You&#x27;re right, but the point here is that positional queries are boolean queries plus positions. For example, document that match &#x27;a NEAR b&#x27; are a subset of documents matching &#x27;a AND b&#x27;. So if &#x27;a AND b&#x27; has no matches, there is no need to execute the more expensive &#x27;a NEAR b&#x27;.