Capablanca's Best Chess Endings: 60 Complete Games Paperback – February 1, 1982

I am an expert class player has been stucked at USCF 2100+ for about 3 years. For several times I was so frustrated that I didn't study a minute in chess for months. I've tried several training methods to try to cross the 2200+ barrier and get my NM title, but none of them worked out. Until several months ago, I discussed my progress problem with a NM friend of mine, and he suggested me to find an endgame book to study. I accepted the advice and picked up this book, after compared many endgame thematic study books on Amazon. Why this one? Endgame thematic study books such as Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual are very well written and certainly will help Candidate Masters level players alike me, but they are nonetheless too boring to read through, because they all come with lengthy variations and start with positional studies (instead of complete games), I can only imagine masters who are going after their IM or GM norms will need to study such highly professional and insipid endgame books. For players who seek to break 2200, alike me, or club players, carefully study this Capablanca's Best 60 Endings will be sufficient to bring you onto next level. In addition, as the famous trainer GM Sveshnikov mentions in many of his books, to better study any part of the game, it is always best to study complete games and concentrating on analyzing the theme you are trying to improve: because isolated diagram positional studies can be forgotten soon, while as being able to connect the contents with a particular complete game you study in books, it is much more likely to be remembered.I studied one game in this book daily, and devoted 1-2 hours to studied each game, over a period of two months. It is hardly ever a big pleasure to study endgames because they are usually not as exciting as middlegames, but thankfully I finished it, partially because of my desire to improve but a lot more I would say thanks to the author. Mr. Chernev has a written style combined of rich literacy and entertainment. He quoted stories and adages from classical literature and myths, and makes jokes in the annotations on extreme good/bad moves, which all make the boring endgame study more delightful.Ex. p93:The author says "If White's object was to place all his pieces and pawns on black squares, he has succeeded in that ambition!"p148 He even inserts a line of music to interpret his thought on a good ending position reached by Capablancap220:He quotes "Manhattan Chess Club epigram: 'Black passed pawns travel faster than white'."I always study most of the masters games on ICC/chess.com, because I have habits save all of them as PGN into my personal study database. Yet for most situations I do not use engines to look throughout games, but only use it to test an important position where the author give lengthy annotations. For this book, I did find several severe false analysis (some by the author and others by Capablanca himself) and typos.One example of missed annotation: p87, white's 13th opening move "13...Bc1-d2" is very passive, and I believe it deserves at least a ?!, if not ? mark, but the author does not annotate this passive move at all.For example, p167, the note after black's 29th move including a big mistake: the suggested sidelines 33.Kd4-c5 is a blunder (a move wins claimed by the author), which white will throw away the win, and instead 33.Kc3 is essentially to keep a steady but not instant winning edge.One of the few typo examples I found: p272, notes after black's 16th move, the black king is on his way to the queenside (but not "to the kingside").Understandably though, this is a book focuses on endgame study, some critical notes missed given in middlegame and opening phases can be due to book size limits. Also, in my research on the author I learned that he is a prolific admirable chess author who was around NM-FM level, so safely speaking, though not spectacularly outstanding (comparing to some 2500+ top chess master level authors), this author is very solid and erudite in the game, and occasional mistakes in analysis is acceptable (because even wchamps such as Fischer and Capablanca sometimes make big mistakes in their annotations as well).One thing to keep in mind if you are ready to begin to crack this entire book: Mr. Chernev appears to be a fanatic fan of Capablanca, therefore he overlooks/omits a lot in terms of criticizing Capablanca's mistakes/strategic errors in the opening and middlegame. I suggest you to study the book with a serious chess study buddy and/or going over the games first in actual board and then over an electronic board with engine, so that you can more objectively and comprehensively in understanding Capablanca's play as a whole, including his always great endgame play and far from machine-like precision but strong enough opening and middlegame play (which were together good enough to make him a world champ for many years).After a portion above listed some interesting annotations and understandable mistakes in the book, I would say overall, going through the complete games and annotations given by the author and quoted from Capablanca's original notes is extremely helpful. Most notes in the book are high quality and precise. Mr. Chernev not only well annotates the ending positions reached from the original games, but also gives examples of related positions reached by other masters' games. In addition, the author tends to explain the position from both objective and practical points, lists many examples of classical positions in endgame, middlegame and opening standard position and ways to play them. My favorite two games are game 20 and 24, which both well demonstrate crystal clear playing style and of the endgame giant Capablanca. A game also impressed me is game 33, which Capablanca reached a terribly losing position out of the middlegame but magically managed to turn over the table with precise endgame play. After I finished this endgame book and studied several other chess books regularly for the past 4 months, I have not yet have a chance to test myself in any regular rated tournament yet, but my recent results in online games and over the board blitz have surprised myself. In the past month, in ICC I reached 3 and 5 minutes rating peaks, and I started to beat FM and IM titled players from time to time, not in a method of winning on time (which was basically the only way I had beat these strong masters in the past), but simply out played them in the middlegame and converted better endgames into wins. In a recent friendly blitz match with a 2600+ GM in a local chess club, I lost most games just as one can expect (2100+ VS 2600+ LOL), but to the GM and other onlookers' shock, I managed to level and even obtained winning position in about a quarter of the game (though most wins I still missed by losing seconds on clock). After the match he asked me what's my rating, and when I told him I am only about 2150, his looked totally shock and told me he thinks based on my overall play he thinks I worth a rating much more than that. Hearing this praise makes me pretty happy, not that naively believe being able to beat a GM several times in a blitz means I am on my way to become a top master, but simply happy to visualize my improvement after months of hard work. If I manage to score some amazing wins or draws against the higher rated masters in the upcoming regularly rated USCF tournaments, I will say comprehensive study of Capablanca's Best 60 Endings is my most important secret weapon, if not the only.In the past few years the only few games I drew or beat players over 2300+ were all by winning on time or my opponents dumped the winning positions by big tactics blunder, and none of the games was scored by my better play in the middlegame and endgame. After devoted 2 months to study this book, yet the change really comes: I no longer fear to transpose steady edge in middlegame into endgame, and even started to beat strong masters in endgames seem to be roughly equal. I highly recommend ambitious Class A and expert players who are seeking to improve your level onto next class to carefully study this book. This is a book will make your better understand endgame and overall stratgies/standard positions in chess.At the end I want to quote a saying by Sir George Thomas (also listed on p77, game 20 of this book): "Against Alekhine you never know what to expect; against Capablanca you knew what to expect, but you couldn't prevent it!"

