Learning the Endgame

When I first started tournament chess and before for that matter, my biggest problem was losing or "hanging" pieces for no compensation. While I still have problems with this from time to time, I improved enough so that I was able to hold on to them most of the time. Then I started calculating simple combinations, including mates and my strength went up again. Eventually I got to where I could get out of the opening more or less in one piece and get a fairly playable middlegame. One area of my game that I seriously neglected was the ending. In part this was a practical decision. Until I could learn to play the middlegame, the ending was usually not relevant if I was a piece down or mated. Unfortunately I found my development stalled because I never learned how to play endings. I am now trying to remedy this problem about 30 years too late. Fortunately today we have a lot of good books on the ending and ChessCountry is running a series of reviews on some of the new books that have recently been released. www.chesscountry.com