Puzzle book for positional chess

Puzzle book for positional play .rating 1800 to 2200

I will take positional chess puzzles as pretty the same as strategic chess puzzles, i.e. not so much tactical, like the typical puzzle book.

Well, there just dropped "Woodpecker method 2", with about 1000 positional puzzles. (I will order it probably later this week.)

Also, there's "Drill your Chess Strategy" (Fresh on my table, but not worked through it, yet). 500 hand-picked puzzles.

Both include explanations to the exercises.

Of course, there are some classics like "Positional Play" by Aagaard (more on the stronger end), and Dvoretsky surely has something as well.

I think all of them should work very well 1800-2200 FIDE (which translates to around 2000+ lichess rapid). Although one can surely learn lots of things before that.

@nadjarostowa said in #2:

I think all of them should work very well 1800-2200 FIDE
How about lower, e.g. ~1700 (or maybe rather 1600-1700)?

@mkubecek said in #3:

How about lower, e.g. ~1700 (or maybe rather 1600-1700)?

I think it's hard to find dedicated puzzles books for this range, but there are of course quite a number of good positional books (which usually come with exercises as well). A couple of examples:

• Mastering Chess Strategy (Hellsten)
• Chess Strategy for Club Players (Grooten)

Maybe some books about pawn structures (Chess Structures by Rios, or Pawn Structure Che by Soltis, or Pawn Power by Hickl, or....). Lightly annotated games by positional players are also not bad.

"Positional Chess" is really a whole universe. I am pretty convinced that seeing "good chess" early may prove very helpful later on. The problem is that the best positional play is worthless if your tactics are miserable, and often you might need to use tactics to achieve your positional / strategical goals. But then tactics arise from good positions. Back to square one.

So I think below 1800, you can benefit from reading any positional/strategical book, and simply absorb typical patterns and ideas. Also, I think with lower ratings, you might have a hard time to evaluate a position correctly. At least I get easily confused and don't know for sure which factors are important in a particular position. Is an open file worth a pawn? What about those weaknesses? Without much experience there it seems very hard to be able to work through a mere "puzzle" book. A tactics book is very concrete in that regard.

@nadjarostowa said in #4:

I think it's hard to find dedicated puzzles books for this range
My question was rather meant if you would also recommend those you listed also for lower rating level. For example, I was considering Tiviakov's Rock Solid Chess until I heard Andras Toth in his review (where he praised the book) utter something like "But unless you are at least 2000 FIDE, or perhaps rather 2100, I'm afraid you are not there yet."

Chess Strategy for Club Players (Grooten)
I'm going through this book now. I like it a lot and I already learned some important ideas from it but having more exercises to see how (or if) I'm able to apply them in practice would come handy.

Also, I think with lower ratings, you might have a hard time to evaluate a position correctly. At least I get easily confused and don't know for sure which factors are important in a particular position. Is an open file worth a pawn? What about those weaknesses?
That's exactly what I believe is my biggest problem right now (apart from terrible management and occasional absurd blunders). Which is why I'm trying to focus on it.

And, of course, thank you for your tips.

@mkubecek said in #5:

My question was rather meant if you would also recommend those you listed also for lower rating level.

Ah. Hard to say without actually going through them. The "Drill" book has four exercises on each puzzle page, always 1, 2, 3, and 4 stars. So I think you can actually solve some. The Woodpecker introduction I skimmed through online also says that the first chapters (which are still a lot of exercises) still give plenty of not too hard positions to look at.

And I don't think it hurts to see "good stuff". But it's probably not beneficial to look at hard problems for hours when you don't have the tools to solve them. So setting a timer to limit the frustration may be advisable. If you have absolutely no clue after 10 minutes, just read the explanation, and try to understand it.

For example, I was considering Tiviakov's Rock Solid Chess until I heard Andras Toth in his review (where he praised the book) utter something like "But unless you are at least 2000 FIDE, or perhaps rather 2100, I'm afraid you are not there yet."

I have both volumes here. Just as lots of other books that I hope I will be able to read at some point. ;-)

And then there is so much other good stuff out there. And chessable courses with video and without... (for example, the recently released "The Positional Chess Patterns Manual" is tempting in regard to this thread).

So much material, so little time!

I'm going through this book now. I like it a lot and I already learned some important ideas from it but having more exercises to see how (or if) I'm able to apply them in practice would come handy.

I had mine signed by Herman at the Grenke Open this year. :-)

And of course, he has attacking and endgames books in that series as well...

That's exactly what I believe is my biggest problem right now (apart from terrible management and occasional absurd blunders). Which is why I'm trying to focus on it.

Books about evaluation are exceedingly rare, but evaluation is super important. Without it, calculating doesn't make much sense. There is that one bye Perelshteyn and Solon: Evaluate Like a Grandmaster. You know, this unread book to my left...

And, of course, thank you for your tips.

You're welcome. Now all these books here actually serve a purpose. :-)