises, 1982.

_______. Practical Knight Endings. Moon Township, PA: Chess Enterprises, 1993.

Mieses, Jacques. Modern Endgame Studies: Selected for the Purpose of Practical Play, trans., updated, and ed. by Carsten Hansen. Bayonne, NJ: Alexander Game Books, 2023.

Minev, Nikolay. A Practical Guide to Rook Endgames. Milford: Russell Enterprises, 2004.

Mūller, Karsten, and Frank Lamprecht. Fundamental Chess Endings: A New Endgame Encyclopedia for the 21^st Century. London: Gambit Publications, 2001.

Nunn, John. Nunn’s Chess Endings, 2 vols. London: Gambit Publications, 2010.

Pandolfini, Bruce. Pandolfini’s Endgame Course. New York: Fireside, 1988.

Polgár, László. Chess Endgames. Köln: Könemann, 1999.

Rabinovich, Ilya. The Russian Endgame Handbook, trans. James Marfia. Newton Highlands, MA: Mongoose Press, 2012.

Roycraft, A. J. The Chess Endgame Study: A Comprehensive Introduction, 2^nd ed. Garden City: Dover, 1981.

Shankland, Sam. Small Steps to Giant Improvement: Master Pawn Play in Chess. Glasgow: Quality Chess, 2018.

_______. Theoretical Rook Endgames. Glasgow: Quality Chess, 2023.

Shereshevsky, Mikhail. Endgame Strategy, trans. K.P. Neat. London: Cadogan, [1985] 1994.

Silman, Jeremy. Silman’s Complete Endgame Course: From Beginner to Master. Los Angeles: Siles Press, 2007.

Speelman, Jonathan. Analysing the Endgame. London: Batsford, 1981.

_______. Endgame Preparation. London: Batsford, 1981.

Smyslov, Vasily. Vasily Smyslov: Endgame Virtuoso, trans. Ken Neat. London: Gloucester Publishers, [1977] 2003.

Van Perlo, G. C. Van Perlo’s Endgame Tactics: A Comprehensive Guide to the Sunny Side of Chess Endgames, new, improved and expanded edition. Alkmaar: New in Chess, 2014.

Znosko-Borovsky, Eugene. How to Play Chess Endings, trans. J. Du Mont. New York: Dover, [1940] 1974.

Edit: 13 April

Two days ago, the 64th book arrived. C.J.S. Purdy, On the Endgame. Davenport, IA: Thinkers Press, 2003.