• Playing the Middlegame
  1. Attack and defence
  2. You and your opponent
  3. Positional play
• Planning
• Strategical advice
  1. General advice
  2. Space and the centre
  3. Advice about Kings and Queens
  4. Advice about Rooks
  5. Advice about minor pieces
  6. Advice about Pawns
  7. Advice on tactics

This compilation has been made by going through all my beginner’s
books and making notes. I was after practical advice on
thinking rather than chess theory this
time; the most useful titles by a mile were Simon Webb’s
Chess for Tigers, Jeremy Silman’s The
Amateur’s Mind. Also running strongly were the old
Keres/Kotov title The Art of the Middle Game,
Kotov’s Think like a Grandmaster, Avni’s
Danger in Chess and Krogius’ Psychology in
Chess. In each of these books, the points they make are
illustrated by actual examples, which helps fix the point in your
mind. I won’t attempt to reproduce examples from these or other
books on this page (as if the lawyers would let me), but the points
below could all do with reference to a practical context – see if
you can identify examples from your own play. I have a stash of
games from our last simul. and some
recent club games which might be
helpful.

Playing the Middlegame

“During a chess competition a chessmaster should be
a combination of a beast of prey and a monk.“

— Alexander Alekhin

Attack and defence

You must think for both sides. I would guess that
the vast majority of decisive mistakes in club play are not
misjudgements (like, “I thought my attack would be faster than
yours“) but oversights (“Oops – missed that one.“).
Purdy says you will never overcome blunders by effort alone (what
you need is a trained eye), which is surely true, but you must
also put in the effort! If you never try to work out what
your opponent might be doing, you will never find out until it is
too late. Let’s clarify this with an example:

Kasparov – Karpov, Linares, 1994

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nd7 5. Bc4 Ngf6 6.
Ng5 e6 7. Qe2 Nb6 8. Bb3 h6 9. N5f3 a5 10. c3 c5 11. a3 Qc7 12. Ne5
cxd4 13. cxd4 DIAGRAM

13… a4

[13… Bxa3]

14. Bc2 Bd7 15. Nxd7 Nbxd7 16. Qd1 Bd6 17. Ne2
Nd5 …drawn

  I wouldn’t like to say there’s anything wrong with the
analytical abilities of either player – but neither is it an error
of judgement. My guess is, it’s a quiet position in a solid
opening, and neither player bothered to look hard enough.

Chess is a tense game. This tension may make you want to believe
things that aren’t really true, and comfort yourself with things
that mean you don’t have to think too hard any more. Not a bit of
it….

---

Petrosian-Korchnoi 1963

Black has a hopeless, passive position, just as he has had for the
last umpteen moves. Petrosian just went

1. Rxh6

  which was met by

1…f3!

  Hoping for 2. Kxf3 Kg7 discovered
check, winning the rook.

2. Kg5 Ke8 White resigns, unable to
catch the f-pawn.

  Afterwards, Petrosian explained that a move like …f3
just didn’t fit with “Black’s hopeless position“. But
where there’s life, there’s hope!

“For a long time I had regarded my position as a
winning one. Thus the whole opening phase of the struggle, when
Korchnoi was unable to get out of trouble, had psychologically
attuned me to the idea that the ending would be favourable to me
… and here comes the oversight 35 Rxh6?? I did
not even see the threat …f4-f3, possibly because it was in
contrast to Black’s hopeless position. Personally, I am of the view
that if a strong master does not see such a threat at once he will
not notice it, even if he analyses the position for twenty or
thirty minutes.” – PETROSIAN.

 

I have a whole book full of these types of disaster, when one
player just turned the alarm off. You should be on guard all the
time, with the alarm dial turned up to 11!

