Lessons on Uncompromising Play - David Navarra

"Mastering Strategies for Winning Concepts"

If you want to win a game, you should be ready to progress in small steps. In most games, you first need to gain the initiative, then transform it into a positional advantage or into an attack and eventually win the game. Reality is usually more complex and even grandmaster games mostly contain mistakes on both sides and often even unexpected twists and turns. (True, there are many grandmaster games in which the balance has never been disrupted, but they do not really belong into this book.) To gain the initiative, you need to sacrifice some material or play somewhat better than the opponent. I often try to create imbalances, e.g. exchange my bishop for an opponent's knight, doubling my opponent's pawns or getting a lead in development in return. Once you possess the initiative, you should usually act resolutely to transform it into something real (more can be found in the chapter on dynamics).