|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Chessville
Advertise to Single insert:
|
Chess Endgames 1 (Basic Knowledge for Beginners) Reviewed by Michael Jeffreys
No doubt GM Karsten Mueller from Hamburg, Germany is best known for his landmark work on the endgame (co-written with Frank Lamprecht) which was published by GAMBIT in 2001 under the title, Fundamental Chess Endings. Personally, I thought this was hands down the book of the year. Curiously, the spelling of his last name on that book is Müller, while on the DVD jacket it’s Mueller. This DVD from ChessBase covers the basics of endgame play, and looks to be the first in what I assume will be a series of progressively more advanced material. The Chapters break down as follows:
Upon watching the introductory chapter, the first thing that struck me about GM Mueller was that he has a nice, deep booming voice. However, he does slightly mispronounce words (more on this later under CONS) and occasionally hesitates as he tries to remember his next point. Being his first DVD, perhaps the GM was a tad nervous. Here is where having a good director to reassure Mueller as well have him redo those segments would have paid dividends. If you haven’t already noticed from the chapter titles above, the material is quite basic (indeed, the cover of the DVD says: Basic Knowledge for Beginners). I would say the material is geared for those rated below 1400. In no way is this a bad thing—it’s just that I wouldn’t want higher-rateds to buy this and be disappointed. Here are two sample screen shots to give you a feel for what the program looks like:
This first screen shot (from chapter one) is on how to mate with “Knight and Bishop” Here Mueller uses green squares to remind us which of the two corners we need to drive Black’s king to in order to mate him with our bishop. Here is another screenshot from the same segment:
Mueller uses green arrows to show us the “W” pattern the knight will follow in driving the black king to the checkmating corner. He reminds us that the knight attacks the squares opposite of the bishop, and that the knight maneuver is the key to this mate and that a few wrong knight moves can put you over the 50-move limit! Therefore, you must be very systematic about it. He also gives a few tips for the defender: First, you should move quickly so as not to give the attacker a chance to think on your time. Secondly, your king should head for one of the two corners opposite the color of the attackers bishop. This way, you make your opponent prove he knows the correct checkmating pattern. I should mention that each chapter is divided into smaller segments, with each segment running approximately 6-9 minutes. Here is a quick list of what I liked and didn’t like about this DVD: Pros In a word: QUANTITY. Coming in at 5½ hours, this is by far the most comprehensive beginners DVD ever produced on the endgame. While Mueller can’t cover everything, he certainly gives you a good foundational knowledge of how to play basic endings. He is often very encouraging, saying things like, “Once you study this it will be no problem for you.” During the explanations he makes good use of colored arrows and squares to help illustrate his points. Cons Because Mueller’s first language is obviously German, occasionally he fumbles to find the right words. Also, his pronunciation of some of the English words is sometimes a little off. A few times I had to rewind the video and listen again to make out what he was saying. In a few of the segments Mueller gets to about the half-way point and then suddenly speeds up for no apparent reason. Sometimes he would click so fast that the pieces would fly around the board leaving the viewer a bit confused. It was as if it was all so obvious that he just wanted to quickly get through it. However, to the person this is aimed for it really isn’t that obvious and he should take his time and carefully show each step of the maneuver, rather than clicking the mouse rapid-fire. Finally, while it is irrelevant what you look like when you write a book, when you are on camera you should try to look your best. Here a haircut would have greatly improved the GM’s appearance. The Bottom Line
This DVD is for you if: (a) you are under 1400, and (b) you are one of those
players that know you need to improve your endgame skills, but find going
through books to be “too boring.” For a mere 32 bucks, you get 5½
hours of material from one of the world’s top endgame experts. Yes,
Mueller’s English is not perfect and he does appear a bit nervous at times,
but this does not significantly take away from the value of the material
presented (and I’m sure as he gets more experience in front of the camera,
he will be more relaxed on future endgame DVDs). On a scale of 1-10,
Chess Endgames 1 gets an 8.
|
The
|
||||
|
||||||
