How to Play Chess Endgames

Karsten Müller, Wolfgang Pajeken

Difficulty: Intermediate, Advanced

Category: Endgame

Readability: 6/10

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How difficult it is to read the book without using a board. A book with 10/10 readability is a bedtime story, a book with 1/10 is a puzzle book full of variations. Readability doesn’t represent the quality of the book.

Usefulness: 9/10

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Usefulness is a measure of how useful the book is for chess improvement within the topic it covers. Books with a high usefulness score should help you improve quicker than those with a low score.
I would say that this is Shereshevsky’s Endgame Strategy 2.0. Müller and Pajeken have written an excellent book on endgame strategy that covers a vast number of themes, principles, and practical examples in a way that’s easy to follow regardless of your rating. Activity, pawn play, do not rush, exchanges, schematic thinking, initiative, prophylaxis, zugzwang, domination, converting advantages, bishop pair and defense, are how the book is divided, alongside, in my opinion, several less important sections. Each section covers numerous chapters that subdivide the underlying theme. In a sense it’s very similar to most endgame strategy books. Just done better. Much better. It’s well written, the examples are useful, the concepts explained well, and the structure helps the reader digest the material easily. If I had to choose one book on endgame strategy, I would choose this one.