Finally the coin drops

 When I play a chess game, generally I have no I idea what I'm doing. I even took a sabbatical of 5 years from playing to find out how to change this ridiculous situation. Now I have answered the biggest questions of all, how to absorb tactical patterns and how to transfer knowledge from one position to another, there is finally some room in my head to think about positional play more seriously. Yesterday finally the penny dropped.

Matters are way simpler than I thought. Positional play is about the battle of the LoA's. Period. Increase your piece activity to the max. A piece is only active when there is a target involved, or when it has an effect on the LoA landscape.

Tactics can be used to reach your positional goals. The same is true for the initiative. The initiative is a threat that needs to be addressed. You make a useful move, and at the same same time, you threaten something. Your opponent must address the threat, and hopefully he can't do something useful for himself at the same time.

Pawn play is subordinate to piece activity. The center is subordinate to piece activity.

Finally, everything is in the right place. Finally I know what to think about during a game. Finally I know how to analyze my own games. Finally I can start to learn how to play chess. I look forward to it.