There is an old adage in chess: "You cannot win a game in the opening, but you can certainly lose it." The same logic applies to the endgame. You may play a brilliant middlegame, sacrificing a piece for a crushing attack, but if you cannot convert that extra pawn into a win in a rook endgame, all that brilliance is wasted.
In the world of chess literature, few books are considered "mandatory." Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual is for the master; beginner books are for the novice. De la Villa sits perfectly in the middle, serving the club player who wants to reach expert status.
In the vast ocean of chess literature, few books have achieved the iconic status of Jesús de la Villa’s 100 Endgames You Must Know . First published in 2008 (with a revised edition in 2017), this work has become a staple for club players and aspiring masters alike. Unlike encyclopedic tomes that overwhelm the reader with endless theoretical variations, de la Villa’s approach is pedagogical, selective, and intensely practical. This essay explores the book’s structure, its philosophical underpinnings, and why it has earned a permanent place on the shelf of any serious chess student.
Key takeaways from the text include:
No book is perfect. Some critics argue that the title is slightly misleading: a player truly knowing these 100 positions (and their dozens of sub-variations) would actually know several hundred discrete endgame themes. Others point out that the book’s difficulty is not linear; a complete beginner will struggle with chapter 2’s pawn endgames, while an intermediate player may find the early sections too basic.