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Rating: 
Summary: Genuinely deserves 5 stars, impressive
Review: I know there is grade inflation in these Amazon reviews, but this book genuinely earned and deserves all 5 stars.
This is as impressive a chess book as I have ever seen. It looks like a Master's degree thesis written at a graduate university program in Chess (tho it is a lively read). It is a testament to the brain power and hard work of its authors.
The only "weakness" to this book is that the most detailed half of its subject matter is will not be absorbable by mortal club players hoping to improve their tournament results. However, club players can enjoy being shown by these pages how complex endgames can be won or saved as a draw.
What most impresses me about this book is the *progression* of organization. It starts with KRP v. KR, in a variety of themed positions (pawn on column h, then g, then f, then e; then pawn at rank 7,6,5,4 kind of thing). Then one pawn is added, such as KRPP v. KRP, and all those positions are studied.
HERE IS THE KEY: Where ever possible the authors describe solutions that proper play can reduce down to the previous level. The reader/student is expected to have learned and remembered from earlier sections in the book what KRP v. KR positions lead to a win or draw. While we might want to criticize the book for expecting too much from us (how we gonna remember all that?), the harsh facts of chess are that there is no other way to achieve the super high level of endgame prowess these authors are aiming for. In essence, they did not write the book for us, they wrote it for themselves, and then published it for whatever extra benefit that might bring.
This progression of start position complexity and number of pawns is such a logical approach that you might not think of it as impressive. But the truth is usually in the details. No mere review can prove it, but I feel it is unlikely that most authors would have produced such clarity and even elegance in their choices/designs of positions to study. I am impressed by how simple and obvious these authors make the complex positions seem at the time. Perhaps their ultimate achievement is how well they execute on the general plan of relating more complex positions to the simpler positions they can be reduced to by proper (perfect) play. I get some pleasure just from marvelling at how well they do this.
This book also has an excellect summary Conclusion section, with 22 rules that may stimulate our memory of the sections we read. For flavor here are excerpts for some of those summarized rules:
"7. The possibility of sheltering the king from checks in the immediate neighbourhood of the passed pawn (the principle flight square) often determines the outcome of the game."
"10. A rook and two connected passed pawns generally win against a rook and passed pawn. If the passed pawns have reached the 6th rank there is the possibility of sacrificing the rook for the pawn, transposing into a won ending of..."
"11. With two disconnected pawns against one passed pawn important roles are played by the bridge and diversion."
The matial in this book can only be absorbed by numerous re-readings. If the endgame is the part of chess that excites you the most, or if you are a master who works hours per day at chess, then this book could help your tournament results.
For club players, this book is NOT over our heads. But for us the true purpose of buying this book is for enjoyment, and this it WILL provide. But this book is aiming for great depth in areas that might not be our highest priority, and it is demanding a lot of our time and discipline which we realistically cannot give.
I have the older Descriptive (yuk) notation edition of this book. If the 2002/05/05 claims by reviewer gm_extraordinaire that the newer algebraic notation edition contains too many errors, that could be a serious problem.
But then again, algebraic notations that omit the origin square are flawed too. Re7 could mean either Re17 or Rhe7. The pawn move c5 could mean c75 or c65 or c45. The origin info helps us avoid replay errors and helps us reset the position after following aside variations. Since this book chose the nice format of displaying moves in two columns (white & black), there is far more then enuf space to include origin square info without the printer consuming any more pages.
Here is the Table of Contents:
English translation 1971, 224 pages, ISBN = 0 7134 04493, Descriptive (yuk) notation.
Preface
1. Introduction
-- The properties of the rook
-- King and rook v. king and rook
2. Rook and pawn v. rook
-- Defending king restrains the pawn's advance
-- Pawn on 7th: king is cut off
-- Pawn on 6th: king is cut off
-- Pawn on 5th: king is cut off
-- Pawn on 4th, 3rd and 2n ranks: king is cut off; defense by frontal attack
-- Rook's pawn
3. Rook and two v. rook
-- Connected pawns
-- Disconnected pawns
4. Rook and one v. rook and one
5. More pawns
-- Rook and two v. rook and one
-- Rook and two v. rook and two: Rook and three v. rook and two; Rook and three v. rook and three
6. Numerous pawns
-- Pawns on one wing
-- Extra outside passed pawn
-- One pawn advantage and better position
-- Material equality with positional advantage
-- Insufficient material advantage
-- Slight positional advantage
7. Conclusion
Bibliography
Index of Names
Thank you.
Rating:
Summary: El final es el final.....
Review: El final mas comun es el de torres, tambien es tremendamente complicado y un error con ventaja puede ser una derrota y un acierto en desventaja puede significar vovler al juego e incluso ganar. Este libro nos muestra muchisimos diagramas que mas que memorizar hay que comprender y reconocer, por ejemplo las casillas criticas, el posicionamiento del Rey, los peones y su avance, etc. Se los recomiendo ya que es un libro que me ayudo a comprender mejor el medio juego para llegar al final.
Rating: 
Summary: You do not want this algebraic edition, it is full of typos
Review: Unfortunately, the earlier edition is the gem that you should get, which is also out of print.This algebraic edition is FULL of typographical errors in transcription and you should not wish it upon your worst enemy. As far as I know, no corrections were attempted on this one time revision... The descriptive notation (e.g., 1.P-K4 N-KB3) is not as easy to read as the algebraic (e.g., 1.e4 Nf6) but this original work is STILL the best work on the subject, though with one or two errors or ommissions that Dvoretsky and others have discovered. ALWAYS INSIST ON THE DESCRIPTIVE EDITION.
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