Exchanging to Win in the Endgame

The subject of this book is one that is not covered nearly enough in chess material, the transition from middlegame to endgame. The author very ably demonstrates not only the judgement but also the technique necessary to make critical decisions on transitioning from the middlegame to the endgame. The book is essentially broken into two parts: exchanging to a won endgame and the second being exchanging to neutralize your opponent's middlegame advantage. The author presents illustrative examples with commentary for 100 - 150 middlegame positions from top level chess throughout the 20th century. The point of the instruction (and the book as a whole) is to build the reader's middlegame assessment capability. The comments and annotations are really directed toward this aim. The book is very well written with sufficient diagrams and details to understand the critical points. So, why only four starts then? 1. I truly believe that some critical variations simply weren't addressed in the book. These variations are necessary to make a completely convincing and compelling case that the correct decision was made and not just the product of bad play by the loser for the remainder of the game. My guess is that the editors at McMillian probably had some say here, but I don't really think this overall detracts from the very valuable material in this book. 2. Limited diagrams. There were definite points in the book where an analysis position occurred or a critical position that was some 10 - 20 moves from the last diagram. This made working through some examples without a board very difficult (and I'll admit that I pulled out a set to make sure that I understood the subtleties). The book is labelled by McMillian press as Intermediate and believe that is roughly right. Although, the positions are clearly instructive for almost playing level. With that said, the text and annotations were targeted for the intermediate player and as a result, some highly experienced and advanced players might already have the position/tactical judgement that the author is trying to instill in the reader. Finally, this understanding of the transition from the middlegame to endgame (often called the 5th phase with the others beingth opening, middlegame, endgame and opening to middlegame transition)is critical for any real progress in terms of capability. I know that it improved my understanding and greatly increased my ability to (quickly) judge transitions from middlegame to endgame. Other similar books include those written by Edmar Mednis and the recent book by Ivan Sokolov.