Customer Reviews

Pawn Structure Chess

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4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am currently a USCF Life-Master. I have won more than 100 rated tournaments. My personal chess library is over 1,200 books.

When I was studying to become a Master, it was a tremendous eye-opener to me to discover that there are not more than around 15 basic pawn structures.

GrandMaster Andy Soltis (who has played me and beaten me twice in over-the-board encounters) lays out logically, all the basic different pawn structures. He shows that there might be dozens of different move orders to reach a certain structure, but once you get there-- there are only a limited number of plans that work within the given pawn structure.

He logically and sensibly lays out these different plans. He shows many practical examples of how each plan may have worked in real, OTB play; usually in the games of a well-known GM. The examples are very poignant. His advice is easy, sensible, logical, and readily assimilated. It does not matter if you are a Master, or just a Novice who wishes to improve ... this is a book for you.

Credit this one book for turning a humble expert into a Master who has tied for first in four different State Championships. Easily belongs in my list of, "The Ten Best Instructional Books Ever Written! "

I hate learning openings. This book has actually helped me learn the ideas behind the openings in a rather painless way. How can that be you may ask, since this is a book about the middlegame based on various pawn structures. Well, the reason is that you cannot really differentiate easily between an opening a middlegame and an endgame. They are all part of a seemless whole. Various openings lead to certain pawn structures which dictate certain middlegame plans for both sides. If you understand what the idea behing the middlegame plan is, then you understand the moves you need to make in the opening which makes memorization of variations easier. It also allows you to play the right move once your opponent goes "out of book" because you have a better understanding of what position the particular opening is trying to accomplish.

I'll give an example of how the book has helped me. About a month ago I decided to learn the Caro-Kann as black (mostly to cut down on the amount of theory I need to know against e4). So what I did was look through the various line of the Caro-Kann in the MCO and see what the final pawn structures looked like. As it turns out, there are only about 5 pawn structures that are likely to develop. They are the: Caro-Slav formation; Kingside pawn chain; the panov formation; isolani; and the orthodox exchange center. Each of these pawn formations are discussed in pawn structure chess (the first three each have their own chapter and the last two are both found in the chapter on the QGD and its descendants). After studying the general strategic ideas for both black and white arrising from each of these pawn formations, I went back and looked at the variations again. All of a sudden the ideas behind the opening made sense and the moves of the variations seemed logical because I knew what the purpose behind the move was (As Silman says, the real purpose behind the opening is to create an imbalance and then develop around that imbalance).

The effects of this book have helped me in the first game I played as black in the Caro. My opponent (rated over 100 pts higher than me) played a variation of the Caro that I wasn't familiar with. We both went "out of book" fairly early. However, I kept in mind what the middle game pawn structure was that I was aiming for and where my pieces needed to be to accomplish that goal. Well my first outing as black in the Caro was a success. The allegedly "dull" or "boring" Caro notched a 20-move win for me -- not bad.

This book has also helped me see the similarities between various openings and how one opening can transpose into another. This is critical information to have at your disposal. The book does not exhaustively treat any particular pawn structure, however that is not its intent. The idea is to familiarize the reader with the structures themselves, the openings that they are most likely to arise from and the strategic ideas for both sides. Certainly entire books have been written on the isolated pawn. But this book is a great starting point to give an overview buttressed with a few examples of each strategy either succeeding or failing.

All-in-all this is an excellent book. I really do not understand some of the criticisms I've read about it. The book is not supposed to be about pawn play so there is no comparison between it and "pawn power" because each book attempts to cover a different idea. Moreover, the fact that some of the examples are one-sided does not bother me because the idea was to show how a strategy is carried out in its pure form. The lack of depth of treatment of each structure is also the book's strength. The idea is to give an overview, not an exhaustive treatment since such a treatment could conceivably cover an entire book or more for each chapter (or subchapter) in the book. If you are serious about improving your understanding of how to conduct a middlegame and how that middlegame is tied to the opening due to pawn structure then this is the book for you.

I did hear that saying that, "pawns are the sole of chess", and "chess structure is the backbone of your position". Mr. Soltis shows you the importance of planning ahead and having the right pawn structure, or making your opponent have the wrong one - especially looking toward an endgame. Now this not a book for a beginner, who should be learning basic tactics, traps, ideas behind opening moves and basic endgames. This is a book for someone past that stage that needs to learn the more advanced idea of recognizing how to use pawns and the importance of planning ahead keeping the the pawns (the little people!!) in mind! Don't forget the "little people" would be a funny but true statement.

The study of chess openings can be both frustrating and time consuming. Frankly, we tend to waste time memorizing the latest theoretical novelty on move 18 of a variation we won't see in tournament play for at least several years. Soltis' book makes the study of chess openings both fun and practical. Soltis has distilled the vast number of chess openings down into a very manageable number of related "pawn structures". These include: the Caro formation, the Slav formation, the Open Sicilian, the e5 Pawn Chain, the d5 Pawn Chain, the King's Indian Complex, the Queen's Gambit family (Isolated Queen Pawn, Hanging Pawns, etc.), the Panov Formation, Stonewall, and the Closed Sicilian. Soltis clearly explains the typical plans (why certain plans work and others don't) and tactics of each structure, and when its beneficial to change from one structure to another. Every chess player should read this book at least once a year to refresh his or her mind with the concepts. Improvement in one's game is virtually guaranteed with study of this material. Soltis has shown once again why he is one of the very best chess authors on the scene today.

Andrew Soltis as written a great number of chess books. This ranks among his best. Most other books on pawn structures deal with the usual doubled pawns, isolated pawns, passers etc. However this book is different, as it deals with pawn structures that come out of most standard openings. This is very useful because say your opponent plays the caro-kann (1. e4 c6), by knowing the pawn structure arising from that opening you can transpose the game to obtain a structure that you are familiar with. By doing so you know the main plans/breaks which are typical of that structure. This is a far cry from memorising standard openings when most people are clueless as to the main plans arising in the middle game.

