The Only Chess Positional Guide You Need [Simple & Best]

Now, here's the first example, it is White to move. How would you play here as White? Black has just played Ng4, threatening this checkmate. And in most cases, people who see these kind of situations, simply trade off this knight. And it's not a terrible move to play, however, you trade off your active knight and help your opponent develop their bishop. Therefore, you definitely helped your opponent and you got nothing in return. Now, let's take this back and apply the rule to take as a mistake. It is when you avoid exchanges for the sake of an exchange. You are looking for ways to get certain advantages, right? That's the reason to force an exchange. Otherwise, don't do it. So how can you stop this threat without trading the knight? Well, you could play h3, that would be an attacking move, nice, one idea. What else? We can go Bf4 and defend the pawn this way and now Black trades knights, it happens on our terms. Now, your bishop is active, his bishop is still passive, good for us. Finally, the strongest response is actually to counterattack, where we're not only covering the square, but we're also counterattacking the queen. So here we pursue our own plan. And once the queen comes back, and here, let's say, we got the bishop out of this opportunity of trade, we see that his pieces are actually somewhat vulnerable along this diagonal. We can play something like Nf5 and try to take advantage of that. Black develops, let's say, that is going to get them into trouble pretty quickly. Now we kick this knight out, we start gaining handballs, hitting the queen, and ultimately we're just winning the game. So if a queen comes here, you can get trapped with g4, if instead a queen comes here, bishop goes to g5 and the queen is still trapped. But moral of the story, to take is a mistake, avoid exchanges that don't give you any advantage. The next one is very important, yet most players have never even heard of. Never start a chess game when your apostasy is boiling. Alright, that's from personal painful experience, I'll be more serious. The main defender of your king is your knight on f3, if you're playing White. For Black, it would be their knight on f6, alright? So why is that so? Think about this, this knight controls this whole range of squares which are so crucial for Black if they ever wish to get closer to White's king. So this knight is like an umbrella, like this umbrella defender that secures all these pieces and therefore Black can't ever come closer. Now there is also a well-known opening trap where Black goes Nd4, baiting White to take this knight off the f3 square. And if White fails and actually does that, then there is Qg5 and White is already somewhat in trouble. Now this knight is hanging, this pawn on g2 is hanging and notice that Black just occupied these two squares out of those four which used to be controlled by White's knight from f3. But because there is no knight, now these squares are available for Black and Black starts to take advantage of this right away. Moreover, now if White realizes that this knight is hanging and they try to go ahead and attack something, now Qxg2 and now White is really losing the game. The rook is attacked and if it moves, then Qxe4, Black really gets into this direct attack. After Be2e2, Black is gonna say, you know what, you failed to keep your knight on f3, so no worries, I'm gonna do this for you and replace knight on f3. Before we move on to the next principle, let me wish you a happy Father's Day! A lot of chess journeys actually start thanks to dads. Maybe it was your dad who taught you the game or maybe you're now teaching your kid to play chess. That's exactly what I'm doing with my two daughters. And in spirit of that, I've decided to run a very short special offer with up to 80% off my premium courses and bundles. So if you want to get to the level of 2000 in chess or if you just want to stop being stuck and want to move on to the next level, even if you only have a few hours per week for chess, these courses are built exactly to help you. And if you're interested, you can click the link below the video in the description and I'll be happy to help. Now think about this position. Let's say you're playing White and you're aiming for the fried liver attack. Now if all of a sudden your opponent sacrifices his knight on e4, how would you play here? A lot of players don't see any problem with capturing this pawn on f7, which looks like a winning move for White, but it fails to correspond to the next principle. Eliminate opponent's pieces on your side of the board. So now we've got Black's knight right here on e4, standing on White's side of the board. And even though it doesn't seem like a problem for now, but it allows Black to build up that attack. Because when Black adds up just one more piece into the attack, with two pieces standing on White's territory, this already becomes a major problem. Now this queen takes f2, threat is coming with a checkmate in one move, and it's very problematic for White. For example, if White goes g3, trying to kick the queen out, Black can sacrifice the knight and get a winning attack. Now with a couple moves, Black gets the job done. At the beginning of Black's attacking attempt, it was very easy for White to neutralize this knight on White's side of the board. White could have easily captured it, for example. However, White let it stay there, and then Black built up their attack very quickly, and it became problematic for White. So, eliminate opponent's pieces on your side of the board quickly. Next example, here White goes c3, undermining your opponent in the middle of the board. How would you play here as Black? Most players lightheartedly capture this pawn on c3, because they're unaware of the next principle. Watch over your f7 square. Now it is the weakest square in your position. It is the only pawn which is in direct contact to your king, and it is only guarded by the king. There is a reason why all these early attacks target this f7 pawn exactly. Think of Scholar's Mate, Fright Lever attack, King's Gambit, and whatnot. All these early attacks target this square, so you always gotta be careful. And here, capturing this pawn c3 opens up the door for White to start this attack, or something like this attack, targeting this f7 square, and that is why you always need to be careful. So here, for example, Bishop takes f7 is pretty strong, calling the king out, and Qd5 comes with a double attack, and White actually gets their piece back right on the next turn, while exposing the Black king and saving this huge attack. Black has moved their bishop to g4, pinning your knight. How would you play here as White? Most players try to neutralize the pin, and they play something like Be2. However, the opponent keeps attacking this time, the center pawn is under the attack, White defends it, but nevertheless, Black keeps attacking, and White finds themselves in trouble. Here's the rule to follow instead. Move your piece to the most advanced available square. If you want to develop your knight, it shouldn't go here, to the smallest position. Instead, move it to the most advanced available square, which is Bb5. That is how you maximize the power of your