What are good resources for medium-level endgame studying?

I recently purchased Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual, which is highly recommended by grandmasters to players of all levels.

The problem is that the book is way too advanced for my level (I'm about 1300 in blitz and 1500 in rapid here at chess.com). A few of the engame patterns taught in the book are relatively easy, and I have actually learned a few things from it. However, the majority of the patterns and principles go well over my head, even if I seriously try to understand them. Things like corresponding squares, far opposition, diagonal opposition... most of it is too advanced for my level. (There are some simpler situations eg. about "corresponding squares" that are easier to understand and see, but the book goes quickly into positions that are too advanced for me.)

Also the vast majority of the exercises are way above my level. They are probably 2000+ elo exercises in my estimation. (Even though almost all the exercises are positions that look relatively simple, as there are only a few pieces on the board, the correct solutions are always extraordinarily difficult, full of counter-intuitive moves, and which require an enormous amount of reading ahead and experience on the advanced principles of the endgame. I simply have no hope of solving them on my own, nor understanding how to solve them.)

The sad thing that almost no exercise in the book has actually been useful for me, because they are way too advanced and hard. I can't solve them on my own, and looking at the solution doesn't really help me understand how to solve similar problems. These are some master-level exercises, not my level.

So, are there any good resources to learn the endgame, more on a level that would actually be helpful for me? Slightly easier concepts, slightly easier exercises (not trivial, slightly challenging, but solvable so that I actually have a chance to learn from them).

Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual is geared towards player 2000+

You are better off with Silmans Complete Endgame Course.

I ordered said book. Thanks for the suggestion.

Would still have loved if it had some good medium-level exercises, though.

Good luck.  I would also suggest when studying the book to use a real board and pieces.

Exactly what I was going to suggest.  And it's available online as an interactive study... elsewhere...

Bernd Rosen - Chess Endgame Training is a good book full of endgame exercises.

or Chess endings for beginners (ChessKing App)

Karsten Mueller has come out with a simplified version of Dvoretzky's endgame manual. I think its about 200 pages max. Haven't seen it though

Just a week ago I started reading Muller and Lamprecht Secrets of Pawn Endings.  I love it.  (Of course, that only covers pawn endings, but, still).  After each chapter he gives a dozen or  so exercises and in the answer section he fully describes the solution, as well as where he covered it in the chapter.  (He rates each exercise as easy/medium/hard)

It's not for a newbie, for whom I would recommend Silman's Complete Endgame Course.  But if you're at the stage where you already know about Opposition, Lucena, and Philidor but not much else -- this is a great resource.  (Again: for pawns).

For Rooks, I just picked up Ward, Starting Out: Rook Endgames.  I really like that, too -- but I decided that I probably should learn Pawns first, as a basic building block.

Here are three exercises rated as medium from chapter 1.  The instructions are simply "assess the position".  Meaning: can either side force a win or a draw, and, if so, how

Black to move

In the following one -- it's white to move:

For the above two, all you need to know, really, is just "opposition" and "in the square"

The book teaches three concepts in the first chapter: the above two and one you'll need for this one: "key squares"

For this position, the instructions are: assess the position if it's white's turn, and assess the position if it's black's turn.  It's rated as easy:

If you found these too easy, well, it's only chapter 1 -- which covers KP vs K.  (Chapter 2, which I'm almost finished with is KP vs KP -- same file or adjacent files

You could read Dvoretsky slowly, with Stockfish running, ignoring the exercises, trying to understand as much as you can and not worrying about not grasping all the subtleties

Often there are all sorts of tactics in the background, a top player will see all these instantly, but for lower rated players Stockfish is fantastic for studying endgame positions, because if you don't understand Rh3 and the book doesn't tell you, then you play Rh4 and Stockfish will tell you why that is no good

Kasparov recommended Dvoretzky's Endgame Manual
Carlsen endorsed Fundamental Chess Endings by Müller & Lamprecht

These are the best, they are not easy, but chess is not easy.

These forums are a cesspool, I thought you were an exception

You are not as clever as you think you are

Math, for most, is not easy.  Calculus can be awesome, but throwing an average 10th grader into a calculus class is a waste of time, no matter how good the calculus textbook is -- you need to work up to it.   One should spend time reading texts that are appropriate to one's level.

In fact, I have tried in the past to review some of my own games with stockfish, and I have learned pretty much nothing, because stockfish doesn't teach me principles, and it's in fact hard to discern sometimes why some move is good and another is bad, because stockfish doesn't explain anything (just following that bad line doesn't necessarily help me understand the principles of why it's bad, and moreover, sometimes that path being "bad" is so subtle and high-level that I have no way of really knowing why the engine thinks it's bad.)

I think that take is just about right.  Engines are extremely useful -- unsurpassed -- for finding tactics that one side of another has missed -- and folks keep saying that tactics is the single most important factor to get to 1600, 1700.  (And, endgames, which is not exactly tactics, but it is "calculation").

Heisman says that a missed tactic occurs at least once in 99% of games where both opponents are 1600 or less.  I know I miss tactics every game I play.  And so I use the engine to try to find them, and then I try to figure out why/how I missed them.  So that part can be pretty useful.

But engines can't really tell you much of anything else.  And, beyond tactics and calculation, it can't tell you the "why" of anything.  Sometimes you can figure it out -- but often, particularly in the first 10-12 moves, the "why" must come from somewhere else.  The consensus is that going over the game with a higher rated player or a coach is the way to learn that other stuff from your games.  I've learned a *tremendous* amount from going over my games with a coach.