Find the move
One position, one question, and a coach who explains the answer and prices the alternatives. The positions come from the classics, from model training setups, and from collections other players have assembled, and every solution has been checked against Stockfish: the move we ask for is also the move the engine plays. Solve them on the board, not in your head; the hand remembers.
40 positions across 7 themes
Start with Diagram 1Open Lines
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 · White
Two jobs, one move
Morphy vs Duke Karl & Count Isouard, Paris Opera 1858
2 · White
The break before the door closes
Steinitz vs von Bardeleben, Hastings 1895
3 · White
Lines at any price
Morphy vs Duke Karl & Count Isouard, Paris Opera 1858
4 · Black
The far pawn is the hook
Karpov vs Larsen, Montreal 1979
Invasion Squares
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.
5 · White
The hole in front of the pawn
Model position
6 · White
A knight on the sixth
Steinitz vs von Bardeleben, Hastings 1895
7 · Black
Kicked forward
Rotlewi vs Rubinstein, Łódź 1907
8 · White
The square the knight guards
Positional Chess Puzzles
9 · White
The centre shuts, a square opens
Positional Chess Puzzles
10 · Black
Hold everything together
Chess Strategy
11 · White
The sequence matters
Chess Fundamentals (1921)
12 · White
Change the character
Positional Understanding #1
13 · Black
Attacked, and going forward
Wei Yi vs Sindarov, Candidates, Paphos 2026
The Decisive Moment
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.
14 · White
The rook that cannot be taken
Steinitz vs von Bardeleben, Hastings 1895
15 · Black
The immortal deflection
Rotlewi vs Rubinstein, Łódź 1907
16 · Black
The quietest move in chess
Rotlewi vs Rubinstein, Łódź 1907
17 · White
The last guard
Positional Chess Puzzles
18 · White
Let the rook go
Petrosian vs Spassky, World Championship, Moscow 1966
Favorable Exchanges
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.
Endgame Geometry
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.
Prophylaxis
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.
26 · White
The move order matters
Positional Understanding #1
27 · Black
The defender that cannot move
Positional Chess Puzzles
28 · Black
The target steps forward
Positional Chess Puzzles
29 · White
Out of the queen's way
Positional Chess Puzzles
30 · White
Standing on the break
Positional Chess Puzzles
31 · Black
Behind its own pawn
Positional Chess Puzzles
32 · Black
A second leg under the bishop
Wei Yi vs Sindarov, Candidates, Paphos 2026
33 · White
The guard that wanted to leave
Fischer vs Tal, Bled International Tournament 1961
Your Worst Piece
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.
34 · Black
The file worth standing on
Positional Chess Puzzles
35 · Black
The long way round to the right square
Positional Chess Puzzles
36 · White
The long diagonal, blocked for now
Positional Chess Puzzles
37 · Black
Whose trade is it
Positional Chess Puzzles
38 · White
The knight is ready, the queen is not
Positional Chess Puzzles
39 · White
Make a file for the sleeping rook
Know WHAT To Do! Master Positional Chess
40 · White
The knight was worth a pawn
Gukesh vs Ding, World Championship, Singapore 2024