Positional play refers to the evaluation of static features in the position being used to guide us in our move making process. Static features are all the non-tactical themes such as pawn structure, space, minor piece superiority etc..
One game which REALLY influenced me when learning was a very nice positional game Short-Karpov. This game impressed me alot with the absence of tactics and the way Karpov just KEPT improving his position until his position was crushing.
I'll post the game now.
Hi, I just hit my current rating peak a weak ago with abou 1850 and kinda lost interest in playing, because I know that I can't get much better without learning positional play.
Up to now I've been playing solely based on tactical ideas, my positional playing and opening knowledge are both very weak.
But the thing is, I don't really have a clue how to learn positional playing, I'm not even sure what it is... I mean, for example: you put your rook on c1, were he will become more useful in the later game, when this line opens up. But how do you know, that c1 is much better than d1? (these are just random examples) To find out if he will actually be more useful on c than on d, you have to apply tactical knowledge again, don't you? And to foresee in midgame, which line for the rook will be better in the endgame, you would have to calculate 15-20 moves ahead, which is too much for even an excellent player.
Maybe someone can post an example, where I could see, what is really meant by "positional play". The way I see it now, it's just tactical knowledge that will take effect later in the game...