MASTERING CHESS STRATEGY
Author: GM Johan Helsten
Everyman Chess (2010)
489 pages
$23.95
Reviewed by John Donaldson
MASTERING CHESS STRATEGY by the Swedish Grandmaster Johan Helsten is a massive book. This oversize paperback, nearly 500 pages in length, is part middlegame teaching course and part middle game training exercise book. Mastering Chess Strategy breaks down into 298 pages of explanatory prose and analysis to lay the foundation and then almost 200 pages of exercises (382 positions to solve) followed by solutions.
Hellsten covers a wide range of middle game themes as can be seen by a quick glance at the table of contents.
1 Basic Concepts of Strategy 13
Introduction 13
A review of the concepts 13
2 Improving the Pieces 28
The bishop 28
The knight 44
The rook 59
The queen 73
The king 78
The bishop pair 86
3 Exchanges 95
Realizing a material advantage 95
Realizing a positional advantage 98
Eliminating key pieces 103
Facilitating an attack 107
Facilitating the defence 112
Reducing enemy activity 116
Series of exchanges 124
Dynamic exchanges 128
4 Pawn Play 134
Gaining space 134
Creating weaknesses 142
Passed pawns 156
Pawn majorities 168
Pawn chains 179
Dynamics 190
5 Prophylaxis 204
Restriction 204
Prophylaxis 211
Provocation 222
6 Miscellaneous 232
Weak squares 232
Weak pawns 239
Doubled pawns 249
Blockade 259
The initiative 273
The link between tactics and strategy 288
Exercises 299
1-20: The bishop 301
21-40: The knight 304
41-60: The rook 307
61-69: The queen 311
70-81: The king 312
82-90: The bishop pair 315
91-96: Exchanges – material advantage 316
97-104: Exchanges – positional advantage 317
105-114: Exchanges – key pieces 319
115-126: Exchanges – attack 321
127-136: Exchanges – defence 323
137-148: Exchanges – activity 325
149-154: Series of exchanges 327
155-162: Dynamic exchanges 328
163-174: Gaining space 329
175-192: Creating weaknesses 331
193-208: Passed pawns 334
209-218: Pawn majorities 337
219-228: Pawn chains 338
229-246: Dynamics 340
247-266: Restriction 343
267-286: Prophylaxis 347
287-306: Provocation 350
307-314: Weak squares 353
315-324: Weak pawns 355
325-334: Doubled pawns 356
335-350: Blockade 358
351-366: The initiative 361
367-382: The link between tactics and strategy 363
Solutions 367
Index of players 482
There is a good combination of explanatory prose and concrete analysis when needed
in the teaching course portion of the book and the solutions to the exercises are detailed
enough to make things clear. The vast majority of games in this book are from the past 20 years but a few old chessnuts are included. One is the well-known game Winter - Capablanca, Hastings 1919 – the famous example where White’s bishop is buried alive.
This game is well analyzed by Hellsten with the one omission that he does not mention Kasparov’s 19.c4 that allows White to set up a fortress and hold despite being essentially a piece down.
Winter - Capablanca
Hastings 1919
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bb5 Bb4 5.0–0 0–0 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.d3 Bd6 8.Bg5 h6 9.Bh4 c5 10.Nd5 g5 11.Nxf6+ Qxf6 12.Bg3 Bg4 13.h3 Bxf3 14.Qxf3 Qxf3 15.gxf3 f6 16.Kg2 a5 17.a4 Kf7 18.Rh1 Ke6 19.h4
19.c4! (Kasparov) and while Black is “better” it is unclear how he will break White’s fortress.
19…Rfb8 20.hxg5 hxg5 21.b3 c6 22.Ra2 b5 23.Rha1 c4 24.axb5 cxb3 25.cxb3 Rxb5 26.Ra4 Rxb3 27.d4 Rb5 28.Rc4 Rb4 29.Rxc6 Rxd4, 0-1.
This one small quibble aside, MASTERING CHESS STRATEGY is a first rate book that will provide plenty of instruction for players from 1800 to 2300.
Recommended
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