Basic Chess Endings

Basic Chess Endings (abbreviated BCE) is a book on chess endgames which was written by Grandmaster Reuben Fine and originally published on October 27, 1941. It is considered the first systematic book in English on the endgame phase of the game of chess. It is the best-known endgame book in English and is a classic piece of chess endgame literature. The book is dedicated to World Champion Emanuel Lasker, who died in 1941 (the year the book was pub... More

Basic Chess Endings (abbreviated BCE) is a book on chess endgames which was written by Grandmaster Reuben Fine and originally published on October 27, 1941. It is considered the first systematic book in English on the endgame phase of the game of chess. It is the best-known endgame book in English and is a classic piece of chess endgame literature. The book is dedicated to World Champion Emanuel Lasker, who died in 1941 (the year the book was published). It was revised in 2003 by Pal Benko. Cecil Purdy said "... Basic Chess Endings is a monumental work, one of the most complete and authoritative on endgames in any language." (Purdy 2003:90) Basic Chess Endings was written by Reuben Fine in only four months and was published in 1941 by McKay (a division of Random House) in hardback. The book used the now obsolete descriptive chess notation and used the old system of using the abbreviation "Kt" to stand for knight instead of the more modern "N". In a 1984 interview, Fine said that it...

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