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Does anyone have and care to offer an opinion on informant's endgame encyclopaedias?
Does anyone have and care to offer an opinion on informant's endgame encyclopaedias?
So I've found while studying chess it is easier to internalize themes when one has many examples to draw from-- while Dvoretski may distill endgames to their most important positions and Silman may elucidate them clearly, I still feel the necissity to study the positions leading to the tabias.
Any comments on these books?
In the way you have:
Books on attacking and sacrificing -----> Anthology of chess combinations
I want books that are:
Endgame Manuals -----> ???? (encylcopedia of chess endings?)
So I've found while studying chess it is easier to internalize themes when one has many examples to draw from-- while Dvoretski may distill endgames to their most important positions and Silman may elucidate them clearly, I still feel the necissity to study the positions leading to the tabias.
Any comments on these books?
In the way you have:
Books on attacking and sacrificing -----> Anthology of chess combinations
I want books that are:
Endgame Manuals -----> ???? (encylcopedia of chess endings?)
I sold all my Informant Endgame Encyclopedias some years ago when I needed to greatly downsize my library in order to move into an apartment. I kept the classic old Averbakh et al endgame book series (the ones Fischer's team chose to take to his 1972 match with Spassky, if I'm not mistaken). I found these Encyclopedias ironically have (besides no written explanations offered ) too many examples (and yet, if only adjournments were still allowed... :( ). For, as Informant itself advertises, in an effort to compete with databases, "Too much information = not enough information." :)
I first learned endgames from Basic Chess Endgames by Reuben Fine (David McKay Company 1941) as a teenager over about a year, although I had to do some thinking on my own to take into account the author's very occasional poor choice of words to explain concepts. Then I bought and went through the Averbakh et al books, quite later. I would say I never really studied endgames much after that, aside from just reading the prose from the odd book and visualizing play from at least some diagrammed examples.
Secrets of Chess Endgame Strategy by Lars Bo Hansen (Gambit 2006) might interest you, depending on your level. He explores what he calls 'Strategic Endgames', that is endgames where the proper result is not clear from the starting point that he gives. The only thing I would warn against is completely buying into his somewhat artificial theory about the basic four types of chessplayers' styles (and how it might apply to such endgames) - a theory which he uses in more than one of his books.
Another, shorter, book that people having trouble mastering endgames at all might like is Grandmaster Secrets Endings by Andrew Soltis (Thinkers' Press 1997), which involves a Socratic style dialogue between teacher and pupil, while showing various examples of endgame play. It may be well known by now that there are the "Good Soltis" and "Bad Soltis" types of chessbooks by Soltis, and this book seems like one of the former type.
Last edited by Kevin Pacey; Thursday, 16th May, 2013, 12:23 AM.
Reason: Spelling
Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Murphy's law, by Edward A. Murphy Jr., USAF, Aerospace Engineer
So I've found while studying chess it is easier to internalize themes when one has many examples to draw from-- ... I still feel the necessity to study the positions leading to the tabias.
ficing -----> Anthology of chess combinations
I want books that are:
Endgame Manuals -----> ???? (encylcopedia of chess endings?)
Have not see those volumes for a long time. Is a 3-volume set? As I remember it is in a dry plain symbol notation. Yes, you'll have a lot of examples.
Other possible alternatives:
Polgar Engames. A solid big hardcover book, it might be pricy these days.
Muller Lamprecht Fundamental Chess Endings, something more advance than Silman, and more academic than Dvoretsky.
If you are looking for more for practical endgame examples - Flear Practical Endgame Play.
If you are looking for how to reach endgame and play it from your favorite openings - Shereshevky Masering the Endgame.
So I've found while studying chess it is easier to internalize themes when one has many examples to draw from-- while Dvoretski may distill endgames to their most important positions and Silman may elucidate them clearly, I still feel the necissity to study the positions leading to the tabias.
Any comments on these books?
I have all five volumes (the first editions) and find them very useful for both learning and training purposes. They are filled with instructive examples that can be worked through, played out against a computer, or simply played over and enjoyed. The positions are in sections and the solutions are in separate sections. I haven't seen the new editions but I imagine they're quite similar in content.
Re: Does anyone have and care to offer an opinion on informant's endgame encyclopaedi
I found a combination of reading Practical Chess endings by Keres , Studying the first part of Practical rook end games [I think it was Keres and Levenfish but was more than 35 years ago so could easily be wrong]and looking at many Karpov endings was easily enough to allow me to compete successfully with the vast majority of my opponents . I don't really see the use of encyclopedia's except as reference books for people who have a dislike of computers or just plain like books . Books are of course beautiful but over time only the really great ones are still with me . They just take up too much space and are really heavy when you have to move !I am down to about 50 books and next move will get down to maybe 20 .
