Expert: Louis Lima - 1/16/2010

Question
hello,
Is there any good method for studying or any kind of exercises to help me improve my understanding of positional chess and planning ability? I have a clear study plan for other aspects of game namely opening,endgame and tactics but I really need some advice in the case of positional chess.
Thanks a lot,

Answer
Dear Sina,

In my experience, the best way to improve one's positional understanding is by approaching the subject in the same way one approaches tactical training - through exercise and analysis. There is excellent training material out there to give you the practice that you need. I've gone through all of these books and they have helped me tremendously:

-  Excelling at Positional Chess (Aagard#
-  Reassess Your Chess Workbook #Silman# [The workbook!]
-  School of Excellence: Positional Play #Dvoretsky# [Currently working through this book]

There is also a number of excellent Chessbase trainer DVDs that gives you excellent practice to improve one's positional understanding. The ones I have gone through and highly recommend are:

- Basic Positional Understanding #Aagard)
- Daniel King's PowerPlay series

The series of Chessbase trainers by Adrian Mikalkishin are also excellent, but he treats the videos and positions as lectures, so you will need to pause the video and try to figure out the moves yourself, or make index cards with the positions and try to solve them later on your own after viewing the lectures. He's got great material to improve our positional muscle. Keep in mind though. I would first got through the above material though, as viewing lectures is not as helpful as working through positions.  

- Weapons of the World Champions
- Winning Structures
- Power of Exchange
- Decision Making in Chess
- The Power of Planning

Hope this helps!

Louis Lima