Looking for advice on Positional Play

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Dunk12

Hello chess friends, I'm at a little bit of a roadblock in the 1300's. I feel like my tactical play is a bit weak, and I don't prefer to play a very aggressive style. Ideally, I would like to play more similar to Carlsen or Capablanca than to Tal or Morphy. So I'm asking around to see if anybody knows any free articles or videos on the web specifically to improve positional play.

Also, which opening would you suggest as white? I've been most comfortable with the English Opening, and lately I've been playing with the Reti, but that seems to get pretty wild. Other than that, I'll sometimes splash 1. d4. I don't play 1. e4 anymore.

ThrillerFan

A complete misconception is that people think 1.e4 is tactical and 1.d4 is positional.  More accurate is that there are more tactical lines with e4 than positional lines, and more positional lines with 1.d4 than tactical lines with 1.d4, but both clearly exist.  I play, other than possibly against the Sicilian, a predominantly positional repertoire with 1.e4 currently, though I also play 1.d4 sometimes, and 1.Nf3 at times.

You can't just decide on a first move and say you have it solved.  Just to prove the point (below are 4 examples and are not limited to the specific lines I put nor complete - I included 5 defenses just to compare and contrast):

Tactical Repertoire with 1.e4:  Open Sicilian, Max Lange Attack, 3.Nc3 against the French, Panov-Botvinnik Attack, Alekhine Four Pawns Attack

Positional Repertoire with 1.e4:  Closed Sicilian, Four Knights Game, Advance French, Main Line Caro-Kann, Classical (4.Nf3) against the Alekhine.

Tactical Repertoire with 1.d4:  Rubinstein QGD (7.Qc2), KID Four Pawns, Exchange Grunfeld, 4.f3 vs Nimzo, Flick Knife Attack vs Benoni

Positional Reperotire with 1.d4:  Exchange QGD, Fianchetto KID, Fianchetto Grunfeld, Rubinstein Nimzo-Indian, Fianchetto Benoni

Andre_Harding
Dunk12 wrote:

Hello chess friends, I'm at a little bit of a roadblock in the 1300's. I feel like my tactical play is a bit weak, and I don't prefer to play a very aggressive style. Ideally, I would like to play more similar to Carlsen or Capablanca than to Tal or Morphy. So I'm asking around to see if anybody knows any free articles or videos on the web specifically to improve positional play.

Also, which opening would you suggest as white? I've been most comfortable with the English Opening, and lately I've been playing with the Reti, but that seems to get pretty wild. Other than that, I'll sometimes splash 1. d4. I don't play 1. e4 anymore.

Be careful with "free" stuff. Sure, you will save some money, but definitely not the time and effort you could have used on better, more thorough materials!

If your tactics are "a bit weak" you need to do a lot of tactical puzzles until you get stronger at this aspect of chess. In addition, I would recommend reading Simple Chess by Michael Stean (and it is a cheap book, less than $10). This book will help your understanding of strategy greatly. Read it carefully a few times and you won't regret it.

clunney
ThrillerFan wrote:

A complete misconception is that people think 1.e4 is tactical and 1.d4 is positional.  More accurate is that there are more tactical lines with e4 than positional lines, and more positional lines with 1.d4 than tactical lines with 1.d4, but both clearly exist.  I play, other than possibly against the Sicilian, a predominantly positional repertoire with 1.e4 currently, though I also play 1.d4 sometimes, and 1.Nf3 at times.

You can't just decide on a first move and say you have it solved.  Just to prove the point (below are 4 examples and are not limited to the specific lines I put nor complete - I included 5 defenses just to compare and contrast):

Tactical Repertoire with 1.e4:  Open Sicilian, Max Lange Attack, 3.Nc3 against the French, Panov-Botvinnik Attack, Alekhine Four Pawns Attack

Positional Repertoire with 1.e4:  Closed Sicilian, Four Knights Game, Advance French, Main Line Caro-Kann, Classical (4.Nf3) against the Alekhine.

Tactical Repertoire with 1.d4:  Rubinstein QGD (7.Qc2), KID Four Pawns, Exchange Grunfeld, 4.f3 vs Nimzo, Flick Knife Attack vs Benoni

Positional Reperotire with 1.d4:  Exchange QGD, Fianchetto KID, Fianchetto Grunfeld, Rubinstein Nimzo-Indian, Fianchetto Benoni

That tactical repertoire with 1. d4 pretty much describes my repertoire exactly :P (Except I think the Four Pawns is junk against the King's Indian, and instead play the Bayonet Attack with Bf3).