Just curious, who (historical and modern) would you consider fit in a top 10 list for chess ending theory?
I supppose GM Rubin Fine and GM Pal Benko would be on it. But otherwise, which other players contributed the most to endgame theory?
Of course, Fine’s Basic Chess Ending had been fully vetted out over the decades and a reprint in algebraic (or maybe figuring) notation, including the fixes to various problems that have been found over the decades since it’s first edition. Still as an epic and relevant book today as much as it was in it’s initial printing.
Feel free to list players if you think they contributed to endgame theory from composing endgame problems rather than being a grandmaster.
John Nunn, for datamining of endgame tablebases to produce Secrets of Rook Endings, Secrets of Minor-Piece Endings and Secrets of Pawnless Endings. Also see the Wikipedia article Chess Endgame Literature for more possible nominees.
Are you asking about endgame theory or endgame composition? The latter has many contributors who have made additions to standard endgame theory and to the rarefied world of composition.
My own list of endgame contributors would include:
Alexei Troitsky, N. D. Grigoriev, Akiba Rubinstein, Jose Capablanca, Reuben Fine, Yuri Averbakh, Mark Dvoretsky, John Nunn, Andre Cheron, Vasily Smyslov.
Of course, how do you leave out Andre Danican Philidor’s contributions in rook endings and rook vs. bishop endings? Then there are the compositions by the Kubbel brothers. Karsten Mueller and Frank Lamprecht have also written endgame masterpieces in recent years. There are so many players and composers that have made contributions to theory, that it is not possible to limit the list to only 10.