Test Your Positional Chess

I have gotten lots of people asking about positional chess.

Some think it’s one or the other (either positional play or tactics), and others think that positional chess is out of their reach. Both are wrong.

Anyone can learn solid positional concepts, and most reasonably played games have a mix of positional ideas and tactics blended together.

In this series I will offer eight positional puzzles. Some are fairly easy and others are difficult. However, unlike a normal puzzle where the winning side has to (usually) find that one special move, here the superior side will often have several reasonable choices. The real goal is to understand the position and then and only then look for moves that cater to the position's needs.

I’ve made sure that all the puzzles have notes, so make sure you take a look at them since those are often the key to improvement.

Of course, you don’t have to agonize over the puzzles. Just click on the “?” at the left-bottom of the puzzle and the puzzle board will open up its wonders.

One other thing: At the end of the puzzle (in my notes) I give the puzzle’s main lessons. So please take a look at them.

PUZZLE 1

PUZZLE 2

PUZZLE 3

PUZZLE 4

PUZZLE 5

PUZZLE 6

PUZZLE 7

PUZZLE 8