Chess Structures: A Grandmaster Guide

by Mauricio Flores Rios

Mauricio Flores Rios provides an in-depth study of the 28 most common structures in chess practice. In Chess Structures: A Grandmaster Guide you will find:

Carefully selected model games showing each structure’s main plans and ideas
Strategic patterns to observe and typical pitfalls to avoid
50 positional exercises with detailed solutions

Genres: Chess, Reference, Games

464 pages, Paperback

First published February 4, 2015

Reviews

[Manny · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is possibly the best book on chess strategy I have ever read, and as soon as you've got a chapter or two into it you wonder why it hasn't been done before: an excellent sign, of course. The author's plan is splendidly logical. Based on a large number of games, he picks out the two dozen or so structures which occur most often and gives you a chapter on each. He explains the key plans for both players and shows you example positions. He does it all with great assurance.

It's so convincing, and at the same time so simple, that after finishing it I couldn't help wondering if it was some kind of trick. Many self-help books are like that: you're made to believe that you have been magically transformed, whereas the only magic was in the process that directed money from your bank account to the author's. I consequently held off posting my review until I'd had enough time to see if it really was impacting my results. But a couple of months later, my remaining doubts have disappeared. Not only are my ratings on chess.com and lichess considerably improved, I often find myself thinking about the book's advice when making critical decisions. You have to be very sceptical indeed not to believe that it's had a positive effect.

If you're already a reasonably good player and want to get better, invest in a copy of Rios! You won't regret it.

[Thomas Ray]

Chess Structures: A Grandmaster Guide, Mauricio Flores Rios (1990-), 2015, 464 pages, Dewey 794.1, ISBN 9781784830007

Sixteen pages of it online: https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysi...

Video: https://saintlouischessclub.org/blog/...

"Staring at a position for a few seconds is often enough for me to see who is better, which plans will work, which pieces should be traded, etc. …

"Studying the 140 games and fragments in this book, the reader will learn many of the most important plans, patterns and ideas in chess." --GM Axel Bachmann p. 5.

The contents reflect the openings the author likes to play:

d4 d5 pp. 12-137

Open Sicilian pp. 138-225

Benoni pp. 226-260

King's Indian pp. 261-352

French pp. 353-399

Others pp. 400-423

Exercises pp. 424-436

Mauricio Flores USCF rating http://www.uschess.org/msa/MbrDtlMain...

Mauricio Flores Rios FIDE rating https://ratings.fide.com/profile/3408...

The author's games and results:

chesstempo.com https://old.chesstempo.com/gamedb/pla...

chessgames.com https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess...

chessbase.com https://players.chessbase.com/en/play...

His current career:

Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/flores-ml

Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurici...

[Justin Pickett · Rating 5 out of 5]

For chess improvement above and beyond tactical skill, this is probably the best book out there. Beyond providing the plans associated with different pawn structures, it covers general positional strategy within the context of common openings. Indeed, pairing the relevant chapters in this book (e.g., those on the KID) with a corresponding opening book (e.g., Victor Bologan's on the KID) is especially helpful for learning openings, as doing so adds understanding to move memorization.

"A general piece of advice for King's Indian players is to decide beforehand whether an opposite-flanks race is likely to work on or not. If Black is likely to lose the race, then he should not start it at all, and instead should attempt to find counter-chances by keeping the central tension." (p. 316)

On top of it all, the annotated games in this book (e.g., by Magnus Carlsen, Ding Liren) are fun to play through. So, even if considered merely as a collection of games, this book succeeds.

[Isaac Clemente ríos · Rating 5 out of 5]

El estudio no es en profundidad, en eso el subtítulo engaña.

Pero sí es una buena referencia para entender las estructuras de peones que surgen de las distintas aperturas. Para cada una de ellas el autor ofrece los planes típicos para las blancas y las negras y una serie de entre 5 y 8 partidas de ejemplo.

Es una buena guía para poder entrar en planteamientos que se salgan del repertorio propio sin hacer mucho el ridículo.

Interesante.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

I give this 5 stars with a caveat - I wouldn't recommend this book for <1700. I don't have an official rating, but I'm probably between 1700-1800 and I found this book fairly difficult. It's very dense, with a lot of information. I think I'll need to read this book a couple more times to get the full value from it. It's a great idea for a chess book and if I can learn, and retain the information from it, I'll be a much better player.

[Víctor · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the book I would have loved to read in my younger years when I was still playing actively. This way I would have known what to do every time I faced a new position.

[kw · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made me beat KIDs more consistently and inspired me to pick up a Sicilian alongside a bible

[Himanshu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Went through the ideas of mainly IQP, Sicilian and KID positions to get a general idea. But overall, a good book to understand different pawn structures.

[Marco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent guide, suitable for many levels of players and to take away something, probably starting at 1500ish.
Lower rated players will take away something as well thanks to insightful annotations, but will benefit more from different books like those of Jeremy Silman's for example, but suggestions like mine are varying, depending on who you ask on a given day.

[Francisco Galán · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pawn structures is one of the most fascinating and useful aspects of chess. This is one of the best (or perhaps the best) resources to learn about them, although I recommend it for +1600 ELO players.