The Ultimate Guide to Chess Pawn Structures

The Ultimate Guide to Chess Pawn Structures

"Pawns are the soul of chess!" - Philidor

Pawns unlike other pieces on the chessboard cannot move backward and as such, they represent the "irreversible decisions" of chess that one has to make carefully otherwise one could easily regret such pawn moves.

In this course, you will get a  strong focus on pawn structures in chess with example games from World chess champions and other master "structuralists" who have demonstrated a keen understanding of the importance of pawn structure and choice of openings for such structures.

The examples try and provide a roadmap of key plans against or for certain structures where appropriate to get a more balanced understanding of the pros and cons of each structure - and to be able to anticipate the opponent's plans and moves more easily.

Pawn structure plans and template ideas will help one play openings of any kind more effectively when aspects of that structure match key examples in this course fundamentally. You will be able to effectively reuse template plans from past world chess champions and Grandmasters and other great players.

Key pawn structural elements are looked at with many example games showing how they have their "up and downsides" including

Doubled pawns

Hanging pawns

Backward pawns

Isolated pawns

Pawn Islands

Passed pawns

Thorn pawns (yes Neural Networks have pointed the way here!)

And also more specific configurations of pawns are looked at including:

d5 pawn chain

e5 pawn chain

Carlsbad structure

Caro structure

Slav Structure

Boleslavsky Hole structure (especially Sveshnikov examples!)

Stonewall Structure

By the end of the course you should have more of a "structuralist" mindset to chess - and realise the importance more of the "little guys!" and they are really the very life and soul of the game as Philidor mentioned all that time ago!

Cheers, K

Master the essential pawn structures with instructive examples from the World chess champions

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What you will learn

• Be able to recognise effective plans in different openings and their pawn structures e.g. Minority attack plan in Carlsbad structure of Queens Gambit
• Be able to build an effective opening repertoire which fits your playing style e.g. Nimzo-indian for prophylaxis style
• Be able to use pawn structures to influence the level of tactics one needs to calculate - e.g. Slav or French structures can be used for quieter positions

Rating: 4.5

Level: All Levels

Duration: 45 hours

Instructor: Tryfon Gavriel