Comprehensive Chess Endings vol 4 - 2nd hand

Comprehensive Chess Endings is a five volume master work by one of the world's leading authorities on the Chess Endgames, Grandmaster Yuri Averbakh. It was originally published in Russian as Шахматные окончания. This English version is a direct translation from the Russian except that the order of the volumes has been changed. The contents are exactly the same, other than the translation from Russian to English. This series was first published in the Soviet Union in 1954 with a blue hard cover. It was reprinted with modifications in 1981 with a soft orange cover. Each time, the order of the volumes has been changed.

     Here we are following this order: 
Comprehensive Chess Endings, Volume 1, Bishop Endings, Knight Endings
Comprehensive Chess Endings, Volume 2, Bishop Against Knight Endings, Rook Against Minor Piece Endings
Comprehensive Chess Endings, Volume 3, Queen and Pawn Endings Queen Against Rook Endings Queen Against Minor Piece Endings
Comprehensive Chess Endings, Volume 4, Pawn Endings
Comprehensive Chess Endings, Volume 5, Rook Endings

An earlier series of the same books had a different order. There the order was 1: pawn endings; 2: bishop and knight endings; 3: bishop vs knight, rook vs minor pieces; 4: rook endings; 5: queens endings.

Because of the popularity of these books, they have become rare and difficult to obtain. 
In most cases in these books there is a co-author. The present book is co-authored by Ilya Maizelis.

In each section of this book, the aim has been to give an exhaustive coverage of basic positions with a small number of pawns, and to show typical ideas in more complicated positions with a larger number of pawns.

One chapter, devoted to corresponding square systems, has been written by the chess composer M. Zinai — a great specialist in the field of pawn endings.

In the ending, the advantage of a single 'insignificant' pawn can frequently prove decisive as that pawn inexorably pushes forward and is finally able to reach the last rand and transform itself into a queen. Despite this basic fact of chess that any beginner knows, pawn endgames are usually played very badly.

The present work, already established as a classic in its Russian edition, is by far the most complete work on pawn endgames ever published. Containing no less than 911 examples, it will prove invaluable both to the student of chess and to the practical player.

• Casa editrice Pergamon Press
• Code 1016bus
• Anno First edition 1987
• Pagine p. 296
• Isbn 0-08-032043-0