Van Perlo's Endgame Tactics: A Comprehensive Guide to the Sunny Side of Chess Endgames

This is the best book for learning endgames if you’re not a grandmaster. I have read three of the major endgame books - by Fine, Keres, Dvoretsky - and this Perlo gem was the most entertaining and easiest to remember.

I'm only 20 problems into 1400 total but I can already see that this is going to be one of my favorite endgame books.

The price initially gave me pause, but I have no regrets in purchasing this. This could be characterized as a masterpiece. Most if not all of the positions involve some type of unusual circumstances where one side can do better than you might expect at first glance, but I still found myself having to clear out the cobwebs on the positional handling of various types of endgames in order to rule out certain lines or address certain deficiencies in my endgame understanding. In this regard, I am learning a lot as I go through this.Many of these remind me of the sometimes subtle distinction between tactical and positional play. These are not always tactics in the traditional sense of involving checks, captures, and threats, but they are certainly forcing lines. But there is a lot of subtlety.This is certainly not a book for folks who do not already have some understanding of basic chess endings. For example, you need to know a fair amount already about basic K+P vs K+P endgames, although you can use this as I have to shore up deficiencies.

An incredible collection of blunders and brilliancies in the endgame. A necessary addition to every serious chess players library.

One bad A#$ book. Have a great time laughing and joking about the players. This is one book you will learn.

Fantastic collection, entertaining as well as a good learning tool

Well written, easy to follow. Improve your endgame, must have for improving chess players

A lot of my chess playing friends don't give much attention to endgames. Study the openings--you'll obtain a strong advantage! Study the middlegame--you'll crush your opponent! And besides, endgames are boring.I would dispute those characterizations of the value of endgame study vs. other phases of the game, because I frequently pick up rating points from equal endgames. But still, there is that factor of interest to contend with. Many of the endgame works are structured like encyclopedias, and are about as interesting to read.Not so with this gem from Correspondence GM van Perlo, though! That author writes with a cheerful, winsome style, and the 1300 tricks and traps he presents do sparkle. I have spent countless hours trying to solve this book's diagrams, and either exulted in having found the clever path to victory (or draw), or cringed when I discovered I had overlooked a resource. In either case, I find myself picking up useful techniques for the all-important final phase of the game.Some of my favorite examples include:* In Perez Perez-Ivkov, Havana 1962, white resigned when it looked like black's 2 rooks would deliver checkmate the very next move. But he could have forcefully sacrificed both of his remaining pieces, a bishop and a rook, to reach stalemate!* In Bumupi-Mijuskovic, Yugoslavia 1987, black mixes up his move order on the way to a winning pawn promotion, allowing white to salvage draw with a surprising perpetual check.* White was a pawn down in a queen endgame in Loughran-Harrison, Victoria 1916, and eventually lost. However, Loughran could have played the surprising 1. Qf6! to put Harrison in a zugzwang that would have compelled him to resign in just 5 moves.Once you have mastered a good introduction to basic endgame patterns such as 100 Endgames You Must Know: Vital Lessons for Every Chess Player Improved and Expanded, this masterpiece, whose second edition won both the English Chess Federation and ChessCafe Book of the Year Awards in 2006, is the book you should study. I would even recommend this significantly expanded 2014 edition to those who already own the second edition or third editions. The new section covers about 150 pages and contains about 200 fascinating examples and 76 puzzles from rook or rook + minor piece endgames. (Solutions are at the end.) By itself, the additional material would be a refreshing and useful endgame tactics book. Bundled with the previous work in a high-quality paperback edition, it provides compelling value.=================================The publisher provided a review copy of the book in return for my honest review.