Answers.Body: <p>Have a look at this: <a href="https://www.chessable.com/strategic-chess-exercises/course/16565/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Bricard: Strategic Chess Exercises</a>
  (also available as physical book).</p>
  <p>According to Chessable:</p>
  <blockquote>
  <p>Chess training exercises are usually about tactics. But in most of the positions that you think about during a game, there is no tactical solution.
  [...]
  This book is for you if you want to:</p>
  <ul>
  <li>know what to do if there is no tactical solution</li>
  <li>improve your understanding of chess strategy</li>
  <li>learn how to apply strategic principles in concrete positions</li>
  <li>gain time on the clock by having to calculate fewer variations</li>
  <li>learn how to accumulate advantages in various types of positions</li>
  <li>be inspired by great examples of strategy.</li>
  </ul>
  </blockquote>
  <p>Another book that might be interesting is <a href="https://www.chessable.com/the-woodpecker-method/course/10582/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">the Woodpecker method</a> (also available as physical copy).</p>
  <blockquote>
  <p>as per our personal preference, these are not all &quot;play and win&quot; combinations. <strong>The task is to find the best move</strong> (and supporting variations)and the best move could, for instance, be to force a draw, gain a slight advantage or even avoid falling for a counter-tactic in a seemingly obvious combination.</p>
  </blockquote>
  <p>This might be a very interesting book, as you will have to find best moves and do not know whether its a tactic or something else. It's designed so that you don't know what's going on - just like in a real game. No hints like &quot;mate in 4&quot;. Also, they deliberately included &quot;red herrings&quot; (i.e. positions where it looks like there is a tactic, but it doesn't work) so that unlike in typical puzzles books you can't be sure whether the tactic you see really works or whether there's a tactical solution at all.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2022-07-26T09:17:13.547Z
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Answers.LastEditDate: 2022-07-26T15:49:48.347Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Hauptideal
Answers.Body: <p>For the German language, there are the Konikowski books &quot;Testbuch der (subject)&quot;, which match your description: To a position three answers are given, and you must choose the correct. Obvious tactics may get unclear or backfire completely, so no &quot;this is a tactics problem, just sacrifice the queen&quot; stuff! Sorry, no English translation available.</p>
  
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Answers.UserDisplayName: Hauke Reddmann
Answers.Body: <p>Having been in the same position as you, I managed to find a book called <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/696447" rel="nofollow noreferrer">&quot;John Nunn's Chess Puzzle Book&quot;</a>, whose primary distinguishing feature is that the puzzles it throws at you are of unpredictable nature. You aren't told whether the goal is to find a mate in 3, win a piece, or perhaps even force a stalemate in a losing position. The puzzles are difficult and generally somewhat tactically inclined, however.</p>
  
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Answers.UserDisplayName: Marked as Duplicate
Answers.Body: <p>@ken-draco's answer is excellent. So I just want to add a couple of thoughts. I recently started playing correspondence chess, and each position, right from the beginning, has many difficult problems to solve, and require a lot of analysis. I start with a basic variation that I like by taking a cursory look, then I continue to look for improvements for my opponent and myself, and go on updating the so called PV (principal variation). It is extremely hard - and I am not a beginner. I have all the time to analyze, and it is still hard to consider 3-4 move variations. In the end, it is still difficult to decide if I want to make move x or y. You can call this analysis positional or tactical or whatever. I am quite convinced that practicing such analysis is much more valuable to me than mindless puzzle solving with instant gratification. So to answer your question, the games you play themselves offer lots of positions. You can add annotated games or other types of books to learn how stronger players think or what problems they try to solve.</p>
  
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Answers.CreationDate: 2022-07-23T20:11:46.563Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2022-07-23T20:11:46.563Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: chesskobra
Body: <p>I know solving a lot of tactics problems has its benefits, but also its limitations.  In a real game there is no way to know if a tactic is present — maybe the best move is defensive.  I am seeking thousands of positions to solve where the best move could be anything, not just a tactic.  So far I have found Ray Cheng's <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Practical_Chess_Exercises.html?id=V-OpGAAACAAJ&amp;source=kp_book_description" rel="nofollow noreferrer">book</a> with 600 of these kinds of problems,  and a few channels on YouTube featuring similar type quizzes (e.g., <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpUUMhWg5GPD5ynP_vhnMJg" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpUUMhWg5GPD5ynP_vhnMJg</a>).</p>
  <p>Does anyone know of any better or additional resources?</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2022-07-21T01:35:38.660Z
Comments.Text: I don't have a recommendation, unfortunately, but I would like to speak towards your comment of tactics being undetectable. While tactics aren't always easy to spot, they can become much easier to identify by reviewing what checks or captures are available and how your opponent would respond. Sometimes, of course, a tactic simply isn't present, but I've found this method has helped significantly in my real game tactic recognition.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Chris
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2022-07-21T15:34:13.590Z
Comments.Text: Related: [Non-Tactical Puzzles](https://chess.stackexchange.com/q/40212/26335)
Comments.UserDisplayName: SecretAgentMan
Tags: <learning><positional-play><training><puzzles><recommendations>
Title: Where can I find exercises where the best move isn't always a tactical one?
ThreadText: # Where can I find exercises where the best move isn't always a tactical one?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2022-07-21)
  
