Suggestions for endgame training I am an unrated player. I am looking for ways to improve my endgame. I am currently using:


Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual
Pandolfini's Endgame Course


(I am personally finding the former to be tough. So I am planning to revise the second first).

So here are my questions:


Please inform me about other sources I should check?
I have heard about endgame table bases on several occasions. But I felt them to be too much information and not enough wisdom. So I have ignored learning more about them. Please advise me about how to have a systematic principled way of assimilating the endgame tables.
I want to read more about mathematical expositions on chess. I am familiar with works of Shannon and Victor Allis. I want to read what Combinatorial game theorists have to say about chess. I for example know about this research group at UC Berkley. Please share if you know any interesting lead along this direction. (I am aware these efforts digress from the real problem of playing tournaments, but I am of the opinion these would help make a stronger player. Please tell me what do you think).


Thanks!
The kind of book you need depends on your level and what you are looking for. Dvoretsky's book is of high quality, well-researched, magnificently analysed and ... pretty much useless if you are under 2400. Well, OK, maybe not useless, but I prefer my chess study to be a little more enjoyable than studying advanced theoretical mathematics. 

For something more engaging and accessible, I prefer "Fundamental Chess Endings" by Karsten Muller and Frank Lamprecht. It covers the same topics as Dvoretsky, but with less emphasis on highly theoretical analysis and more on problem solving and practical considerations. But I'm below 1600, so my needs may be different than yours.

End game tablebases, as far as I know, is a complete tree of chess positions that have been solved using a brute force technique by evaluating every possible move. There is no practical way for a human brain to remember the terrabytes of data that it contains for use in OTB games. It would be like learning to play Call of Duty by simulating every possible action of every possible player. The data will only be interesting to people trying to create bots.