Small Steps to Giant Improvements- Master Pawn Play in Chess

by Sam Shankland

In chess you cannot take your move back, but you can always return a misplaced piece to its former square at the cost of some time. Pawns on the other hand can never move backwards, making pawn moves truly permanent decisions. This irreversibility makes Pawn Play among the most difficult aspects of chess strategy, which is one reason few books have been written about this topic – and some that have are almost incomprehensible. Double Olympiad gold medalist Sam Shankland has gone the other way – breaking down the principles of Pawn Play to basic, easily understandable guidelines every chess player should know.

Genres: Chess

336 pages, Hardcover

First published March 28, 2018

Reviews

[CC · Rating 5 out of 5]

not for beginners

[Ronan Spelman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent middlegame book. Specific descriptions and clear engaging writing. Patiently funny. And the format is perfect: introduce a concept, show some games with detailed explanations to form a guideline. Then show some games demonstrating an exception to that guideline. Lastly give two exercises to test (I found these to be the most helpful).

I think you should probably be rated at least around 1600–1800 over the board before reading this. I'd also recommend you read at least one endgame book and one other middle game book (in that order) before reading this, but obviously you can do whatever. Pawn play is important, but it's easier to understand and weigh properly once you've read a book on piece play.

Best chess book I've read.

[JStanz · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most tedious and boring chess book I have thus far read. 1% fun, 99% work. However, one of the more important books I have read. My positional game grew leaps and bounds after reading it. Great book.