Yesterday evening, at a simultaneous display in Hereford, I got to repeat the advice that studying the endgame tended to the best option for someone trying to improve on their own. Besides developing a deep understanding of the powers of the pieces, endgames can leave us less concerned about simplification in the middlegame and help with other things like calculation technique. It's also hard to study endgames poorly, at least it's harder than with the opening!
At the same time I framed this within several other considerations, the first of which is a student's preferences. If studying something is a chore it will be done without much enthusiasm or full attention, so if endgames bore you there might be better options. I struggled to go through endgame books but I loved many biographical games collections. There were lots of endgames there too, and also every other aspect of chess. Some players are passionate about particular openings, and if that ignites their thinking and creativity it's a good way too proceed.
There have been moments in which I forced myself to go through endgame books, and I found some more readable than others. Mikhail Shereshevsky's Endgame Strategy was one that I got a lot out of, and my copy has handwritten notes of extra references for the different themes. If you're good with English descriptive notation then I warmly recommend Eugene Znosko-Borovsky's How to Play the Chess Endings.
The other way to improve your endgame play is to try to get more of them in your games. Having an opening repertoire which often leads to endgames can be a very good idea, forcing you into endgames which will then require attention. This advice was given to me long ago and I think it's even more valid in today's engine-centric chess World. It certainly works for Magnus Carlsen.
Training Tournaments
This week's training tournaments are in the Rubinstein French, featuring the positions after 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 (or 3.Nd2) 3...dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Nf3 Ngf6 6.Bg5 h6 and 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 (or 3.Nd2) 3...dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Nf3 Ngf6 6.Nxf6+ Nxf6. The 6.Bg5 line can also be reached via a 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 dxe4 5.Nxe4 Nbd7 move order:
Sunday July 27th at 5pm UK Time: French Rubinstein with 6.Bg5 h6
Sunday July 27th at 6.15pm UK Time: French Rubinstein with 6.Nxf6+ Nxf6
Video Discounts
This week's discount is on the Tiger Chess Strategy Course, part 1, you get 40% off by using the code 'july25august2'. This four part course is designed to provide a thorough education in positional chess. Different aspects of chess strategy are broken down and explained, helping you understand a broad range of concepts that will provide a whole new dimension to your play.
Last week's discount is still valid until tomorrow, you get 40% off the purchase of the White 1.d4 Repertoire, with the code 'july18to26. The idea behind this course is to help players develop a real 1.d4 repertoire with c2-c4 coming in many lines. At the same time the lines are kept as simple as possible and lead to important position types.
My Upcoming Events
There's still nothing new from last week and I have a new project that I'll be working on from September. I will keep playing, but it will move down my list of priorities for a while.
Here is how things look now:
July 31 - August 10 2025: British Championships
As mentioned I've gone for the Championship itself rather than one of the old folks sections. Obviously this will be full of underrated juniors, I'll just have to play better against them this time! You can find details here.
August 23 - 30 2025: San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Tenerife
This looks like a great event and I'm really looking forward to it. Travelling back is a bit tricky because the direct flights were very expensive, finally I found a flight back to Glasgow from where I can take a train!
September 5-7: Hull 4NCL Congress
I'm a big fan of 4NCL Congresses because they are played in nice venues, they're invariably well organized and they offer free entry and accommodation to GMs. You can find details here:
I'll be looking for things after September, not sure when or where!
Chess Questions Answered
I'll just be posting my Chess Questions Answered videos on Tigerchess from here on, though I might be putting some of them on Youtube in due course. I don't think I'm cut out to be a streamer, for one thing I don't have time and for another I'm not beautiful enough!
Have a good weekend.
Nigel
