Software Review - Comprehensive Chess Endings


	Title: Comprehensive Chess Endings Author: Yuri Averbakh Publisher: Convekta Genre: Endgames Level: All levels Traditionally, working on the endgames was a very lonely matter. You would open the book, set the position and start repeating the moves. From time to time you were not sure you understood the position and made your own variations on the board. Still, you were not sure if your own variations were correct. The more serious player would write down his or her analysis and try to convince somebody at the club to work on the moves together. Unfortunately, when one arrived at the club one would find that one’s chess mates didn’t care much about R+P vs R positions and would rather play a blitz game or analyze the latest Kasparov innovation in the Sicilian. This caused many players, myself included, to abandon the frustrating process of improving their endgame understanding.






* chessbug@chessbug.com
	Today, with the aid of computer engines, life is much easier yet not fully agreeable. You can read the book and run to the computer whenever you do not understand the position. First, it solves the problem of loneliness because a computer is friendlier than most of your chess club members…. Second, in 99% of the cases, the chess engine crushes your “innovation” and shows what you have missed. Still, you have to move backward and forward between the book, your board and the computer screen and you have to organize for yourself how to save your analysis conclusions – a pretty annoying overhead. Averbakh and Convekta’s Comprehensive Chess Endings promises to bring you the best of all the worlds and fulfills the promise quite impressively. When I opened the CD I thought it would rise or fall on two crucial factors: how many different themes it covers and how much “real human analysis” is in there. In terms of abundance of different themes and positions Comprehensive Chess Endings is just overwhelming: The CD has 12 chapters (not including the forward, introduction and appendix) each of these chapters has an average of 7 subchapters and each of the subchapters has an average of about 100 analyzed positions. If you make the math it is clear that a human being cannot go over all these positions (unless you are stuck on a deserted island with a PC and the CD…). These numbers do not include the unanalyzed positions, and there are about 20 unanalyzed positions for every analyzed position. So a lot of material is covered and it just remains to check at what level.
	I like a product that analyzes endgame positions, I like a product that analyzes the positions using human words (not informant style), and I like the explanations to be both clear and enjoying. Averbakh achieves almost all of my expectations. Averbakh analyzes all the positions I checked magnificently: he uses words and not just signs, he explains plans and general rules and he goes into detail when necessary. Averbakh is known as one of the greatest experts on the endgame and it shows throughout the CD. I can only say “I am not worthy” when I see this enormous project. Let me just show you one of thousands(!) of examples. If I were Black here, not knowing the position, I would not feel too optimistic: White’s pawn is more advanced and Black’s pawn finds it hard to advance since the black rook defends it from the side. Here is what Averbakh has to say: “This is an important theoretical position: 1.Rc4 Rf3 [This move is also good after 1. Rc5 although 1...Rh3 2.Rf4 c2 3.Rf1 Rf3! is also possible but not 1...Rd3? 2.Rh4+ Kg6 3.Kg8 etc.] 2.Rh4+ Kg6 3.Rg4+ Kf5 4.Rg1 Ke4 with a draw. Black's defence is simple: he moves his rook along the 3rd rank, but occupies e3 only in reply to Rc8.”
	This explanation is pretty straightforward but if you are not sure you can always play it against the Crafty engine and you will find in 2-3 moves where you went wrong. Moreover, all changes that you did in the game (i.e. your analyses) are saved on the game file by a push of a button. There isn’t a more efficient way to study chess, period. The only reason I say that Averbakh “almost” fulfilled all of my chess endgame fantasies is that Averbakh, as in his written work, is still as dry as a leaf in the foliage. The Convekta product is much more fun than the book because the interactive possibilities the software gives but still I’d like to see a joke here and there, maybe an anecdote on the context of the game once in a few positions (Giddins Style) and so on. I know asking for jokes sounds like the complaints of a spoiled child but I am a working man and chess is my hobby so I need these relieves when I work on the game.

	Since I am already in a complaining mood, let me challenge another feature in this product – the rich interface. When a software company (like Convekta) has a leading product (Chess Assistant) and the company decides to come out with a much smaller product (Comprehensive Chess Endgames) there is always the question of whether they want to use the interface of the larger product. Convekta decided to use the full Chess Assistant interface, a decision that has some upsides but also a downside. The first upside is the richer interface gives many options, which come handy once you master it. Another upside is that for previous Chess Assistant users the interface is well known. The downside is, however, that new users, in order to become familiar with the plentiful interface, will need between thirty minutes and two hours, depending on how computer-savvy they are. These small inconveniences are minor compared with the treasure of knowledge that this CD contains and the interactive learning capabilities. I will end with just another example and I am sure Averbakh would not mind because, as I said, these are only two examples, out of thousands of others.
	“The following position is truly unique. White achieves his aim by the splendid move 1 Ke4!! , and depending on where the opponent's king moves, White captures the pawn on that side, e.g. 1…d3 2.Kxd3 Kf5 3.Ke2 Kg4 4.Kf2 =”
	In case you are not sure the final position is drawn you can play it as black against Crafty or go back to an earlier lesson and learn it. If you are looking for that out-of–the-box endgame instructor/reference book/encyclopedia that will take you from an almost beginner to master (and you are not intimidated by Averbakh’s dryness) then Convetka’s Comprehencive Chess Endgames is what you are looking for. The Good Things: Averbakh is still Averbakh – the world’s number one authority on endgame pedagogy For the same price you get an Averbakh book, a Convekta interactive software and a chess engines to analyze with The abundance of positions is overwhelming, you feel like a kid in a candy store. The possibility of reading and practicing on the sane screen makes the learning process faster and more effective. The Bad Things: Averbakh’s writing style is pretty dull The learning curve is somewhat slow because the user interface is rich Quote: In the endgame there is sufficient scope for fantasy but, in order to acquire a taste for the endgame, it is necessary to know and understand its peculiarities, and to master its techniques. The Bottom Line: ComprehensiveChess Endings is the 21^st century chess endgame encyclopedia, reference book and treadmill. Rating: 9/10 Review written by Moshe Rachmuth. More about Endgames in our June Endgame Mania