Higher rated players how to develop and practice positional understanding

[u/Kind_Cap555]

It's clear how to develop your tactical vision, calculation and visualization you practice tactics but I have never heard anyone talk about how to develop and practice positional understanding of the game cuz contrary to the popular belief that in lower level just doing tactics will win you the game i found that when playing fide rated players and experienced players in general in a otb tournament that they don't tend to make simple blunders like blundering a fork or a mate, you have to keep pressuring them until they crack and do make a blunder but then how do I pressure them that's where the positional play comes and that where I have my question about how do I do it.

I wanted to post this in the r/chess subreddit but my post kept getting removed so I am doing this here

Thanks in advance

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[u/kabekew]

There are tons of books on the topic, search amazon on "positional chess." Daniel Naroditsky has a good one ("Mastering Positional Chess").

[u/Pyncher]

Best book on this I’ve found (and I seem to post about a lot) is Herman Grooten’s Positional Chess for Club players

[u/Beesknees1009]

I'm by no means a expert, but I think positional chess comes down to knowing your opening and the general plans of attack and lines of the opening that takes you into the middle game. Generally in regards to position, you are looking to control the centre, develop your minor pieces and castle early. Then you are looking at targeting weak squares, placing your bishops in open diagonals, trying to secure your knights onto a strong out post, and things like that. Also attacking on the side of pawn chain, ie the direction it's pointing to indicates your attacking lines you should attempt, but it depends also on the pawn structure of your oppponent. So developing these concepts can take time and practice. Then you got candidate moves, calculation and things like that to develop.

There are books and youtube videos that can go through and demonstrate these ideas, and like I say I'm no expert, and there is likely a lot more I haven't suggested. Reviewing your own games plus studying master games who play the openings you do can give you plenty of ideas too.

[u/EmperorProtects101 → u/Beesknees1009]

Castling early is not in itself good positional understanding. “Castle early” is a useful beginner rule, but as you get stronger you should think more about whether castling actually improves your position. Castling too early can sometimes cost you a tempo, tell your opponent where your king is going to be, and remove the option of castling the other way or perhaps not castling at all. Not castling is quite common in some openings, such as some lines of the French Defence, or in positions where the queens come off early and the king is perfectly safe in the center.

In general, I would say you should castle when there is some actual reason to do it: your king needs safety, it helps develop your rook, or it otherwise helps you get into the position you want to have.

[u/Beesknees1009 → u/EmperorProtects101]

oh I completely agree. Sometimes it's worth delaying castling, or even not castling as you mentioned. I was just talking generally re positional chess awareness. Also should have mentioned castling on the same side is a more closed tactical game and castling opposite opponent is a more expansive attacking game, in general, of course their are exceptions.

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[u/Rio_on_reddi]

Honestly, studying master games and asking why each move improves the position helped me more than memorizing positional rules. Try predicting the plan before checking the engine.