Chess Middlegame And Strategy Archives - Chessentials https://chessentials.com/category/learn-chess/chess-middlegame-and-strategy/ Chess blog about chess tactics, chess games and chess books Tue, 01 Nov 2022 12:31:33 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 https://chessentials.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/cropped-vjeks2-2-1-32x32.png Chess Middlegame And Strategy Archives - Chessentials https://chessentials.com/category/learn-chess/chess-middlegame-and-strategy/ 32 32 Mikhail Tal Best Games https://chessentials.com/mikhail-tal-best-games/ https://chessentials.com/mikhail-tal-best-games/#respond Tue, 01 Nov 2022 12:31:33 +0000 https://chessentials.com/?p=10482 The games analyzed in this article can be found in this public Lichess Study. You can also download them in the .pgn format at my Chess PGN Download page. The Magician From Riga Out of...

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]]> The games analyzed in this article can be found in this public Lichess Study.

You can also download them in the .pgn format at my Chess PGN Download page.

The Magician From Riga

Out of all World Chess Champions, Mikhail Tal’s life and games have very likely captivated the hearts and minds of chess players worldwide. When you ask people who their favourite player is, sooner or later his name enters the mix and most chess players can remember at least one of his memorable sacrifices, if not more. Even though his short tenure as the World Champion only lasted for one year (from 1960 when he won the World Championship match against Botvinnik until 1961 when he lost the Return World Championship match to the same opponent), his legacy and the effect on the chess world have been unparalleled – even for the World Chess Champion standard.

What is it about Tal’s style that makes his games so memorable? Well, his extremely combative, tactical, and sharp style and his absolute willingness to search for creative ideas and sacrifice material in the process – even under the most unexpected, surprising circumstances. Even though chess history has seen a number of true tactical geniuses, 1 no other player had such an innate ability (and inclination) to create total chaos on the board, go for material sacrifices and positions where everything and display Tal’s level of creativity and imagination.

Due to his tremendous calculating ability as well as a certain talent to simply “see” through the variations, Tal would often come on top in these tactical skirmishes. Even though his concepts and sacrifices were often not 100% correct from the objective standpoint, they posed his opponents with very difficult problems they were often unable to solve over the board, with the clock ticking. 2

Such a playing style was particularly fresh and novel in the 1950s and 1960s. At the time, the whole chess world was influenced by the strict Soviet school of chess, spearheaded by the likes of Botvinnik and Smyslov, which had a very solid strategical/positional foundation. Tal’s daredevil, seemingly “gambling” style sent shockwaves at a time – especially when it transpired you can reach the very summit of chess and become World Champion with it.

When you also add Tal’s witty, jovial and humorous character into the equation, as well as the tragic circumstances connected to the lifelong health issues that hindered him from achieving as much as he could achieve in chess, you can understand why he is a fan favourite.

In this post, we will take a look at some of his famous and memorable games. The games have been fully annotated by the author of these lines 3 Of course, given his legacy, it was very difficult to make a selection – the full list of his memorable games would extend further away from the number ten. But in order to keep it reasonable and manageable, one has to cut the line somewhere.

Hopefully, this post will serve as a motivation for the reader to find out more about Tal and to look for other wonderful Tal gems for themselves. Now, without further ado, let’s dive into the magical world of the magician from Riga.

 Mikhail Tal – Alexander Tolush, USSR Championship, 1957.

A very one-sided stomp of the King’s Indian Defence with the White pieces. Perhaps not the most spectacular game, but very instructive and a good introduction to the Tal style.

Mikhail Tal – Alexander Koblents, Riga, 1957.

A mind-boggling Sicilian skirmish against his own coach Alexander Koblents. One of those typical Tal games that makes your head dizzy with all the possibilities, tactics and reach ideas.

Milko Bobotsov – Mikhail Tal, World Championship U26, 1958.

A remarkable positional queen sacrifice in the Saemisch King’s Indian that has since become more-or-less standard. Not the typical Tal game, but a very beautiful one nevertheless.

Mikhail Tal – Vasily Smyslov, Candidates Tournament, 1959.

The famous clash against Vasily Smyslov from 1959. candidates where Tal managed to “trick” his very experienced opponent and defeat him in just 26 moves, with the help of some very exciting and flashy tactical shots.

Mikhail Tal – Mikhail Botvinnik, World Championship 1960., Game 1

The first game of the Tal’s 1960 World Championship Match against Botvinnik and the only instance in that match where Botvinnik dared to venture the French Defence.

