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The Complete Guide to Positional Chess
Rating: 4.5 out of 5(128 ratings)
1,574 students

The Complete Guide to Positional Chess

Learn Positional Chess: Keeping Control, Small Gradual Improvements, Manage Imbalances, Pawn Structures and Endgames
Created byTryfon Gavriel
Last updated 2/2025
English
English [Auto],

What you'll learn

  • Be able to play positionally when there are no tactics as positional play becomes the main factor
  • Be able to improve long term strength of position and generally safeguarding position
  • Be able to improvement the placement of pieces and harmonise with pawn structure
  • Be able to limit the good moves and opportunities of opponent
  • Be able to steer pawn structure in a favourable way
  • Be able to create weaknesses in the opponent's position
  • Be able to fix weaknesses in the opponent's position with the option of eliminating them later
  • Be able to prevent opponent's threats and strongest sources of counterplay
  • Be able to coordinate pieces to common goals
  • Be able to improve the worst placed piece
  • Be able to appreciate the downsides of pawn breaks played too quickly and the value of preparing pawn breaks
  • Be able to appreciate that when tactics break out, the better placed pieces side will usually do better
  • Be able to improve either strengthening own position or continually not creating downsides or its possibility
  • Be able to say "no" to opponent'd threats and not give opponent option because have been strengthening own position or no downside policy
  • Be able to play a bit more like GM Michael Adams - spider style
  • Be able to make use of longer term approaches to building up great positions
  • Be able to use a positional opening repertoire with examples from Adams and Karpov especially the Caro-Kann usage

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Course content

46 sections • 195 lectures • 39h 26m total length

  • Why is positional chess important?16:41

    Explore why positional chess matters, learn to improve positions when no tactics exist, and see how small positional gains and king safety unlock endgames and future attacking potential.

  • The foundations of modern positional chess16:51
  • Steinitz's accumulation of advantages model in later modern chess17:19

    Explore Steinitz's accumulation of advantages model and how modern champions like Capablanca, Petrosian, and Karpov build and convert small edges into sustained pressure through waiting moves, prophylaxis, and minority attacks.

  • When are advantages easiest or hardest to accumulate?11:43
  • What if you can't easily accumulate any advantages?12:47

    Avoid chasing advantages when none are clear. Embrace a waiting game and maneuvering, avoid committal pawn moves, and let the opponent self-destruct while subtle improvements pressure weaknesses.

  • Why is prevention a key part of accumulating advantages?12:07

    Understand how prevention, or prophylaxis, restrains the opponent's counterplay by shaping pawn structure and limiting piece activity, enabling the steady accumulation of advantages in positional chess.

  • A caution about being over-driven by principles or methods or small wins15:05

    Avoid overreliance on principles or small wins; stay the driver in your own games, be cynical about what works, and evaluate concrete positions for exploitable weaknesses, counterplay, and upsides.

  • Is accumulating advantages more beautiful than the philosophy of prevention?17:50

    Explore the debate between accumulating advantages and prevention in positional chess, examining prophylaxis, counterplay, and dynamic sacrifices through Petrosian and Nimzowitsch strategies.

  • Modern era issues in positional play post-Steinitz10:50

    Discover how the modern era reshapes positional chess after Steinitz, with greater data, dynamic counterplay, and strategic openings like the London System, Berlin, Catalan, and anti-e4 approaches.

  • Is positional play largely about control?11:37
  • How important is prevention for control in positional chess?11:00

    Explore how prevention for control in positional chess strengthens a position before attacking, using prophylaxis, blockading pawns, and overprotection to thwart counterplay and prepare a safe breakthrough.

  • Can positional chess be seen as making continually slight improvements?10:28

    Explore how positional chess unfolds through continual slight improvements that accumulate into a stronger position, evidenced by Adams vs Williams 2010 British championship and its engine-evaluated gains.

  • The "Static" AKA accumulatable element preference for positional players16:20

    Learn how positional players accumulate static, lasting advantages—rooted in Nimzowitsch themes, solid structures, bishop pair, and incremental opening choices like the Tarrasch line and Queen's Indian.