  Please note that Petrosian was also thinking less than
objectively about the game, and thinking only about his plans. Your
opponent also has a right to exist…

• Remember:
  1. every position is capable of being ruined
  2. minor details can affect the outcome
  3. if there is only one way you can lose, make sure you secure
     against it
  4. if the position changes, re-assess your previous
     conclusions
  5. actively search for danger as a routine part of your choice of
     move
• Danger signs – General things to watch out
  for:
  1. leaving the king without sufficient support from other
     pieces
  2. weakness of the eighth rank
  3. entering a lasting pin
  4. poisoned pawns
  5. placing pieces without escape routes

  — Amazia AVNI

• You mustn’t ignore genuine threats, but don’t be panicked or
  distracted by them – especially when faced with a King’s-side
  attack [when you must pursue your own attack with extra vigour.].
  Don’t worry needlessly, resulting in panic and retreat – you need
  to keep active and keep counterplay.
• Take nothing for granted. Don’t fret
  needlessly – analyse and find out if there is a win for your
  opponent. I often say, “Oh, Black’s only going to threaten
  mate“, by which I mean, the best they can achieve is a one
  move threat that can be easily contained. When they make that
  threat, you do need to react, but don’t worry needlessly; carry on
  with your own plans. There are some “clockwork” attacks (like the
  h-file assault against the fianchettoed King, or the King’s Indian
  Attack) that will eventually produce checkmate if left alone, but
  usually the best recipe is to counterattack, even if you do have to
  stop from time to time to counter a mating threat.
• In particular, don’t panic and refuse sacrificed material that
  you could have for free. Don’t decline “on principle”. This is
  declining from fear, not knowledge. Play the strongest move, which
  may well be to take the material and make your opponent prove their
  judgement was correct.
• Neither be over-impressed by your own threats. An attack by one
  piece on another is meaningless in itself – it may distract an
  important defender. Equally, don’t assume that a stock combination
  or sacrifice works for you in the position you have today – small
  differences can make it fail. Don’t hope vainly – analyse
  and find out.
• Don’t allow counterplay, e.g. a Pawn race, a
  counterattack against the other wing, if you don’t have to.
  Defensive play is difficult, and playing the downside of a position
  without active chances of your own is doubly so. [Many of the best
  players are masters at snuffing out the opponent’s plans.]
• [Read more about Rules for
  attack, Attacking the King,
  Attacking the Queen’s-side or Attacking
  techniques]

You and your opponent

• How do you react to pressure? Mental toughness and willpower
  are important in chess. The top boards often look calmer and more
  composed because they are; they are concentrating on the game and
  are not distracted by unexpected events on the board. [I have
  more than once played strong opponents who said afterwards they
  thought I was winning at one point, but I would never have guessed
  that from their expression during the game – they looked totally
  assured and confident!]
• Patience is a virtue. Good nerves are
  essential: this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ever feel
  nervous during a game (boy, do I wish I could manage that!) but
  that you should not let your nervousness tempt you to poor
  decisions: e.g. make back away from a critical line, or make you
  try to force the issue too soon.
• Don’t ever coast along. Keep coming up with ideas. Put your
  opponent under pressure. Force your will on your opponent – get
  them to react to you. If you think you see a win, go for it.
• If you stand worse:
  • Fight, don’t just react to threats. Mednis calls passive play
    “awaiting the undertaker“! It is much harder for the
    attacker to keep their nerve if the defender has active play, and
    without counterplay your opponent will just keep building up their
    position. It used to be said of Alekhin that to beat him you had
    to win three games – once in the opening, once in the middlegame,
    and once in the endgame. Make the same be true for
    you.
  • Don’t stop looking for your own opportunities. Many games have
    been lost that could have been drawn or even won (don’t I know
    it!). But also, people resign with a saving move available on the
    board – they were just going through the motions until resigning,
    instead of planning their comeback.
  • Never give up. There is always hope if you
    fight. Don’t play for one last cheap trap and then resign.
    Play the move that will make your opponent groan, the move you
    would hate to see if you had the advantage. Defend with endless
    determination.
  • If your best hope is for your opponent to fall into a trap,
    then you can play for a swindle, but only when you know you are
    losing. Otherwise, play good moves, not trappy ones.
• Take your opponent seriously if they are lower-rated, but don’t
  be overawed if they outgrade you. [Don’t look at your opponent’s
  rating if it takes the edge off your attitude.]
• Everyone is vulnerable. Play without fear. Play to win
  from the first move against every opponent. That doesn’t
  mean, attack like a mad thing from move 1, but each move should be
  played accurately and seriously.

