Endgame Planning II (New Edition)

Description

♟️ What will you learn from this book?

Unlike Volume I, which is organised by opening, this second volume is organised by pawn structure type. This is deliberate: the Maroczy Bind appears in the Accelerated Sicilian, the King’s Indian and the Grünfeld. Organised by opening, the reader would study it three times without realising it’s the same structure. Organised by structure, they study it once and recognise it automatically wherever it comes from. This makes the learning far more transferable.

🎯 Who is this book for?

• Advanced players who regularly play closed openings with 1.d4
• Players who struggle to plan in the endgame when the position arises from a closed opening
• Coaches working on the opening-endgame connection with advanced students

📖 Contents

4 major thematic blocks by pawn structure: Strategy on the black squares (exchange dxe5, pawn wedge in the centre, the exchange …exd4, attack on White’s centre with …c5), Strategy on the white squares, Symmetry (open centre, closed centre cxd5, the exchange dxc5), Asymmetry (majority in the centre/kingside vs queenside, the Maroczy Bind, the Andersson Formation/hedgehog, isolated central pawn, backward and hanging pawns, the two bishops, the Catalan bishop). Indexes of games, openings and opponents.

👤 About the authors

Mikhail Shereshevsky is a Russian International Master whose Endgame Strategy is a classic. Leonid Slutsky is an International Master and co-author. Translated by Antonio Gude.

♟️ Why we recommend it at Chesscul

At Chesscul we recommend this to advanced students who regularly play 1.d4. The structural organisation is especially valuable in class: working on the same plan in positions from different openings accelerates strategic understanding significantly.

🔗 Recommended companions

• Endgame Planning I (New Edition): the first volume covering 1.e4 openings — ideally studied first.
• Secrets of Chess Transformations: Marovic’s strategic transformation analysis connects directly with the 1.d4 structures here.
• 100 Endgames You Must Know: essential endgame theory for executing the plans described in this book.