Chess Structures - A Grandmaster Guide by Mauricio Flores Rios

PDF excerpt

Mauricio Flores Rios provides an in-depth study of the 28 most common structures in chess practice. In Chess Structures – A Grandmaster Guideyou 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

GM Axel Bachmann from the Foreword:
“Chess Structures – A Grandmaster Guide is an excellent selection of model games. By studying the 140 games and fragments in this book, the reader will learn many of the most important plans, patterns and ideas in chess.”

Mauricio Flores Rios is a grandmaster from Chile. He achieved the title at eighteen, and is a regular member of Chile’s Olympic team. Mauricio combines his career as a chess player and trainer with his PhD studies in Mathematics at the University of Minnesota.

ISBN 978-1-78483-000-7 - 464 pages - Published 4 February 2015

Reviews

"There is also masses of stuff in the book that made me go 'Oooh!' and 'Aaah!' so I think it will have the same effect on you! In particular, I loved Rios' exposition of White's plan of exerting queenside pressure against Hedgehog systems. I'd seen one of the games he quotes in his chapter but I'd never remotely made any link to a structured way of fighting the Hedgehog structure, so this chapter was a real eye-opener for me...

In conclusion, warmly recommended. Lots to learn!"

GM Matthew Sadler, New in Chess

A video review by IM John Bartholomew can be viewed here.

“Mauricio Flores Rios has made a welcome and important addition to the literature...

It seems that a lot of thought went into the pedagogical makeup of the book, and that effort has paid off grandly. This is among the best non-beginner works for learning chess that I’ve seen...

Here’s hoping that this is not the last book we see from this young Grandmaster!”

John Hartmann (full review)

"Quality Chess never seem afraid of publishing books which might not, at first glance, attract a wide readership. Chess Structures is a case in point. It can't be easy even thinking of an attention-grabbing title for such a subject, but I can say right from the start that this erudite tome is well worth the investment of time and money."

Sean Marsh, CHESS magazine

"In studying this book, the reader will become acquainted with the typical plans, patterns, and strategic ideas related to the various pawn structures, with each game designed to be a building block toward the understanding of the structure as a whole.

No matter what your rating, the reader will learn much more about chess to a far deeper extent by studying this book than by looking for the latest move-thirty novelty in any opening treatise.

My assessment of this product: 6/6"

Brian Almeida, ChessCafe (full review)

"All in all, I recommend this book wholeheartedly. Any player that seriously studies this book will gain a complete picture of the major pawn structures of the game and will hence improve greatly his understanding."

Gollum (full review)

"Flores excellently manages to find the positional essence and the basic plans to take from the games, in short and very understandable comments... Essential for players rated between 1500 and 2300."