    When playing stronger players, don’t stick to the script!
  Make a nuisance of yourself. Don’t make concessions. Good players
  drop games to lesser lights every year – make sure it’s you that
  they drop them to. Many players when pitted against a stronger
  opponent try and swap everything off and get a draw in the endgame.
  They then get a worse game, and are ground steadily down by their
  opponent’s superior technique who is pleased to get a win without
  danger of losing. Every exchange made is going to be better for one
  side or the other, and every passive move makes your position less
  promising. The best way to get a draw is to play as well
  and actively as possible, just the same as if you were
  trying to win!
  If your opponent is trying to win a level position, don’t get
  impatient and rush, and don’t get bored and go on the defensive,
  don’t be tempted into exchanges that give a little ground. Stay
  calm. Give the impression of great patience, that you aren’t going
  to blunder no matter how long they spin it out. And keep trying to
  play good and active moves, even if you think it’s only a draw.

• When playing weaker players, don’t go for the throat, don’t try
  to bamboozle your opponent in a complex position (you might get
  lost too!); instead, play steadily and wait for a mistake – in
  fact, don’t try to jump all over their first mistake, you can wait
  for another mistake to turn up. If your opponent is only a bit
  weaker than you, you may need to mix things up a bit, but generally
  the message is ‘steady does it’.
• Ignore your opponent’s time pressure. Take
  your own time to find the best moves as you normally would. Don’t
  try and rush your opponent – they are probably more used to playing
  quickly than you are and may outplay you, or set you a trap!
• [Read more about You
  and your opponent, Chess
  Psychology]

Positional play

• If you have a space advantage (or any other long-term
  advantage, like the Bishop pair), don’t rush to attack.
  Milk your advantages – don’t feel obliged to cash
  in immediately. You should not try to force the issue, but rather
  maintain or increase your advantage while preventing counterplay.
  Don’t lash out justy becaiuse you feel there ought to be a winning
  combination by now. Avoid exchanges and build up your position so
  that when things do come to a head the situation is at its most
  favourable to you.
• Preserve your options. Do what is required –
  whether a retreat or an attack – but don’t burn your bridges
  unnecessarily. Squeeze your opponent’s options – this is hard for
  them to sit still for, and they may lash out without heed for the
  dangers.
• [Read more about Chess
  Strategy]

Planning

• Good positions don’t win games – good moves
  do. Silman says, “Make good things happen“. Play
  with a positive plan (although part of your plan might be
  prevention). The initiative goes to the side than can devise and
  (at least threaten to) put into action a realistic plan.
• Create a plan right away or you may drift.
  There is always something to do, e.g. improve the position of your
  worst piece. Appraise the position honestly. Avoid
  vagueness in assessment – don’t say “maybe I’ll get an
  attack on the Queen’s-side“, but “in three moves I can get
  my Knight to c5 and my rook to b1 to attack b7 – can my opponent
  defend in that time, or create a distraction?“
• Your plan must be based on the actual features of the
  position. Work out what each side should be up to. You can’t
  attack the King just because you want to. Play where you
  have some advantage. Silman talks about the
  ‘pawn-pointing‘ rule: you have more space to attack where
  the Pawn-chains point. This is also true for blocked positions,
  like the French where opening a file with …c7-c5 will not leave
  you with a backward Pawn as does …f7-f6.
• Don’t play a good-looking move in vague hopefulness: consider
  what your opponent’s reply might be. Don’t play a move with a
  one-move threat that can be easily stopped. Don’t hope that your
  opponent won’t see the threat – expect your opponent to
  play the best move, and see if you still like your plan.
  [You cannot base your game around one-idea plans like a3 Bc2
  Qd3 Qxh7# – this may take four moves to threaten and one move
  (…g6) to defend]
• “Play a move which improves your position no matter
  what.” – SILMAN
• Don’t play a quick move because you can’t really decide what is
  going on, or because you suddenly see a good-looking idea. Take the
  time to find a good move. I think 15-20 minutes to decide if a Pawn
  grab is safe is not unreasonable.
• But don’t dither – decide what your basic choices are at the
  start – narrow it down to the two or three most likely – and
  decide. [If you know which plan you are following the moves can
  come fairly easily.] If you get it down to two moves which look
  equally good, find some other way of deciding between them (most
  centralising, least forcing for your opponent…). [You know
  the story of Buridan’s ass, which died of starvation between two
  equal-sized piles of hay because it never could choose which one to
  start on].
• To summarise: anxiety, haste, vagueness, confusion and
  simple-mindedness are the enemies of good moves.
• [Read more about Planning]

