They are out of print and dated (1990s), so you would probably have to find a used copy, but there was a series of books called "Mastering the _____ With the Read and Play method"
The ones I am aware of are:
Ruy Lopez (Green cover i believe)
Kings Indian (pink)
Benko and Benoni (unsure - orange?)
French (yellow)
Nimzo Indian (they changed the cover by then)
Sicilian.
Only 2 i owned back then were French and Nimzo. Not aware of others, but there may have been one or two i cannot think of.
Good info from @ThrillerFan. Those books were excellent introductions to the openings, focusing on ideas and structures instead of variations to be memorized. Used copies are available, but sometimes pricey. Mastering the French, for example, is $56 on Amazon and $45 on abebooks. But Mastering the Nimzoindian is only $10 on Amazon.
These look excellent, thanks! And I would argue that plans and structures never really become dated. Out of print is of course another problem :-).
I often see this sqare markers and arrows in chessbase videos and commented games.
Yes, it's quite common, but most of the time it's only relevant for the game in question. Detailed planning of certain opening variations and their resulting middlegame/endgame positions is pretty rare.
@ThrillerFan, thanks again for the tip! I got ahold of the KID book and it's excellent! Too bad they discontinued this series. Doesn't seem like there is anything like it nowadays? :-(
There are three books by Herman Grooten about structures from openings with visual aids, in english and dutch. Vol. 1 is about spanish and italian, Vol. 2 about queens gambit, Vol. 3 about Sicilian. Here the teasers from queens gambit book, which soon or later will be on my bookshelf:
https://thinkerspublishing.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/herman-grooten-teaser-ubm27432.pdf
I have this great opening book by Steffen Pedersen on the Bogo-Indian that shows typical pawn structures and both white's and black's plan for each main variation (see screenshot below). It's just a couple of pages for each chapter, but it teaches you so much more than countless variations! I wish every opening book was like this.
I was wondering though... do you know of any books that employ the same style? I would love to have similar diagrams for my entire repertoire!
Thanks...