piece. And here, we already start putting pressure, therefore right now, it's already far less tempting for Black to castle queenside, because you can take right there, and destroy their pawn chain, so the king will become weak. Also, notice that your position is not cluttered anymore. With the bishop on e2, your queen was very limited in ways where it could move. It couldn't even get off this dangerous d-file. But with the bishop on b5, now if you ever need to, you can easily move the queen to e2, because your position is free for maneuvering. And now, also, this bishop is more powerful. It starts causing problems for Black. For example, if Black decides to just continue their development, you can now become the aggressor, and you can now start going forward, creating threats, making use of this pin, and if Black tries to cover it somehow, then you can keep attacking, and all of a sudden, you win the game. The next principle is very simple and universal. You can apply it anytime you don't know what to do. Here it was White to move the game from Steinitz, the first world champ, and here, like, White is putting pressure, but Black is holding. So what do you do? Of course, you could trade queens, but that is just an exchange, that's not a way to win the game. And White applied the principle of the least active piece, meaning, you evaluate every piece that you have, find the one that doesn't do much, and improve its position. Here White's got this active rook along this open file. The queen is very active, the knight is putting pressure, and the only piece that does nothing is this dark-squared bishop. Therefore, White applied the principle of least active piece, decided to reroute it to a better position, where it would include the bishop into the attack, and it was that tipping point that Black could not handle anymore, and Black is indeed defenseless. For instance, if they trade, now B4 is coming, it hits the rook. The rook cannot go, because the knight needs to be defended, and the king can't really move there, because it needs to defend this pawn, and Black's defense collapses. The next principle is very simple, and yet, even advanced players are often unaware of it. So here's the thing. Your knight is the only short-range piece. Think about this. Your queen can attack from distance. So are your rooks. They can stand on the first rank, and yet be very effective there. So are your bishops. They can be on your side of the board, and yet attack a lot of squares on your opponent's half of the board. But your knight is the only piece which is basically totally useless in this position. It needs to get closer to your opponent's position, and only then it can cause any attacking effect. Which brings us to the next principle. Get your knights to outposts, and with that in mind, White played B4. They wanted to ensure that once this pawn gets off this square, in the game they played C4, your knight can land to this excellent square. You got to find those strong positions for your knight, where they are protected, and there is no way for your opponent to kick this knight back easily. In this case, Black has no pawns that can possibly go here and chase this knight away. That ensures that this knight is really strong, it's going to stand there, and now it actually evolves very actively into the game, controlling all these squares, and now it indeed becomes a much more powerful piece. So now it hits the queen, and once the queen moves, White traded off this bishop, and now we've got this classical great knight versus bad bishop, which has nowhere to go. And here, like, with all the seriousness, Stockfish actually recommends that Black goes bishop C8, perhaps getting ready for the next game. It's all good, but often there are no obvious weaknesses that your knight could possibly occupy. What do you do then? Then, you need to secure a good square for your knight. As simple as that. You need to find that advanced position for your knight, where your knight would ideally love to land, and then make sure that your opponent cannot kick it away. So here, White wishes to go knight C4, but if they played straight away, Black would go B5 and kick the knight out. So what do you do? You need to prevent this up front, and then on the next turn, you actually land your knight on this strong square. In this case, White is also putting pressure, and of course, it's not the end of the world. Black tried to protect it, but nevertheless, White ended up with a great position and a There is also the flip side of the same coin. Since we know that a knight is only dangerous when it gets close to your position, you should aim to restrict it. You can do that by putting your opponent with two squares in between of a knight and a pawn. That way, you ensure that the pawn controls the squares where the knight could possibly advance to. And that makes the knight totally useless. Again, standing right there, it doesn't do anything. It doesn't attack in any way, and it can't. It's kind of like your opponent is playing without this knight at all, because it's useless. And think of how powerful that idea is. Without this move, if White were to play something else, Black would play Nc5, advance the knight to a more active position, and the position overall is about equal. With this move, now White is just winning. He's kind of like playing with an extra knight. You might have seen that in similar positions, Grandmasters often play the move c3, and one of the primary reasons of doing so is exactly to restrict this knight so that it can't jump forward, and therefore, can no longer attack you. There's also a more comprehensive way to restrict your opponent. It is to blockade his central pawns, and with that in mind, White played this very interesting pawn sacrifice. So, playing Nc6, Black can't take it with a bishop, because it's pinned. And of course, the question is, how about capturing this bishop? But no, White did not blunder it. They prepared this very interesting double attack. Nevertheless, it was better for Black to go into this variation, because in the game, he decided, well, it's just a free pawn. Why not to take it? I'm up a pawn. And yes, but why retreating the bishop? And think about this. Because of these central pawns, Black cannot develop the bishop, therefore, he can't castle, and he can't put his king to safety, he cannot activate his rook. This bishop also can't get out of here, it cannot participate in the game on the kingside. The queen cannot get out. Just because of Black's own pawns, the position became totally paralyzed. Moreover, White is now threatening Qh5 with a quick checkmate. Black tried to stop that, but now h4, White is keep putting pressure, now the pawn is attacked again. Black is trying to hold on, but White sacrifices the rook. Quite impressive! Black did not want to eat this high-calorie rook, tried to just hold on. But after a couple of checks, White sacrificed the rook anyway, and got the job done. Quite impressive! And don't forget, the Father's Day special offers are going to expire in a few days. If you're interested, you may click the link below the video and check this out right now. Otherwise, you may wish to see this video, where I cover my favorite aggressive opening for White.