Understanding Middlegame Strategies Vol. 4: Dynamic pawn structures Part 1

Sokolov, IvanIvan Sokolov is a Dutch chess Grandmaster and author of popularchess books. He was Yugoslav champion in 1988 and Dutchchampion in 1995 and 1998. For more than two decades he hasbeen on of the elite players and has beaten many of the strongestplayers in the world.

Isolated pawn structures can obviously come from many different openings. In this video course I have picked up isolated pawn structures coming from the classical Tarrasch defence D34; for which a considerable part was inspired by the games of Garry Kasparov. I believe studying the classical Tarrasch isolated pawn structures (and related pawn structures) to bean excellent way to improve understanding of those types of positions. Choosing my games selection, I wanted to show typical plans for both sides based on high level instructive games.Hanging pawns in the centre can come from different (though usually 1.d4 systems) openings. "Hanging pawns in the centre" structures are difficult to master because a good feeling for the "transformation timing" is needed! Sometimes those "transformations" are pawn-break related, unleashing dynamic power; while sometimes they are related to taking space andnot being bothered about surrendering central squares. I have tried to show typical plans aiming to improve the viewer's knowledge, and also practical play level. Sicilian Rauzer double f-pawn structures are fashionable nowadays and are seen at all levels. Dynamic timing is everything! Most of the time, temporary pawn sacrifices are an essential part of this "dynamictiming". While it is difficult to give exact set of rules here, typical ideas do repeat themselves and I have tried to show these in this video course. Studying this video course should greatly improve the viewer's handling of these dynamic positions! As with all my other video courses material here is predominantly aimed at improving players and tournament players.- Video running time: 5 hours 30 minutes (English)- Extra: Training with ChessBase apps - Play key pawn structures against Fritz on various levelsSystem requirements:Minimum: Pentium III 1 GHz, 1 GB RAM, Windows 7, DirectX9 graphic card with 256 MB RAM, DVD-ROM drive, WindowsMedia Player 9 and internet connection for program activation.Recommended: PC Intel Core i7, 2.8 GHz, 4 GB RAM, Windows 7 / 8 or 10, DirectX10 graphic card (or compatible) with 512 MB RAM or better, 100% DirectX10 compatible sound card, Windows Media Player 11, DVDROM drive and internet connection for program activation.