The analysis is written in blue but it is way too light to read comfortably.>

I have the second edition and I agree that the light blue print is a bit irritating - though certainly readable... the stuff printed in blue rather than black is what Dvoretsky considers as the most basic and important endgame knowledge to be retained in the memory.

Chess Fundamentals (Capablanca);

Chess Middlegame Planning (Romanovsky);

Play (Think) Like a Grandmaster (Kotov);

A good pawns endings book (e.g.: Chéron).

i have this book, and i don't have a problem with the blue text, although they could have chosen a better color. as long as you have good lighting and decent eyesight, it shouldn't be a deal breaker.

<Dvoretsky's point is that these little tragicomic dramas actually stick in the mind better, and are thus useful teaching/learning aids.>

if you like these tragicomedies, you'll love <Van Perlo's Endgame Tactics>, which is basically a collection of tragicomedies.

<Btw, Dvoretsky himself in the introduction to his book highly recommends Endgame Strategy by Shereshevsky.>

Shereshevsky's book is very good, but is not a theoretical endgame manual. there's nothing like a Lucena or Philidor position in this book, instead, it's a book on late-middlegame positions with an endgame character, that's the best description i can think of.

this is a GREAT book for someone that doesn't know anything about the endgame, but if you already know a thing or two, you might want to skip it.

first of all, this is physically a very large book, but for some reason, it doesn't seem like it needs to be. or maybe i should put it this way - i can spend several hours on a few pages of Dvoretsky. but the first day that i received Silman's book, i read over half of the book. Dvoretsky has information absolutely PACKED into his book. Silman's book has a lot of white space.

Silman covers some VERY elementary stuff - which can be good or bad, depending on your level. if you don't know how to mate with 2 rooks, or if you don't know what opposition means, then this is definitely the book for you. but if you already know a thing or two about the endgame, then half of this book or more might be completely useless to you.

Silman also chooses not to cover certain things that he considers to be impractical. for example, mating with bishop and knight is not covered. sure, this might never happen to you, but i think an endgame course that claims to be <complete> should cover it.

I tend to think that Silman simplifies things a bit too much. For instance, i would have preferred a more in-depth explanation of the Lucena and Philidor positions, which are very important, but are explained only briefly. The concept of the Philidor is simple enough, but i think that a proper teaching of it should contain many many examples of the intricacies.

On the positive side, Silman's prose is very friendly and easy to read. the explanations are clear, and Silman does a good job of highlighting the most important concepts. i don't necessarily think that dividing the material by rating is the best thing since sliced bread, but there is one VERY useful side effect of this - it becomes clear that an understanding of complicated endings is predicated on a full understanding of the simple endings. Silman does a good job of emphasizing this. you gotta walk before you can run.

I plugged a 7-piece position into the online <Nzhedismtitov Table Base> today and it refused to analyze it!!

Do you think it's prejudiced against Patzers??

It told me that that my position "cannot compute- cannot compute- get lost-- cannot compute" etc.

I'm a little miffed I can tell you.

Also, I just ordered the <Jermy Silly Man Pajamas> Endgame Book from the store last weekend.

Does anybody have any recommendations on a book which will give a good introduction to the Sicilian (as Black) for somebody who has never played it before?

I'm thinking of trying to teach a certain old dog some new tricks...

haha

It depends what variation you're interested in playing, but I can recommend one book that will greatly help any Sicilian player. I was told that Rogozenko's "Anti-Sicilians A Guide for Black" was very good, so I got it, and it was <fantastic>. I must say that this book is really all anyone needs for how to play against all the possible lines that white may play to avoid what you're trying to get to. I could not put this book down over the past few days, to the point where I actually look forward to playing an anti-sicilian!! (absurd for any Najdorf player) No furthur studying needed here...

Any variation player that is, it's a book for black...

<Starting Out: The Sicilian> isn't bad, but it's fairly basic.

i have a special place in my heart for Pandolfini's little book. the first endgame book i bought was Fine's <Basic Chess Endings>. that was not a good choice for a first endgame book, and there's nothing <basic> about it. :) i got pandolfini after becoming frustrated with the massive amount of information in fine's book, and i immediately realized that i should have started with pandolfini. pandolfini's book presents simple endgame concepts in a very accessible manner, one concept and example per page. before silman's book came out, pandolfini's book was the one that i would have recommended for an introduction to the endgame.

i should note that there are LOTS of typos in pandolfini's book. but i actually learned a lot from the typos - if something didn't make sense, i was forced to figure out what the correction should be, and i learned a lot in the process.

<But isn't a <complete understanding> of the endgame impossible?>

yeah, you're probably right. but i'm not the one that decided to call it a <complete> endgame course. :) it's really a very good book, but i suspect that after reading it, most will want to expand their knowledge beyond the basics that Silman cover.

<Can anybody recommend me any beginners book on the white side of the french? thanks.>