Since emigrating to the USA from the Ukraine in 1920, Irving Chernev has been a prolific writer and is reckoned to have wrote some 20 chess books. Who has not heard of Logic Chess: Move by Move, arguably one of the most famous chess manuals ever published. Readers familiar with his other works will have discerned a deep love of the game which also shines through in Capablanca's Best Chess Endings. Chess historian Edward Winter had this to say about Chernev's style and output:"clear, humorous and easy going... Literate and carefully structured". Winter regarded Capablanca's Best Chess Ending as, perhaps, Chernev's finest work, describing it memorably as a combination of, "hard analytical work and his customary screwball levity".Having taken delivery of the book in question, I must say that this is a fine work. Whether it it Chernev's best I cannot say as I am unacquainted with his other writings. Good endgame works are rare it seems as they often comprise of dry, theoretical studies or puzzles not much use for over the board play. C.B.C.E. is a nut-and-bolts, dirt under your fingernails kind of book,a hands-on treatise that contains 60 full games along with their endings. An important point as endings should be studied in relation the the whole game. Chernev's approach here is to provide the active chess enthusiast with practical examples forged during the heat of battle, all lively annotated and clearly presented. The analysis is not exhaustive but it's certainly more than adequate and appears at the right juncture , doing a good job of clarifying alternative lines of play. Each game and its ending are both numbered, making it easy to access just an ending if you want to skip the opening and middle phase of the encounter. The layout is economical with each game having one or two diagrams, usually at the beginning of the ending. One small gripe is the use of the long form of algebraic notation; e.g. 1.d2-d4 instead of 1.d4. But this is a minor fault. The publishers, Dover, have included indexes for: openings; theme in the ending; opponents; along with Capablanca's tournament and match record.If you are an active participant in tournament and league play and want a concise, practical handbook of instructive chess endings, you cannot go far wrong by adding this to your collection.

Here is one of those books that you are just glad was written! Why? Because Capablanca is one of the most popular chess players of all time, and was especially renowned for his endgame skills. The clarity and simplicity of Capablanca's play make his games ideal for study. So a book featuring 60 of his best endgames, written by one of America's most beloved chess authors, is a special treat. Each game is given in its entirety, with the earlier parts of the game lightly annotated. More extensive annotations are of course given for each endgame. The notes are a combination of verbal explanation and analysis of concrete moves. Perhaps titled players would prefer to have more extensive analysis, but for us non-masters, there is a LOT to chew on in these pages, enough to keep one happy for many rainy afternoons! There is a very wide variety of piece combinations covered, and they flow from a wide range of openings, with the most frequently represented ones being (not surprisingly), the QGD and the Ruy Lopez. Although this is not a textbook on endgames, anyone who works through it carefully will be getting a very good education in how to play strategic endgames. This would be a great reinforcement of lessons learned from a text like Shereshevsky's 'Strategic Endgames'. Highly recommended for all chess players, and an essential book for fans of Capablanca and great endgame play. Note: Although this is one of those inexpensive Dover reprints that most of us know and love, this one is in (long) algebraic notation, not the usual descriptive notation.