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Modern Endgame Practice
©2003, A Batsford chess book This is the third collaboration in the series by these two authors on the subject of endgames: Winning Endgame Technique and Winning Endgame Strategy provided the essential foundation for solid play in the endgames. Now, in Modern Endgame Practice (MEP) the authors aim to "...identify definite mistakes made both by grandmasters as well as young players..." in the endgame. Before we delve deeper into MEP, let's learn a bit about the co-authors. GM Alexander Beliavsky, World Junior Champion in 1973, has been among the world’s elite for nearly twenty years, and has earned a reputation as a great fighter. He won the then USSR Championship – generally recognized as the strongest in the world – more than once, and has won many other world-class tournaments as well. Ukranian GM Adrian Mikhalchishin is a renowned theoretician and author, writing about both openings and endgames. He is a four-time participant in the USSR Championship himself. MEP is written for strong players (Class A/Expert and up) who already have a strong grasp of endgame technique. You won't learn here how to mate with bishop and knight against the lone king, or the basics of triangulation, or the intricacies of the famous Lucena position. MEP instead serves to refine your endgame technique, and illustrate some of the many pitfalls which await the unwary practitioner. Chapter titles include:
As impressive a list of subject matter as it appears, not all of the chapters seem to live up to their title. Chapter 17, e.g., The Connection of the Opening and the Endgame, had me expecting a treatise on the types of pawn structures certain openings typically end up in. Instead we start out at move 28 of a pair of Palatnik games. Although there are some complete games provided, never is the connection between the two phases of the game made clear. The closest I saw in this chapter showing this relationship came in a section titled "Transfer to an endgame with doubled pawns" which could relate to one's opening choices (e.g. the Exchange Ruy Lopez.) There are a number of practice exercises, 36 in all. Curiously, they are limited to just three chapters: Rook Against Pawns, Pawn Endgames, and Endgames in Super-Tournaments. Some of them present a special challenge to the reader, like this one from the Rook Against Pawns chapter:
The caption reads "Find the right continuation". For whom? It might be interesting to explore the best move for each side, but the notes only discussed Black's best continuation. While most of the diagram's are adequately captioned, I found at least four like the example above. These small complaints aside, this book is chock full of valuable experience for the reader, and someone else's experience always hurts less than our own! Here is an example from Chapter 1, "When Grandmasters Overlook Certain Manoeuvers":
The authors write: "Black is a little worse and he continued 1...f6+. White can play 2.Kd6 but 2...Kf7 seemed unpleasant to him, while in case of 2.Nxf6 Bxg2 3.Bf5 Ke7 any chances of a win are insignificant. Therefore he replied 2.Ke6?? and after 2...Bc8 he was mated!" It is an ironic underscore of the point Beliavsky makes that in his analysis the very first move he suggests for White is illegal - 2.Kd6 is impossible because the black knight covers that square.
More than 400 examples, most taken from real games, provide ample
opportunity for the authors to illustrate the points they feel need to be
made. The authors do assume, in their analysis, that the reader does
possess a solid foundation in endgame knowledge, and are fairly strong
themselves analytically. This book probably would not greatly benefit
most class players, however the strong class A/expert (candidate master) who
already has strong endgame skills will gain a more mature understanding of
this critical part of the game.
Modern Endgame Practice
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