Mikhail Botvinnik – Mikhail Tal, World Championship 1960., Game 6

Another very famous and celebrated game, in which Tal went for the speculative piece sacrifice in the King’s Indian which completely rattled the Patriarch.

Mikhail Tal – Hans-Joachim Hecht, Varna, 1962.

A famous game featuring a spectacular queen’s sacrifice, during which Miguel Najdorf allegedly kissed Tal after the latter made the tremendous 19.exf6 move!

Mikhail Tal – Lajos Portisch, Candidates Quarterfinal, 1965., Game 2

Another game with a very high competitive significance – played at the Quarterfinal Candidates match against Lajos Portisch – and another one of those amazing Tal attacks that makes you smile :).

Mikhail Tal -Michael Stean, Alekhine Memorial, 1975.

A very instructive and also attractive game where Tal displayed his understanding of the White side of the Tarrasch Defence, apart from the usual genius tactical stuff.

Mikhail Tal – Johann Hjartarson, Reykjavik, 1987.

Last but not least – a sort of swansong game by Mikhail Tal against Johann Hjartarson, during which he displayed a masterful understanding of the Ruy Lopez structures and topped it with a spectacular sacrificial finish.

 

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]]> https://chessentials.com/mikhail-tal-best-games/feed/ 0 Another 7 Checkmate Patterns Every Chess Player Should Know https://chessentials.com/another-7-checkmate-patterns-every-chess-player-should-know/ https://chessentials.com/another-7-checkmate-patterns-every-chess-player-should-know/#respond Sat, 11 May 2019 20:50:23 +0000 https://chessentials.com/?p=9543 This is a 2nd part of the post devoted to Checkmate Patterns Every Chess Player Should Know. The 1st part of the post is available here.  Mate nr. 9 A piece on f6 can be...

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]]> This is a 2nd part of the post devoted to Checkmate Patterns Every Chess Player Should Know.

The 1st part of the post is available here. 

Mate nr. 9

A piece on f6 can be no less dangerous. A checkmate pattern featuring the bishop on the long diagonal (usually on f6) is the one the authors of the book call mate nr. 9:

The advantage of the bishop over pawn is that it also controls the square g5:

Readers of this blog might recall the game Euwe – Loman, Rotterdam, 1923, where this checkmate pattern appeared. 1 Just in case, we provided another beautiful example:

Pillsbury’s mate

Harry Nelson Pillsbury was one of the strongest players from the end of the 19th century (the winner of Hastings tournament 1895). He discovered the following checkmate pattern:

Harry Nelson Pillsbury

The game in which this pattern could have appeared for the first time is Pillsbury – Lee, London, 1899:

Damiano’s mate

Pedro Damiano was a strong Portuguese player who lived from 1480 to 1544. He discovered another checkmate pattern which proves the strength of the pawn on the 6th rank – this time on g6:

Pedro Damiano playing against NN (Source: Wikipedia)

Apart from the pawn, a bishop on g6 can also turn out to be extremely powerful:

You may recall this checkmate appeared in the game between Botvinnik and Keres in Soviet Team Championship 1966. But the version with the bishop is more common in practical play:

The Arabian mate

The oldest pattern on the record and another one that fascinates players due to the limited material required to execute it is the „Arabian“ mate:

The following practical (and modern) example is very beautiful:

„Gueridon“ mate

Next, we will consider two checkmates with French names. The first one is the so-called Gueridon mate:

Gueridon’s mate is very common in numerous king’s pawn opening variations where things go badly for Black. For example, if Black make san early mistake in Philidor Defense, this might happen:

„Epaulette“ mate

Gueridon’s mate close cousin is Epaulette mate. Epaulette in French means „shoulder pad“. It will be soon clear why:

I don’t think this checkmate is THAT common in practice. But sometimes it can appear:

Bishop and Knight mate

It is well-known that the bishop and the knight can checkmate a lone king in the endgame. However, they also have considerable power in the middle game. Bishop and knight mate is another commonly encountered in practice, especially via the following mechanism:

There are many positions where Black has pawns on f7, g6 and h7, andWhite uses the threat of this checkmate to exploit the weak dark squares with the move Ng4. The following variation of the Ruy Lopez is a good example:

Once again – this is the second part of this article. The second part, titled 7 Checkmate Patterns Every Chess Player Should Know, is available here.

