how to strategize?

If I remember correctly, reviews indicated that it was a worthwhile book as long as one ignored the "point count" aspects of the exposition. The book now seems to be mostly forgotten.

You could search Youtube for phrases like "chess beginner".

@kindaspongey said in #21:

If I remember correctly, reviews indicated that it was a worthwhile book as long as one ignored the "point count" aspects of the exposition. The book now seems to be mostly forgotten.

Well the point is that in order to come up with the point count they had to give a table not a list of position information characteristics. It is not the unit value that matters but the work about how to chop the features so that they work as an ensemble, frontal, parallel. not an unordered list , or bag of unseparated features that could interact. They even had to chop some features because when paired they might count twice some aspects.... These compromises show real thinking about many features possible at any given position or in its futures games flowing from it.

I always wanted to know the relative importance of all those features when put together. So those reviews missed the point.

is half open file weighing more than good bishop? which objective to aim for? should I wait a thousand games to individually experience what others could have experienced too and shared with the community? or should I hear their account in communication.

my point(s).

"Well the point is that in order to come up with the point..."
Enough said.

@pointlesswindows said in #24:

"Well the point is that in order to come up with the point..."
Enough said.

Not even stockfish classical evaluation position matrix of features has done that thinking effort.
I was joking with the points.

The way they hardwired version after version their parameter optimization results into their static evaluation function, one parameter (one feature) at a time, means they copied the typical book presentation in some arbitrary ordering (or easy to hard to explain order) that does not take into account the vagueness** of all the features possibly existing together from any position.

** (i.e. each feature semantic field "diameter" in chess space fuzziness)

The post-game typical hindsight one story analysis misses the in-game fog and multi-feature possible plan decision one has to make (what puzzles don't have).

The point of the book is not that one should take for truth the unit value of each features, but how the feature had to be massaged in order to work together as adequate scaffold for intermediate objective thinking (as predictors of winning odds). Extending the material count scaffold which is mostly predictive of tactical, and if tactical was patched together until terminal outcomes. Like SF classical eval has been doing blindly and greedily (1D exploration sequence, instead of global optimization each time, given the cross-overs of features when applied to board position information).

I would trust that book more than the matrix of stockfish. because they make their choice of featureS chiseling transparent in text (still need to read that, but somebody made the review of it lately and made me aware that this book has what I was looking for, at least it tries.

Now I still need to read it, to get my first exposure to many unknown features (or experienced already without words, possibly not the same alignment as the authors). But this is the only book that even adresses that important question of "commensurabilité" of positional features...

Are there any other books that could even approach that?

At your rate i only advice you to try to be foxy.
Don't be poor.

I would not be confident that the reviewers "missed the point", but, if you do not mind risking the money and contending with the descriptive notation, I see no reason to refrain from giving the book a try. Again, as I recall, the reviewers perceived the book, despite its faults, as doing a respectable job of presenting chess ideas. Many of us (above a certain age) received much of our chess education from Horowitz.

I don't think of strategies.

Here's a good example for a strategy:

Youtube,
Chess Stream #65 A Lesson in the Colle-Zukertort System,
minute 45.

(I can't link, I've put too many links today)

Now we can all beat Vishy Anand! Good luck everyone!

I have always felt that the best way to get an idea about a book is to read a sample from it. Here is such a sample (converted to modern notation) from Point Count Chess: "Within the first six moves, White acquires a minus point, which, however, seems unimportant and may well be transient. Black nevertheless precipitates the exchange of queens, nurses the White weakness through sixty moves of endplay, and finally triumphs. This is a rare type of game! It requires not only consummate tactical skill but also supreme self-confidence.
CARO-KANN DEFENSE
ATKINS v. CAPABLANCA, 1922
1 e4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 e5 Bf5 4 Bd3 Bxd3 5 Qxd3 e6 6 Ne2 Qb6 7 O-O
As a result of his inferior third move, White is weak on the light squares, being left with a semi-bad bishop. Black stakes all on this weakness.
7...Qa6 8 Qd1 c5 9 c3 Nc6 10 Nd2 cxd4 11 cxd4 Qd3
Now the swap cannot be evaded.
12 Nb3 Qxd1 13 Rxd1 Nge7
Black's task is to restrict the scope of White's minor pieces--above all, to avoid the swap of bishops. At the same time, he must not let the open file go to White by default.
14 Bd2 a5 15 Rac1 b6 16 a4 Kd7 17 Nc3 Na7 18 Kf1 Nec6 19 Ke2 Rc8
White has nearly reached the limit of mobilization yet can do nothing but defend. Black has the possibility of bringing the h8-rook to the queen-side for assault there, and even of a king-side expansion.
20 Be1 Be7 21 Nb1 f5 22 exf6
The backward White b-pawn, formerly too negligible to be counted, now becomes a real weakness. But it is understandable that White does not relish the prospect of a king-side steamroller.
22...Bxf6 23 Bc3 Nb4
At last White has a chance to swap off his bad bishop--and cannot afford to do so. He would be left with an a-pawn subject to frontal attack and a weak d-pawn, and denied access to the c3-square."
The complete game can be seen at https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1093062 .

@Mercy-Man said in #28:

... Youtube,
Chess Stream #65 A Lesson in the Colle-Zukertort System,
minute 45.
(I can't link, I've put too many links today) ...

Is this it? hxttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Frl5-esN4ZM
(Remove the x.)