GM Adam Tukhaev – Mastering Positional Play Index Review

Mastering Positional Play Review: The Verdict in 60 Seconds

GM Adam Tukhaev’s nurtr course is a set of recorded live webinars, one model game per class, all organised around a ranked list of positional factors: king safety first, then material, then piece activity, with pawn structure and space planned for later chapters. The framework is simple enough to use in your own games, and the coach applies it patiently to strong material. The package, however, is incomplete: three of five chapters, one class missing, and one file that contains another coach’s lecture. Buy it for the depth of the explanations, not for completeness.

Depth is the standout: each class spends about an hour on a single game, stopping at critical moments to ask the audience what they would play. Practice value is good because you can pause at those questions too, but every session carries live-class overhead. Structure scores 6 for the gaps described below, and study files 5 because the PGNs were shared in the live chat and are not part of the package. More strategy titles are grouped in our chess courses list.

Meet the Coach

Tukhaev’s tournament record on the Indian open circuit shows up inside the course. Class 11 is his own game against Indian grandmaster Rajaram Lakshman in Hyderabad, and he presents it as a practical player would: what he expected, what he feared, and why he walked into a material imbalance that many players would avoid.

How to Get the Course

Mastering Positional Play Review: Where the 20h 9m Goes

The product page groups the classes by chapter. For this Mastering Positional Play review we asked a different question: what kind of game teaches each lesson? The split matters, because a course built only on world-championship classics feels very different from one that mixes in the coach’s own tournament games. Here the balance is unusually even.

The course logic is a ladder of priorities, taught one rung per chapter. Only the first three rungs are in this package:

A Worked Example: Queen Against Two Rooks, From Both Sides

The best way to judge this course is to follow one imbalance across two classes, so the worked example in this Mastering Positional Play review does exactly that. Classes 10 and 11 deal with the same material balance — a queen against two rooks — and reach opposite conclusions for clear reasons.

1. The rule. In a normal position, two rooks against a queen is already a small plus for the rooks: it is easier to attack a target with two pieces than with one. The queen, by contrast, is a superb attacker and a poor defender.
2. The model game. Ivanchuk vs Leko. Tukhaev notes that Ivanchuk likes positions with more pieces and knows how to coordinate them. Leko’s only counterplay was a queen-and-bishop idea with …Qf3 and …Bh3; once he missed the moment, the active rooks hit targets on c5 and g5 and the game was over.
3. The reverse case. In Class 11, Tukhaev, as White against Lakshman, deliberately offers the rook trade that hands his opponent two rooks for the queen. His reasoning: the rooks would have an open file but no clear targets, so they could not use their numbers.
4. What actually happened. He admits he expected a draw if everything was exchanged on the queenside. His opponent had a simple drawing line, missed it, made one inaccuracy — and the queen’s attacking power decided the game.
5. The lesson. Material imbalances are not judged by counting points. Ask whether the rooks have targets and whether the queen has a king to attack.

That pairing is typical of the material chapter, which is the strongest part of the package: every imbalance is shown from the side that wins with it and from the side that survives it.

Second Example: Why Carlsen Walked His King First

Class 6, “Why Are You Running?”, closes the king-safety chapter with a Carlsen vs Karjakin blitz game from the English Opening. White’s plan was to keep the position stable, control the centre, prevent Black’s breaks and only then attack on the kingside. The problem was that the natural f4 push was hard to achieve, so Carlsen did something most club players would never consider: he left his king in the centre and then walked it toward c1, aiming for b2, before opening the kingside with h4.

Tukhaev uses the game to show that king safety is not only about avoiding mate — it is about choosing where your king will be safe before you open lines. He also shows the defensive resource Karjakin missed: freezing the kingside with …g5, after which neither side could break through. One suggestion from the live chat turned out to be exactly that idea, which is a good example of how the class format can work in the viewer’s favour. For this Mastering Positional Play review it is also the clearest proof that the first factor on Tukhaev’s list is about planning, not only about defence.

The Index, Turned Into a 6-Week Study Plan

The complete class list with runtimes is on the course page. What the list does not tell you is how to digest twenty hour-long webinars. For this Mastering Positional Play review we grouped Tukhaev’s own 18 classes into six weeks of roughly three hours each, following the chapter order, and added a task that makes you use the factor of the week in your own games. Because there are no PGNs, replay each model game on a board or in a database as you watch.

The file labelled Class 17 (53:31) is an optional extra: a different coach’s first lecture on Bent Larsen, built around Geller vs Larsen, 1967. It is decent material, but it is not part of Tukhaev’s course logic, so we left it out of the plan.

Test Yourself: Do You Need This Course?

A good Mastering Positional Play review should help you judge your level, so here are four questions taken from the classes. If they feel easy, the course will deepen what you know; if not, these are exactly the ideas it teaches. Tap a question to reveal the answer.

Mastering Positional Play Review: Strengths and Gaps

A framework you can carry into your games

The ranked factors are the real takeaway. Instead of a list of rules, you get an order of questions: is a king in danger, is the material balanced, which pieces are active? Tukhaev keeps returning to that order in every class, so by the end of the material chapter you start asking it automatically. He is also honest about its limits: he says the factors are intertwined in real games and do not replace calculation.

Honest game selection

Including a loss is rare in commercial courses, and it is one of the most instructive classes here. The coach’s own games against Bernadskiy, Lakshman and Mchedlishvili sit next to Kasparov, Karpov and Carlsen, which makes the ideas feel playable rather than museum pieces. If the pawn-sacrifice theme of Class 20 interests you, it continues in depth in Strategy University Vol. 3: Pawn Sacrifice.

Where the package falls short

This Mastering Positional Play review has to be clear about the gaps. Class 14 is not included, the Class 17 file is a different lecture, and the pawn-structure and space chapters are missing entirely. Live sessions also include greetings, technical checks and chat reading. Players who prefer short, edited lessons on structure and exchanges may be happier with Ramesh’s Dream Room Intermediate Level; beginners in strategy should start with First Steps in Positional Play.

Which Positional Course Should You Pick?

The store carries several strategy courses that solve different problems. Find your problem in the left column; the right column links to the product that fits it best.

FAQ

Is this Mastering Positional Play review based on the real classes?

Yes. Runtimes come from the 19 files, and every example and quote comes from the class transcripts, cross-checked with Tukhaev’s nurtr coach page.

How much of the package is Tukhaev’s own teaching?

Eighteen classes, about 19h 16m. The remaining 53-minute file labelled Class 17 is a lecture on Bent Larsen by another nurtr coach.

What level do I need?

Intermediate club strength. You should know basic tactics and opening principles; openings are covered only briefly to reach the middlegame.

How is the course delivered?

Digital files. Crypto payment only. Fast delivery is handled manually after payment confirmation. Download links remain available for 7 days; save your files locally.