Mastering Positional Play: Five Factors, One Game per Class

Tukhaev opens the first class by calling the series “the long project, the 52-week course on positional chess.” Positional decisions, in his words, are the ones that are “a little bit more subtle” and bring no immediate gain, but whose fruits “will be obvious later.” To make those choices less of a guess he ranks five factors: king’s safety first, then material, piece activity, pawn structure and space. Every class takes one model game, stops at the critical moments and asks the live audience what they would play, then explains the answer through those factors. The Q&A at the end of each session adds practical tips on openings, books and training.

nurtr’s coach profile says Tukhaev “loves teaching positional play and is considered one of the stronger proponents of the skill.” The same page lists him as a Ukrainian grandmaster (title 2007, peak rating 2575) who beat Magnus Carlsen in round 1 of the 2018 FIDE World Rapid Championship. This package covers the first three chapters of Mastering Positional Play — king’s safety, material and activity; the structure and space chapters are announced in class but not part of these files. For more strategy titles, browse our chess courses list.

What Mastering Positional Play Teaches

Chapter 1: king’s safety comes first

Class 1 uses a Carlsen vs Nepomniachtchi online rapid game from the London System to show all five factors at work, including how a quiet move like e3 can leave a bishop on d2 passive. Then the king’s-safety chapter begins: Karpov vs Kasparov from their 1985 match (“Handle with Care”), Harikrishna vs Van Wely on generating an attack, Kasparov vs Portisch and the bishop sacrifice on g7 that tears the king’s shelter apart, and Tukhaev’s own decisive-round win over Ukrainian GM Vitaliy Bernadskiy from 2017 — a game he says helped him win that tournament. Carlsen vs Karjakin closes the chapter.

Chapter 2: reading material imbalances

The material chapter is the heart of this Mastering Positional Play package — seven classes, about seven and a half hours. Carlsen vs Ding Liren shows how to use the two bishops. Kasparov’s famous exchange sacrifice against Shirov in the Sveshnikov is followed by Tukhaev’s own game, where he recognised the same structure and offered the exchange for a powerful bishop; together they list the reasons to give up a rook for a minor piece — ruin the king’s shelter, double the pawns, create a passed pawn. Ivanchuk vs Leko shows when two rooks beat a queen (clear targets, open files), Tukhaev’s game against Indian GM Lakshman in Hyderabad shows the reverse, Carlsen vs Nakamura gives the rule for rook vs minor pieces — “simplify and restrict” — and Miles vs Timman covers bishop vs knight with heavy pieces on the board.

Chapter 3: piece activity

The activity chapter starts with weak squares in a Karpov vs Kasparov Sicilian, where Kasparov’s early pawn sacrifice buys active pieces. Stockfish vs Leela Chess Zero becomes a lesson on the good knight against the bad bishop and on converting a static edge: “the first priority is to deny any counterplay, not to allow any kind of tactical tricks.” Flohr vs Geller in the King’s Indian Exchange shows Black trading off a passive bishop and eyeing the weak d4-square; an engine game from 2015 illustrates a deadly rook lift; and in Class 20 Tukhaev shows, from his opponent’s side, a game he lost to Georgian GM Mikheil Mchedlishvili — a lesson in why a pawn sacrifice for activity is often worth it.

Learning inside a live class

Because these are live recordings, you hear the questions club players actually ask, and the mistakes they actually suggest in the chat, before the grandmaster explains why a natural move fails. Tukhaev also reminds the class that “chess is very much a tactical game and you should always calculate” — the factors guide the search, they do not replace it. The flip side is time: each session spends a few minutes on welcome messages, technical checks and reading the chat.

Mastering Positional Play: Class Index

Is This Positional Course Right for You?

• Club players who calculate well but drift in quiet positions and don’t know which plan to choose.
• Players who learn best from complete model games — each class is one game, explained from opening to decisive moment.
• Anyone unsure how to judge material imbalances: two bishops, exchange down, two rooks vs queen, rook vs minor pieces.
• Students who like a classroom feel, with questions to answer before the explanation.

Complete newcomers to strategy will get more from a gentler start such as First Steps in Positional Play. If you prefer short, edited episodes over live sessions, the nurtr Dream Room Intermediate Level by GM RB Ramesh covers prophylaxis, pawn structure and exchanges in 10–30 minute lessons.

FAQ

What are the five positional factors?

In Tukhaev’s order of importance: king’s safety, material, piece activity, pawn structure and space. He stresses that in real games they are intertwined and hard to separate completely.

Is this the full 52-week Mastering Positional Play course?

No. It contains 19 recordings from Classes 1 to 20 (Class 14 is absent). Eighteen are Tukhaev’s own classes, about 19h 16m; the Class 17 file holds an unrelated lecture on Bent Larsen’s games by another coach.

Do I need to know specific openings?

No. Openings are covered only briefly to reach the middlegame — London System, Queen’s Gambit Declined, Sicilian, Sveshnikov, Caro-Kann, King’s Indian — and the lessons focus on plans after the opening.

What files do I get, and how is it delivered?

19 MP4 videos plus a cover image (734 MB); no PGN files. Digital files. Crypto payment only. Fast delivery is handled manually after payment confirmation. Download links remain available for 7 days; save your files locally.