| A few years ago Grandmaster Alex Shabalov was giving a lecture at the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club in San Francisco. When he finished his talk, Shabalov opened the floor to questions and the first was "what book do you recommend for someone who is ambitious to improve?" Shabalov said that normally this would be a hard question to answer without more information about the questioner's strengths and weaknesses, their age, how long they had been playing, how much time they had to study, etc, but that a recent book had made this all a moot point. The several time US Champion recommended Dvoretsky's Endgame Manuel as that rare book that players of many different abilities could benefit from. The publication of the second edition of Dvoretsky's Endgame Manuel ( Russell Enterprises 2006 - www.chesscafe.com, 402 pages, paperback, figurine algebraic, $29.95) , three years after the appearance of the first, testifies to the excellent reception this work has enjoyed. The present edition, 20 pages longer than the first, with both corrections and new material, will only add to Dvoretsky's reputation as a chess pedagogue of the first order. The neatly laid out oversize paperback is filled with everything one needs to know about the endgame. That which is deemed absolutely essential is highlighted in blue. Highly Recommended |