Pawn structure Chess
One of the greatest books to have actually made a discernible impact on my chess strength is the legendary book, Pawn Structure Chess, By GM Andrew Soltis.
In it he takes about sixteen well known pawn configurations and explains with reference to illustrative games the plans and ideas associated with them based on the configuration of pawns. Prior to this i was developing for developments sake, sharpening the game when there was no real reason to sharpen the game and playing in a plan-less, haphazard manner. Ok sometimes I still do, but its nowhere near as bad as it was.
1.white has more space on the queen side and therefore should direct his play there
2. the centre is closed, white will pawn storm the queen side and black with pawn storm the king side.
the video lecture below looks at the idea in more depth and the hope is that it provides a basis for beginner and intermediate players to think in strategic terms taking their game to new levels of understanding.
