If you're ahead in material then the standard way to win is trade as many non-pawns as possible (equal trades, so rook for rook, or knight for bishop or knight).
A silly analogy is if two teams of people are fighting on the street, 8 vs 7 is not a big advantage, but 2 vs 1 is a huge advantage. So you make equal trades until, ideally, it's something like your pawns and knight vs only their pawns. Then you queen a pawn and win.
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If your advantage is only positional, then it's typically about piece activity. A centralized knight will influence 8 squares. A knight in a corner only influences 2 squares. So you might think of a corner knight as being at only 25% (and if the two squares it influences aren't important more like 0%).
The trick is, you want ALL of your pieces close to 100%. The very common mistake for lower rated players is to move their best pieces over and over and neglect moving their bad pieces. When you're not sure what to do, find your worst placed pieces and improve them. If all your pieces are close to 100% (or there's no reasonable way to improve your pieces anymore) then focus on infiltrating to your opponent's side of the board. If infiltration is not possible then push pawns forward to exchange some pawns until infiltration is possible.
A more advanced strategy for winning is reducing your opponent's counter play. You find how your opponent can activate their pieces, and then you stop them from being able to do it.
Hello everyone,
Playing against acquaintances, I frequently notice myself gain both a material and a positional advantage in the early game. However, I rarely manage to turn said advantage into a clear victory. What are the fundamentals for carrying an early game advantage into a late game victory?
Kind regards.