 

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]]> https://chessentials.com/another-7-checkmate-patterns-every-chess-player-should-know/feed/ 0 7 Checkmate Patterns Every Chess Player Should Know https://chessentials.com/checkmate-patterns/ https://chessentials.com/checkmate-patterns/#respond Sat, 11 May 2019 19:50:28 +0000 https://chessentials.com/?p=9540 Initially, this was imagined as a single post. Due to its length, we have decided to split it into two parts. The second part titled Another 7 Checkmate Patterns Every Chess Player Should Know can...

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]]> Initially, this was imagined as a single post. Due to its length, we have decided to split it into two parts.

The second part titled Another 7 Checkmate Patterns Every Chess Player Should Know can be found here.

A couple of days ago, as I was browsing through my Quora feed, I stumbled on the following question:

„I am a beginner chess player but find that I always struggle to find a checkmate position and the end game becomes long and tedious even when it should be easy to finish – how can I improve this?“

Guided by the rule that if one person asked this question, there are probably others, I realized beginners 1 often struggle with checkmating the opponent’s king in a middlegame.

I also realized there is a gap in the chess literature when it comes to this topic. From the top of my head, I could quote only two good books:2 The Art Of The Checkmate by Georges Renaud and Victor Kahn and Art Of Attack by Vladimir Vuković, who are entirely devoted to attacking and checkmating the king.

Considering our previous post, 10 Endgames Every Chess Player Should Know, got a good reception, the blogger and click-baiter inside of me saw another opportunity. Since I was lucky enough to stumble on The Art Of Checkmate in my youth, I learned the value of explaining and learning essential checkmate patterns. 3

(Fun fact – I just realized the same book has two names. The earlier version was titled The Art Of The Checkmate. The newer one, translated into algebraic notation, omitted „the“ and became The Art Of Checkmate)

That is how I got the idea to write a post on the topic. On the list below, you can find 14 checkmate patterns every chess player should know. Apart from the checkmate pattern itself, I have also provided an annotated sample game featuring it, so the reader can see the attacking moves that led to it and get an overall picture of how to apply the pattern in his own game.

Hope you will find it helpful!

Back rank (corridor) mate

Let’s start with an easy one. Back rank or corridor mate utilizes the fact that a castled king (on the kingside) is blocked by its own pawns. Any check down the 8th (1st) rank that can’t be blocked is, therefore, a checkmate.

A famous example is Capablanca’s game against Bernstein from Moscow Tournament 1914:

Of course, back rank mate rarely appears in its most primitive form. There are several variations on the theme:

If you think this is too naive, bear in mind that even World Champions are prone to becoming victims to this checkmate pattern:

Smothered (Lucena’s) mate

All chess players enjoy delivering the smothered mate. There is something aesthetically pleasing in deciding the outcome with a single piece.

Out of all variations of the smothered mate, the one discovered by Lolli in 1497 is most common:

Juan Ramirez Lucena (source: Wikipedia)

This pattern often appears in practice. Even the author of these lines delivered it several times (alas, mostly in blitz games). The following game by Paul Morphy is a good example because the checkmate is executed slightly differently:

Greco’s mate

Gioachino Greco is a famous Italian chess player from the beginning of the 16th century. He discovered numerous principles of the game (who doesn’t know his Bxh7 sacrifice).

Gioachino Greco( source Arves.org)

He was also the discoverer of the following checkmate pattern:

My favorite game featuring Greco’s mate is the game between Max Lange – the inventor of the Max Lange Attack – and Adolf Anderssen, one of the strongest player of the 19th century and the creator of the famous „Evergreen“ and „Immortal“ games.

Anastasia’s mate

The following checkmate pattern, in which a knight plays the crucial role, was named after a novel from the beginning of the 18th century:

There is no better example of this checkmate than the game between Milan Vidmar and Max Euwe from Karlsbad Tournament 1929.

Even Arya Stark would be proud of this last-minute save. 4

Boden’s mate

Every chess player knows about the power of two bishops. Their ultimate potential was discovered by Samuel Boden in the 19th century:

Samuel Boden (source: Chesshistory)

Boden’s mate is often utilized as a threat. But sometimes, it can appear on the board, usually following a major blunder:

Blackburne’s mate

James Henry Blackburne was a strong player from the 19th century, known for his attacking and romantic style. He was also the first to execute the following combination:

James Henry Blackburne (source: Wikipedia)

I already showed the stem game of the Blackburne’s mate in my review of the Art Of The Checkmate. Since I am very fond of that game (Jerome’s Gambit!), I am going to reproduce it here:

Lolli’s mate

We are taught that a pawn on the 6th rank in the vicinity of the king is an important asset.  Lolli’s checkmate patterns is the best evidence of its potential:

The following beautiful attacking game, played by Vera Menchik – the strongest female player from the first half of the 20th century – is a great example of Lolli’s mate in practice:

Vera Menchik (source: Pinterest)

Allow me to repeat once again in case you missed it – this is the first part of the article devoted to checkmate patterns. The second part, titled Another 7 Checkmate Patterns Every Chess Player Should Know, is available here.

