Best positional play book for 1800 player

Hi,

Any recommendations for a book on positional play for my son (~1850 USCF)?  He can watch chess.com videos, but it nice to have a book handy to read when you don't have internet connectivity.

Also, which chess.com videos would you recommend for his level of play?

i recently picked up the positional chess handbook by gelfer, i think it's great. it has chapters on all major positional ideas, good knight vs bad bishop, bishops of opposite colour, rook vs two minor pieces, key squares, exchanges, cramped positions, pawn structures etc etc. the teaching comes mainly from examples and repetition. each chapter basically has example after example showing how to play to take advantage of these things with only enough text to show what is happening.

i really like it, but some may prefere more prose and explainations.

I have to say, Moyuba, you don't sound like a beginner - or, at least, you have come a long way in 6 months!

well, i have been pretty obsessive in my playing and studying of chess these last six months! hopefully i can go even further in this next year.

How to Reassess Your Chess is an excellent book for explaining imbalances.

Winning Chess Strategies by Seirawan and Silman is another good one.

The Art of the Middle Game by Kotov and Keres is an excellent work if he doesn't mind descriptive notation.

Has anyone read Aagard's Grandmaster Preparation - Positional Play?  I'll definitely buy the Gelfer book for him.  He likes puzzle books.

the gelfer book isn't a puzzle book, it just demonstrates over and over again how to take advantage of strategic imbalances through game excerpts with some annotation.

How many pages/ examples?

495 examples.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0486419495/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1QEZ24P0QW82VX7QF0AJ&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1389517282&pf_rd_i=507846

At 1850 strength, your son probably would be best suited to study game anthologies. 

Probably the best single volume instructional book published in the last decade or so is Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy: Advances Since Nimzovich by John Watson. His Chess Strategy in Action is also a really good read. Mihail Marin's Learn from the Legends is another good starting point.

Some of the best game anthologies with excellent verbal analysis include The Art of Chess Analysis by Jan Timman, Instructive Modern Chess Masterpieces by Igor Stohl, Taimanov's Selected Games, Fire on Board by Shirov, and My 60 Memorable Games by Bobby Fischer.

Those are amazing books but Watson is clear, he doesn't want them considered "instructional" (at least, SMCS: ASN - sorry, couldn't resist the silly acronym). However, we can consider them that way if we want.

Often, his conclusions are things I don't want to hear. Oh well.

Thank for link. I just ordred my copy.

Do they give you commision for this?  lol

 ... But they should for players here.

I also think that Nunn's recent "Understanding Chess Middlegames" was very well done in the sense that it covers a broad range of topics in limited space.  Even though doing so comes at the cost of not covering anything in depth.

smyslov, what do you think about the kasparov book the test of time? any good?

It might be useful to know your son's age - this info couldn't hurt for total strangers making recommendations here, even if it might not help much or at all

As far as the chess videos go, I don't see how whatever he wants to watch as being a waste of time, although I've only seen a fraction of what's available so far. So far I haven't seen any in this series not worth watching 

http://www.chess.com/blog/NimzoRoy/indes-of-greatest-chess-mind-videos? domain=old_blog_host&_parent=old_frontend_blog_view

As far as a book on positional play I never get tired of recommending My System by Nimzovitch, which is a must read for anyone not already a master who wants to improve their game and knowledge of the game. 

http://www.amazon.com/My-System-Century-Aron-Nimzowitsch/dp/1880673851

I'm confused - what's the difference? To me, strategy = long term tactics and tactics = "instant" strategy (ie combinations that force checkmate or win of material for instance) I'd consider positional play to = strategy so what's the difference? I suspect there's a problem with semantics here, not chess knowledge.

Chess Strategy for Club Players by Grooten

Strategy as a long-term planning is based on long-term positional factors (open files, outposts, pawn structure etc.). So for me strategic and positional play are so closely related that there is practically no difference.

There is bunch of book with a word "positional" in their title and another bunch of book with a word "strategy" in their title. And they all cover more or less same topics. From what I could see both terms are used interchangeably.

Here are my favorites:

1. Simple Chess by Michael Stean. 
2. Chess Strategy for Club Players by Herman Grooten
3. Mastering Chess Strategy by Johan Hellsten

I also like positional puzzles books:

1. Test Your Positional Play: How You Should Think In Chess by Robert Bellin and Pietro Ponzetto
2. Can You Be a Positional Chess Genius by Angus Dunnington

And there are books that have both "Strategy" and "Positional" on the cover.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/9056912682/ref=dp_image_text_0/177-9732769-9685244?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books