Common Positional Play 4 - Johan Krajenbrink

A short passage from the introduction of Common positional play 4:So when I wrote this series I kept asking the question: what to do with the combinations, what to dowith the relation between positional play and combinative play? I wasn’t sure about this, so I keptthem separated for the time being. At a certain point I had the idea to alternatively create a whole newseries: Common Combinative Play. I discussed this with Lambert-Jan Koops and that had a positiveoutcome: Lambert-Jan quickly imagined how to go about this. Even better: he produced one chapterafter the other. The reader now looks at the result: in CPP 4 positional play and combinative playbeautifully come together. In CCP 4 most of the work by far was put in by Lambert-Jan, butconsidering that I also contributed something, I still dare to put my name on the cover afterdeliberation with Lambert-Jan. Anyhow: Lambert-Jan and I once again have the ambition to addsomething to the draughts literature and the way of thinking about draughts training with this book.Naturally we believe that CCP 4 is suitable for this series, there is more than enough positional play inthis part, only now in continuous practical relation to combinations. That is the game practice as wellafter all! We therefore try to discuss all sorts of combinations in relation to positional play. We also tryto implement some level of systematics:1. Which categories of combinations do you have in positional play?2. How likely is someone to get himself caught in a combination?3. When should you play at a combination and when shouldn’t you?4. When do you take a combination of despair and when don’t you?5. We show a small bit of probability calculation as part of your considerations.6. How do you make combinative considerations in relation to positional play?7. The familiar training form model games returns: now mostly from a combinative point ofview.8. In CCP you also have to do something yourself: once again there are tests in which you haveto look for combinations in a creative way yourself, have to think about the relation withpositional play and your own assessment of this.9. Can we make decisions based on all possible available knowledge of a certain opponent?In CCP 4 we make a serious effort to allow you to train when or when not to play at a combination. Iwrite with emphasis: we make an effort, because it still is hard to estimate and also subjective. It mayvery well be that the reader occasionally has a very different opinion from us. It may very well be thatthe reader occasionally thinks it’s nonsense to play at a combination while we think it’s a good idea(or the other way around).