 

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]]> https://chessentials.com/checkmate-patterns/feed/ 0 How To Analyze Your Chess Games Like A Pretentious Asshole https://chessentials.com/how-to-analyze-your-chess-games-like-a-pretentious-asshole/ https://chessentials.com/how-to-analyze-your-chess-games-like-a-pretentious-asshole/#respond Fri, 15 Mar 2019 18:40:30 +0000 https://chessentials.com/?p=9422 Analyzing your own games We all know we should analyze our own games. In his interview, European Champion Ivan Šarić mentioned it as a tool on the road of chess improvement. Several other grandmasters and...

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]]> Analyzing your own games

We all know we should analyze our own games. In his interview, European Champion Ivan Šarić mentioned it as a tool on the road of chess improvement. Several other grandmasters and chess authors, like Alex Yermolinsky, Jacoob Aagard, Rafael Leitao and Jesse Krai have emphasized its importance. To say nothing of the godfather of the analysis – Mark Dvoretsky himself.

However, few of us know HOW exactly we should do it.

Oh sure, there are articles all over the Internet offering us with general guidelines. Write down your moves. Search for ideas. Don’t use the engines. Never play the London System. 1 Even the author of these lines wrote a heavily researched paid article for the website International Chess School where he included several of them.

However, even though these tips are useful, all these articles miss the most important point.

It is well-known that strong chess players 2 have huge egos. Whether it is Garry Kasparov storming off after a 13-year-old draws with him, Robert James Fischer accusing Russians and Jews of conspiracy or a local National Master saying me to go fuck myself because I swindled him from a position where I was two pawns down 3, all chess players „lose it“ from time to time.

And behave like assholes.

This tendency is especially apparent when they analyze their own games. I am sure you have had at least one post-mortem analysis where your opponent just couldn’t shut up. Where you felt like a completely inferior player. Irrespective if you have actually won the game.

This leads us to the REAL secret of acquiring chess mastery – learning how to analyze your own games like a pretentious asshole. Only if you manage to inflate your ego will you be able to reach unprecedented chess heights.

Being a pretentious asshole does not come naturally to us all, though. It is a skill to be acquired through due diligence and constant practice.

In the remainder of the post, I will present you with a detailed step-to-step tutorial of this craft. In the very end, I will provide you with the sample asshole analysis of one of my own games.

Analyzing your chess games like a pretentious asshole

Here’s how to analyze your chess games like a pretentious asshole in nine steps:

1.    Overestimate your strength

A general rule about chess game analysis states that the stronger a player is, the better analysis he will produce.

We also know that know-it-alls are the most annoying kind of people you will ever meet. Especially if they only pretend they know it all, whereas in reality, they are more like Jon Snow.

They know nothing.

If we put two and two together, the first step toward analyzing your games like a pretentious asshole is clear – vastly overestimating your chess playing strength. Being self-aggrandizing will allow you to approach your games from a completely different aspect. And lose your objectivity more easily (see tip number 4).

Now, you might think playing good moves is something that happens to other people. But don’t let that discourage you. There are many 1500 rated players who think they should be 2500. There is no reason for you not to become one of them.

Besides – half of the self-help industry, shitty books like the Secret and motivational speakers on Instagram are telling you that „You can“. To „Believe in yourself“.

Who are you to doubt them.

2.    Underestimate your opponent

Unless your name is Magnus Carlsen 4, you will encounter players who are higher rated than yourself. You might be inclined to think they are more capable of analyzing games than you are.

Forget all about that. If you have implemented step number one correctly and overestimated your strength, underestimating your opponents should come naturally. You will very quickly realize they can only beat you if they get lucky.

A technique that might help you in achieving this goal is the following. Grab the nearest pen. Open a notebook. And write the following a hundred times:

„The patzer didn’t see anything…

The patzer didn’t see anything….

