Throughout a game of chess, we must constantly make judgements and decisions that cannot be determined simply by calculation. We must then rely on our positional judgement.

Good positional skills are primarily developed by experience, but they can also be learnt. In this book, Carsten Hansen provides a wealth of advice and ideas that will give readers a helping-hand up to new levels of positional understanding. Paramount in this discussion is the player's need to weigh up positional elements at the board, and decide which are most important for the situation at hand.

Topics include:

• The Quest for Weaknesses

• What is the Initiative?

• Understanding Imbalances

• The Relative Value of the Pieces

• Decisions regarding Pawn-Structures

• Structural Weaknesses

• Where and How to Attack

• The book is rounded off with exercises to test your understanding of the concepts discussed, together with full solutions.

List of Content

004 Symbols

004 Bibliography

005 Foreword and Acknowledgements

006 Introduction

Part 1: General Terms

009 1 Understanding Imbalances

018 2 What is the Initiative?

029 3 The Quest for Weaknesses

Part 2: Relative Value of Pieces

045 4 Cats and Dogs: Knights and Bishops

066 5 Not Only Open Files - Working with Rooks

081 6 The Exchange

095 7 The Worth of a Queen

Part 3: Dealing with Pawns

110 8 Structural Weaknesses

131 9 Pawn Sacrifices

Part 4: Big Decisions

142 10 Where to Attack and How

161 11 Your Turn - Exercises

167 12 Solutions to Exercises

190 Index of Games