What books or web-sources have people worked with to improve their endgame?
I have gone over Silman's Complete Endgame Course: From Beginner to Master and Understanding Chess Endgames.
I feel good about major piece endings but I am still tripping over BN vs NN or BB endings.
Any thoughts, pointers?
A very interesting source is 100 Endgames You Must Know by Jesús de la Villa. Jesús focuses in most common endgames, with a very practical approach and only 100 pages (Spanish version) long. I miss the K+Q vs K+R ending here, but it's a very recommendable book.
More comprehensive books, and also longer and more dense, are Fundamental Chess Endings by Muller and Lampretch and Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual by Dvoretsky. I've actually used the first one to check missing endgames in de la Villa book, as the K+Q vs K+R.
These books are about theoretical endgames. Also both Dvoretsky's School of Excellence and Jacob Aagaard Grand Master Preparation series have a book each about practical endgames play. I have read none of them, so I cannot give you my impressions about them.
Another interesting book is Practical Rook Endings by Mednis, focused in rook endings that, as you know, are the most common ones.
My personal advice is to start with de la Villa Book, to have Muller or Dvoretsky's manual as a reference (at least I cannot afford to study them), and study a book about practical endings.
In the chessgym you can train the standard endgames against the computer (An account is not necessary).
Generally playing endgames out against an engine multiplies the effect of just reading about it. Ideally you'll try to win a won endgame against an engine and only then you use the book to find out what you could have done better.
I would recommend Endgame Tactics by Van Perlo, which won the ECF Book of the Year Award 2006.
This is IM Silman's review of the book:
It’s important to mention that VAN PERLO’S ENDGAME TACTICS won the biggest award in the world for chess books: The ECF Book of the Year Award (it used to be called the British Chess Federation Book of the Year Award/BCF, but apparently they just changed it). In 2006 Van Perlo beat out both Kasparov (MY GREAT PREDECESSORS V) and Rowson (CHESS FOR ZEBRAS). That’s stiff competition, and is all the more surprising since endgame books usually don’t get the nod. Clearly, VAN PERLO’S ENDGAME TACTICS is something special!
Aside from its entertainment value, VAN PERLO’S ENDGAME TACTICS also gives you an interesting kind of instructive bang for your buck. Though you might know of all the basic tactical themes from your middlegame studies, the endgame offers up some odd tactical ideas that only apply in this final phase of the game (pawn promotions, strange King jigs, etc.). Thus, going over the examples from this book will prove to be quite instructive, while also being lots of fun.
Ger Van Perlo died in 2010. However, an odd thing happened. I’ll quote the NIC website: “By chance, in 2013 publisher New In Chess discovered a previously unnoticed and unpublished extra batch of endgame tactics collected by the legendary Dutch correspondence grandmaster” [Van Perlo]. As a result, the book has gone from 480 pages to 608, and is even better than the original 2006 award winner.
Highly recommended for players from 1200 to grandmaster.
Source: JeremySilman.com
The chess training website http://chesstempo.com has an environment for training endgames against computer. The positions can be selected according to many criteria to design custom problem sets. There are only winning positions, with no exercises on fighting for a draw.
