Positional Prowess Strategy course by GM Pepe Cuenca

Outplay Your Opponents by Deploying These 17 Key Ideas

What should you do when there’s “nothing to do”? That’s the key to positional chess, and GM Pepe Cuenca has the prowess to turn you into a mastermind strategist.

It’s great to be able to calculate well and brute-force your way through a complex position – but not every position can be calculated through. Often, you’ll need more general principles to guide your thought process and take the game in the direction you want.

This course focuses on the 17 key concepts that GM Cuenca considers crucial. Each aspect of positional chess has its own chapter, and you’ll take a deep look at each one, so that you truly understand it.

…b5! has a great positional idea – it actually creates a passed pawn, because …c4 cannot be prevented

If creating a passed pawn isn’t already a big part of your plans, even in the middlegame, then you might not consider …b5. Learning how to grab these small opportunities is a big part of growing as a chess player.

Moves like Ne4, leaving Black saddled with a ruined pawn structure, will soon come naturally to you

Inside the course you’ll learn all kinds of strategies and ideas to add to your arsenal. Among them:

King Safety – you’ll learn different techniques and piece arrangements to keep your king safe
Space – grabbing a space advantage can be an easy way to put pressure on your opponents
Bishop vs Knight – once and for all, GM Cuenca answers the question “which one is better and when?”
Prophylactic Thinking – a key aspect of positional play – if you have nothing to do, you can always stop your opponent from doing their plan!

Each chapter is packed with instructive examples for you to solve, bolstering your learning and making sure you really understand every idea. Solving over 250 hand-selected strategic puzzles won’t be easy, but it will take your positional understanding to a new level.

GM Cuenca might be most famous for his exciting soccer-style commentary – but as a chess player, he’s a real positional grinder . With a peak rating of 2558, he’s an active player – though you’re most likely to find him commentating top events in Spanish with IM David Martinez.