Your Jungle Guide to Rook Endings

This is a superb book packed full of instructive examples which I cannot praise enough. The book has clearly been extensively researched with Efstratios Grivas showcasing his credentials as a world class trainer. The book starts off with four well thought out introductory sections: 1. The Endgame which briefly discusses the historical literature and computer evolution of the endgames. In this section, the author introduces his useful boxed SOS Tips which remind the reader of the salient points of a particular lesson or section. 2. The Golden Rules of the Endgame which every player should know. I like the way that Grivas acknowledges other authors’ contributions to the evolution of our endgame understanding and this is clearly shown here and in Chapter 4 Extra Passed Pawn.3. Rook Endgame Principles which lists the five main rules of rook endgames which is particularly useful for less experienced players. 4.Evaluation – Plan – Execution which discusses the role of planning followed by an excellent seven-point SOS tip box. Buy the book to learn more! FM Richard Webb, British Chess News, July 2020.
Now add to this outpouring Your Jungle Guide to Rook Endings (Thinkers Publishing 2020, www.thinkerspublishing.com, 398 pages, $35) by Greek grandmaster Efstratios Grivas. This book, which covers a lot of ground, could be mostly closely compared to Understanding Rook Endgames by Karsten Muller and Yakov Konoval. It seeks to not only teach fundamental endings but also how to play more complicated positions. This includes rook endings in which both sides have three pawns on the kingside and the superior side has a passed pawn on the other flank with the defender’s rook behind this pawn. This type of ending, sometimes with a pawn more or less for each side on the kingside, come up often in practice and is quite important. Grivas certainly thinks so as Chapter 4 of his book which is over 100 pages long, is devoted to just this subject. Much of endgame theory is static but there have been some recent major discoveries in this particular ending which professional level players should be aware of.   Your Jungle Guide to Rook Endings draws heavily on recent games and those from the author’s practice for examples. There is more explanatory prose to be found here than in most endgame books and Grivas also offers a series of helpful tips throughout that help to orient the reader and make the material easier to digest. Your Jungle Guide to Rook Endings is not the first book on rook and pawn endgame many players will need, but it may well be the last. It is primarily aimed at players over 2200 (or ambitious ones from 2000 on up). IM John Donaldson 03.2021 USA