Description

Winner of the 2015 Best Book Award of the Chess Journalists of America (CJA)
Shortlisted for the English Chess Federation 2015 Book of the Year Award
THIRD, EXTENDED EDITION

Pawn endings do not arise out of nowhere. Before emerging as endgames with just kings and pawns, they 'pre-existed' in positions that still contained any number of pieces.
Liquidation is the purposeful transition into a pawn ending. It is a vital technique that is seldom taught. Strange, because knowing when and how to liquidate can help you win games or save draws.
In this book, former US Chess Champion Joel Benjamin teaches you all you need to know about successfully liquidating into pawn endgames.
He focuses on the practical aspects: what to aim for and how to get there. When to start trading pieces and how to recognize favorable and unfavorable liquidations.
Enter a fascinating world of tempo play (triangulation, zugzwang and opposition), breakthroughs, king activity, passed pawn dynamics, sacrifices and counter-sacrifices.
Exercises will test your growing skills.
This is a ground-breaking, entertaining and instructive guide.
This New and Extended 3rd edition presents 50 new examples, besides other additions and corrections.

At thirteen years of age Joel Benjamin broke Bobby Fischer's record as the youngest ever US master, and this was followed by countless tournament successes. He won the US Championship three times and was the chess consultant for IBM's Deep Blue computer, which made history by beating World Champion Garry Kasparov in an epic encounter.

IM Frank Zeller, Magazine Schach:
"Benjamin has managed to create an excellent guide to a difficult theme that has been badly served in chess literature (..) If you are really serious about improving your chess, you should work on your Benjamin!"

GM Matthew Sadler, former British Champion:
"The book works quite addictively (..) It's dealing with one of the big moments of uncertainty in practical chess."