What is a Position?

I've been playing for 6-months. I'm a 1300 player with knowledge of tactical and positional chess which roughly matches my rating. But I've no idea what is meant by a chess 'position'. I even use the term myself without properly understanding what it means. I believe I understand what is meant by positional chess (as opposed to tactical chess), I just don't know what is meant by a chess 'position'.

I used to think it was chess speak for how all the pieces are arranged, but then you couldn't have a waiting move, when a piece is shuffled without changing the position.  So now I wonder if it is more abstract, referring to all the threats and opportunities, weaknesses and strengths, etc. Or is it about imbalances (I haven't read the book).  What is meant when players talk about a 'position'?

I've had no success googling it and most beginners books, you tube, etc. launch straight into the word without explaining what it means. I can't be the only player not a member of this exclusive club.

I appreciate it might be an overloaded word with different meanings for different contexts.

Thanks.

Mark

A position is the board state.

From a programming perspective it'd be the location of every piece plus the set of all legal moves for those pieces.

I feel like your understanding of positions is correct. The main point is that positional advantages (or disadvantages) tend to be long-term. A good example is pawn structures. Doubled pawns and backward pawns and isolated pawns can be long-term liabilities. Also maybe your pawns are positioned in a way where dark squares (or light squares) are weak. A good ( or bad) bishop can be good (or bad) for a long time, perhaps all game. A bishop pair is a long term advantage in an open game, but nothing special in a closed game. A queen is actually a liability if it isn't coordinating with other pieces. So positional thinking is weighing all of this. Another trick is that no chess position is without weakness, but if your opponent is unable to exploit it, you can live with it. For example you may be ok leaving your dark squares weak if you have already captured your opponent's dark square bishop and you still have your dark square bishop. A doubled pawn may not be so weak if there are other pawns on adjacent files or if it leaves an open file for your rook, or if it gives you the advantage of the bishop pair in what is looking to be an open game. I love positional play, it has helped me hang in there neck and neck with higher rated opponents in my daily games.

Whoever disturbs the position the least, disturbs his opponent the most.

A good place to start might be a site like chessfox.com. There's a beginner and an intermediate "course". More like reading material. A 1300 rated player should be to skip the beginner one. Also, there's evaluation, calculation, and visualization resources. I'm not saying these are the best methods for everyone, but I think it can give you a decent foundation to build on and modify as you improve. Eventually, you may progress enough to "see" and "do" most or all of this intuitively or subconsciously.

There are resources on this site as well. If you're paying, you should use it for all it's worth. Perhaps videos like the Pawn Structure 101 series can fill some of your voids.

Simplifychess.com has a similar series of articles on pawn structures.

After that, I'd look into highly recommended books.

Some that I found valuable in my earlier years:

My System/Chess Praxis- A. Nimzowich

Pawn Power in Chess- H. Kmoch

The Middlegame- Euwe & Kramer

Thank you all. Distinguishing between the position, the features of the position, and the evaluation of the position makes it much clearer. I know chess fox and simplify chess, they have great content. Well written and explained

Simply Chess's explanations on typical plans for pawn structures has helped see how an opening flows into a middlegame. I still lose on tactics but enjoy my chess more by at least having a plan.

Hi Scott. You mentioned a queen being a liability if it's not coordinating with other pieces. Can you explain further? This is new to me.

A queen can be a liability if it isn't coordinating in 2 ways. First, by itself, it cannot checkmate and most (although there are probably some exceptions) solo attacks it makes can risk it becoming trapped. But second, it is a big target, and it becomes very easy to lose tempos moving it out of harm's way. It can be very easy, especially in openings, to make moves that serve the dual purpose of developing a piece and attacking a solo queen (developing with tempo). In the Fischer vs Byrne "Game of the century" you can see how Fischer's three coordinated minor pieces (which he sacrificed his queen for) are powerful and Byrne's solo queen is completely helpless and impotent.

I had sort of the same question. The threefold-repetition rule says that if a position arises three times in a game, either player can claim a draw during that position. How is position defined in the threefold repetition definition, if you will? My king has been moved to the same square three times now after being put in check, but I have two rooks left that own the files next to my king, so the opponents queen and rook cannot checkmate me, and if they stop putting me in check, I can checkmate them. Should this game be called to draw?

A position is considered to be "repeated" if every piece and every Pawn of both players is on the same square as before, with the same player to move, and if all the same movement options exist.

"All the same movement options" means that if castling or en-passent was possible in the first position, then it must also be possible in the second and third (repeat) positions. For that reason, it is sometines necessary to return to the original square THREE more times (instead of twice) since the first King move loses your castling rights and therefore doesn't count as a "repeat".

No distinction is made between the two Rooks or the two Knights, so it isn't necessary to check and see whether it was the King's Rook or the Queen's Rook that occupied that square last time.

Find Checkmate.

And Another Question Is This Position Possible?

This position is not possible by moves.

Almost any move leads to a quick checkmate.

I want to increase from 1700 to 2500 maybe

I'm rated almost 2000 on bullet

Is This A Brilliant?

And The Next Move Is A Blunder?