Positions
The library

Positions

One position and one question: what is the move? The coach explains the answer and prices the alternatives. The positions come from the classics, from model training setups and from collections other players assembled, and every answer is also the move Stockfish plays. Solve them on the board, not in your head.

Start with diagram 1

40 positions in 7 themes

No 11 Fighter Group's operations room, Uxbridge, 1943
Theme
Asks for

Open Lines

4 positions

Rooks and queens do nothing until a file or diagonal opens for them. These positions all turn on the same question: which pawn move or capture opens lines for my pieces, and what is that worth?

  1. Two jobs, one move

    1 · White to move

    Morphy vs Duke Karl & Count Isouard, Paris Opera 1858

  2. The break before the door closes

    2 · White to move

    Steinitz vs von Bardeleben, Hastings 1895

  3. Lines at any price

    3 · White to move

    Morphy vs Duke Karl & Count Isouard, Paris Opera 1858

  4. The far pawn is the hook

    4 · Black to move

    Karpov vs Larsen, Montreal 1979

Invasion Squares

9 positions

A piece is worth what its square lets it do. These positions each contain one square that wants a piece on it: a hole no pawn can cover, an outpost the opponent conceded, a landing strip for the attack.

  1. The hole in front of the pawn

    5 · White to move

    Model position

  2. A knight on the sixth

    6 · White to move

    Steinitz vs von Bardeleben, Hastings 1895

  3. Kicked forward

    7 · Black to move

    Rotlewi vs Rubinstein, Łódź 1907

  4. The square the knight guards

    8 · White to move

    Positional Chess Puzzles

  5. The centre shuts, a square opens

    9 · White to move

    Positional Chess Puzzles

  6. Hold everything together

    10 · Black to move

    Chess Strategy

  7. The sequence matters

    11 · White to move

    Chess Fundamentals (1921)

  8. Change the character

    12 · White to move

    Positional Understanding #1

  9. Attacked, and going forward

    13 · Black to move

    Wei Yi vs Sindarov, Candidates, Paphos 2026

The Decisive Moment

5 positions

Positional play earns a position where a combination exists; someone still has to play it. Each of these positions is fully prepared, every piece aimed. Find the move that cashes out twenty moves of preparation.

  1. The rook that cannot be taken

    14 · White to move

    Steinitz vs von Bardeleben, Hastings 1895

  2. The immortal deflection

    15 · Black to move

    Rotlewi vs Rubinstein, Łódź 1907

  3. The quietest move in chess

    16 · Black to move

    Rotlewi vs Rubinstein, Łódź 1907

  4. The last guard

    17 · White to move

    Positional Chess Puzzles

  5. Let the rook go

    18 · White to move

    Petrosian vs Spassky, World Championship, Moscow 1966

Favorable Exchanges

3 positions

An exchange is good only when the position left behind favors you. Before trading, name the piece you need to preserve, the target that remains, and whose recapture improves the ending.

  1. Keep the bishop that collects

    19 · White to move

    Know WHAT To Do! Master Positional Chess

  2. What remains after the trades?

    20 · White to move

    Chess Strategy (1915)

  3. The one square that keeps both pawns

    21 · Black to move

    Wei Yi vs Sindarov, Candidates Tournament, Paphos 2026

Endgame Geometry

4 positions

With few pieces left, chess becomes geometry: the king's path, the square of the pawn, the one file the rook must own. These classics are each a single geometric idea, and each is worth a hundred games.

  1. Face to face

    22 · Black to move

    The fundamental defense

  2. The impossible chase

    23 · White to move

    Study by Richard Réti, 1921

  3. The promotion that isn't a queen

    24 · White to move

    Study by Fernando Saavedra, 1895

  4. The king walks in

    25 · White to move

    Capablanca vs Tartakower, New York 1924

Prophylaxis

8 positions

The hardest move to find is the one that does nothing for you. These positions all have a plan running on the other side of the board, and the move that wins is the one that takes it away before it arrives. Ask what your opponent wants, then make it impossible.

  1. The move order matters

    26 · White to move

    Positional Understanding #1

  2. The defender that cannot move

    27 · Black to move

    Positional Chess Puzzles

  3. The target steps forward

    28 · Black to move

    Positional Chess Puzzles

  4. Out of the queen's way

    29 · White to move

    Positional Chess Puzzles

  5. Standing on the break

    30 · White to move

    Positional Chess Puzzles

  6. Behind its own pawn

    31 · Black to move

    Positional Chess Puzzles

  7. A second leg under the bishop

    32 · Black to move

    Wei Yi vs Sindarov, Candidates, Paphos 2026

  8. The guard that wanted to leave

    33 · White to move

    Fischer vs Tal, Bled International Tournament 1961

Your Worst Piece

7 positions

Find your worst piece and improve it, the old rule goes, and most of the work in a quiet position is exactly that: a rook on the wrong file, a knight with nowhere to go, a bishop staring at its own pawns. Some of them turn the rule around and take the opponent's best piece away instead.

  1. The file worth standing on

    34 · Black to move

    Positional Chess Puzzles

  2. The long way round to the right square

    35 · Black to move

    Positional Chess Puzzles

  3. The long diagonal, blocked for now

    36 · White to move

    Positional Chess Puzzles

  4. Whose trade is it

    37 · Black to move

    Positional Chess Puzzles

  5. The knight is ready, the queen is not

    38 · White to move

    Positional Chess Puzzles

  6. Make a file for the sleeping rook

    39 · White to move

    Know WHAT To Do! Master Positional Chess

  7. The knight was worth a pawn

    40 · White to move

    Gukesh vs Ding, World Championship, Singapore 2024