This book is best studied slowly. The best way, is to study a structure that you encounter most often in your games, go through the supplementary games at the end of the book, and finally get some more games from your database (e.g. chessbase) with the same structure. This will ensure you will remember the plans and ideas more often than your opponent, and hopefully lose less often.

Finally this book is rather advanced so for beginners/intermediate players it is recommended to spend time doing lots of tactics before buying this book.

He makes some interesting points about the pawn structures resulting from various typical opening systems. However, since you probably only play one or a few of these a lot of the book may not interest you that much, also it is quite advanced and I simply couldnt make sense out of much of it. However, this book is reccomended by many people, including Jeremy Silman in his book Reasess Your Chess. Perhaps if I go over it later I can understand more--definitely not for beginners.

I bought this book and it sat on my shelf for several months, as I didn't immediately have the level of understanding required to benefit from it.

When I finally came around with a serious need to understand openings and middlegame better, this book was a true lifesaver, showing me the underlying principles which constitute many of the game's famed openings (Sicillian, Caro-Kann, etc) which had so far eluded me entirely. It has given me greater appreciation of how the pawn structure affects the avenues of attack and defense in those instances, and how a single pawn move will affect those plans.

This is *not* light reading by any stretch of the imagination, but for the serious student of chess, this work shows many essential principles that no player should do without. Absolutely outstanding.

If, like me, you are an average club player seeking to improve then this (and other books by Andy Soltis) are excellent in providing essential strategic knowledge, pitched at exactly the right level. The only (slight) negative is that Soltis provides the information in "plain vanilla flavor" - the writing, in other words, is a bit matter of fact.

This book is one of the few to deal directly with the key topic of forming a plan in the early middlegame based on the pawn structure. Soltis explains extremely clearly the different pawn-based plans which are likely to make sense for both White and Black in the context of the given pawn structure (which may arise from a number of different openings).

The fundamental importance of understanding pawn structure is well expressed by Soltis himself in the introduction:

"The important thing to remember here is that a pawn structure is not an isolated feature of a position but an instrinsic part of it. You can't claim to have a good pawn structure but a bad game. It is the arrangement of the pawns that determines whether you will have good piece play - whether your rooks will have files and your bishops have diagonals." And, he could have added, "whether your knights will have outposts".

This book has many very positive reviews on this site and I can whole-heartedly endorse their high evaluation. If you are a reasonable club player, this is definitely the type of material you need to master to improve. So get it and get working!!

With this book, you don't need to spend several hours a day studing chess opennings! The skeleton pawns are divided by categories(Slav family, Sicilian family, Stone Wals, etc.) wich can be reached by several diferent ways. In each structure, A. Soltis, teaches how to proced with a plan (he demonstrates a lot playable plans in each structure), and teaches how to position the pieces on the board acording to type of structure. After reading this book, you be able to planning your game much better, independent if you know any specific openning or not. You will know exactly what to do in your middle game, no maters if it is opened game or closed etc. I'm a Brazilian chess player.

This book is not about openings! Although some discussion about openings and their relationship to "pawn structure" is necessary, the pawn structure is the subject. The moves Nf3, d4, c4, and many others can lead to the same structure. You can buy hundreds of books about openings. This book is different. In my opinion, studying opinings without understanding the concepts in this book is a waste of time.

One thing I like is that Soltis does not claim that either black or white has a win from any basic structure. For each structure, he shows tactics/maneuvers for both sides. If you want to buy a book that shows that you always win if you play a certain opening, this book is not for you.

The blurb on the cover, "How to handle all characteristic pawn structures," is false. I don't think there is more than one example of Benoni formations in the book. However, the author did not write the blurb. What Soltis said was, "This book explores several of the more important pawn structures." Not all possible pawn structures. I do not think a book truly covering "all possible pawn structures" will ever exist. Soltis could have written a book four times longer, but it would cost 4 times as much, and few would buy it. I wish Soltis would write a second volume for "Pawn Structure Chess."

However, I think most chess players could study this book for years and gain very useful knowledge.

Let's go back to the coverage of Benoni formations. Suppose you like to play the Benoni, but your opponent plays Nf3 before d4. Instead of pushing his d-pawn to d5, he allows you to capture c5xd4. You are now playing the black side of the Maroczy Bind (see the sub-chapter "Maroczy Unbound" in "The open Sicilian-English" in this book). A player who understands structure, rather than one who only memorizes opening moves, has an advantage, although even an excellent positional player can fall into a tactical trap occasionallly.

This book is not specifically about isolated pawns, doubled pawns, etc., although sometimes those are covered in the context of pawn structures. You can get many books on those subjects.

If you read this book, you will inevitably find some positions that you find unclear. The first one I remember is p. 41-42, Maroczy-Chigorin 1899. The last paragraph says, "But now in the diagram White cannot play 15.nxe5 nxe5 16. without risking disaster after 16. Bb3 nf3! 17. Rad1 Bh3!

I still find this line unconvincing. I think 17 ...Bg4 is better.

Still, I wholeheartedly recommend this book. Also good are Marovic's "Understanding Pawn Play in Chess" and "Dynamic Pawn Play in Chess," which go beyond Soltis on certain subjects, but have less coverage than Soltis, for example, on the closed Sicilian. Marovic's organization is logical (open center, closed center, dynamic center) but I find Soltis's organization more useful (Caro, Slav, Open Sicilian-English, etc.) more useful, from my subjective point of view. Still, the Marovic books are wonderful too.