The patzer didn’t see anything…“

3.    Ignore your weaknesses

Let’s be frank – all chess players have weaknesses. That includes you. When it comes to chess game analysis, there are two ways of dealing with them:

  • You can admit you made them and then try to work hard in eliminating them
  • You can ignore them and convince yourself you don’t actually have them

I hope most of you guessed by now that our recommended option is the second one. It is not one of the ingredients of becoming an asshole, but it is also much easier to achieve.

And way more practical. Imagine you are analyzing a game you won. Do you really want to spoilt the perfect picture of your awesomeness by focusing on minor trifles, such as ‘imprecisions’ or ‘blunders’? It is really important if you could have converted the game more quickly in the endgame? Your win was inevitable from the moment you sat at the board, anyway.

Of course, ignoring your weaknesses when it comes to the games you lost is more difficult. That is where good excuses come in handy. „I didn’t feel well that day“, „We played on different chess set“, „The noise level was unbearable“ or „I would have seen that if I really tried“ are rather popular ones.

4.    Lose your objectivity

Throughout the history, there have been two types of approaches toward game analysis. One was to search for the absolute truth in the position. The other was to not.

Every pretentious asshole should adopt the latter, because the absolute truth has the potential to destroy the image of you being a perfect player. In order to maintain your delusions, it is essential to content yourself with your good (or bad) moves and not to search for a better one. In order to visualize success, you need to ignore all the doubt.

Now, this might be difficult to do in the era of chess engines, which make the search for the absolute truth easier and faster than ever before. That is why losing your objectivity is crucial. If a chess player confronts you with the engine evaluation that contradicts your own, you need to dismiss it as soon as possible.

Arguments such as: „Engines don’t understand anything“ or „Engines can be wrong“ are also popular. Alternatively, you can – just like politicians – outright ignore the facts and keep repeating you were definitely better during the whole game.

5.    Talk, don’t listen

Look, it’s simple – your opponent can’t challenge your ideas and your logical presentation of the game if he doesn’t get the opportunity to talk. The point it to focus on the quantity, and not on the quality of our own variations.

Just look at Vladimir Kramnik – the master of this approach – absolutely demolishing Ding Liren in the post-game conference:

Be more like that.

Be like Kramnik.

6.    Oversimplify, overgeneralize and use cliches

Not an essential step toward analyzing your games like a pretentious asshole, but it might add that extra flavour to your comments.

Evaluating positions too dramatically, relying on general chess principles without taking the concrete position into consideration and using cliches such as „The rest is a matter of technique“ might be a small step for the quality of your analysis.

But a giant leap on your quest toward being a pretentious asshole.

7.    Name drop as often as possible

Is there anything more pretentious than using the names of famous players and refering to their games when analyzing your own?

Don’t hesitate to describe your exchange sacrifice „Petrosianic“, your endgame as „Smyslovian“ or an attacking game you played „Tal-like“.

How will the people know about your erudition if you don’t display it as often as possible?

8.    Watch CM Radio Jan

The ultimate pretentious asshole and my personal role model. You can start with the following video. He does get crushed by a grandmaster, but at least he handles it properly – with zero dignity.

9.    Take everything too seriously

Last but not least, it is well known good chess players (and pretentious assholes) have zero sense of humour. Whether we are talking about high quality George Carlin jokes or low quality Chessentials shitposts, you have to treat them all equally.

You have to take everything too seriously, laugh as little as possible.

And preferably get offended along the way.

This concludes are detailed and heavily researched step-to-step tutorial that explains how to analyze your chess games like a pretentious asshole.

Hope you found it helpful and that you will successfully annoy all your opponents and lose all your friends!

Good luck!

Analyzing my own game like a pretentious asshole

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]]> https://chessentials.com/how-to-analyze-your-chess-games-like-a-pretentious-asshole/feed/ 0 Best chess middle game books https://chessentials.com/best-chess-middle-game-books/ https://chessentials.com/best-chess-middle-game-books/#comments Wed, 12 Apr 2017 09:44:48 +0000 https://chessentials.com/?p=1723 Introduction In the previous post  we have already identified chess middle game as the phase of the chess game that tends to be hardest to improve. The points mentioned in that post very much apply to...

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]]> Introduction

In the previous post  we have already identified chess middle game as the phase of the chess game that tends to be hardest to improve.

The points mentioned in that post very much apply to chess literature as well:

  • When searching for a good book about the openings, a player only needs a book relevant for the opening he most often plays. Therefore, eliminating superfluous books is not an insurmountable task.
  • The famous Tolstoy’s first sentence of Ana Karenina about the similarities of families can be applied to the books about the endgame as well. Since endgame study HAS to be systematic, the authors often follow the well-throden paths while explaining key endgame concepts.

