The title gets it right, it really teaches us endgames in a “simple way”, not like most of the other books on the subject, this book teaches us trough practical samples from real games, concentrates on the principles and plans that must be applied in any given situation in almost all chess games we play.

Thr opening chapter talks about pawnless endings (The basic and not so basic mates; N+B vsK;Q vs R; R+B vs R; RxB; RxK
After it we have a chapter on King and Pawn endings, a long section on Rook and Pawn endings, the most common type of ending encountered in practical play, followed by chapters on Knight endings, Bishop endings, Bishop and Knight endings, and Queen endings.

The second part of the book consists of 100 exercises, all taken from practical play, to test the reader to what extent he can apply the knowledge gained in the first part of the book. What is surprising is the number of times really simple endings occur in practical play.

The book is really good graphically, the author as created hundreds of diagrams that fill the pages to explain to us visually what he is talking about.
If you are planning on upgrading your chess level, then endgames are a must, this book is a great place to start, altough its not the only book youl have to read if you really are serious on chess study. Altough if you are starting your training it is much better to start with this one, then with one like DEM (Dvoretsky Endgame Manual) or Pratical chess endings (Paul Keres), altough those are by far mong the best books ever for chess training, they can be too complex and hard to follow!

Our Rating