Tactical Awareness in implementing Positional Plans

Even strongly positional players should be aware of the tactical resources hidden in the position. Even if combinations are not played, it is very important to have tactical awareness when trying to carry out positional plans. Positional plans can fail tactically even though their concept is very good. There are positional players that really know how to put their opponent under a lot of positional pressure. If they improved their tactical awareness and still sticking to their fundamental plans, they would be even more effective players. They would not fall for silly tactical traps set by their opponent and beat around the bush excessively with positional play when there is a clean kill tactically they can play that instead. It is not enough to judge positions based on how good they look, and superficial judgements. Tactical variations provide reassuring evidence for one side being better or worse. "Test your positional play" by Bellin and Ponzetti was an excellent book that incorporated an analysis of the tactical variations to give the reader bonus points when selecting the most appropriate positional plan. The practical problems associated with implementing a plan are emphasised in the form of tactical variations. This may radically effect the choice of plan altogether in some cases.