Engine practice

I would like to start practising endgames against Deep Fritz 12. I have a few questions:

- where should I get positions from ( for about 1400-1600 level ) ?

- are there any databases which I can load so that I don't have to set up each position?

I have tried e-books, but it's hard to split the screen so that I can view the book and a board simultanously.

If you have any tips on endgame study, I'd like to hear them.

I don't know of any endgame position databases.  What you could do, is go onto chessgames.com (free) and pick a game by one of your favorite players, or openings, and then skip to the endgame and find positions this way.  Especially endgames where one side resigns or there is a draw and you don't know why.

If you do it vs Fritz, be sure to ignore it's numerical evaluation and don't quit until you're sure it's a win/loss/draw.  Computer's evaluations are tuned for middle games -- they certainly find some strong moves in the endgame, but their numerical evaluations are ignorable.

This site has a good number of endgame practice positions in it's computer workout section, for paying members.  Also chesstempo.com has built in endgame practice positions (also pay for full access).

My 2nd copy of ChessBase magazine has a section on endgames. Nine positions on the page, each position has a very short description, like 'can black stop the onslaught of white pawns?'

Boy was that an eye-opener, compared to Chess Life picture puzzles, which are clearly targeted at an audience about 1000 points lower rated.

Bernd Rosen's Chess Endgame Training was good.  It's basically a bunch of test positions.  The endgame simulator at chessvideos.tv is also good.  It has several endgame positions already set up for you.

I have Deep Fritz 12 but I don't understand your question.

Don't forget technique practice ideas

1. Take any Master-level game (modern, older etc.) and set yourself for blitz time controls against the engine and try to "close out the game" from the point at which one of the players resigned.  Of course, some master games ended a few moves before mate in one, but others ended with a piece up and may be more valuable to practice with.

2. All basic endgame positions for your rating class and the next one should be practiced against.  Silman's endgame book lists them by rating class and becomes a convenient way to practice a good "gotta know this by now" collection of endgames vs. an engine.

If you have Deep Fritz 12, then you should be able to install endgame keys into any DB you have and F12 will make up indices of all different sorts of endgames for you. I have F12, so I can't imagine Deep F12 doesn't have this capability.

BUT I still think that a few endgame books wouldn't hurt, try picking up one or more of these used at amazon or eBay:

Practical Chess Endings by Keres (and another PCE by Cherneve);

A Guide to Chess Endings by Euwe and Hooper

Basic Chess Endings by Fine - an excellent reference (not learning) book

Any endgame book by Silman, Pandolfini or Dvoretsky would probably be very helpful

I think this is a great idea, I'm gonna give it a try

I've done this with both Silman's books and books by other authors. I think it works well because you can choose the difficulty level and the number and types of pieces and positions. You also have accompanying text that explains how it should be done so you at least have a starting point and a plan.

I don't have Fritz but doesn't it have a set of endgames? If not, you should be able to Google for some endgame PGN files.

Fritz Trainer do the trick