On the other hand, in order to master the middle game, a player needs to learn everything about pawn structures, weaknesses, attacking, defending, strategy, calculating, tactics, etc…

It is impossible to completely ignore anything mentioned above. Which is a big problem for the middle game book authors, since a book covering all these aspects would be probably much thicker than the afore mentioned Ana Karenina.

And also, probably even more boring.

Consequently, finding a good middle game book can be very confusing, as the guidelines defining what’s “good” are much less clear.

Therefore, we have decided to make a list of chess middle game books that are widely recognized as the best choice.

Best chess middle game books

Art of Attack in Chess – Vladimir Vuković

Art of Attack in Chess by [Vukovic, Vladimir]

I hope no one will blame me if I start this list with a little bit of patriotism.

The first book I would like to mention is the brilliant Art of attack in chess written by deceased Yugoslav International Master, Vladimir Vuković.

During the most part of the 20th century, Vuković was the editor of the Yugoslav magazine Šahovski glasnik. This official periodical of the Yugoslavian chess federaton was very popular in the pre computer era.

The Art of attack in chess, written back in 1963., covers all the aspects of attacking in chess (quite surprisingly).

The value of the Art of attack in chess lies in the fact that it extensively covers the building of the attack right out of the opening, instead of focusing solely on it’s tactical execution.

Vuković covers both the basic and more complex attacking mechanicsms. The chapters include variety of middle game situations, such as:

  • Attacking the uncastled king
  • Classic bishop sacrifice
  • Attacking the castled position
  • Attacking the focal points (f7, g7 and h7)
  • etc.

Almost every chapter contains classic games from the players like Capablanca, Alekhine, Tarrasch, Lasker, etc.

The book contains something for everyone. It is one of those chess books that is quite easy to read and very difficult to master.

It is amazing how good this book still is, 54 years after it’s first edition appeared.

The Middlegame in Chess – Reuben Fine

Reuben Fine was quite an extraordinary man.

Apart from being one of the strongest chess players on the planet during the late 30s and early 40s, he was also a doctor of psychology and insanely productive chess author.

I would like to focus on the latter part of his personality of course. He wrote numerous chess books about different phases of the game.

It is quite appropriate to compare him with the mythical king Midas. Because almost anything he wrote was pure gold. Even nowadays, most of his books are considered as classics.

The middle game in chess is no exception. Although I have mentioned that covering all the aspects of the middle game in a single book is virtually impossible, Fine’s book comes close to refuting that claim.

The middle game in chess covers a variety of themes. Some of the chapters include:

  • Mating attacks
  • Combinations and tactical play
  • Pawn structure
  • Accumulating small pluses
  • Transitioning into favourable endgame

What makes this book so special is the fact that there is nothing special about it.

Fine’s style is very clear, very concise and very logical. Unlike the author of these lines, Fine doesn’t tend to get carried away. The book is highly practical and to wrap it all up, it’s simplicity makes it quite an enjoyable read.

The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played – Reuben Fine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After examining the book by a strong chess grandmaster, it is time to check the work of the ultimate chess enthusiast.

The name of Irving Chernev should really be known by any self respectable chess player.

Because although he was a player of a “mere” national master strength, his obsession with chess turned him into one of the most productive chess authors of the 20th century.

And also a quite successfuly one, since the sales of his book An invitation to chess reached six figures.

The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played represents a benchmark of his work.

Irving takes a look at the 62 beautiful and instructive chess games played mostly in the first half of the 20th century.

Irving’s style is mostly suitable for beginners. He doesn’t dwelve into lenghty analysis of the variations but focuses on the IDEAS instead.

A player can learn alot about middle games themes such as weak squares, pawn structures, undermining pawn chains, etc.

The book is a joy to read. His enthusiasm is contagious, as evident from the artistic titles he assignes to the games:

I quite like how Chernev managed to find relatively lesser known games that are still as instructive more famous games of the world champions.

Logical Chess: Move by Move: Every move explained – Irving Chernev

In order to demonstrate my respect and love for Irving Chernev’s work, I can’t resist mentioning his even more popular bestseller.

Every comment about The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played applies to the “Logical Chess: Move by Move: Every Move Explained.”

In this book, Chernev goes through 33 classic games, telling the reader the reason behind every single move.

Once again, the emhpasis is not on concrete variations, but on the ideas instead. Chernev tries to explain the thinking process of great players and pretty much succeeds in it.

