Basic Chess Endings is a monumental work, one of the most complete and authoritative on endgames in any language".

[1] 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 1944 Chess Review received many letters debating the change from Kt to N.[2] In a 1984 interview, Fine said that it took him three months to write the book.

He said that organizing the material gave him no trouble, but it was hard work coming up with example positions.

Over the years, many errors were found, and many of them were published in Chess Life in the column by Larry Evans.

[4] Over one hundred such errors were found and a mimeographed list of them was printed and circulated by Paul L. Crane and Rev.

After many years, editor Burt Hochberg finally convinced the publisher to create a new edition.

Endgame expert Pal Benko, whose own copy of the book contained hand-written notes of almost all of the errors, did the revision.

For example, Benko repeats Fine's claim that the endgame of two bishops and a knight against a rook is drawn with correct play.

Larry Evans listed it in his "basic chess library" and said that it was "distinguished by lucidity and keen organization".

Grandmaster John Nunn wrote a review of Basic Chess Endings, both the original version and the revised edition.

Despite this, the book is recommended for Fine's groundbreaking general explanations, but it is not completely accurate or up-to-date".