Pawn structures you should know!

Review of Pawn Structures you should know - Adrian Mikhalchishin

He is also a famous author, with many books published, too many to recount. When I say "famous trainer" I mean top of the chess world famous! He was one of Karpov's trainers in the period from 1980 to 1985 when Karpov was winning tournament after tournament! Then he trained Alexander Beliavsky in the period 1989-90.

I'd like to show some of his books, because Mikhalchishin is definitely the coach to learn from:

Mikhalchishin begins the DVD telling us the famous Tarrasch quote:

But the main idea behind this DVD is to give the tools to deal with four very important pawn structures, we all find in our games.

Isolani, which Mikhalchishin treats with 10 videos. And here we do need to learn chess history, and our classics, because through the classic games we will grow as players. In fact Chessbase released two DVDs, from different authors, which were pointing to such important concept for one's chess growth.

Learn from the Classics by Sagar Shah, and...
...Learning from the World Champions by Sergey Tiviakov

Who was one of the first players to have the problem of the Isolani? Wilhelm Steinitz, the first world champion, had this problem in his match against Zukertort, and once more we see how the long gone past can help us in learning, through watching the ninth game of that match!

By the way this game has been commented by all the best players throughout history: Fine, Karpov, Kasparov, and of course Mikhalchishin. Clearly, it's a game that one needs to know.

Hanging pawns, which Mikhalchishin treats with 7 videos, is quite important, because Adrian shows what the player with hanging pawns should do, and how the chess technique changed from Rubinstein's time, because nowadays there are some typical maneuvers one has to perform to stop the hanging pawns, and gain advantage.

Hedgehog which Mikhalchishin treats with 11 videos, is quite an important formation, which has many books written upon it. This is an example on how to deal against Black's hedgehog formation!

As you can see, not knowing how to handle the Maroczy can be quite deadly!

Now I'd like to give my impression about this DVD. Mikhalchishin goes at light speed through the videos, showing as many examples and maneuvers he can, and that is quite something. In fact I feel the DVD could have been titled: "Manoeuvers you need to know!" since I learned so much.

I always questioned myself in some games how I should proceed, and this DVD is a clear answer. Through Mikhalchishin coaching expertise I understood why one needs a coach in order to achieve the highest chess levels. This DVD is worth just for the selection of games. Those games show these amazing maneuvers that one must know, and make a second habit when playing. Often we are mislead to think we must study tactics, checkmates, but here lies the difference between an average amateur, and the master, the knowledge of these maneuvers.

The only defect I can find in the DVD is that Mikhalchishin makes them look simple, elementary, like everyone can perform them, and this shows his class. He's like an expert magician, which show us a trick, and we think it's easy, because he performed it flawlessly. But when we try to repeat it, we discover we'll need years to become that skillful! I'd like to show a position, which made me realize how lucky I was to have this DVD.

It comes from the game Dominguez Perez vs Moradiabadi, 2011. Black has just played 24...h6; can you guess what White's next move will be?

I will not spoil the surprise, but it was funny to notice how before seeing this video, I thought it could be a draw, and then learnt how dangerous such position could be, and how wrong my evaluation was.

The DVD ends with 8 video clips of tests, a way to check what one has understood and learned from the videos, plus a database of extra games, 78 in total, which one should study in order to improve the knowledge of these structures. The main database, on which the video lessons are based, is made by 81 games! I really like this DVD, and hope Mikhalchishin will release many more, to share his chess wisdom with us.

Buy Mikhalchishin's Pawn structures you should know for Rs.999/-

About the Author

Davide Nastasio is a novel chess aficionado, who has made of chess his spiritual tool of improvement, and self-discovery. One of his favorite quotes is from the great Paul Keres: "Nobody is born a master. The way to mastery leads to the desired goal only after long years of learning, of struggle, of rejoicing, and of disappointment..." He is one of the main writers for ChessCafe on Chessbase products, he authors articles on British Chess Magazine, and he is one of the main contributors of Georgia Chess Magazine in the new electronic format: Georgia Chess News. He is an active player, and organizes and directs chess tournaments.