Final Countdown

Rating:
Summary: I was highly impressed
Review: How often does it happen that a formulaic scientific method can be applied consistently to a set of positions that seem to differ widely and work? This book does that very well. I have learned to respect scientific mentod when it occurs in chess and unlike some efforts(Hans Berliner, Tarrasch), this one does very well. It will improve your understanding of K+P greatly and it is very hard work (maybe 1800+ material after the first 4 chapters). The systematic evaulation of the desired positions and key squuares and thier reationship to one another before calculating variations is a very powerful idea. It makes one want to play K+P endings all the time- yeah, the knowledge learned cannot be applied every day :( - but if you want to improve your understanding of K+P to an IM/GM level and want to work, you have to buy this book.

Rating:
Summary: Important Material for Advanced Chess Players
Review: I would agree with the earliest reviewer that this book is laden with errors. Perhaps the editor needs to take a refresher course in editing a book!! And the author's pompous attitude does get a bit irritating.

Putting the above aside, the examples cited are quite fascinating. They really demonstrate the importance of square control. The problem is that the author does a very bad job of explaining his ideas and presenting the material. The definition of key squares is rather vague, yet this is the most important idea of the book. The author should have attempted to convey how to identify key squares in an endgame position. He should have laid out the principles involved. This would have enhanced the value of the book considerably. Instead, he simply tells you which squares are the key squares. It was not always obvious to me why he chose the squares he did, but after analyzing the positions certain patterns emerged which the author failed to point out. Another concept that lacked sufficient explanation is how to find correspondences once the key squares are identified.

Unfortunately chess books that teach individuals how to think and how to evaluate a position are in the minority ("Best Lessons of a Chess Coach" is one of these exceptional books, and I highly recommend it). "The Final Countdown" falls short in this regard, but it could be rewritten with the examples used and be a five star book. Jeremy Silman recommends this book (maybe he should rewrite it!!), and he is perhaps the best chess teacher of his peers.

Rating:
Summary: Important Material for Advanced Chess Players
Review: I would agree with the earliest reviewer that this book is laden with errors. Perhaps the editor needs to take a refresher course in editing a book!! And the author's pompous attitude does get a bit irritating.

Putting the above aside, the examples cited are quite fascinating. They really demonstrate the importance of square control. The problem is that the author does a very bad job of explaining his ideas and presenting the material. The definition of key squares is rather vague, yet this is the most important idea of the book. The author should have attempted to convey how to identify key squares in an endgame position. He should have laid out the principles involved. This would have enhanced the value of the book considerably. Instead, he simply tells you which squares are the key squares. It was not always obvious to me why he chose the squares he did, but after analyzing the positions certain patterns emerged which the author failed to point out. Another concept that lacked sufficient explanation is how to find correspondences once the key squares are identified.

Unfortunately chess books that teach individuals how to think and how to evaluate a position are in the minority ("Best Lessons of a Chess Coach" is one of these exceptional books, and I highly recommend it). "The Final Countdown" falls short in this regard, but it could be rewritten with the examples used and be a five star book. Jeremy Silman recommends this book (maybe he should rewrite it!!), and he is perhaps the best chess teacher of his peers.

Rating:
Summary: I was highly impressed
Review: The Final Countdown advocates the use of key squares in calculation of king and pawn endgames rather than the "opposition" or "triangulation". I've always found king and pawn endgames to be incredibly difficult to calculate because, unlike other areas of chess, the whole purpose of calculation in king and pawn endgames is to lose a tempo and thus force the opposing king away from key squares so that the attacking king can invade. It's extremely difficult to calculate king and pawn endgames because tempos can be gained or lost by both sides in many different ways.

This book advocates the identification of key squares which the king either invades through or goes through in order to lose the appropriate tempo. The previous reviewer rightly pointed out the errors in the book (for example, in the section on blocked pawns, the authors state that if the invading king can occupy the 3 squares on either side of the opposing blocked pawn, the game is a win when obviously a draw results if the opposing king is in position to take your blocked pawn) but they are obvious and don't take away from the strength of the book, which is to calculate king and pawn endgames in a systematic way instead of counting endless "lose the tempo" variations.

