Chess Structures: A Grandmaster Guide Paperback – 4 Feb. 2015

Hands down the best chess book I`ve read so far and I have a very good collection of the top rated ones. This book is captivating I cant put it down , not like other books where I flick through it and read a bit , play a study game get bored and dont really absorb much., this book is different !!! The author demonstrates how to build solid structures using excellent games, first explaning where its goes wrong and then the next game where it goes right so you can see the differnt affects of the strucures you create . Reading this book does not feel like hard work its very interesting and it clearly explains with regular brief analysis whats happening in the game, I would say you need to be an experienced player to grasp the ideas in this book fully. Highly recommend to impoving your game.

A very good book that details typical plans for both sides in a large number of Pawn Structures. It is well layed out with a discussion of the pawn structure at the start of each section, then a number of games illustrating the plans for each side, with reminders of the plans that were used during the game at the end.There is an accompanying blog at http://chess-structures.com/ which will give you a feel for the style of book. The ideas presented are very easy to put into practice, and it is more fun to study as it is not memorising variations like opening or endgame study can be.From what I have heard about the Soltis book this is much easier - the style is very engaging. I think that it is pitched at anyone rated 1500-2100, though all players will learn something from the book.Highly recommended

Educational.

Really enjoying this book. Very instructive and accessible. Great to get the main goals of each side in key pawn structures with model games to illustrate. Very well structured and well written.

The book is good, the product had a little dent on it, I’d appreciate if the book was in perfect condition seeing that it’s suppose to be new.Otherwise good. The box the book came in had a dent on it so it’s probably the last person who delivered the book to my house.

What a great book, exactly something I had been trying to find. In the multitude of books, I couldn't find one that would talk specifically about various pawn structures. Which is crazy, because strategies - and sometimes tactics - are determined by pawn structures! I guess there are few chess books on this topic because it's lots of work to systematize it all! Instead, I had to collect bits from various books and game annotations, like "Typically, White plays xyz in this structure". So a book where all of that is in one place is a real gem.Understanding typical White and Black plans in typical structures will help you find your way through a relatively unfamiliar opening, too, as you can see where it's taking you.I got this book a year ago in a playable format elsewhere but writing a review here upon stumbling on this item on Amazon. It's a sort of desktop book I come back to now and again.

Probably one of the best book I've ever read. Must buy it mate!

I have other middlegames books, for instance "Winning Chess Middlegames" by Sokolov, so this is not the only book in my middlegame collection. But I have to say, this is the best of the books I have read on chess middlegames by far.It is very systematic and goes through each of the 22 selected pawn structures and their resulting middlegames in a very clear way.For every of the 22 main chapters, there are 6-7 games that each illustrates a plan for black or white (or the blocking of such a plan) in the particular pawn structure. For every game there are some clearly started learning objectives (what is the take-away from this game) and more general conclusions based on the specific game.I found this approach simply excellent. Very clear analysis and lots of modern games by masters such as Carlsen and Anand are in the book.This I also found refreshing - nice with newer games in such a collection. But also some classics are their (Karpov, Spassky etc).I would say the book is for the serious chess students (probably 1900 ELO and above), and if you are a chess beginner or do not feel like putting in hours and hours of work to go through the book, then you probably should not buy it (the subtitle is also "A Grandmaster Guide" - so this also tells you something about the level). But you are serious about improving your chess and you have decided to spend some time on the middlegame, then this is probably the best modern book on the subject (in my opinion).