  • Positional chess heroes and layers of the course21:26

    Explore the course's positional heroes—Adams, Karpov, Nimzowitsch—and the evolving layers of patterns, prophylaxis, and strategic ideas that define modern positional chess.

  • Michael Adams classic positional player12:08

    Discover Michael Adams's classic positional approach, focusing on reliability and possession control, tailoring openings to your style, and converting positional pressure into exploitable targets.

  • Adams Quotations0:28
  • Anatoly Karpov classic positional player12:54
  • Quotes on Karpov1:08
  • Famous Karpov positional quotations1:21
  • Karpov quotations2:17
  • Aron Nimzowitsch - positional player and positional thought leader16:05

    Aron Nimzowitsch is presented as a leading positional thinker who introduced ideas like overprotection, restraint, blockade, and rook activity on the seventh rank, illustrated by the immortal zugzwang game.

  • When to play for the attack or tactics instead of positional play?15:14

    Explore when to pursue attack and tactics versus refining positional play, considering risk appetite and potential backfire, and learn how to prepare with subtle improvements before launching a tactical sequence.

  • Quotations revolving around this idea of difference between strategy and tactics1:53
  • Being practical is important16:33

    Emphasize respecting constraints, simplifying positions to reduce complexity, and extracting long-term intuitive advantages, as Capablanca and others show practical chess over heavy calculation.

  • Course structure and Game selection15:45

    Explore the course structure and game selection for positional chess, focusing on patterns, imbalances, and modern engine insights to master quiet, low-risk positional play.

Requirements

  • Know how the chess pieces move

Description

Many of the world chess champions excelled at positional play and often hardly lost including Jose Raul Capablanca and Tigran Petrosian. Petrosian was an inspiration to Anatoly Karpov who made comments in a key Gibraltar interview that he essentially used Petrosian's style but to win and not be content as much with drawing. The more modern world champions such as Vladimir Kramnik and Magnus Carlsen also excel at positional play.

This course looks at the foundations set out by the first official World chess champion Wilhelm Steinitz and consolidated by Emanual Lasker and shows how the positional world champions took the concept of accumulating advantages and managing counterplay to new levels.

This course provides important positional patterns for making slight improvements to your position and accumulating small advantages. Doing these things whilst also making sure control is kept of the position through minimizing the opponent's counterplay can lead to very one-way controlled games.

A positional chess pattern architecture

The course does not wish to be overly prescriptive as this may result in concepts being the driver of one's own games instead of one's own thinking about the unique challenges and resources one faces. Instead of "principles", the course makes use of "Patterns". The "patterns" are structured in this course into:

Control Patterns - making sure control is not lost in the position and therefore it becomes much harder to build any sort of advantage. Control patterns including simplification and minimizing counterplay.

Imbalance Patterns - how differences in the position can be a great way to both liven up games but also provide key winning opportunities with positional play focused on one's own favorable imbalances

Structure Patterns - Philidor has indicated "Pawns are the soul of Chess" and it seems the positional players really aim for pawn structures in general that are healthy and have great prospects for supporting the pieces and great positional plans

Waiting Patterns - how the opportunities to win can often be amplified if only the opponent is given the opportunity to weaken their position further or crack under the positional pressure

Endgame Patterns - showing how the Endgame has its own particular positional themes

Overwhelming Patterns - showing how positional pressure can be made to overwhelm opponents

Piece Quality Patterns - showing how small improvements to piece position can really be important

Center Patterns - showing the importance of the center and the hypermodern view of control vs occupation.

Weapon Patterns - including passed pawns, thorn pawns, bishop without a counterpart

King-safety patterns - Checkmate still ends the game even for positional players

Activity patterns - making sure one's pieces are active

Crowning patterns - standard ways of making use of positional advantages


Game examples

Full game examples are taking for the positional great players such as Steinitz, Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Petrosian, Karpov, and modern super grandmasters such as Michael Adams. Games are analysed in great detail using the very best modern engine technology with Neural network capabilities which make their analysis more positional grounded than in the past.


Who this course is for:

  • Beginner to intermediate players

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