  I know solving a lot of tactics problems has its benefits, but also its limitations. In a real game there is no way to know if a tactic is present — maybe the best move is defensive. I am seeking thousands of positions to solve where the best move could be anything, not just a tactic. So far I have found Ray Cheng's [book](https://books.google.com/books/about/Practical_Chess_Exercises.html?id=V-OpGAAACAAJ&source=kp_book_description) with 600 of these kinds of problems, and a few channels on YouTube featuring similar type quizzes (e.g., <https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpUUMhWg5GPD5ynP_vhnMJg>).
  
  Does anyone know of any better or additional resources?
  
  **Tags:** learning, positional-play, training, puzzles, recommendations
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: I don't have a recommendation, unfortunately, but I would like to speak towards your comment of tactics being undetectable. While tactics aren't always easy to spot, they can become much easier to identify by reviewing what checks or captures are available and how your opponent would respond. Sometimes, of course, a tactic simply isn't present, but I've found this method has helped significantly in my real game tactic recognition.  
  > **username_2**: Related: [Non-Tactical Puzzles](https://chess.stackexchange.com/q/40212/26335)  
  
  ---
  
  ## 4 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_3 on 2022-07-26. Score: 2
  
  Have a look at this: [Bricard: Strategic Chess Exercises](https://www.chessable.com/strategic-chess-exercises/course/16565/)
  (also available as physical book).
  
  According to Chessable:
  
  > Chess training exercises are usually about tactics. But in most of the positions that you think about during a game, there is no tactical solution.
  > [...]
  > This book is for you if you want to:
  >
  > * know what to do if there is no tactical solution
  > * improve your understanding of chess strategy
  > * learn how to apply strategic principles in concrete positions
  > * gain time on the clock by having to calculate fewer variations
  > * learn how to accumulate advantages in various types of positions
  > * be inspired by great examples of strategy.
  
  Another book that might be interesting is [the Woodpecker method](https://www.chessable.com/the-woodpecker-method/course/10582/) (also available as physical copy).
  
  > as per our personal preference, these are not all "play and win" combinations. **The task is to find the best move** (and supporting variations)and the best move could, for instance, be to force a draw, gain a slight advantage or even avoid falling for a counter-tactic in a seemingly obvious combination.
  
  This might be a very interesting book, as you will have to find best moves and do not know whether its a tactic or something else. It's designed so that you don't know what's going on - just like in a real game. No hints like "mate in 4". Also, they deliberately included "red herrings" (i.e. positions where it looks like there is a tactic, but it doesn't work) so that unlike in typical puzzles books you can't be sure whether the tactic you see really works or whether there's a tactical solution at all.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_4 on 2022-07-22. Score: 1
  
  For the German language, there are the Konikowski books "Testbuch der (subject)", which match your description: To a position three answers are given, and you must choose the correct. Obvious tactics may get unclear or backfire completely, so no "this is a tactics problem, just sacrifice the queen" stuff! Sorry, no English translation available.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_5 on 2022-07-21. Score: 1
  
  Having been in the same position as you, I managed to find a book called ["John Nunn's Chess Puzzle Book"](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/696447), whose primary distinguishing feature is that the puzzles it throws at you are of unpredictable nature. You aren't told whether the goal is to find a mate in 3, win a piece, or perhaps even force a stalemate in a losing position. The puzzles are difficult and generally somewhat tactically inclined, however.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_6 on 2022-07-23. Score: 0
  
  @ken-draco's answer is excellent. So I just want to add a couple of thoughts. I recently started playing correspondence chess, and each position, right from the beginning, has many difficult problems to solve, and require a lot of analysis. I start with a basic variation that I like by taking a cursory look, then I continue to look for improvements for my opponent and myself, and go on updating the so called PV (principal variation). It is extremely hard - and I am not a beginner. I have all the time to analyze, and it is still hard to consider 3-4 move variations. In the end, it is still difficult to decide if I want to make move x or y. You can call this analysis positional or tactical or whatever. I am quite convinced that practicing such analysis is much more valuable to me than mindless puzzle solving with instant gratification. So to answer your question, the games you play themselves offer lots of positions. You can add annotated games or other types of books to learn how stronger players think or what problems they try to solve.
  
  
  ---
  
  