Strategical advice

General advice

• Rules are meant to be broken (or, at least,
  checked to see if they apply in the actual position in front of
  you!)
• Don’t seek or avoid exchanges without good reason.
  Exchanges are just moves, they make changes, and
  you must assess these changes. [It seems to me that many
  players exchange almost by reflex. I have a theory that when
  learning chess we may become anxious about leaving exchanges ‘on’,
  in case we leave the piece or pawn undefended later, and do not
  like the tension of unresolved exchange possibilities. A mark of
  maturity in a player is the capacity to manage tension in the
  position.]
• Quiet positions demand patience. They are not to be abandoned
  as a draw or played carelessly – you must learn to concentrate and
  outplay your opponent in these positions as well as when it’s very
  tactical.
• Accumulation theory: even if you have several
  advantages, don’t be too confident to pick up another.
• Dynamic positions require energetic play. You must make the
  most of your own chances, and not just react to threats or coast
  along until you have to do something.
• [Read more about Strategy]

Space and the centre

• Always look to the centre, even if it is
  closed or has been quiet.
• Decentralising is always suspicious,
  particularly for knights, but also for long-range pieces like
  Queens. This is a corollary of Stean’s assertion that the most
  important feature of any position is the activity of the
  pieces, since pieces are most active in the centre.
• A space advantage is meaningless without a potential
  breakthrough, or some other way to get behind enemy lines.
• An attack on the wing is best met by play in the centre.
• [Read more about Space and the
  centre]

Advice about Kings and Queens

• KING: tuck it away during the opening, by castling as a rule to
  get the rook out as well. But in the endgame, the King becomes a
  strong attacking piece, and can make raids on the opponent’s Pawns,
  and guide your own Pawns through to be Queens. Because of course,
  with only a few pieces on the board, there is less danger of a
  middle-game attack, and then the King needn’t hide. Then the King
  becomes like any other piece, and should be moved into the centre
  of the board to attack or defend as necessary.
• QUEEN: Not very useful right at the start, because it may be
  harassed, but always powerful. Place it near the centre in the
  opening, behind the minor pieces – e2,d2 or f2/c2 are good squares
  – ready to jump out to make a raid in combination with other
  pieces. After some pieces have been exchanged, or you have a clear
  advantage, you can move the Queen further towards the little centre
  (e4,d4,e5,d5).

Advice about Rooks

• Rooks need open files.
• ROOK: Rooks must have open lines. This may take some time to
  arrange, and because they can be chased by minor pieces they are
  best place in waiting (like the Queen) on the central e- and
  d-files. Later, they can move strongly up the board using these
  central files – for example, in the middle game, to e3 and then
  move over to g3 to help attack the Black King, or right up to the
  seventh rank on e7 or d7, where it can attack pawns right along the
  opponent’s second rank. This control of the seventh rank is very
  powerful, particularly in the endame if your opponent’s King is
  stuck on the last rank (a8-h8). Rooks work even better in pairs –
  for example, by putting them on e1 and e2 they can control the
  e-file and then often Black cannot swap off by playing their own
  Rook to e8. Even stronger is to control the seventh rank absolutely
  with eg. Rook on d7 and e7, where they can gobble up pawns and
  often Ks.
• The furthest available square on an open or half-open file is a
  potential outpost or entry point.
• Open files are precious. If there is one around, with Rooks on
  the board, you must seek to control or challenge it. Particularly
  in open positions, control of files is paramount.
• Open files are useful only if there is an entry point, and in
  semi-open positions with many minor pieces an entry for a Rook may
  be lacking. In these cases you may be able to use a minor piece to
  make the first invasion, but sometimes the open file is not very
  useful.
• Very often the first priority in the early middle game in
  closed positions is to see where you can open a file. (Like in
  the French defence: after 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5
  Black should immediately see about opening up space on the
  Queen’s-side with 3…c5.)
• Half-open files (in positions without an open file) can be used
  to create pressure against the exposed Pawn.
• [Read more about Rooks]

