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p.14 There are two main types of position[s], and resulting from that, two different kinds of struggle. In the one case we get a constant clash of pieces mixing it in tricky patterns, with tactical blows, traps, sometimes unexpected and shattering moves. In the other case it is quite different. The respective armies stand at a distance from each other, the battles are restricted to reconnaissance and minor sorties into the enemy position. The thrust of the attacking side is prepared slowly with the aid of piece regrouping and "insignificant" pawn advances. We may call positions of the first type combinative-tactical, of the second type manoeuvring-strategical.
p.15 If you make plans in sharp tactical positions, you can easily fall into a trap that figures in the calculations you failed to make. Vice versa, if you are going to calculate variations in positions where you should be thinking about general planning, you will waste precious time and will not get the right orientation. So let us commit firmly to memory the fact that the mind of a grandmaster is principally occupied, in combinative-tactical positions, with the calculation of variations; in manoeuvring-strategical positions, with the formulation of general plans and considerations.
p.21 Yet the main thing that develops positional judgment, that perfects it and makes it many-sided, is detailed analytical work, sensible tournament practice, a self-critical attitude to your games and a rooting out of all the defects in your play. This is the only way to learn to analyse chess positions and to assess them properly. Mastery only comes after you have a wide experience of studying a mass of chess positions, when all the laws and devices employed by the grandmasters have become your favoured weapons too. Positional sense is like the thread that leads you through the labyrinth in your tense struggle at the board from the first opening move to the final stroke in the endgame.
p.22-23 concepts of middlegame theory...
- In chess only the attacker wins.
- The right to attack is enjoyed by that player who has the better position.
- The side with the advantage has not only the right but also the duty to attack, otherwise he runs the risk of losing his advantage.
- The defender must be prepared to defend, and to make concessions.
- The means of attack in chess are twofold, combinative and strategical.
- The attack must be directed at the opponents weakest spot...The grandmaster seeks to direct his attack against the weakest, most sensitive, spot in the enemy fortification.
p.24 The player who wishes to improve, who wants to win in competitive play, must develop his ability to assess positions, and on that basis to work out plans for what comes next.
p.25 [Steinitz] 'The task of the positional player is systematically to accumulate slight advantages and try to convert temporary advantages into permanent ones, otherwise the player with the better position runs the risk of losing it.'
p.59 A sort of interior dialogue takes place each move
p.60-61 How to Train: In striving to train, to improve positional judgment, you should bear in mind the two sides of it: - training at home, and training during an actual competition game.
As regards the former, you have to analyse many games and positions and try to divide them into types according to the different elements... You should be aiming for a thorough understanding of each element and its link with the others... In studying the interaction of the elements, there are few better ways than going through notes to games by theoreticians who do not give just a list of variations, but provide a systematic explanation of the ideas of each game and how they are linked with the concrete variations... Training is also possible during actual play. Observe yourself from the side, as it were, and check whether you are able to discipline yourself to useful work at the board... Observe too how the stronger players behave at the board... We know what they are doing - they are solving general problems, formulating verbal summaries of the position and planning ahead.
p.65 One absolute rule may already be stated: - it is impossible to play chess without a plan... Planless play is thus fatal, as we can prove by a host of examples.
p.67 The plan in a game of chess is the sum total of successive strategical operations which are each carried out according to separate ideas arising from the demands of the position... As Steinitz pointed out almost a century ago every plan must have its justification, and this justification lies not in the personality of the player, but in the position lying before him. This is a very valuable definition which indicates to the player the way he has to go. "The plan is based on assessment." Hence it is not fantasy, but creative work that creates the plan.
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