Commentators: IM & WGM Irene Sukandar and GM Viswanathan Anand.
A solid method to improve your chess skills is to learn five positions per week. This ”less-is-more” concept was developed in the late 1970s in consultation with Robert Danielsson, who was my coach on a few occasions when I was a teenager. Back then, the idea was for me to learn five positions each week from Ludek Pachman’s ”Mittelspielpraxis im Schach” and ”Endspielpraxis im Schach.” The downside was that for a junior player, it could be difficult to maintain discipline over 12 months if you only met your coach a few times a year. However, 300 Most Important Chess Positions can remedy this and create an excellent and pedagogical structure.
This is an affordable way to receive chess lessons following this concept where the 300 most important positions are presented over the course of a year. By assimilating and revisiting these positions, you will significantly enhance your playing strength proportionally to your rating. Knowing all these key positions will greatly increase your chances of recognizing thematic elements in openings, middlegames (150), and endgames (150). Solving five positions per week allows you to progress at a steady pace.
For each position, you assess the position and try to find the best move or continuation. This can take 5-30 minutes depending on your playing strength and familiarity with chess concepts. If you find it too challenging, you can check the solution and then analyze it. One week later, you review the position to see if you remember the solution and the specific idea to remember. A small sample of what this process looks like is presented below.
”Less is more” is not a lazy approach; it’s based on the principle that it’s better to do too little than too much, as attempting too much may result in accomplishing nothing. This is why it’s better to assimilate the course material in manageable portions. Chess, like food, should be savored slowly and mindfully! Remember that these positions will benefit you throughout your chess-playing life.
Below are three samples for you to familiarize yourself with including an example from my own practice and how I benefited from my own work with the most important positions. The solutions will be provided tomorrow to allow time for thought and assimilation.
Position 135 – Opening – Play on the wings Black to move Monticelli – Capablanca, Barcelona 1929
![Monticelli-Capablanca, Barcelona 1929 - Förberedelse av minoritetsangrepp Svart vid draget, 1929 [Engqvist]](http://www.schacksnack.se/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/Utskick42_882-7.jpg)
Position 83 – Endgame – The bishop manoeuvre Black to move Ernst – Engqvist, Stockholm 2017

Position 82 – Middlegame – The bishop manoeuvre White to move Karpov – Unzicker, Olympiad, Nice 1974

Thomas Engqvist
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