I'm reading "Winning Chess Endings" By Yasser Seiarawan and learning a great deal from it: but it doesn't have a tonne in the way of hands-on practice.  I need to apply what I know to really learn it.  My rating is about 1600 right now and about half my games end in "reasonable" endgames, the other half end when when one side is up a piece or more and the game is basically over.  One way to go would be to find master games with interesting endgames and analyze those, or are there puzzle collections that are specifically focused on endgames?

I am sure that you will get some varied but still valuable input from your posting.

I also like Seirawan 's "Winning Chess Endings."

Some other books that I have made a positive impact on my endgame development:

"Practical Rook Endings", Mednis.

I recall buying this slim paperback book years ago for about six dollars. What a bargain. Mednis distills rook endings into the very basics. I have stolen many draws and wins thanks to this very book when I knew where to go, and my opponent didn't.

"Silman's Complete Endgame Course", Silman.

This has been covered in other forum postings. Check also the reviews in amazon.com.  Bottom line: Get it. Read it. Get better.

"Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual", Dvoretsky.

"Fundamental Chess Endings",  Lamprecht & Muller.

Both texts read better than Fine's "Basic Chess Endings", but may seem overwhelming to some readers. I like the explanations and the quizzes.

"Capablanca's Best Chess Endings", Chernev.

Chernev probably never met a Capablanca game he never liked, but he does present a varied assortment of endgames by the great world champion that look more like real games and less like studies/compositions.

As suggested, playing out master games illustrating endgame themes can't help but be instructive, but of course one must know the basics.

Study Capablanca! ...;)

ChessTrainor wrote:

First you must Know all Mating Patterns.See my topic" Different mates".It tells all mating patterns.Book reference:"The art of the Checkmate" by Renaud and Kahn.if you have seen all mating patterns,then you will have an eye for it in actual endgame and utilize it as your leverage.By threatening your opponent with mate then you have Tempo! and Control of the game.And there is a small exercise book by Pandolfini,set -up for endgames,a thick booklet.My current rating now is,1700 + plus.fr. ChessTrainor.

 Hi ChessTrainor,

       Do you know K+2B vs. K+N, no pawns?  Is it a draw?