Fighting COVID19 with Chess

Free Book project:

As a part of our contribution to the chess community during this lockdown, we decided to offer a free book starting early this month. We felt that it's a wise choice to pick something that'll prove to be useful for players of all levels. We narrowed down our search to The Russian Endgame Handbook by Ilya Rabinovich. Till the end of May 2020, you can download the book free of cost on our website using the download instructions at the end of this blog.

An old Soviet quip has it that Western amateurs “play the opening like grandmasters, the middlegame like experts, and the endgame like beginners.” Soviet-trained players would fearlessly steer the game toward the final phase, confident of their superior endgame skill. Ilya Rabinovich’s Russian Endgame Manual is a major reason for this. Rabinovich raises the beginner’s understanding of the endgame to a sophisticated level, starting with elementary checkmates and then moving on to the principles for handling complex endgames and advanced concepts in king-and-pawn endings, such as the theory of corresponding squares. The author pays special attention to frequently neglected endgame themes such as rook vs. pawns, rook vs. a minor piece, and queen vs. rook. First published in 1927 and updated in 1938, this classic work – featuring more than four hundred instructive endings and over three hundred exercises for self-study – served a generation of players at the height of the Soviet School’s dominance. Mongoose Press now makes it available to the English-speaking public for the first time.

Figured it out yet? You can try out the moves on the board below.

Phase 1: