Small Steps To Giant Improvement

Breaking Down the Principles of Pawn Play with a US Champion

Pawn moves are irreversible.

This simple but harsh truth 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.

2018 US champion and 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.

Shankland starts with extremely simple examples, but then lifts the level, illustrating the universality of the book’s guidelines by showing how grandmasters could have made better decisions by using them.

In this course, you will learn to consider the impact potential pawn moves may have on the game. GM Shankland asks you to consider five things before making an irreversible pawn move:

♟ Does the move make the pawn vulnerable to capture? Pawns are often the main target as they are a permanent fixture.

♟ Will I lose control of key squares?

♟ Am I blocking my own pieces?

♟ Does this pawn move compromise my king safety?

♟ Does this move create a "hook" my opponent can latch onto?

By examining these questions, you will start to consider pawn moves more carefully and how they can change the permanent structure of the position. You will develop a greater intuition of safety, which will allow you to build a more solid position and exploit the permanent weaknesses created by your opponents' pawn moves..

Sam Shankland is a Grandmaster and perennial member of the US national team, winning an Individual Gold Medal in 2014 and Team Gold in 2016. In 2015 and 2017 he played Board 1 for the US team at the World Team Championship. In April 2018, he became US Champion. This is his first book, and he has credited writing this book to his success in becoming US Champion in 2018 and his meteoric rise to Super GM.