Rating:
Summary: Narrow topic, Great book
Review: This little 128-page book on King & pawn endgames isn't the be-all and end-all of K+P EG books, but it might be the best description of the Theory of Corresponding Squares I've ever seen. I have struggled with the concept as described in other books like Batsford Chess Endings to no avail. I thought I was either too obtuse or it wasn't being explained well enough. After TFC, I suspect the problem was the latter because the Theory of Corresponding Squares seems like child's play now. For those of you who have read Hans Kmoch's Pawn Power in Chess, you might understand the kind of revelation I'm talking about. After PPIC, I never quite looked at my pawns in the same way again. Though TFC describes a more esoteric side of chess (how many K+P EGs reach a Corresponding Squares situation anyway?), it has increased my understanding of "regular" K+P EGs, as well.

Paul van der Sterren, reviewing TFC in New In Chess, said, "If you study this book you have no more need of other books on pawn endings. Or maybe you do after all -- to test your newly gained understanding and reopen the search for what's already known." I couldn't agree more.

Highly recommended for Class B and up.

Rating:
Summary: Narrow topic, Great book
Review: This little 128-page book on King & pawn endgames isn't the be-all and end-all of K+P EG books, but it might be the best description of the Theory of Corresponding Squares I've ever seen. I have struggled with the concept as described in other books like Batsford Chess Endings to no avail. I thought I was either too obtuse or it wasn't being explained well enough. After TFC, I suspect the problem was the latter because the Theory of Corresponding Squares seems like child's play now. For those of you who have read Hans Kmoch's Pawn Power in Chess, you might understand the kind of revelation I'm talking about. After PPIC, I never quite looked at my pawns in the same way again. Though TFC describes a more esoteric side of chess (how many K+P EGs reach a Corresponding Squares situation anyway?), it has increased my understanding of "regular" K+P EGs, as well.

Paul van der Sterren, reviewing TFC in New In Chess, said, "If you study this book you have no more need of other books on pawn endings. Or maybe you do after all -- to test your newly gained understanding and reopen the search for what's already known." I couldn't agree more.

Highly recommended for Class B and up.

Rating:
Summary: Should be titled COUNTDOWN OF ERRORS instead.
Review: To begin with, THE FINAL COUNTDOWN is full of grammatical/typographical errors, which may be due to the authors apparently having translated it themselves (no translator noted). Worse, it is full of theoretical errors that should be apparent even to novice chessplayers who have never read a book on the subject; e.g. in the diagram on p. 11, "key squares" are indicated two rows in front of the one and only pawn, and it is stated that key squares, "when occupied by the attacking king, result in a won position, regardless of the position of the defending king and of whose move." However, if the White King were two squares in front of his pawn, and the Black King ADJACENT to the pawn, WITH THE MOVE, Black would capture and the resultant KINGS ONLY position is an INDISPUTABLE DRAW due to insufficient mating material. The book does point out that "if the pawn is already on the fifth rank or further, then the three sqaures directly in front of the pawn are key squares as well", but that's irrelevant in this example because the white pawn is only on the third rank. Further muddling the definition of key squares is the very next diagram (p. 12) of a pawn on the seventh rank, with five key squares indicated, two of them ALONGSIDE the pawn. All the errors make a mockery of such liberally bandied self-congratulatory comments as that on p. 86: "How much confusion could have been avoided by a simple read through 'The Final Countdown'!" Fact of the matter is, if the reader is confused about King and Pawn endings to begin with, he may only become more confused by reading this book. May I recommend instead Jeno Ban's THE TACTICS OF END-GAMES, also newly available. Though it too suffers a bit in the translation, it is full of more than twice the examples for less than half the price.