pdf Ultimate Chess Strategy (English Edition)

The present book is a compilation of 825 carefully selected chess positions on strategic themes, stemming from the games of Stockfish chess engine against various other engines. Among the positions you will find every conceivable aspect of chess strategy - from conquering frequent tempos, engineering subtle piece traps, gaining space advantage and employing the bishop pair, to building compact flexible pawn structures, deriving benefit from passed pawns, reaching well indicated comfortable outposts, breaking down the enemy king's pawn shelter etc. etc.
Since the positions stem from Stockfish games, and Stockfish is a 4000 elos powerful top engine, champion of the animate and inanimate worlds, you might be pretty sure the suggested solutions, ways of proceeding, are optimal. I have also double-checked the positions, because usually correct strategic decisions require bigger depth and careful overview. The explanations, answers, range from a single move long to 2-3 or 4-5 moves long, rarely longer. Some are quite easy and straightforward, while I am sure others might stump you. After all this is highest level chess strategy. But don't worry, because whether you guess the correct way of proceeding or not, you will always learn something. That's the whole point.
You might use the book as a collection of puzzles, if you so wish, to be happy with your awesome logical skills, or conversely, slam hard objects nearby in a display of anger and indignation at how unacceptably difficult the positions are. Or in case you hate problems, you might simply read the explanations, including the variations shown. The goal will be that the relevant position patterns stick firmly in your minds. Many are repeated, so that they will be difficult to forget, and thus you can smash the hell out of your casual and online rivals while they are wondering what is going on. The goal will always be to find the best continuation for the side to play, it might not be winning, just getting an advantage, or even defending well more rarely.
Chess tactics allows you to gain material through certain methods, using the inherent qualities of pieces and their mutual coordination, while chess strategy relies on available chess factors, patterns, that you might reach, obtain on the board by choosing the necessary good moves, so that in the end you will get a position that suits you, perhaps only slightly, however strategic assets tend to pile up, even if separately minimal, across moves.
Chess strategy is also closely related to evaluation, so that even without resorting to tactics, you can suddenly get winning game. When you are able to understand strategy better, you will start evaluating better too. And that will in turn reflect on your overall performance.
Many prefer books on tactics, but actually strategic, positional decisions are much more frequent on the chess board, even if you only have to develop or manoeuver your pieces properly, so that when you understand the underlying principles of chess strategy, you will feel much more comfortable making each separate move, and you will feel much more comfortable facing previously dangerous opponents.