Averbakh's Comprehensive Chess Endings on CD

I see this thread EXCELLENT END GAME SOURCE which briefly talks about it, and in it there is a suggestion by the last poster to get Silman, Pandolfini, Seirawan first, but then there is the issue of books vs computer and the benefit of prose versus the lost time efficiencies with books.  Anyone agree/disagree?  Even funnier is that I mention those books above in my first post in this thread before linking the other thread.  That is like Twilight Zone in my world which is this post where I am an island among uh land and/or peninsulas.  This will be my home.  It's nice here because of the stream....of consciousness is the end of that sentence bu-yaa sweet sassy molassy.  

It's like episode 1 season 1 of the Twilight Zone in this post.  I own all but the 5th season. That show is awesome.  Haven't seen Serling's Night Gallery though.  I am eager to see some episodes because of the uniformly bad reviews it received.  Did you know Serling died after a coronary bypass graft procedure in 1975?  I did.  Wikipedia doesn't lie.  It's not a sleeping dog, so you can't let it regardless.

I finally bought Seasons 1 & 2 of Night Gallery by Rod Serling...it's freaking awesome, like a sequel to Twilight Zone, but perhaps because it wasn't so well-received because it was in color instead of black and white and gray, in which simplistic story lines are more accepted since it was in the "old" times.  Much like many suggested chess books.  I mean "Winning Chess Tactics", c'mon...obsolete in this day and age of tactics trainers which load position after position after position, 10x faster than setting it up on a board and translating algebraic or descriptive notation OTB.  Serling is a super-GM of TV writing.

Speaking of super-GM's, isn't it said that 2700 is the consensus Elo level for such a title?  Yet, soon 2700 will be considered "weak" GM as more GM's break 2800 and start heading toward 2900.  I would think that qualifying for the candidate cycle or achieving a particular ranking or a number of elite level tournament placings would be more accurate in deeming who is a super-GM, because later people will say "oh Morphy and Capablanca sucked...I'd never fall for those lines that have been analyzed a million times by GMs and strong engines that I have memorized for my opening repertoire". Human garbage. 

As far as endgames go, however, I put a bunch of endgame positions in chess openings wizard and it's great because you can train them and train through the alternative moves the opponent may consider in any endgame sequence in an attempt to swindle, trap, or stalemate you.  If it's good enough for Capablanca (endgames, not COW, which wasn't around before 1942), then it is good enough for me, even though I would never fall for those lines he fell for, that primitive earth-champ of the '20's of yester-century.

Being user-created, Wikipedia does lie, and frequently, although most of this is fixed eventually.  I've corrected dozens of wive's tales that were copy/pasted there from inaccurate websites. 

However, Mr. Serling did die from complications of open-heart surgery.  Serling, a heavy smoker with a family history of heart problems, had suffered two heart attacks in 1975, warranting a then-risky coronary bypass operation.  The third and final heart attack was suffered during or shortly after the operation, and this one killed him.  He was 50 years old.

I look at Averkakh's books more often than I do the CD's (the interface seems a little clunky to me), but I've heard that the CD's have corrections on the books.  Both are filled with insights and good for reference.

Hark, who enters this crazy world?! Just missed 'em.

Thanks for the Averbakh comment...Is there a training feature?  I'd think that endgame training could easily be done like a Tactics Trainer since analysis is quite concrete, so I am shocked that there aren't more "Endgame Trainers" out there.  Just a lot of software that reads like books, though faster to read through since you don't have to set up all the positions.  Why doesn't Nunn put his Endgame volumes into DVD format and allow a training option?   

Yes, apparently Serling's father and grandfather died in their 50's from heart problems, plus all that smoking.  In the Twilight Zone DVD's (I forget which season), he gives a preview of the next week's episode and afterwards he verbally endorses a particular brand of cigarettes (before the Surgeon General's warning, which I believe was in 1964), it's funny to me because it is different and I like to laugh at things done in the primitive old days just like I laugh at Morphy's crappy moves OTB that any 2300-level idiot would never fall for, assuming they of course memorized their "theory" and memorized that particular game.

Another good TV series in the vein of twilight zone is the British series Tales of the Unexpected based on short stories mostly written by Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach author). I bought the first 2 seasons.

The interface appears to be Chess Assistant 10.  You can add variations, and play out positions against an engine.  I don't see a specific training mode listed in the help file, but perhaps you could just hide the notation window, work out your solution, and then check it against the listed lines.

Also interesting are his memoirs of his time as a fighter pilot in WW2, "Over to You". Tails of the Unexpected was fantastic. In the TV adaptation they managed to get a few star turn cameos.

I think a key question that this thread brings to mind is: how was Rod Serling at endgames?  Had he acquired the necessary technique to win won games, or was he prone to drifting, slipping in spite checks when he should have been triangulating his king?  How did he compare with Capablanca?

I don't think twist endings were really Capa's forte.  He prefered to slowly build the tension until the ending just seemed like a natural outcome of all the earlier goings-on.  Very different from Serling and Hitchcock.

I grew up with Skippy and Seahunt and ofcourse not to mention Rifleman, Sugarfoot and Cheyenne, no wonder I turned out to be a well balanced young man

I grew up on Reuben Fine and Paul Keres.  I haven't even heard of half these newer authors.  My, how things have changed.

Yes, Capa would resolve his story arcs quite simply but delightfully.   Serling's endings would probably resemble those found in his relative's book: Van Serling's Endgame Tactics.

Wikipedia edit wars can be entertaining: http://historynotebook.blogspot.com/2020/06/crowd-sourcing-vs-expertise.html

Some of these are very nice