6 Ways to Get Positional Advantage


Dear Chess Friends,

I’ve already posted 2 articles:

And today I decided to focus on Positional Play (Strategy). What does it mean? Everything except such aspects of the game that are under tactical and openings area. For example, if there is no tactic in the certain position, you should play positionally. It means that you should do something with your pieces or may be something with the enemy pieces to improve your position or to worsen your opponent’s position.

Positional play is the attempt to make a small improvement in your position with every move. In the most simplistic sense this would involve making your worst piece more active, bringing pressure to the pins, occupation of important squares, improving pawn structure or denying your opponent the opportunity to improve his position.

Ok, this post is created mainly for beginners and for those who is not familiar with positional play. That’s why let me introduce the most important aspects of positional play and formulate some basics rules to follow.


1. Locate your pieces on optimal positions (improve pieces)

Piece activity is one of the main factors that affects the evaluation of the position. More active pieces give you more opportunities: to initiate the attack (on the enemy king or pawn weaknesses) and to interact with your other pieces, for example.

Please, look at this position. Both sides are not developed yet, but white has a clear plan: to fianchetto the bishop to the queenside, push the c5 pawn to control d6-square and then activate the knight to c4, where it has more perspectives.Please, look at this position. Both sides are not developed yet, but white has a clear plan: to fianchetto the bishop to the queenside, push the c5 pawn to control d6-square and then activate the knight to c4, where it has more perspectives.

2. Build a favorable pawn structure and ruin enemy pawn structure


Pawn structure is very important, especially, in endgames. Bad pawn structure can be easily attacked by the enemy pieces. But if you have a good pawn structure, pawns can protect each other and it won’t distract your other pieces. It’s recommended to have as few pawn islands as possible (usually, 2 or 3).

Bishop takes on f6 what ruins the pawn structure on the kingside. Later in the endgame it can become a decisive factor.

3. Restrict enemy pieces

As I mentioned above piece activity is one of the main factors. That’s why it’s quite important to restrict enemy pieces. This is how you immobilize your opponent’s resources what makes more difficult to find a counter-play.

The bishop on d4 restricts the knight standing on the edge of the board. This position is winning for white. White can play h5 with his pawn to prevent any kingside activity from black. After that white can just chase the enemy knight with his king.

4. Predict and neutralize your opponent’s plan (if needed)

Same approach works for the plans. Before every move you make your task is to predict your opponent’s next actions. And if you think that he wants to do something that improves his position, try to prevent it. But don’t worsen your position too much.

Black wants to play rook b8 and pawn to b5 to threaten the bishop and gain more space. However, white can play a5 and prevent black plan, because after b5 white can capture en passant what automatically makes the pawn on a6 a weakness.

5. Improve your position step-by-step (accumulate small advantages)

For example, in this position white can take on f6 to ruin the pawn structure then play at to ruin the pawns on the queenside and also make the c5-pawn a weakness. Another option is to play h4-h5, chase the knight to force it to move to a bad position.

6. Convert your dynamic advantage to permanent and stable advantage. And then convert your positional advantage to material.

Here white has a bishop pair what is also considered as permanent advantage. But if you want to win the game you should trade one of the bishops for a knight and gain pawn on d5.

Please, don’t forget about these. Of course, this is not the full list and if you get deeper in it, you’ll find out that positional play is a really huge field of study. And the best way to learn it is to work with a coach. However, positional play become more important when you achieve 1200-1300 FIDE (or Chess.com) Elo. Under this level calculation is the main skill that usually decides the outcome!

However, if you want to study how to play positionally yourself I can recommend a few books. #1 is “My System” by Aron Nimzowitsch. However, you may find it difficult for understanding.

I can also suggest “From Amateur to IM: Proven ideas and training methods” by IM Jonathan Hawkins.

I prefer to work with Russian books and for those who can read in Russian I recommend books by USSR Master Viktor Golenischev “Training Program for Chess Players” (there are 3 books for different levels).

Any questions and suggestions are welcome!

I also would like to remind you that I'm going to conduct a Master Class, where you will learn what you can do to improve your chess performance! 

You can register for this Master Class through this link: 

https://clc.to/MasterClassChess

The Master Class starts on Sunday (26th of January) at 10 a.m. (EST), 3 p.m. (GMT), 6 p.m. (Moscow time). It's free.

To be continued…

Best Regards,

FM Victor Neustroev