A Practical Manual on Improving

Middlegame Thinking and Play

Sep 7, 2015
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How does an experienced player think and play after the opening? Does he come up with brand
new plans and ideas for every game? An experienced player- a player with a Master title or one
who plays at a master level- will almost always outplay amateur and club players due to the
better knowledge of middlegame plans & ideas amassed over time, either from from studying
personal games or learning from master games.

With the information and technology boom in today’s chess, memorizing opening theory all the
time can be very challenging for many from a practical standpoint. While one shouldn’t
downplay the importance of remembering critical opening lines, studying the typical plans &
ideas of various middlegame pawn structure is a very efficient and useful way to learn an
opening and play the middlegame well!

In this article, I will be reviewing a recent book aimed at helping self-learners apply their new-
found strategic ideas in their practice—Chess Structures: A Grandmaster Guide (CSGG) by
GM Mauricio Flores Rios.
The book hopes to achieve this by systematically presenting the standard ideas and main plans
for both sides through games according to commonly occurring structures, instead of randomly
showing a series of annotated GM games. To give you, dear reader, an idea of how useful this
book can be to both club and professional players, I will not be merely summing up the most
attractive parts of the book but will also share its unique characteristics in relation to other
popular books written on the subject of structures.

I. What is CSGG’s Unique Value compared to other books

on pawn structure?
There has been a number of materials written on the topic of pawn structures, the more well-
known ones are Winning Chess Middlegames by Sokolov and Pawn Structures by Soltis. There’s
no doubt that these books have value in their own right, but here are reasons why I find CSGG
more practical and helpful:

1) Better Game Selection. The sample games are well-picked because the games either have
a spectacular tactic, an interesting positional struggle, or an instructive demonstration of smooth
endgame play, rendering themselves memorable or inspirational to the reader.A feature that this
book does equally well with existing books is that the set of games show how both sides can win
e.g. a win for side playing with IQP and a win for side playing against IQP. This way of
presentation helps the player become well-prepared and more objective during the game in any
given structure. Last but not least, it uses both classical and recent games which lends the
material useful for the modern player.

The book excerpt and positions from Part II of this review show a few of these classic & modern
games.

2) Clean & Clear Chapter Layout. Each pawn structure-chapter begins with a short
description on the structure followed by a list of general plans for both sides. Then each game is
prefaced with a “Learning Objective” and ends with “Final Remarks" (see excerpt again),
ensuring that the reader have “take-aways” after playing through each game. This design is
consistent with author’s desire to create a manual that will help self-studying players to apply
their knowledge in their games, as expressed in the introduction.

3) Easy to Use. It's easy to use because the games are annotated with a balance between light
verbal explanations and concrete lines. While verbal explanations make any chess read light and
entertaining, a helpful annotation must also present concrete moves and ideas. After all it is the
moves that are the main argument when we are playing. The difficulty in studying some
annotated games from other books and databases comes from the convoluted, thick supporting
lines that gets confusing and holds one down on the chessboard for hours!! The author of this
book provide concrete lines that are accurate (most probably because it’s engine-checked), and
within a reasonable amount—usually one or two variations that sufficiently help the reader
understand the better and worse choices. As a result, I can regularly go through at least one game
at the end of the day.

4) Useful Exercises. Exercise positions can be in every book if reader wants to guess or solve
the next move in any diagram position! Very few of the existing books on pawn structure are
encouraging with this by having White/Black to Play underneath select diagrams. Chess
Structures: A Grandmaster Guide yet again goes another mile by allotting a chapter for
exercises. The Exercise Chapter consists of 50 exercises divided into 4 levels, whose solutions
are well-explained verbally and concretely in the following chapter. I am still going through this
chapter and so far I think it has multiple purposes:
a) Test knowledge of typical ideas gleaned from the chapters
b) Feed more ideas (typical & atypical) on a given structure
c) Give practice on correctly executing the idea (using concrete analysis & tactical skills)

Here’s a few of the exercises with the author’s solutions:

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Carlsen, Magnus - Radjabov, Teimour

Moscow 2012
 Diagram #1

White to play

"The reader should note that the squares around Black's king are weakened, and there are no
pieces to provide immediate protection, hence it makes sense to open up the positions with:

1.f5! +/- the standard break in French structure.

1... exf5? making things easier for White.

( The only defence was1... Ne4 though White has many attractive options such as 2.Bxe4 dxe4
3.Qf4 exf5 4.Nxf5! Diagram when the attack continues, since4... gxf5? 5.Qg3+ Kh7 6.Rxf5 +- )

2.Nxf5 gxf5 ( Qe6 loses to 3.Qxc5 gxf5 4.Bxf5 +- )

3.Qg3+ Black resigns due to the unavoidable mate after 3... Kh7 4 Rxf5."

Leitao, Rafael - Di Berardino, Diego

Manaus 2013
 Diagram #2

White to play

"In addition to the plans described in Chapter 3, if White's pieces are active enough, then the
following break is possible:

1.d5! +- this gives White an overwhelming intitiative as Black lacks time to organize a defence.

Diagram #3

The game continued:

1... cxd5 2.Nxf6+ Bxf6 3.Bxf6 gxf6 4.cxd5 Qe7 ( exd5 doesn't help: 5.Rd4! Diagram threatening
Rg4 then Qxf6.5... Qd8 6.Rxd5 Qb6 7.Re4 followed by Rg4 or Rh5 with a decisive attack.)
5.Qg4+ Kh8 6.dxe6 fxe6 7.Rxe6 and the game soon turned into a won endgame."

Braun, Arik - Polzin, Rainer

Germany 2008

Diagram #4

White to play

"One of White's standard plans in this position is the c4-c5 break. This idea is often stronger
once Black has played b7-b5 because the c6-pawn becomes vulnerable, hence:

1.c5! this yields a big advantage to White.

1... dxc5 ( Worse is:1... exd4 2.cxd6 Qxd6 3.Nxd4 Qc7 4.Bf4 Qb6 5.e5 +- )

2.dxe5 Nxe5 3.Nxe5 Qxe5 4.Bf4 Qe6 5.Bd6 Re8 ( A better try was: Rd8 6.Bxc5 ( 6.e5?! 6...
Ne8)6... Bb7 7.f4 Nd7 8.Bd6 +/- )

6.e5 Nd7 7.f4 Bb7 8.Ne4 White has a decisive advantage, which he exploited as follows

8... f6 9.Bxc5 Rad8 10.Nd6 Nxc5 11.Nxe8 Qxe8 12.Qxc5 fxe5 13.fxe5 Rxd1+ 14.Rxd1 Bxe5
15.Qb6 1-0."
Stay tune to my next article for Part II of this book review, where I will share my favorite ideas
from the book!

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will be happy to read your comments.