The Survival Guide to Rook Endings

by John Emms

For all chess-players - from beginners to grandmasters, and whatever their style of play - one thing is rook endings will arise in a great many of their games. Yet it is precisely in this area of the game that many players give away hard-earned points, either through lack of knowledge or inadequate understanding. Previous books on the subject have been extremely technical and theoretical, and therefore of little use to the practical player. This one is different. John Emms provides the essential specific knowledge, and explains the key concepts, that will enable readers to find the right plan in most common types of rook ending. Rook endings are reached in roughly one in five of all chess games. This volume provides everything you need to know to play rook endings successfully. The author is a battle-hardened professional player, himself the veteran of hundreds of rook endings.

Genres: Chess

160 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1999

Reviews

[Mark Kaprielian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rook endings make up 50% of all endgames so learning as much about them is vital to good endgame play. This book is a very comprehensive and systematic book to Rook Endings.

The first few chapters offer a lot of practical information but after that, it gets tougher to come away with clear lessons. If you’ve been in a Rook and Pawn endgame, the chances are this book will show you a position of the same type and how to draw it.

I was hoping to learn how to win more of these endings but with proper play, it turns out that most seem to end in a draw. In the end, for me, this is more of a reference book to check things out after the fact as opposed to guiding me how to play over the board.