Re: Does anyone have and care to offer an opinion on informant's endgame encyclopaedi
I think I took about 70 books with me when I moved to my apartment, and needed to sell over 500. I also kept a number of CDs. I may have made a mistake, but one type of book I didn't keep was any annotatated games collection, figuring databases, plus any computer analysis I might do, would suffice. I now have a Tal and a Karpov collection, plus the 100 Soviet Miniatures book (the last two were totally surprise gifts).
Last edited by Kevin Pacey; Thursday, 16th May, 2013, 11:45 AM.
Reason: Spelling
Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Murphy's law, by Edward A. Murphy Jr., USAF, Aerospace Engineer
Re: Does anyone have and care to offer an opinion on informant's endgame encyclopaedi
I once estimated that the amount of time it would take for someone to play over every move of all of the games and analysis from, say, just one average opening book, from cover to cover, on a chessboard would be about a year. Extra incentive to visualize play from diagrams, if available. Also, another reason why I like books with ample prose.
Many chessbooks concerning any particular phase of the game are pretty much reference ones, excluding if one concentrates on studying just a small portion of a given book now and then. Computers have greatly accelerated the learning process for at least some types of study, if one wishes to try to soak up lots of knowledge/patterns.
Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Murphy's law, by Edward A. Murphy Jr., USAF, Aerospace Engineer
Re: Does anyone have and care to offer an opinion on informant's endgame encyclopaedi
Amazing. I would get rid of every single opening book in my library before getting rid of one volume of the Encyclopaedia of Chess Endings. As for getting rid of My 60 Memorable Games or Larsen's Selected Games of Chess -- that would be just unthinkable. I guess it goes to prove that everyone is different and that matters of preference cannot be argued.
Amazing. I would get rid of every single opening book in my library before getting rid of one volume of the Encyclopaedia of Chess Endings. As for getting rid of My 60 Memorable Games or Larsen's Selected Games of Chess -- that would be just unthinkable. I guess it goes to prove that everyone is different and that matters of preference cannot be argued.
True enough. At least in the case of My 60 Memorable Games, I still vaguely recall the favourite parts I had of that book. Otherwise, except for some of my White openings, Fischer had a style that was somewhat alien to my own. I may have once read a book on Larsen, but I don't think I ever owned one.
Fwiw, I would estimate based on recollection that the 8 books of the classic Averbakh et al endgame series (which I kept instead of the Encyclopedias) still have in total about 20-25% of the examples of all the Encyclopedias combined, and include prose that the latter do not. However, the latter has the advantage of being suitable for self-quiz material, etc., as you've alluded to, Dan.
Last edited by Kevin Pacey; Friday, 17th May, 2013, 12:49 PM.
Reason: Spelling
Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Murphy's law, by Edward A. Murphy Jr., USAF, Aerospace Engineer
Amazing. I would get rid of every single opening book in my library before getting rid of one volume of the Encyclopaedia of Chess Endings. As for getting rid of My 60 Memorable Games or Larsen's Selected Games of Chess -- that would be just unthinkable. I guess it goes to prove that everyone is different and that matters of preference cannot be argued.
When I was doing administration for the CCCA, Fischers 60 game book in HC was on the remainders shelf at a book chain. I bought all I could get for the CCCA and we sold them to the members. I wish I'd have bought a copy for myself.
When I was doing administration for the CCCA, Fischers 60 game book in HC was on the remainders shelf at a book chain. I bought all I could get for the CCCA and we sold them to the members. I wish I'd have bought a copy for myself.
If I ever wanted a copy of My 60 Memorable Games again badly enough, I don't think I'd mind settling for a soft cover version. If one wanted the hardcover version just in order to sell it for a big profit nowadays, I missed the boat on that one. I had to unload my 500+ surplus books in a hurry when I was in a sort of time pressure because of my impending 'move', and was unaware of this book's great market value.
Last edited by Kevin Pacey; Friday, 17th May, 2013, 08:13 PM.
Reason: Spelling
Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Murphy's law, by Edward A. Murphy Jr., USAF, Aerospace Engineer
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) too many examples (and yet, if only adjournments were still allowed... :( ). For, as Informant itself advertises, in an effort to compete with databases, "Too much information = not enough information." :)
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