Positional Chess Puzzles: Weaknesses

"Tactics is knowing what to do when there is something to do; strategy is knowing what to do when there is nothing to do." - Savielly Tartakower

Strategy is one of the most important parts of the chess game, as is highlighted by the above quote. Positional chess is an important part of chess strategy, since knowing and understanding positional elements can allow us to formulate effective plans. I have gone through some puzzles from Jacob Aagaard's 'Grandmaster Preparation: Positional Play". It says that there are three main things to assess a position: weaknesses, pieces and plans. 

The first chapter is dedicated to weaknesses and I will present three puzzles that I have done. The puzzles are quite interesting, and as usual, I have given as many moves as I felt necessary. It is better to first find weaknesses, and then play based on those weaknesses-it will help make the strategy, just like in a war-first identify targets, then BOOM!!!

Those puzzles would have been easy for you if you had been able to identify the weaknesses! Then, based on those weaknesses, you should have found moves. It sounds simple, but playing in a real game will tell you that it's not-especially if you analyze and find the number of missed chances afterwards!

I hope you enjoyed the puzzles and this blog post. Please comment on what you think about the puzzles or what you think about positional chess in general or both!