Improving positional play

Honestly speaking the first time I saw positional play was in the 1400 block. But it is very important as well to improve upon it in earlier levels to outplay opponents if your opponents don't make mistakes. But chances are still they will make a lot of mistakes in the 800-1000 block, so perhaps it is not as needed for now, but still in order to reach to greater heights it is absolutley required. 

But if you focus on the things previosly mentioned you will be better. But as for positional awarness and play, that will take more than a beginners guide, even as @Giraffe_Chess said positional chess can get complicated and confusing to explain, and people have different concepts and views on it even though in the grand scheme of things if taught correctly, it is not that hard to understand and play in it.

Personally if I was you @Jamari01 I would take a brief look at it and dive deep into the rest, this way you can improve in everything and leave no one thing out. 

Sure...as long as its an unrated daily game with at least 5 days per move.

Eh...its an online rating.  I dont put a lot of merit into them unless someone is an established/titled player.

true you only do that in tournaments OTB, speaking of that does anybody know when they will open up again after this virus?

From time to time I do sit down for a positional game. It was only 30|0 and some mistakes were made, but it is a cool game to take some positional ideas from:

I was running out of time so I started working towards mate and didn't really calculate 100% if I'd find mate. If I had enough time then maybe I would've focused on increasing my advantage instead. As it stands, white is up by +2.95 points, which is like almost 3 pawns.

Totally agree with @Teacher Of Pain. I am myself a so called "weak player". But I usually try to ask myself : must I accept this exchange? In one of my two previous 10 min games, which is really fast for me, I sacrificied a bishop, just to get a better position afterwards. Ok, I'm full of blunders, but I sometimes feel stronger players want to (or maybe just feel) it's something reserved, like a millesime of champagne, just for connaisseurs. Not sure. But only my own humble opinion. But From what I undesstood, and stop me if I'm wrong, you play tactics when there is something immediate to do, otherwise, you try to optimise your position, aren't you? So telling a weak player just to play when he can gain material is not showing how to play good chess.

This whole quarantine thing has taught me a couple things:

1. I dont miss playing OTB.

2. I dont miss teaching chess. 

When things open back up, Im gonna have to tell my students.  I still enjoy going to tournaments and watching, but playing?  Nope.  Dont miss it.

Thank You Sir, and accepted!  Have fun!

If you want to read a brief introduction to a few of the concepts involved in positional assessment (Space, Time, Force, Pawn Structure, etc) you could try reading the first two pages of this thread, and playing through the sample games:

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/gm-larry-evans-method-of-static-analysis

This is the part people dont believe and or dont understand.  I never really kept track of my OTB rating. I know i peaked as a USCF A  player.  But i also know its back down to the B section.  I havent played OTB since last October.

@ketoOn1963, and @ajl721

I can't wait until OTB can start again and hopefully the competition hasn't faded, however if we are continually playing on chess.com whether daily, blitz, or rapid, we are still playing and continually improving, and if we are not improving we are steadily getting more experienced with different positions and diffferent moves and different mindsets in the game.

Honestly though it depends on how this goes for this virus and honestly it is affecting a lot of people and I am hoping it will end very soon. I mean who knew a virus could affect the livelyhood of so many things, also along with the stockmarket crashing in the beginning of april we are still recovering from that,and all the while above all games it has to affect chess, and basketball, Cmon. 

But with all respect and care I hope that everyone is ok and that everyone will be alright doing this time. 

Also @KetoOn1963, why don't you like to play OTB or teach chess as you used to? Sure I could understand it can be demanding and time consuming but is their a specific reason you stopped?(not quited, but stopped for the time being perhaps?)

It is definently your decision and it is totally fine if you don't want to share, but I just want to understand how you feel toward it, that's all. 

What is OTB?

Over the Board. Playing the game in person, not over the internet.

oh ok

Playing and teaching has always been something i enjoyed doing, and looked forward to.  But since this quarantine thing started?  I haven't missed it.  Its actually a relief to not have to put lessons together, prepare for tournaments, or meet with friends every Friday to teach chess.  I guess put simply, I just dont want to put in the effort anymore.  Who knows...maybe  that will change at some point.

