Catalogue
Nothing more clearly separates chess master from chess wannabee than winning endgame play. Accurate opening play can be satisfying, and combinations in the middlegame are exciting. But for most chess players, victory is the real finish line. And the endgame is the last lap of the race.
Depending on whether or not you command the necessary endgame knowledge, you can spoil hours of planning, or you can enjoy the victory you've spent the whole game earning. You can even pull yourself out of the steely jaws of a "certain" defeat! The best news is that you don't need to memorize thousands of positions, but only a few carefully selected ones. Combine these with the clear and concise explanations in Just the Facts! and you have the "magic key to chess mastery."
Just the Facts!, winner of the prestigious Chess Journalists of America Book of the Year award for 2000-2001, boils down all essential endgame wisdom into one volume you can use to win games for the rest of your life. (Unlike opening variations, endgame knowledge is immutable.) The principles of the endgame are very different from those in the opening and middlegame-some rules even reverse themselves! Just the Facts! gives you the ideas and the ability to recognize when to apply them.
Just the Facts! is the seventh and final volume of the best-selling Comprehensive Chess Course, the series that brings English readers the once strictly guarded and time-tested Soviet training methods, the key to the 50-year Russian dominance of the chess world. The Comprehensive Chess Course can take you from beginner to master.
Grandmaster Lev Alburt, three-time US Champion and former European Champion, is one of the world's most sought-after chess teachers, famous for providing aspiring players easy access to master-level ideas. He is the only top-echelon GM to develop time-efficient, maximum-impact lessons for those below master strength.
Grandmaster Nikolay Krogius is a famed endgame expert, and a renowned trainer and chess psychologist so highly valued that World Champion Boris Spassky insisted on Krogius as a special coach. Krogius trained a famous and dominant generation of Russian grandmasters. Now you have access to his special insights and techniques.
List of Content
Table of Contents
Just the Facts!
Winning Endgame Knowledge in One Volume
010 Chapter 1: What Is an Endgame?
012 Endgame knowledge-the key to chess mastery
013 The active king
019 Passed pawns
025 Zugzwang
028 Summary
030 Chapter 2: Pawn Endings
032 Part 1: King Position
032 King and one pawn versus king - the fundamentals
034 Chess is a game for squares
037 How to win a pawn up: Three rules for battling a blocking king
041 Most Winnable Endgames - the more pawns, the more winnable!
046 Rook pawns - when living on the edge can be safe
046 Defending by jailing the opposing king on the rook's file
051 Safe squares
052 Passing the move (triangulation)
053 Calling in the reserves (reserve pawn moves)
056 The moving screen
058 The distant opposition
062 A classic triangulation
064 Part II: Passed Pawns
064 The advantage of the outside passed pawns
069 Mutual defense treaties between pawns
074 Creating passed pawns-radical breakthroughs
079 Summary
080 Learning Exercises
082 Chapter 3: Pawns against Pieces
083 Pawn versus knight
086 When the lone horseman holds off both king and rook pawn
088 You can't always win
105 Bishop versus pawns
114 Rook against pawn
115 Cutting off the king on his third rank
118 The running screen in rook-versus-pawn endings
120 Two connected pawns versus the rook
126 Queen versus pawns
133 Summary
134 Learning Exercises
136 Chapter 4: Rook Endings
138 Rook and pawn versus rook, with the defending king blocking the pawn
138 Pawn is on the sixth rank
140 Pawn is not yet on the sixth rank - Philidor's position
143 Lucena's position
146 Counterattacking from the side - the long-side defense
151 When the long side is too short
152 The defending king is cut off from the pawn
155 When the extra pawn is a rook-pawn
161 Rook versus rook and two pawns
162 Special case of the rook- and bishop-pawns
163 Rook and pawns versus rook and pawns
173 Beware of passive defense
181 Summary
182 Learning Exercises
184 Chapter 5: Knight Endings
188 Knight and pawn against knight
193 The king takes part in the defense
197 Both sides have pawns, and one is passed
200 Wing majorities
202 Importance of the active king
205 Summary
206 Learning Exercises
208 Chapter 6: Bishop Endings
210 Part 1: Bishops of the Same Color
210 Pawn on the sixth or seventh rank
212 Pawn not yet on the sixth or seventh rank
217 Bishop and two pawns against bishop
220 Both sides have pawns - the "bad" bishop
224 Both sides have pawns - the "good" bishop
225 Same-Color Bishops: Drawing and Winning Methods
226 Other strategies
228 Part 2: Bishops of Opposite Color
229 Good fortresses require bad bishops!
229 Passed pawns
233 Don't overburden your bishop
234 lt's not always a draw!
235 Fortress Building and Maintenance 101
240 Connected passed pawns - the three rules of defense
244 Targeting
246 Summary
248 Learning Exercises
250 Chapter 7: Knight against Bishop
251 Play with one pawn on the board
262 Play with multiple pawns
270 The knight can be the "Springer of surprises"!
271 The knight can be stronger in close quarters and closed positions
275 The knight against the bad bishop
281 Summary
282 Learning Exercises
284 Chapter 8: Queen Endings
287 Queen and pawn against queen
294 Queens and multiple pawns
307 Summary
308 Learning Exercises
310 Chapter 9: Mixed Bags
311 Basic checkmates
312 Bishop and knight
312 Two knights against a pawn
313 Focus on practicality
313 Rook versus knight with no pawns on the board
315 Don't stand in the corner!
317 Rook versus knight with pawns on the board
319 Rook versus bishop
321 Rook and pawn versus bishop
324 Rook and pawns versus bishop and pawns
329 Rook and bishop versus rook
334 Queen versus rook
337 Queen versus rook and non-rook pawn
337 Queen versus rook and rook pawn
343 Queen versus rook and minor piece
349 Summary
350 Learning Exercises
352 Chapter 10: Multi-Piece Endings
353 Advantage of the bishop pair
360 Two rooks versus two rooks
364 The importance of a spatial advantage
369 Creating additional weaknesses
373 Summary
375 Learning Exercises
376 Chapter 11: Transitions
378 Playing for a favorable ending from move four
395 Heading for the endgame as a defensive measure
402 Summary
403 The Relative Value of the Pieces Change in the Endgame!
404 Learning Exercises
406 Conclusion
408 A Brief Endgame Glossary | 