The Art of Planning in Chess: Move by move – Neil Mcdonald

The move by move concept has enjoyed significant burst of popularity ever since Chernev first introduced it.

English Grandmaster Neil Mcdonald has certainly followed Chernev’s footsteps, as his impressive chess bibliography includes quite a number of move by move books.

And although these books often focus on the specific opening, The Art of Planning in Chess has always been my favourite.

The Art of Planning in Chess is essentialy an improved version of the Logical Chess:Move by Move: Every Move Explained. 

Mcdonald has selected a number of games played by the modern Grandmasters, and tried to explain the logic behind every move.

Apart from analyzing the games, Mcdonalds has grouped them on the basis of the six different strategic themes:

  • Ferocious files
  • Dangerous diagonals
  • Wearing down a weakness
  • Surging throught the centre
  • Pawns and goat pegs
  • Horrible holes

There are both pros and cons to this book.

Such a simplistic approach to the modern chess clashes makes it much easier to understand what the hell is going on on the board.

On the other hand, since modern chess games are much complicated than the ones played in the past, using text instead of variations is sometimes inadequate.

For me, the pros outweigh the cons and I have enjoyed and learnt much from reading this book.

Honorary mention

The list above consists of the books I have read during my chess career.

However, there is a certain flaw in my choice. Because the books mentioned can be considered as “basics” and there is not much advanced stuff in them.

Therefore, I have decided to do some research.

And I have managed to find some books that I haven’t read completely, but I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them to someone stronger than me.

Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy – John Watson

In his book Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy International Master John Watson tries to pick up the baton from Aaron Nimzowitsch’s My system.

Watson analyzes various strategic themes from the modern viewpoint. Strategic themes such as :

  • Centre and development
  • Pawn minorities and majorities
  • Prophylaxis
  • Exchange sacrifice
  • And much more

I haven’t read the whole book yet, but so far I very much like the fact that Watson often mentions positions resulting from the modern opening variations, such as Modern defence or Posioned Pawn variation in the Najdorf.

There is no doubt that John Watson’s work is more advanced than any of the books mentioned previously.

Understanding Chess Middlegames – John Nunn

No chess book list is complete untill it mentions the English Grandmaster John Nunn.

Readers of this blog might remember him from the previous posts about endgame books or tactics books.

This post will be no exception. Because Understanding Chess Middlegames is another marvellous piece of Nunn’s chess bibliography.

To an extent, Understanding Chess Middlegames is comparable to Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy. Because both books focus on the middle game from the modern viewpoint.

Understanding Chess Middlegames focuses on 100 middle game principles. Each principle is covered on only two pages and is depicted with a couple of practical examples.

Some of the principles featured in the book are:

  • Material imbalances
  • Activity
  • Pawn structure
  • Attacking play
  • Typical mistakes

Judging by the quality of other Nunn’s books, one can hardly fail by investing time and money into reading this one as well.

Conclusion

This post gave the overview of best chess middle game books out there. Hopefully you will be able to improve your middle game and unleash your chess potential with the help of magnificent chess authors mentioned here.

Good luck!

 

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]]> https://chessentials.com/best-chess-middle-game-books/feed/ 2 Chess middle game principles https://chessentials.com/chess-middle-game-principles/ https://chessentials.com/chess-middle-game-principles/#comments Tue, 31 Jan 2017 22:25:22 +0000 https://chessentials.com/?p=1203 WHY IS THE MIDDLE GAME SO HARD? The course of a typical chess game can be divided into three phases: the opening, the middle game and the endgame. In order to become a strong chess...

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The post Chess middle game principles appeared first on Chessentials.

]]> WHY IS THE MIDDLE GAME SO HARD?

The course of a typical chess game can be divided into three phases: the opening, the middle game and the endgame. In order to become a strong chess player, one should obtain a certain level in all three phases of the game.

However, one of the most common dilemmas every chess player encounters is working on and improving his middle game.