I miss the people.  I miss the interaction.  I miss seeing people i only see once or twice a year.  I miss sitting at the Pai Gow table with GM Enrico Sevillano.  But i dont miss the other stuff.

@WSama I think you played the opening fairly well. However the Taimonov strucure of the sicilian can be tricky for some players since it is more of a positional opening in nature. Though this game didn't transpose into the Taimonov variation, there is some ideas that can come from a game such as this, however since the Alapin variation was played for the early c3 to d4 thrust, it is definitley more of a positional game.  

Furthermore going into move 7 I personally would've preferred e5 as it gains space, and since c5 is not a threat to hit the center, it could've been a good option to play as there would've been less counterplay in it, although d6 was avaliable by black if it would've been played. I would've preferred 7.e5 instead of 7.Bd3, but Bd3 was also fine, it is just a preference like I said. 

I feel like 10.Nb5 is not neccessary as you could develop a piece or advance in the center to gain space, and since the king is castled, the knight on the kingside has little manuverability if the pawn would've been pushed to 10.e5. in the best case he would get a doubled pawn, in the worse case his kingside structure would be destroyed after 10.e5, 11.Ng4 11.h3, 11.Nh6, and then 12.Bxh6 12.gxh6. This would be the move after if he would go to g5, so he would go to d5 and would have to have a doulbled pawn if your would've pushed to e5 at that time. Or then he would go to Ne8 and then he couldn't activate his rook, and his knight would be passive the whole game, and his kingside would've been exposed. There is simply too many ways black would be at a disadvantage is 10.e5 was played, but again it is ok. It is true he could use the knight to for pushing d6 though, there is a lot of routes good and bad, but still blacks kingside is seen as weaker and your pieces could jump in and create attacks much easier in that position than if the knight was f6.

 You made some other mistakes and some other good moves, honeslty it doesn't matter, the only thing that matters is if you learn from them. 

Nobody is perfect but I only made a partial review, you just need to do better in the middle game with the ideas and all, the opening was fine, but wih this game I couldn't see your endgame skill, honestly though your positional skill was not used to full effect because you weren't grinding advantages, gaining space or using your developments to the fullest, I felt like you were passive agressive in a way and if you would've just truste yourself and your ability along with experience you could've beaten your opponent. 

By move 18 I felt like your position was to passive, if you were going for a more active approach it would've gave more play, which could've lead to more advantages and better ways to implement and use ideas, but the positional aspect of the game wasn't used because of how your position was inactive at the time of move 17 and beyond. 

I was trying to give an honest review however that is not my full depth it was just an outline on what could've been helped in my opinion, sorry if I was too judgemental.  My analyzing is not perfect I just go based off what I have learned and what I may see. 

@KetoOn1963, I can't relate but I can understand how it can feel to do something, day in and day out and do it continually in a cycle putting your mind, heart and soul into and honestly it is ok. 

Everyone deserves a break and a time off, and there is nothing wrong with that truth be told. This quarantine thing has got me realizing some important factors as well and how important everything is from a wide perspective, so I understand and many others do too.

Teaching and Playing is fun, but as well as for me there are boundaries and certain times I don't want to play either as most of us have a life outside of chess and we are taken to other places due to our experiences in them. Since I am young my dedication is still active, but even all ages of people can lose interest and the enegy in something they like as well, but taking a break is good and sometimes is what someone needs. 

That is something I believe in and it even helps the mental health of a person and how they can balance their life as well

Good...Us old guys can turn things over to you youngins :-)

Excellent stuff!  

@blueemu - I think your exposition in the aforementioned forum thread could be turned into a very good blog article!

Learn more about Force, Time, Space & Pawn Structure from the books previously mentioned by Larry Evans and Yasser Seirawan, commented on here....

Good Positional Chess, Planning & Strategy Books for Beginners and Beyond...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/introduction-to-positional-chess-planning-strategy