Everybody knows you should study the endgame to improve, but few books provide the type of useful instruction that can be of value to the average player. Those of us who grew up with Fine's BASIC CHESS ENDINGS were confronted by page after page of dry, technical positions that often had little resemblance to positions from our own games. Others may have read through Benko's outstanding endgame columns in Chess Life magazine and been amazed at the volume and variety of errors even the world's best players made in seemingly simple positions – if they could screw things up so often, why should we expect to do any better?

Few endgame books have been able to bridge the gap between theory and practice for the everyday player, and I'm pleased to report that THE SURVIVAL GUIDE TO ROOK ENDGAMES is up to the challenge.  Grandmaster Emms has done an excellent job of distilling rook endgames – the most difficult but also the most common endings – down to the most important concepts that every player really should know. After reading through the book and its excellent explanatory text, I get the feeling that the author made this book into a learning process for himself as much as the reader. Rather than getting constantly lost in technical discussions, I think most players will pick up on the key concepts that Emms identifies and explains.

To date, the best "practical" book on rook endgames has been GM Mednis' PRACTICAL ROOK ENDINGS, a 71-page Chess Enterprises book from 1982. I've reviewed this book before just about every tournament for 15 years and taken it with me as well. Emms' book will now be my refresher before and my companion at tournaments. It has more material – all useful – and presents it in a clearer, easy to understand format.

As you can tell, I like this book. I like it because it provides the sorts of guiding principles that practical players need to succeed, but it also takes the time to identify and explain the reasons that these guiding principles might be wrong from time to time. For anybody who has waded through the "white to play and win, except if the black king is on e8, d8, c8..." sort of exercise, you'll find this a much more enjoyable learning experience.

In conclusion, John Emms has taken a subject that can be paralyzingly complex and made it at least a bit more understandable for the average player. I am confident that anybody who goes through it, studies his key concepts, and takes a shot at understanding them will understand this important type of endgame better. I am also confident that the player who does so will win more chess games. How many books can make the same claim?

Click to see WATSON'S REVIEW OF SURVIVAL GUIDE.