Pawn Structure Chess

by Andrew Soltis

A guide to making the best use of pawns when playing chess.

Genres: Chess, Nonfiction, Games, Reference

289 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1976

Reviews

[Manny]

Okay, Goodreads Recommendation Engine, you've got my attention. Now give me the inside scoop on Andrew Soltis.

[Santi Ruiz]

Pawns are everything, confirmed.

[James Tomasino]

I think I forgot all but the last page of the book by the time I closed the back cover. There's just so much material here, I think this one will take a few more readings to really sink in. Just an amazing book.

[Steven]

The best feature of this book is that it is organized by openings and the pawn structures they create, which makes it imminently practical. You can go right to a chapter for the opening you want to play and read about how its pawn structure affects play.

[Justin Pickett]

“But it’s what the pawn structure allows you to [do] that matters most.”

Although a useful overview of the pawn structures that typically result from different openings, the games included to illustrate positions are not ideal. They often are quite dated and rarely include modern, main lines of the openings. Additionally, there is probably too much analysis of the games—that is, of the specific moves—and too little text discussing the pawn structure and plans. That is, this reads more like an annotated game collection than an instructional book. By contrast, Chess Structures: A Grandmaster Guide provides modern games, main-line openings, and more instruction. Still, this is a good book. Soltis’s writing is also frequently memorable:

“Pawns are born free but are everywhere in chains.”

[Miguel Angel]

Amazing book!

[Nicholas John]

An excellent resource, be sure to have a good understanding of the game before diving into this (I'd recommend 1400 min ELO) as this will get into some complicated themes and ideas.

[Piotr Nowak]

It is mostly collections of games with some explanations regarding pawn structure strategies for both sides. What I did is I put positions to Chessable private course and viewed them several of times while reading annotations. I have to say that gave me perspective how to play in quiet complex structures of King's Indian for example, but I cannot say that was easy task to get something from this book.

I think there are better books about pawn play overall and structures which I will get, because I don't have a feeling that this book helped me enough. It was originally written in '70s and "fun" aspect which is present in more contemporary books is missing here. I am rated about 1700 Std Chess.com 1900 Std Lichess.

Pros:
a) Helpful, gives essential plans for white and black in certain structures
b) Games chosen by author are interesting
Cons:
a) Very little annotations and explanations
b) Lack of "fun" aspect
c) Games and positions were criticized by others who checked them with computer analysis (I did not do that personally)

[zxvasdf]

I've played thousands games of Chess, and I feel like I'm no better than I was after the first few hundred. Sure there might be games in which you're totally in the zone against a much better opponent and there's nothing like the thrill of making that checkmate, but even if you're a Grandmaster there's room for improving your game.

Now, I'm not the kind of chess player who has all the openings memorized. I only know the openings that I like to use. I play them because they have seemed to work for me all this time. This book is neat in which it shows you how to think, rather than telling you what to do. It shows the logic of this and that, and you absorb this.

[Barry]

Where are the pawn breaks and what is the inverse of the position become more important than recapping move order. A useful book.

[Kami]

wanna improve my chess game.