Skip to main content

Evaluate this!

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.

If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visit my patreon page for details.
Become a Patron!

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:

ElementDefinitionPage number
Mobility:"The number of [possible] moves of a piece."p. 37
Flexibility:"Consists of keeping one's options open, maintaining many alternate paths."p. 44
Vulnerability:The extent to which a piece is, or potentially can be, subject to attack.p. 49
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."p. 57
Piece Coordination:"Placing pieces and pawns so that each one's duties and functions complement the others' to produce a favorable result."p. 57
Time:"The unit of motion consumed to make one player's move."p. 63
Speed:"The distance a piece can travel per move, i.e. distance/tempo."p. 68

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:

Pseudo ElementDefinitionPage number
Material:"The measure of potential piece power."p. 71
Space:"The area between a player's back rank and the pawn structure."p. 75
King Safety:"King safety is self-defining, and highly correlated with a king's vulnerabiilty."p. 77
Development:Defined through examples, in relation to each of the seven elements above.pp. 79-81

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

Comments

Popular reviews

Tactics for post-scratch players

Which is the best chess book ever? As a chess community, we repeatedly ask this kind of question, for various categories. And one of those categories is, of course, tactics. So which is the best tactics book ever? The answer to this question depends on the playing strength of the reader. But if we consider the fact that the majority of chess players are in the middle of the bell curve, the best books should logically be among the ones written for an intermediate audience. With that said, this might be the best tactics book ever written. A bold statement, perhaps. Read on to find out why I recommend this book. If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visit my patreon page for details. Become a Patron! What can you expect from this book? Chess tactics from scratch was originally published as Understanding Chess Tactics  – as indicated by the book's subtitle. This book is actually what inspired the now famous "woodpecker method". In his book Pu

An incomplete bible

A few months ago, I was planning an endgame course at my local club. I based my course almost entirely on Silman's endgame course , but I wanted to include a bishop+knight mate, which Silman doesn't cover. And accidentally, I stumbled across a book which does  cover this endgame. So I decided to take a closer look at the rest of it as well. What I found out is that the book has many other interesting topics, but I have some quibbles about the title. Read on to see why.   If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visit my patreon page for details. Become a Patron! What can you expect from this book? The tactics bible  is not your typical tactics book. Most tactics books are very heavy on puzzles, and only contain short descriptions of tactical themes. This book is the diametrical opposite. There are no traditional puzzles in the book. Instead, the book puts emphasis on examples and explanations. In the first two chapters, Grivas presents 133 examples

Master of strategy

During the past two years, I’ve been working on improving my strategic/positional play. In this process, I have read a number of books, and two books that have long been on my reading list are the strategy books by Johan Hellsten. So when the Swedish chess federation requested reviewers for two of these books, I didn’t hesitate. I am happy that I was given the opportunity to review these books, and hope this review can be of help to you as a reader. If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visit my patreon page for details. Become a Patron! What can you expect from these books? Johan Hellsten has created a name for himself as one of the leading experts of chess strategy in modern times. His series of strategy books ( Mastering Opening Strategy , Mastering Chess Strategy and Mastering Endgame Strategy ) have received glowing reviews from many parts of the chess world. So it feels good to finally dig into these nuggets. His endgame book is still in my boo

Judgement and planning

Some books "fly under the radar" and do not get the same attention as the evergreen classics. But sometimes, there is gold in old mines. And I found a little golden nugget while shopping for used books. A book written for amateurs, by (arguably) the best amateur of all time; former world champion Max Euwe. Sounds promising, right? If you like these reviews, please consider supporting my work. Visit my patreon page for details. Become a Patron! What can you expect from this book? In my previous review of Chess Fundamentals , said that few world champions have written books for beginners and intermediate players. Capablanca is, of course, one exception. And another is Max Euwe. Euwe is not the most well-known world champion. He was in his prime in the 1930s and 1940s, most notably in 1935 when he dethroned none other than the great Alexander Alekhine. Although many have suggested that Alekhine only lost because of heavy use of alcohol, beating him is no small feat (rega

The best book for patzers?

I have been playing chess since I was a kid, but until about 10 years ago (2009), I had not even considered reading chess books. For some reason, this changed. I cannot remember why, but I decided I wanted to learn more about chess and probably pick up a book or two. I searched the Internet and consulted a few online chess forums, and was recommended the book The Amateur's Mind by Jeremy Silman. I bought the book, and that was the start of my growing collection of chess books. The Amateur's Mind has had a tremendous impact on my understanding of the game. Prior to Reading this book, I had no idea about how to evaluate a position or how to play the opening properly (or any other phase of the game, for that matter). I saw my results improving dramatically, and gained a couple of hundred rating points in just a few months. At this point, I only played online, so I did not have a "proper" rating. But regardless, I learned a lot from reading the book. What can y