Advice about minor pieces

• BISHOP: like the Rook, also needs open lines. The long
  diagonals a1-h8 and h1-a8 are useful, but often it is more
  important to point them at your opponent’s King’s-side , for
  example, by putting them on c4 and e3. Two bishops side by side can
  be very powerful in attacking from a distance, for example on b2
  and c2.
• Fianchettoed Bishops, at b2 or g2, need open diagonals.
• Knights need to be near the centre and
  forward; they thrive on outposts (whether
  absolute = can’t be dislodged by a Pawn, or
  relative, like on f5, when a pawn move (…g6) would
  weaken the opponent’s position).
• KNIGHT: The short-stepping Knight can get left behind if the
  battle moves away, so the best bet is to keep them in the centre.
  They are often best placed on c3 and f3 in the opening, although a
  Pawn on c3 may be needed to support d2-d4. Later, e5 and d5 are
  useful squares to occupy when they can threaten Pawns on c7/f7 and
  pinned Knights on c6/f6. They may be driven away from e5/d5 by
  pawns; best are squares where the opponent cannot – or dare not –
  chase them with pawns. If Black has moved his Pawns from c7 to c5
  and from e7 to e5 then a Knight on d5 can never be driven away,
  only exchanged for another piece. When this happens, you can try to
  recapture with another piece which also cannot be driven off. But
  another good square for a Knight, when pawns are on e4 and e5, is
  f5: here it threatens the pawn on g7, and if ever Black pushes it
  away with g6 then a hole appears on h6 for the Knight to hop into,
  perhaps giving check.
• The struggle of Bishop(s) against Knight(s) is
  crucial: the Bishops are not always better but in all
  positions you must strive to make your minor piece(s) better, or
  make the position suit them more.
• Bishops are better than Knights in Pawn races, because they can
  influence each side of the board at once.
• If you have the Bishop pair you must try to open up lines for
  them, and deny the opposing Knights any central posts.
• [Read more about Bishops and
  Knights]

Advice about Pawns

• PAWNS: You will have to move some to get your pieces out, and
  you can try to dominate the centre with pawns on e4 and d4 (
  perhaps with c4 and/or f4). But the pawns in front of your castled
  King form a solid wall on f2/g2/h2, and those on a2/b2/c2 are
  probably OK where they are too. So, oddly, pawns are often
  well-placed where they are at the start of the game. “Every
  pawn move loosens the position“, says Tarrasch: if you move
  the pawn on g2 to g3, you immediately get holes at f3 and h3.
  Moving a pawn from f2 to f3 not only takes away the best square for
  your Knight, which is a good defender of the pawn on h2, but also
  opens up a check to your King from c5. When the endgame appears,
  one side or the other will have to win material to win – by
  queening a Pawn, or at least threatening to. Then Pawns can be
  moved more freely, to block opposing Pawns, to create and support
  extra or passed Pawns of their own side, and to keep out the
  opponent’s pieces – including their King.
• If the pieces don’t suggest what plan you must adopt, the Pawns
  will.
• Weak Pawns are only weak if they (or the squares near them) can
  be attacked.
• Pawn structures usually have positive and negative
  features, e.g. every doubled Pawn yields a (half)-open
  file.
• Hanging Pawns are a typical example of an unbalanced dynamic
  situation, requiring vigorous action from both players.
• [Read more about Pawns]

Advice on tactics

• Combinations do not usually come out of nowhere – they are
  based on a superiority in position, and you can
  tell when a combination is likely to be around:
  1. Exposed or “stalemated” Kings are always
     vulnerable
  2. Undefended or ‘hanging’ pieces aften lead to
     trouble.
  3. Pieces which are defended only as often as they are
     attacked can also lead to trouble, because their defenders are at
     least partly immobilised..
• [Read more about Tactics]