Really Frustrated with Endgames

I want to ask if there are other people on the forum who have my problem. I seem to get a slightly better or even winning position in almost all of my games, but I can never find the correct way to proceed. I often totally botch won positions and lose them in the endgame and I don't even know where I went wrong afterwards. The thing is, I have read a lot about endgames. I read Silman's book on endgames all the way up to Class C even though I am only rated USCF 1045. I am really frustrated because I don't know how to improve my general endgame play. Silman's book only gives advice in specific endgames. It doesn't practically help me because nothing in his book ever comes up while the weird stuff I do encounter in my games are not in his books or other endgame books I've seen.

I know the key to the endgame is finding the right path, but this is why I don't like endgames. Every endgame is different and therefore you can't just look up where you went wrong and correct it next time like you can with openings. I can look over a game where I blew the endgame and post it on here and you all can tell me the exact move where I blundered the game away, but nothing you say will be helpful to me unless I see the exact same endgame again.

I feel that my opening knowledge is way above my level, and my tactics and planning are as well. My problem is stuff at the end of the middlegame and into the endgame because I have no idea how to study that or improve at that aspect of the game. I feel like whenever I ask someone, that person can always find the right plan in an endgame but can never tell me how to find the right plan; it just comes intuitively and I was not born with that intuition.

I want to know if other people have this problem. I don't enjoy the endgame phase of a chess game because I don't understand it. It feels like whenever I reach a late middlegame or endgame stage I know I am about to mess up before I actually do.

Daniel Rensch has videos on this. Look for ones on the principle of two weaknesses. There are some others too where he mentions it but not sure which.

What is the time control you are playing at?

What wierd stuff is coming up? Broken pawn structures? material imbalances?

Silman put what he called a "flowchart" in Endgames for Experts. Read pages 273-279 to find out what you are suppose to be doing with the simplified positions that can be learned. 

$30.00-$40.00 ITS WORTH EVERY PENNY! i have the jeremy silman book and trust me, it doesnt go NOWHERE near in detail as this book, you have problem with knight endgames BAM you can learn it in this, HAVE PROBLEMS WITH ROOK ENDGAMES? BAM GOT THAT TOO... i'll take some pics of the pages for you so you can decide if you want to buy it or not... trust me, i was the same way but now, i dont mind trading queens cause i know how to play without queens and go straight to the endgame. 

The endgame is highly technical.  Because of this, your play should be too.  Proper endgame play usually requires deep calculation and solid understanding of the scope of the pieces.  To play sucessfully in the endgame I believe you need to do 3 things

1. Target potential weaknesses and exploit them

2. Reduce counterplay of your opponent as much as possible

3. Calculate deeply

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0360AB0E8879D240

This is a great playlist of rook-endings, actually this guy's entire channel has some amazing endgame studies.

Hope i helped you and everybody out that wants to get better at endgames, im telling you this book is the way to go man. 

Baloney.  Doveretsky is dense and largely a waste of time for anyone under USCF 2000. It's been collecting dust on my bookshelf, since I bought it a couple years ago.

Johan Hellsten' new book, Mastering Endgame Strategy, is heads and shoulders better, but still might be too advanced for the OP.

If the OP is too lazy to play opponents near his rating -- most opponents are 300 points below him in Standard Chess -- then he deserves to get beat in the endgame.

P.S. the endgame is the easiest part of the game to learn.  All it takes is a little patience.

John Nunn's  books are excellent, starting with the Intermediate Level, Understanding Chess Endgames.  Lots of other intermediate level books are available by Yuri Averbakh, Edmar Mednis, and many others.

But it looks like the OP should start with Silman's, Essential Chess Endings Explained Move by Move, which is good up to USCF B class, about 1700.

So Get With The Program.  As you are learning -- cheap thrills from middlegame checkmates only last so long.  Decent defenders will clean your clock, once they put you into the endgame.  Nuff said?

If you're worried about CC chess, that's a whole nother kettle of fish.  Sounds like your CC opponents are working at their endgame studies, and you aren't.  Sorry.

Damn you told him lol. but naw, i cant even respect that, i didnt look at his games, but how you gonna play opponents lesser than you??? what do you get out of that??? you should want a challenge (to the OP) something that makes you feel like, damn that was a heck of a battle but i made it threw and won so that way you actually felt like you did something with yourself. If all your gonna do is play people that YOU KNOW are weaker than you then you WILL NEVER GET BETTER AT ANY PART OF THE GAME, you need to play people at your range OR BETTER, i prefer BETTER so you can see what that next level is like and know what you have to do to get there. 

The OP is hung up on memorizing opening and delivering the "killer blow" to his otherwise weak opponents (early on) in the game.

Works great until you reach about USCF 1600, then you realize it's mostly just a waste of your time, seeking cheap thrills via middlegame checkmates.

Your higher rated opponents will know how to play with the black pieces, especially in the endgame.

My Dearest dpnorman,

I found Pandolfini's book "Endgame Course" filled with typos and the occasional graphical error. I also found it invaluable for nearly every type of endgame for the average player like myself. Open the book on any page and away you go - it's in a kind of puzzle format.

I will promise you something. You understand this book's curriculum and your confidence and skill will soar.

Best of luck my Darling,

Your Good Ghostess

@trevinlmurray You call me out for playing lower rated opposition. This is only true in CC, where I am exclusively playing friends. In live standard, I am playing people around my rating. It is true my average opponent in live standard will be lower than my current rating by a sizable margin; this is because I was previously rated around 1200 in live standard for two years and I only in the last few months got up to 1400. Besides, this is totally independent of my endgame ineptitude.

pfren wrote:

Shereshevsky's "Endgame Strategy" is essential reading, and... no, this isn't solely an endgame book!

Is it a realistic read for someone of my skill level (Class D or so) ?

Do you play over master games by the endgame greats?... Rubenstein, Smyslov, Fischer, Karpov...?

I didnt call you out, HE DID LOL, but yeah back to the subject, you think you gonna get that book cause it helped me out alot