Improve Your Practical Play in the Endgame : Alexey Dreev

“After a bad opening, there is hope for the middle game. After a bad middle game, there is hope for the endgame. But once you are in the endgame, the moment of truth has arrived.” – Edmar Mednis

From Wikipedia :

Alexey Sergeyevich Dreev (Russian: Алексей Сергеевич Дреев; born 30 January 1969[1]) is a Russian chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1989.

While being a promising young chess talent, he was for a period coached by the world-class chess trainer Mark Dvoretsky.

As with every recent Thinkers Publishing publication high quality paper is used and the printing is clear. The book can easily be laid flat next to the board and does not require weights to prevent it from “self-closing” (a particular bugbear of ours !). Each diagram is clear and the instructional text is typeset in two column format, which, we find, enables the reader to maintain their place easily. Figurine algebraic notation is used throughout and the diagrams are placed adjacent to the relevant text and each diagram has a “to move” indicator.

There is no index which, unfortunately, is a standard feature of Thinkers Publishing books. Also missing is a bibliography.

This author of this book is Alexey Dreev, super GM who reached the quarter finals of the candidates in 1991.

This excellent book is packed full of instructive, exciting endgames, taken from top level games, including many of Dreev’s own games
extensively analysed with short pithy didactic comments.

Many of the examples are complex and require serious study to really gain the understanding of practical endgames.

This book is a pleasure to read with an excellent layout and plenty of diagrams making it easy to peruse anywhere.

The book is divided up into six chapters, but not on piece configurations (except for chapter 5) but on aspects of play:

1. Particular Endgames,
2. Defence,
3. Hidden Resources,
4. Prophylaxis,
5. Pawn Endgames and Transitioning into Pawn Endgames,
6. Converting

Each chapter has eight or nine examples analysed in depth followed by a similar number of exercises which will really test the reader;
I did get a few right without moving any pieces.

One of favourite chapters is Particular Endgames which mostly covers positions with material imbalance such as Q v pieces
which the vast majority of players would find fascinating. There is an excellent example no 3 showing the use of a space advantage in B+2Ns endgame.

Following is the first example in the Chapter on Defence and a new perspective on a famous game.

[pgn]
[Event “Venice”]
[Site “Venice”]
[Date “1950.10.02”]
[Round “4”]
[White “Kotov, Alexander”]
[Black “Pachman, Ludek”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “D65”]
[Annotator “Webb,Richard”]
[PlyCount “137”]
[EventDate “1950.??.??”]
[EventType “tourn”]
[EventRounds “15”]
[EventCountry “ITA”]
[SourceTitle “MCD”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “1999.07.01”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “1999.07.01”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

1. d4 e6 2. c4 Nf6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Bg5 Be7 5. e3 O-O 6. Nf3 Nbd7 7. Rc1 a6 8. cxd5
exd5 9. Bd3 Re8 10. O-O c6 11. Qc2 Nf8 12. a3 g6 13. b4 Ne6 14. Bxf6 Bxf6 15.
a4 Ng7 16. b5 axb5 17. axb5 Bf5 18. Bxf5 Nxf5 19. bxc6 bxc6 20. Na4 Rc8 21. Qc5
Nd6 22. Nd2 Re7 23. Rb1 Rb7 24. Rxb7 Nxb7 25. Qa7 Nd6 26. Qa6 Qc7 27. Rc1 Bd8
28. Nc5 Qa5 29. Qd3 Qb5 30. g3 Bb6 31. Rb1 Qxd3 32. Nxd3 Ba5 33. Nb3 Bd8 34.
Nbc5 Be7 35. Nd7 Rc7 36. Nb8 Nc4 37. Ra1 Rc8 38. Nd7 Rc7 39. Ra8+ Kg7 40. N7e5
Nxe5 41. Nxe5 Bd6 42. Nd3 Kf6 43. g4 {[#]} Ke6 $6 (43… Kg5 44. h3 f5 $1 45.
f4+ Kh4 46. gxf5 {[#]} Kg3 $3 47. fxg6 (47. f6 Rf7) 47… hxg6 48. Rd8 Ra7 {[#]
} 49. Kf1 Bc7 50. Rd7 Ra1+ 51. Ke2 Ra2+ 52. Kd1 Ba5 53. Ne5 Bd2 $11) 44. Kg2
Rb7 45. Re8+ Re7 46. Rh8 f6 47. h4 Rb7 48. Kf3 Rf7 49. Re8+ Re7 50. Rd8 Ra7 51.
Nc5+ Ke7 52. Rc8 Bxc5 53. dxc5 Kd7 54. Rh8 Ke6 55. Rd8 Ke7 56. Rd6 Ra6 57. g5
fxg5 58. hxg5 Kf7 59. Kg3 Ke7 60. f3 Ra3 61. Kf4 Ra4+ 62. Ke5 Ra3 63. Rxc6
Rxe3+ 64. Kxd5 Rd3+ 65. Ke4 Rc3 66. f4 Rc1 67. Rc7+ Kd8 68. Rxh7 Rxc5 69. Rf7
1-0
[/pgn]

My other favourite chapter is Pawn Endgames and Transitioning into Pawn Endgames which shows the rich complexity of king and pawn endgames
and the crucial importance of this topic.

In my experience, this transition is commonly mishandled by players of all standards: I have spoiled winning endgames in this area and I have seen countless games spoiled by poor play in pawn endgames, so study of this chapter will reap rich rewards for a reader.

FM Richard Webb, Chineham, Hampshire, 17th January 2020

Book Details :

• Paperback : 248 pages
• Publisher: Thinkers Publishing; 1 edition (5 Oct. 2019)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9492510596
• ISBN-13: 978-9492510594
• Product Dimensions: 16.5 x 1.9 x 22.9 cm

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