Customer Reviews

Positional Play (Batsford Chess Library)

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The reader from Brazil has noted that this work is not a primer on positional play (for that, see Nimzovich's *My System* or Euwe and Kramer's two-volume *The Middlegame*). And I would agree that some of the material isn't overly thematic, either.

However, there is much of value in this book: the discussion of prophylactic thinking, for example, raises a topic of fundamental importance in the formation of a strong chessplayer. And to discuss briefly the three chapters ridiculed by the Brazilian reviewer: the section on not managing without combinations is really a short addendum to the section on opposite-colored bishops in the middlegame. And the latter is an *extremely* worthwhile chapter, particularly for those of us who learned that opposite-colored bishop endings have strong drawing tendencies and just assumed the same would be true of the middlegame. I have used this chapter a number of times with my own students, and have benefited from it as well.

Finally, the chapter on the Dutch Stonewall is a wonderful case study for illustrating positional play. The Brazilian reviewer seemed unhappy about this, but elsewhere in his review suggested that the isolated pawn should have been covered. Well, isolated pawns don't arise in a vacuum; they arise from particular openings. So why not cover a different sort of pawn structure, especially given that treatments of the isolani abound? I should add that one need not play a particular opening to benefit from knowing something about it.

In conclusion, if you're looking for a middlegame primer, then look elsewhere. But if you're looking for a book that will broaden your knowledge base and offer some new concepts with which to approach the game, then this is a book well worth considering, particularly for USCF 1600-1700 and up.

This book is for intermediate or advanced players who have been exposed to the elements of positional play (Such as "My System", "Judgment & Planning", etc..)

What this book does is take positional play to a new level through the eyes of the best school since the Second World War, the Soviet school of play.

Maneuvering is covered in an early chapter, what is that? its re positioning your pieces to induce or exploit positional weaknesses in your opponents set up. Of course this assumes that you can determine what those weaknesses are (Hence why you need to study a primer first).

This book reinforces the importance of prophylactic thinking perhaps the most important topic to learn in advanced positional play. Devoretsky has been the primary author in advancing this thinking (First proposed by Nimzovitch). Basically it is the elimination or minimization of weaknesses. For instance it may be right to sacrifice a pawn to prevent a fatal positional weakness or move a piece not under attack to prevent a weakness. This style of play is evident particularly in Petrosian and Karpov's play. By eliminating weaknesses there is nothing for the attacking player to attack, instead you are able to exploit his weaknesses.

Finally there are the usual advanced difficult but rewarding exercises that Dvoretsky is famous for. One thing I took away was how to study middle game positions. Instead of playing through a whole game often in opening systems I know little about. I now set up the middlegame based on one of the key diagrams (Often move 15 to 17) and take in the positional elements and start to guess the next moves for each side I then compare this to the game notes. After a while you will guess the next moves with more accuracy at a faster rate then trying to play thought the whole game. Then you can start to time yourself to simulate play under competitive conditions.

It has long been known that Dvoretsky is the world's to chess trainer; he has played an integral role in the development of such strong players as Dolmatov, Yusupov, Zviagintsev, and Kramnik. This book reveals much of his wisdom considering positional play, in a very practical format. Honest and informative, Dvoretsky teaches not of the fundamentals of a position but of how to approach positional problems in general. Especially interesting is the chapter written by GM Bareev on what decision making is genuinely like at the top. An excellent book!

My USCF rating is currently over 1950.

The first series of books by Mark Dvoretsky and Artur Yusupov (from the 1990s) was highly praised, and I feel that much of the acclaim is justified. However, sometimes the best chapters in the books come from the so-called "Contributors!"

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Contents

Introduction 4

Part 1: Methods of improving positional play
1 Improving one's positional skill (Mark Dvoretsky) 7
2 Manoeuvring (Artur Yusupov) 31
3 Competition in solving positional exercises
(Mark Dvoretsky) 46

Part 2: Methods of seeking positional solutions
4 Prophylactic thinking (Mark Dvoretsky) 58
5 The key to a position (Artur Yusupov) 96
6 Planning in chess (Alexei Kosikov) 111
7 Sensing the tempo (Alexei Kosikov) 128
8 Positional transformations (Mark Dvoretsky) 145

Part 3: Typical positions
9 Opposite-coloured bishops in the middlegame
(Mark Dvoretsky) 166
10 You cannot manage without combinations!
(Mark Dvoretsky) 198
11 Modern treatment of the Dutch Defence
(Igor Khenkin and Vladimir Kramnik) 205

Part 4: Complicated Strategy in practical play
12 Grandmaster Strategy (Evgeny Bareev) 232
13 Whose strategy will triumph? (Mark Dvoretsky) 260

Part 5
14 From the creative art of our students (Artur Yusupov) 279
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Clearly, this book is aimed at the advanced player; in my opinion a conservative estimate of the level needed to tackle some of this work is 1700 USCF, and probably higher than that.

Kosikov's chapters really shine in this book, as well as the one by Bareev (featuring a few of his games from Linares 1992 against Salov, Kasparov, and Karpov!). Kosikov gives wonderful practical advice and Bareev gives a very honest and revealing look into top-level chess at that time.

As usual, Dvoretsky is quite good as well---his chapter on Prophylactic Thinking deserves the hype it gets. Yusupov's chapter on "Manoeuvring" is well-done also.

Of course, this is not a proper "textbook," but working through this book as one part of my new training program, selecting only one chapter to work through in a sitting, has definitely helped my practical play and how I think about the game.

Highly recommended!

This is one of the worst possible books on the very important subject of positional play. It's even questionable if it should be titled Positional Play. A more appropriate title could be "Yusupov is my Hero." That's what the book, to a large extent, is : nauseating praise of the great Yusupov, whose greater achievement in chess was to play second for the mediocre Anand(one of the many Kasparov's "Bogoljubows.")The book is a mess. When positional concepts are explained at all, they are done so in a haphazard fashion: there's no listing, classifying, and defining them. You have to apprehend them through the author's comments on the game(Kotov's "Play like a GM" is much better). Since the author didn't have much to say, he stuffed up the book with things that either are not of primary importance to positional play or,worse, have nothing to do with it. To wit: there's a chapter on "New Ideas in the Dutch Defense." Can you beat it? Another one on "You can't manage without combinations!" In a book on positional play!And what about "opposite-colored bishops in the middle game"? Much more important than open line, backward pawns, isolated pawns, don't you think? Well, stay away from this mess if you're smart.