Best Lessons of a Chess Coach
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=best+lessons+of+a+chess+coach&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI37TF1Z3u_AIV9hStBh0MvADdEAAYASAAEgIBFfD_BwE&hvadid=241641906121&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9033692&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=2647734780913502312&hvtargid=kwd-362968625&hydadcr=15969_10361249&tag=googhydr-20&ref=pd_sl_74kj0ord2p_e
"... [Simple Chess by GM Stean] will definitely help players in the general rating range of 1300-2000 with their positional play and strategic thinking. ..."
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708104258/https://www.chesscafe.com/text/review400.pdf
https://store.doverpublications.com/0486424200.html
"How to Reassess Your Chess, 4th Edition was designed for players in the 1400 to 2100 range." - IM Jeremy Silman (2010)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708095832/https://www.chesscafe.com/text/review769.pdf
https://www.silmanjamespress.com/shop/chess/how-to-reassess-your-chess-4th-edition/
I have looked over quite a few games by the likes of Kasparov, Karpov, Petrosian, Tal, Fischer, Alekhine, et cetera... They break all the rules, all the time... they are outlaws over the board. You need that mentality... like robbers planning a heist. There is no play book for that kind of thing.
@ant_13 , in the game you posted your opponent robbed your d6 pawn and you paid your bills on time.
Gotta watch out for those tax collectors.
Watching self commentated games by strong players helps a lot. On Youtube, I think of Andras Toth's "Inside my head series" or John Bartholomew's "Standard chess - 15 minutes" playlist. You will hear them talk about recurring themes, like color complex, good knight versus bad bishop, center control, initiative, outposts, isolated pawns, etc. And after a while (months and months in my case), you'll begin to absorb those concepts and try to implement them in your games (long time control preferably). It will take even more time before doing it successfully. But failing because we made a bad plan or applied some chess principle incorrectly is an important step toward "positional understanding".
Maybe people mentioned this, but the differences I see with a good USCF B player and a 2000+ player are
1. tactics of course but here mainly the 'tactical antenna' not the actual calculations. The antenna is partly due to strategy in knowing the typical tactics to look for in the structure.
2. big difference in endgames.
3. A big difference in understanding where the critical struggle in the position will be held. So I am a move or two ahead in getting established there.
4. pawn breaks.
These are mostly strategic in some aspect. - Bill
@ant_13 said in #6:
I'm wondering if there are specific things one can study to develop this ability.
The specific things you want to study are sometimes called the "elements" of chess. I think it's useful to have an actual list that you can run through in your mind while looking at positions until they start to become second nature. If you want a complete overview I think you probably need a chess book that goes chapter by chapter, but if you like videos better, then I'd still use a list and search for each element.
Herman Grooten's Chess Strategy for Club Players is based on Lasker's formulation of "Steinitz's Elements" which he breaks down into permanent and temporary:
Permanent Advantages:
Material advantage
Bad king position
Passed pawns in the middlegame
Weak pawns for the opponent
Strong and weak squares
Pawn islands
Strong pawn center
Control of a diagonal
Control of a file
Bishop pair
Control of a rank
Temporary Advantages:
Bad piece position
Inharmoniously placed pieces
Advantage in development
Concentration of pieces in the center (centralization)
Space advantage
Jeremy Silman has a different list of "imbalances" that he examines in How to Reassess Your Chess:
Superior minor piece
Pawn structure
Space
Material
Control of a key file
Control of a hole/weak square
Lead in development
Initiative ("Pushing Your Own Agenda")
King safety
Statics vs. Dynamics
Simply recognizing these positional elements doesn't get you very far however. They are different than tactics in that sense. It's a real art to know which features are the most important in any given position, and even if Magnus whispers the answer in your ear it can be very hard to capitalize on them. It's one of the most interesting and beautiful things about studying chess and because it is so rich you will never master it completely.
Once you have the basic vocabulary of those elements, then I think all you can do is analyze lots of positions. The key is to try to decide how to turn an advantage into a concrete plan. That's what you're doing when you play games, especially longer time controls, and then you do it again while analyzing them and asking yourself about the important themes you missed or paying someone to tell you. It's great to hear strong players analyze positions, especially their own games, and especially if they are playing weaker opponents and you can see how they actually formulate and succeed in a plan without all the prophylaxis that happens between top level players. The best games of Alekhine is great for this, especially if you play some of the openings.
Some of the elements are easier to understand than others. Once you see an example of an open file then you see them instantly, and you can understand naturally why it's a good idea to put rooks on an open file or double them, but it takes a bit more work to know what to do next. Usually the plan is to transport them to the 7th rank, eat up all the pawns, and checkmate the king, but often you merely force your opponent to spend time defending against that and then form a new plan. On the other hand, even after reading chapters from several different books about weak color complexes, I still didn't really get it. Eventually after seeing enough examples and thinking about it during my games, something clicked and now when someone makes a certain pawn move I can almost see those weak squares light up. I still struggle to really act on it though, other than to think about what bishops are on the board and use it to decide whether to exchange, or maybe combine it with a strong knight outpost.
I still have a lot to learn about how to formulate long-term plans based on these things, but just knowing a bit about them helps you to make moves when you don't see any tactics, and often tactics will appear if you think about these things a little better than your opponent.
In the game you linked, you took only 2 seconds to play 9 ... Bxd5, which the computer may only consider an inaccuracy, but which is a move that Black should be extremely reluctant to play.
It gives up the Bishop pair, leaves you with a bad Bishop and a swift Black attack on the backward d-pawn, whose half-opened file is cleared by the exchange, and, since the Queen will recapture, White can pile up on this file with a tempo.
It may not be the blunder that lost the game, but it shows that you might be right that you'd benefit from studying positional chess.
Reading the book by Stean that was mentioned is a good idea, also the other book by Silman has helped a whole generation of players learn about positional chess. I think the 3rd edition of "Reassess Your Chess" is easier to read and therefore better than the 4th.
@TripHopKniGHts said in #12:
> I have looked over quite a few games by the likes of Kasparov, Karpov, Petrosian, Tal, Fischer, Alekhine, et cetera... They break all the rules, all the time... they are outlaws over the board. You need that mentality... like robbers planning a heist. There is no play book for that kind of thing.
Just because you don't know such principles exist, doesn't mean they don't. Is any of the guy you have mentioned applicable? No one in this forum is as good as the guys you have mentioned?
I think exceptions exists, but basic chess principles such as putting pieces on the right squares works most of the time. Stop denying the existence of things out of you not knowing them.
I do tactics and stuff like taht. I’m a total positional player since ai have no opening knowledge. I play on intuitions
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