*bump*
Just in case the post can do someone some good. I think it can.
Why the endgame is important
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Reti study: white to play and draw
why endgamez are important. to own ppl
Thanks j1m1! That one's a classic. If there were courses in chess in the schools, and there were one on endgame studies, this Reti gem would be in front of the class on the first session.
Another one or Reti's masterpieces on the same theme: white to play and draw
Thank You, Goldendog, for posting this thread. As someone who is weak in the endgame this is very helpfull. I have never studied basic endgame strategy, so can anyone suggest a good book or system to learn the requisite endgame concepts.
yeah, it's really incredibile that you can pul out a draw in such a position.
btw. i took a look on that puzzle of yours.nice :)
Silman's latest endgame book seems to please most everyone, and it starts at the basic lessons.
http://www.amazon.com/Silmans-Complete-Endgame-Course-Beginner/dp/1890085103
I don't own it (yet, as I have about 3 endgame books that don't get used much) but it *does* get good reviews.
Also mentioned recently was Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual.
Make a new thread and get even more suggestions.
The obvious answer to why endgame knowledge is good to have is that when you find yourself in one, you know how to play it and will get a better result than if you knew less, or nothing at all.
Less obvious to the average player is that without decent endgame knowledge you can't play your middlegames to their full capacity. Here I am referring to closely fought middlegames with about a pawn difference in material at most, just to be clear. So you are in a middlegame and you see that the highly tactical part is almost over, that you can force some tactics and then that kind of complication is essentially over and that the endgame phase would be entered. So, what do you do? If you have a handle on the kind of endgame that would result, you could evaluate your chances in it. You might choose a different path if you saw it was bad for you. You could steer the middlegame to an endgame that is advantageous for you, as one of several possibilities.
Being able to steer to a good endgame is a huge advantage against an opponent who has no idea what you are aiming at, an opponent who has inferior endgame knowledge.
That's the point. In the same way that the purpose of the opening is to get a playable middlegame position, a basically even middlegame is to be shaped for an endgame advantage. The player who lacks the endgame knowledge is adrift and doesn't know either where he should or could go, while the other player who knows the endgame will more times than not find a winning path to it from the middlegame.
So, study the endgame, for practical reasons, just like you study tactics. When you've learned more about chess you'll find yourself more and more often in games where neither side is being blown off the board, and the time spent on the endgame will pay off.
Last, endgames have a beauty of their own. It's an aesthetic appeal but also undeniable. Especially the studies. A thing to simply enjoy. If anyone has that famous Reti study with the king on h8, go ahead and throw that in. I don't know if I've ever seen that here.