GM Preparation: Endgame Play is the fifth book in Jacob Aagaard’s series GM Preparation. It is also the most difficult endgame book I’ve ever read. It’s for players who have more than covered the basics of both theoretical and complex endgames, and are looking for a tool that will make them sharper, more aware, and better at calculating in endgames.
There are two types of endgame books; the ones on endgame strategy and the ones on theoretical endgames. GM Preparation: Endgame Play is neither. Aagaard has recently written A matter of Endgame Technique, the most comprehensive book on endgame strategy ever written. Almost 900 pages of endgame knowledge. Dvoretsky has written his Endgame Manual. A mind numbing guide on every theoretical endgame important for tournament play. I don’t wish to say it’s not a good book, it’s the best, it’s just not an easy read. Those two books combined are enough to teach you how to play endgames on Grandmaster level. They accompany each other. There are other books you can use instead of one or both of them, but you need a combination of strategy and theory. GM Preparation: Endgame Play is the third part of the recipe – calculation. It’s the only book in addition to Müller and Fishbein’s Endgame Corner, devoted to calculation in the endgame on such a high level.
It focuses on practical endgame patterns, ones we encounter regularly in over the board play, and the tactics and combinational themes that occur frequently. This is a very concrete book. No theory, just pure skill. And that is perhaps the most valuable type of chess book one can read. A book that focuses on sharpening your endgame skills.
It’s divided into 12 chapters, each with different pieces involved, such as pawn endings, simple and complex rook endings, minor piece endings, opposite colored bishops, and so on, and three separate chapters on tactical endings, strategic ending and fortresses, which do not focus on certain piece combinations.
As is the case with every book in the series, GM Preparation: Endgame Play is all about solving problems. Each chapter is accompanied by many exercises on practical endgame play. They are hard. And when I say hard, I mean so hard that you will think Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual was easy. I struggled to solve some problems for several days before giving up. The solutions to the problems are well written and they explain the ideas well, which is the most important part of a puzzle book, and they do that without going over a million lines you will have a hard time following.
If you are very ambitious and slightly masochistic, and you have covered the basics of endgame theory and strategy, I would urge you to go through Endgame Play. It’s going to be extremely hard and very rewarding.
