English Chess Forum

This is a genuinely great book.

John Nunn “ I hope that this book of endgame exercises will encourage readers to put their brains in high gear to test themselves and to learn about the ending”.

The exercises are graded 1 star (easiest ) to five stars (hardest) . As a c2000 player I didn’t get beyond the three star exercises, in total spending about 10-15 minutes on each exercise with its insightful commentary and natural questions

This book can be a wonderfully enjoyable read for almost all chess players: the introductory sections, to the chapters of exercises, are entertaining and instructive.

One minor critical comment is that I guess reading it is a bit like reading Newton’s Principia Mathematica for the first time

It's hard to imagine there being anyone more readable that Mr.Nunn when it comes to endgames but as he has said in more than one publication, endgames are so highly nuanced, which is what makes them so tough. Hopefully that is factored into the text in some instructional way.

MjMcCready,


There often are some nuanced (sometimes useful rules of thumb) explanations about what is understood about a specific position through calculations and theory : not just that the best moves work but also why others don't .

Regards

It's not the explanations I am referring to but the nature of the positions. In his book Understanding Chess Endgames Dr. Nunn does a good job of pointing out in rook endgames that the difficulty often lies in knowing which general principle can be applied in the given position, as well as explaining why players of his strength and above get it wrong.

Does he explain the solutions with regards to the problems he sets, or at least gives some insight? You mention the commentary is insightful, and with Dr. John Nunn being Dr. John Nunn, I would imagine he has refrained form the archetypal, if not somewhat antiquated, exercise book of problem + solution only.