Reddit mentions of Pandolfini's Endgame Course: Basic Endgame Concepts Explained by America's Leading Chess Teacher (Fireside Chess Library)

I play chess. My USCF rating is currently 2123... And I thought the sphere chess looked absolutely retarded at first too.

>Nah, I feel you should start from openings.

You shouldn't. Opening theory is quite dense and heavily influenced by computer analysis. You benefit more from trying to understand what you are trying to achieve, rather than trying to simply memorize some openings.

Logical Chess: Move by Move is a great book for anyone that has mastered the basics but is looking to learn more. You will pick up some opening knowledge along the way, learn how openings give rise to specific kinds of middle-games. And you will come across some endgames (although endgame basics are absent).

If you wish to seriously improve there are 3 parts:

• Understanding the reasons behind moves in the opening of a game - decisions regarding pawn structure are especially significant as these will determine the nature of the battle to come in the middle-game. For this - annotates games (like those in Logical Chess) are beneficial. Specific opening books are also useful but only after you've got a feel for what kind of middle-games you like (because then you know what kinds of openings to pick!). Other game collections (there are tons of great ones): Botvinnik: One Hundred Selected Games and for the more advanced Zurich 1953
  
• Tactics. Chess, like other things, has a large component of pattern recognition. Solving tactical problems from workbooks (there are hundreds of these, so I will recommend 2: Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations and Games and 1001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations
  
• Endgames. Endgames are the most math-like in terms of study. You learn basic endgames (K+P vs lone K, K+R+P vs K+R, etc...). Once you have the basics, you can 'solve' more complicated positions by trading down (reducing them) to basic endings. Know nothing about endings? Here is one place to start: Pandolfini's Endgame Course. Dvoretsky's endgame books are also excellent.
  
  
  There is quite a lot of chess literature. If you enjoy chess and wish to study and improve there are plenty of ways to do that. If competing in tournaments interests you check out the United States Chess Federation if you are in the states. If you are abroad, check out FIDE. And of course there are online options such as chess.com, the Internet Chess Club, etc...
  
  Sorry... bit of an enthusiast :)
  

If you are a newbie this is what you should do:

Get a proper chess course/book/video/whatever that explains well the basic tactics, positional game and most importantly the endgame. Back in the 90s I loved Karpov's introductory book but I don't think what's out there now, I read it in a different language and I cannot find it in English anywhere. In chess.com I think there's plenty of material including introductory material, although I haven't gone through it.

Don't just play the computer on easy levels too much, this is mostly a waste of time and won't improve your game at the beginner level. It's a common mistake. It will actually stall you big time if you get used to play back moves, have no discipline to continue in disadvantage and play for the draw, etc. Keep it real against even a poor computer opponent. Play it no more than a few times a day.

Don't try to memorize a lot of opening lines. Memorize the basic ideas from a good generic introductory source. Don't go reading opening books as a beginner, that can wait. Definitely the endgame must be mastered before going into that.

This is how you effectively use a computer as a beginner:

• easy level games, no more than a few.
  
  
• set up endgame drills on an editable board against a strong opponent. No matter how strong the opponent is a strongly winning endgame must be won. I don't recommend specialized books on openings to beginners but you can get endgame books that cover basically any level up to International Master or even Grandmaster. For instance you can peek inside this one (Amazon lets you) and set up positions and finish off Stockfish on them: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fundamental-Chess-Endings-One-Encyclopaedia/dp/1901983536/ref=pd_sim_b_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=01WPWY9AXZMEJ2TKK5VT
  
  
• with solid endgame play you will be able to beat many engines on easy levels, you can try upping the level but beware of that, because the kind of play and errors engines make are rarely human-like. This can twist your game and hurt your progress. Eventually you want to face humans to progress, get beaten in humanly ways, win in humanly ways with blunders on both ends, the psychological aspect, etc.
  
  
  EDIT: another book you can peek inside for classic endgame positions and tactics http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pandolfinis-Endgame-Course-Concepts-Explained/dp/0671656880/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418228655&sr=1-1&keywords=pandolfini%27s+endgame+course
  
  
  All that should keep you busy for a while. Then, calculation and tactical + positional theory. Maybe best with a coach because it will be hard to keep motivation on your own with just books.
  
  EDIT2: as a beginner, you should not spend more than 15-20 minutes trying to figure out one single position. If you find yourself doing that, you are aiming too high. Your learning will be a lot more effective if it's incremental. As a higher-intermediate maybe studying a position from a book 20 minutes is just fine. But by then you will know.

I'm a fan of Pandolfini's Endgame Course.

I have an unorthodox recommendation. Most people here like Silman's endgame book, but I preferred Pandolfini's endgame book to start. The book does have some typos, but they are pretty easy to figure out. I went through the entire book to get a feel for the different themes and strategies, then I moved on to Nunn's Understanding Chess Endgames. What I like about the Nunn book is that each lesson builds on the prior lessons.

This may sound weird, but I have a correspondence game going on now where I was up a rook against a knight and I had 3 passed pawns. I haven't gotten to the Knight endgames lessons in the Nunn book, and I'm more comfortable with the pawn endgames so I just exchanged my rook for his knight because I know how to win the pawn endgame.

Pandolfini's Endgame Course essentially covers exactly what you're asking about.