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Elements of Positional Evaluation by Dan Heisman

Get better at positional evaluation, they said. Read Heisman's book on positional evaluation, they said. It will be fun, they said. Well, I read the book, and I don't really know what to make of it. But my evaluation skills did not improve much from reading this book. Read on if you want to know why.

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What can you expect from this book?

Dan Heisman probably needs no introduction. He is a renowned coach and author of numerous chess books, mainly aimed at beginners and intermediate players. Elements of Positional Evaluation definitely belongs in this category. The book was first published in 1974, and was revised and republished in 2010.

Heisman begins by revisiting the state of "positional theory" in 1974, and addresses some aspects that Heisman considers to be flaws or inadequacies in what he calls "1974 theory"; development, doubled pawns and material.

For example, Heisman questions the acknowledgement of material as a positional element on the basis that the value of the pieces varies depending on the situation on the board. He also, quite correctly, argues that the evaluation of material imbalances varies with playing strength (p. 34): 

Material is one area where highly rated players have established a good grip on the reality of the situation. However, this understanding is much less at the lower levels.

This is hardly controversial, and should probably not be used as an argument for not using material as a tool for positional evaluation.

After the introduction, Heisman has a chapter where he presents his definition of the elements of positional evaluation. He defines seven elements, with more or less elaborate definitions:

1. Mobility:
   "The number of [possible] moves of a piece."

2. Flexibility:
   "Consists of keeping one's options open, maintaining many alternate paths."

3. Vulnerability:
   The extent to which a piece is, or potentially can be, subject to attack.

4. Center Control:
   "A player's control of the center is proportaional to his pieces' invulnerability in the center and to the opponent's pieces' vulnerability there."

5. Piece Coordination:
   "Placing pieces and pawns so that each one's duties and functions complement the others' to produce a favorable result."

6. Time:
   "The unit of motion consumed to make one player's move."

7. Speed:
   "The distance a piece can travel per move, i.e. distance/tempo."

In addition, Heisman presents what he defines as "pseudo-elements". He says that these are "not basic, independent, mutually exclusive elements that can be used as building blocks for positional theory" (p. 84). He does not define them as proper elements, because he thinks they are "inadequate, too encompassning, or too hard to define to be a real element" (p. 71).  The four "pseudo elements" are as follows:

1. Material:
   "The measure of potential piece power."

2. Space:
   "The area between a player's back rank and the pawn structure."

3. King Safety:
   "King safety is self-defining, and highly correlated with a king's vulnerabiilty."

4. Development:
   Defined through examples, in relation to each of the seven elements above.

After the rather academic discussion of how each element (and "pseudo element") should be defined, Heisman discusses each of the chess pieces in relation to the elements (ch. 4). This chapter continues in the same vein as the previous one, for example with analyses of how many possible squares a piece can go to given a specific move. This is followed by a a chapter on how the elements relate to "static features", which most people would refer to as pawn structure.

The final chapter is called "Miscellaneous applications of the theory", with more focus on "miscellaneous" than "application". The chapter begins with a discussion of how the various elements apply to the phases of the game (opening, middlegame, endgame). This is followed by a section where Heisman gives his assessment of various chess principles, such as "develop your pieces", "castle early" and "rooks belong behind passed pawns". To my mind, these have always been general guidelines rather than absolute principles. However, Heisman gives an assessment of whether or not they are universally true or not, which I find quite curious.

As you can see from the description above, Heisman takes a rather academic approach to the topic, and aims to provide precise definitions to every aspect of positional evaluation. In my opinion, this can be interesting from an academic point of view, but not very helpful for players aiming to deepen their positional understanding or evaluation skills. So I cannot recommend this book for that purpose.

The book title is very well chosen, as it focuses mainly on the elements, but not so much on evaluation. When I first picked up the book, I was expecting a primer for positional evaluation, but I don't think this book belongs in that category. In the introduction of the book, Heisman addresses problems that chess programmers may have when defining scoring functions for chess software. Perhaps this is the category of readers that will benefit the most from reading this book.

Who should read this book?

This is a book that is often presented as a primer for chess strategy. However, it should rather be seen as an academic publication on how to define a theory of positional chess. If you are looking for a book that will help you improve your analytical skills, this is probably not the book for you. However, if you are a programmer looking for ways to define a good scoring function for chess software, this could be a useful book.

About this book

Author: Dan Heisman
Title: Elements of Positional Evaluation
Type of book: Middlegame
Level: Beginner, Intermediate