Chess Strategy Excercises

There's tons of resources to practice tactics endlessly. But I'm looking for strategic/positional exercises. I can find lessons about it, and often it is accompanied by a few exercises, but that's about it.  Can anyone point me towards a feature where it's possible to serious practice positional play (1400-1500 level club players)?

I love this question! I specialize in positional play!
Here are my tips that I have compiled:
Understanding positional play comes from understanding what each piece should be doing, what each piece’s job is.

Holes: This is a square that can no longer be controlled by pawns. If you can get a minor piece (or even major), supported by a pawn, on the fifth or sixth rank, your opponent should resign. Having a piece cemented in your opponent’s position can prove to be truly disruptive to their coordination.

Weaknesses: You need to know what it a weakness, and realize what pieces can target it. A backwards pawn, doubled pawn and isolated pawn are all examples of weak pawns. A square can also be weakened if only one pawn is controlling it. This is because if that pawn moves, the square is now a hole.

Captures: Understanding what the game plan is comes in here. Let’s say you have a closed Italian Game, and want to expand on the Queenside. You might understand that doing so will come with some pawn exchanges. So you keep the bishop pair, because bishops work best on long, open diagonals, where they control a lot of squares.

Bad bishop: why should my bishop be hiding behind pawns? It’s an attacking piece, made for pressuring and slicing. Get your bishop outside the pawn chain, advance your pawns to let it out. If you can’t, be willing to have a trade, in fact, look for a trade. It’s a useless piece. If an opponent wants to trade a bad bishop for your good bishop, decline (unless you have a massive winning advantage).

Good bishop: The opposite. Strong attacking piece, outside the pawns, pressuring pieces, in the game.

Bad Knight: it’s just not in the game. Sitting on the second rank, chilling at home. Be willing to trade it.

Good knight: I think I mentioned it before, but if you have a knight on the fifth or sixth rank, your opponent should resign.

Rooks: Want to get the rook in the game? Double them up on an open file. When the time is right, you can consider infiltrating on the other side of the board. A nice outpost square might be on c6, supported by a pawn, where it’s difficult for your opponent to remove you.

Queen: Your pieces need to be harmonious. Your Queen is not the strongest piece, it’s the weakest. Every time it’s attacked, you have to move or block it! So annoying! Your Queen doesn’t always have to be at the heart of an attack. It can play a supporting role from the background.

Targeting pawn structures: you need to know how you can weaken a pawn structure. For example, in a rapid game I played, I captured a knight, doubling my opponents pawns. This doubling of pawns also locked in my opponent’s bishop for the rest of the game. The doubled pawns could not move. And I had a pawn chain on the other side. A pawn structure can change the game.

Clamping on a pawn structure: Have a pawn on A5? Move it to A6. This might disallow the opponents pawns to move any farther if it’s a 2 on 1 majority situation. 1 pawn hindering 2 can limit their ability to create a passed pawn.

The element of time: Understand that in the opening your goal is to safeguard the king, and prepare your troops for battle. No time for one move threats. A tempo in chess is a move. Make sure your pieces are on stable squares. Before you make a move, ask yourself “can this piece be attacked by my opponent in the future? If so, is it worth placing it here right now?”


Openings: if you want to play more positionally, you need to find an opening to match it. Some openings lead to very positional battles, so try the Queen’s Gambit and find out what you style is.


As for exercises, I can play some games against you (longer games) and give you a general thought process for positional concepts. Check out ChessNetwork’s Beginner to Chess Master Playlist. After watching all the videos in that series, positional concepts are engraved in my head.

@Jalex13 thank you for your enthusiasm. I heave read the same books looks like. The point is about exercise. Just like tactics, "knowing it" doesn't suffice.

Well when I think about practice for positional play I believe playing and understanding the thought process is what works. Think about it as a 3 step process:

1) Retaining the information and understanding it completely

2) Applying it

3) Improving it

With regards to step (3) three you can try some basic lessons on chess.com. I personally find those lessons very short and not very useful. By playing games you are increasing your pattern recognition of positional concepts which will help you to implement them in your play.

Analyzing the games you play can help you to understand when and where you should have been playing positionally.

On YouTube I watch Daniel Naroditsky, and I don’t learn much. But what I do learn is his thought process. What he’s looking at, what he’s noticing. The more you understand a thought process the more you will understand.


I too have tried to search for practical resources to understand positional concepts. I even made a forum thread about it and how it seems to be ignored.

The best thing I can offer you is to play a few games against you and show you in real time some positional concepts that come to mind.

I think there is a reason we have puzzles for tactics and not much for positional play. It cannot be memorized and regurgitated, but rather discovered.

Best wishes.

I agree, the lessons on chess.com, accompanied with a few challenges are not useful in my view as well.

You can't practice positional play in the same way you practice tactics.  That is, there are no online positional play training resources (i.e., puzzles) as there are for tactics.  At least not to my knowledge.  Assuming that is true the best way to learn and improve your positional chess skills is by studying resources designed specifically for that purpose, which means videos and books devoted to the topic.  For the latter check out....

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

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

Chessable.

Ok thanks bro. I didn't know there weren't strategic puzzles to solve in the style of tactics. I'll check out your resources instead.