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Which endgame manual do you recommend and why?
• Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual
• Fundamental Chess Endings (Muller & Lamprecht)
• Silman's Complete Endgame Course
• Some other book
I am currently reading Frank Lamprecht and Karsten Muller's fundamental chess endgames.
Thus far I have completed the chapters on Pawn-Endgames, Knight Endgames, Bishop Endgames, Knight & Bishop Endgames. However, I find the material quite dry and I difficult to remember, especially the chapters on bishops and knights.
A lot of endgame work is dry, and there is no getting around that.
I learned endgames long before those books were available, and although it was a lot of work, I loved Ruben Fine's "Basic Chess Endings". In it, there would be a base example, but then often, many other similar examples. By going through it, I saw multiple examples that were similar, thus reinforcing the main ideas of each.
If that is not for you, then probably "Silman's Complete Endgame Course" is a good place to start. I also really like Jesús de la Villa's "100 Endgames You Must Know", and its accompanying workbook.
"Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual" is really for players, who are close to the master level already, and it assumes a great deal of previous endgame knowledge.
A lot of these books focus on theoretical type positions, but you will also want books that pick more positions that are from practical games, as they transition from middlegame into the endgame. You need both types. For example, Shereshevsky's "Endgame Strategy". He also wrote a two-volume series that covered typical endgames from both open and closed games, called "Mastering the Endgame".
