Book Review: Selected Chess Endings by Rev. E.E. Cunnington (updated and edited by FM Carsten Hansen)
Book Review: Selected Chess Endings by Rev. E.E. Cunnington (updated and edited by FM Carsten Hansen)
An eclectic collection of old endgame material. Quick read, with plenty of interesting positions to pore through.
Thanks to FM Carsten Hansen for sending me this book.
Selected Chess Endings is an interesting little book (under 120 pages) that was originally published in 1903. It contains a selection of endgame positions, including composed studies/problems and positions from (at the time) recent play. The original work was updated by FM Carsten Hansen to algebraic notation, and lightly edited in the case of analytical errors. Wherever it was felt necessary, Carsten lets us know he’s talking with the initials “E.N.” for “editor’s notes”, and for the most part this is in italics. I found that these notes were not very intrusive, and were usually helpful. Carsten engine-checked everything, but his analysis was understandable. Beside that, it’s actually impressive that Cunnington’s analysis stood up to such scrutiny most of the time — the corrective notes are not pervasive, and wherever possible, Carsten lets the original work stand.
My favorite part about the update is that if there was a full game score available for positions that Cunnington used, Carsten includes it, so you can see just how the position actually arose. You’ll get to see some cool games and endgames, including one very famous match between McDonnell and Labourdonais. As a fan of chess history I’m always fascinated with how old games like that affected our predecessors.
With the above statements made, I think it’s clear that Carsten’s update improves the original work greatly. There were a couple of errors in the diagrams, but due to the nature of endgame positions having relatively short solutions, this wasn’t much of an issue for me.
On to the book:
This is not a book about theoretical endgames — Cunnington mostly assumes the student knows their basic chops such as opposition and tactics. Instead, Cunnington wants to impress upon the reader the importance of the endgame in general. He puts it bluntly:
“No part of the game is, in general, so poorly played as this final stage. In no other part do we see so many useless moves, such hesitating manoeuvres, such needless expenditure of time.”
In other words, especially in pawn endgames, you simply must know what to do. The analogy used is “knowing your tables”.
In case it’s not obvious, endgame ability becomes increasingly important as your skills and competition increase. Look at this recent game from the ongoing FIDE World Cup 2023 Open section:
Every error these (Grandmaster, top 99.99%ile skilled) players made (according to the automatic computer analysis on lichess.org) was committed in the endgame:
We’ve all got work to do, it seems!
The first set of positions is all about king and pawn endgames, and in general, I find that king and pawn endgames are very instructive when selected well. I think the selection here is good, if a bit sparse. If anything, I think the main point is to show the reader how exacting your calculation must be in king and pawn (and rook) endgames.
The remaining positions in the book are different configurations of material balances and imbalances (Rook and Pawn Endings, Queen vs Rook, Bishop vs Knight, etc.). You’ll find some surprising wins, draws, and losses in these positions. Some of the chapters are bizarrely short, but this seems to me a historical organizational quirk of chess literature. Sometimes the book seemed like a prototype or spiritual predecessor for 100 Endgames You Must Know. The last chapter was my favorite, probably because it contained the most full games, and the most interesting endgames and studies.
This is a very straightforward book that you could read in a couple week’s time, if you are a diligent learner and care more for information and ideas you can learn than way they’re presented. Selected Chess Endings is not intended to be a comprehensive theoretical manual a la Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual; nor is it about strategic endgames. It displays basic methods in (mostly) practical endgame positions, and sprinkles in some interesting studies and actual master practice from before the year 1903. The main audience for this book was and still is the amateur club player, especially ones who find themselves struggling to win or draw the positions they’re supposed to. The prose is very dry (with the trademark anticlimax ending included), like many older chess books. It won’t win any awards for its writing. But the positions are instructive, and the methods are pretty clear, and even if you’re familiar with endgames, you could learn a few new tricks. I also think there’s some use here for coaches who may want to introduce their students to interesting endgame positions and bend their minds a bit. As well, I think a lot of the positions where one side plays to win could be used as sparring positions for those who want to train their endgame chops, either with a willing partner or Lc0 or Stockfish or another engine.
The Verdict
I enjoyed my time in Selected Chess Endings. I think some of the value is in the historical context of the original work. I wouldn’t say this is a groundbreaking work of chess literature, but it was clearly written with an eye towards fostering a deeper appreciation of endgames, and I think it would be worth looking at if you’re interested in picking up some (old) new ideas to add to your repertoire of endgame skills. It’s also generously priced at $10 on Amazon.