{"id":3167,"date":"2023-09-27T14:42:43","date_gmt":"2023-09-27T14:42:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forwardchess.com\/blog\/?p=3167"},"modified":"2023-10-19T13:38:55","modified_gmt":"2023-10-19T13:38:55","slug":"review-chess-structures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forwardchess.com\/blog\/review-chess-structures\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Chess Structures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Book Review of Chess Structures – A Grandmaster Guide<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPawns not only create the sketch for the whole painting, they are also the soil, the foundation, of any position<\/em>.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 <\/em>Former World Champion, Anatoly Karpov.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In his book, Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy<\/em> (1998), IM John Watson wrote:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe theory of pawn structures \u2026 has probably advanced more than any other area of the game over the last sixty years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pawn structures are usually discussed to varying degrees in books on chess strategy. In addition, some previous books have also been written solely on this topic. Of these books, Pawn Power in Chess<\/em> by Hans Kmoch (1959) is one of the earliest and perhaps most influential. Of course, the book was written around 60 years ago, and it\u2019s not surprising that it\u2019s out of date in some areas. In addition, it\u2019s also hampered by some obscure terminology. Hence, a modern book on pawn structures would be welcomed by chess players, and that is the book that GM Flores Rios<\/a> has attempted to write.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The author describes his aims for the book as follows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cChess Structures – A Grandmaster Guide<\/a><\/em> emphasizes clarity, precision, and completeness over generality. I do not intend to teach rules applicable to every position. Such rules typically do not exist… My aim is to provide an easy-to-understand strategic guide to the most frequently occurring classes of positions in chess. I hope readers will find this helpful, as it greatly reduces ambiguity; it is clear when rules will be valid and when they will not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book discusses 28 of the most common pawn structures using 140 games or game fragments.  As the author notes, his choices of structures don\u2019t include all the possible pawn structures, but his choices are based on three overarching principles:<\/p>\n\n\n\n