Adrian Mikhalchishin:
Pawn structures you should know

Aaron Nimzowitsch knew how to teach chess and he knew how to study the middlegame. His advice was to “study typical pawn structures.”

Every structure has its typical plans and to know these plans helps you to find your way in these positions.

On this DVD the author presents and explains the most common central structures every chess player should know: The Hedgehog, the Maroczy, Hanging pawns and the Isolani.

Adrian Mikhalchishin, a grandmaster since 1978, is currently among the top five world trainers and the Chairman of the FIDE Trainers’ Commission. He trained the team of USSR in 1980’s, national teams of Slovenia, Poland and the Netherlands, and was the trainer of Anatoly Karpov (1980-1986), Zsuzsa Polgar, Alexander Beliavsky, Maja Chiburdanidze, Arkadij Naiditsch and Vassily Ivanchuk.

Read this 2009 interview in which Adrian Mikalchishin (or Mihalcisin or Mihalcišin) discusses his life and the strategy of chess training. It contains some interesting historical narrative starting with the following lines:

I was very lucky to enter into the famous Lvov Chess School. The founder was the famous trainer, Viktor Kart, a close friend of the great Leonid Stein, who came to our training sessions to show his most recent games. He was our hero and we wanted to be like him. We being: future GMs Marta Litynska, Oleg Romanishin, Aleksandr Beliavsky, Iossif Dorfman, and me. Then came Zoya Lelchuk and Vassily Ivanchuk, later followed by Andrei Volokitin, the Muzychuk sisters and a group of young GMs.

An early (1980s?) picture of Adrian with Oleg Romanishin and Alexander Beliavsky

Training top Turkish players Kübra Öztürk (middle) and Betül Cemre Yildiz (right)...

... and other young Turkish chess talents

Fourteen minute sample from the above DVD

Interview with Adrian Mikhalchishin

Pawn structures you should know By Adrian Mikhalchishin Video running time: 5 hours 6 min (English) With interactive training including video feedback Exclusive training database with 78 extra games Including ChessBase 12 Reader €29.90 €25.30 without VAT (for Customers outside the EU) $27.14 (without VAT)  This DVD can be purchased as a hard copy or it can be downloaded directly from the Internet, that way sparing you the few days needed for it to arrive by post. Order this Fritztrainer in the ChessBase Shop