What is it that makes studying middle games so confusing, compared to the other phases of the game? In my opinion, there are  various reasons:

  • Improving your opening or endgame phase is much  more straightforward. Having trouble with the French defence? Grab the book about the French, go through your chessbase and see a couple of grandmaster games, learn 15 moves by hearth and.. voila. Your rook endgames are terrible? Grab the  Dvoretsky’s endgame manual, analyze some rook endgames and bingo. You should immediately notice improvement in your playing strength.
  • On the other hand, the middle game is much more diverse and there are less clear guidelines that indicate how to improve. For instance, you might solve tactical puzzles like Mikhail Tal in his best days, and then never get the chance to employ that skill as you get strangled positionally in a trendy variation of a boring London System.
  • In the opening, opponent’s choices don’t have that much of an impact as in the middle game. There are many strong players who play only a couple of systems, know them to a certain degree and never bothered to expand their opening repertoire. In the middle game, the course of the game is much more dependant on the choice of your opponent. For instance, your opponent can make an incorrect sacrifice which suddenly forces you to switch from positional to highly tactical play. Sure, it is not always a must to accept such a sacrifice, but often it is unavoidable.
  • On the sub-grandmaster level most of the games don’t even reach the endgame and are decided in the middle game. The most often comment about strong young players is that their endgame play is seriously lacking. Personally, I have been able to reach almost 2200 ELO with truly attrocious endgame play.

Or if you remember the famous Tarrasch quote:

” Before the endgame, the gods have placed the middle game.”

gods

Therefore,  it makes a lot of sense to disassemble something as complex as middle game, into something simpler and more understandable. That’s why chess players have introduced a multitude of rules of thumb or chess middle game principles.  Learning this principles and having them in mind during the game should hopefully make navigating the middle game slightly easier.

In the remainder of the post we have covered some of the most common middle game principles.

It has to be mentioned that in chess no truth is absolute and that you will often find exceptions that go against these principles.

But let me retort with the saying I have never ever understood:

“Exception proves the rule.”

1. DEVELOP YOUR PIECES

It is debatable whether piece development belongs to the opening or the middle game phase of the game, but it’s importance can’t be overemphasized.

Already as beginners, we are all taught not to undertake any actions (for instance opening the position),  while insufficiently developed.

However, it is amazing how often strong players violate that rule. Naturally, sometimes there is a specific reason for that (for instance, our opponent has hindered our developement). But more often than not, we get impatient and start concrete play while forgetting about a certain piece.. or two..

The move 6… Nh5? from our first Featured Sundays game is a nice example of ignoring your development. And keep in mind that Black was not some patzer of the street, but a player with ELO rating above 2000.

And for those who think that only amateur players ignore such basic rules, perhaps the game between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Wesley So from the recently finished Tata Steel chess tournament is well worth checking.

nepo-pain-of-thought

2. TAKE CARE OF HIS MAJESTY

Although this clause might be superfluous because we have just mentioned the importance of piece development, I think it is worth mentioning king safety nevertheless. There are numerous games and whole opening variations revolving about the idea of keeping the enemy king in the centre of the board.

And although there are numerous exceptions where king was safer behind the pawns in the centre, or even went up the board, they are exceptions for a reason.

Generally, once you get the opportunity to castle, you might want to do it. Better sooner than never.

A very nice example of punishing the delay of castling is the following game.

king dead
The king is dead, long live the king

3. EXPLOIT OPPONENT’S WEAKNESSES

The term “weakness” most often refers to a weak pawn. In the lower spheres of the ELO rating system your opponents will inevitably leave some weak points in their positions.

It is important to identify those weaknesses as soon as possible and to take advantage of them.

How does a typical weakness look like? It can be one of the following:

  • A backward pawn left without the support of the other pawns
  • An isolated pawn left without the support of the other pawns
  • A doubled or  tripled pawns whose mobility is severely restricted
  • An advanced pawn in front of the king that is prone to pawn/piece attacks
  • A pawn too far advanced and left without the support of the remaining pieces, etc.

The following game is very nice example of exploiting a weak pawn. Note how the whole action revolved around weak c6 pawn and how the need to defend it tied the Black pieces.

weak pawn

4. EXCHANGE PIECES WHEN AHEAD IN MATERIAL

In general, once you win material, further exchanges should be in your favour. This rule shouldn’t come as a surprise. Consider the following position:

 

Also,  our Features Sundays game is once again a vivid example. If White had played 23 Rxc6, forcing the queen exchange, his task would have been simpler and there would be less chance to blunder something, which actually happened in the game.

5. PAWNS DON’T MOVE BACKWARDS

This principle is very important. Most beginners throw the kitchen sink at their opponent and unleash pawn advances without proper thinking. And once they attack fails miserably, they are left with plenty of weaknesses for their opponent to exploit. Therefore, whenever you are considering a pawn advance, keep in mind that he, unlike Frodo and Samwise, might never return.

frodo_sam
The only instance of the pawns moving backward in the history

6. AN ATTACK ON THE FLANK IS BEST COUNTERED BY ACTION IN THE CENTRE

One of the very important principle about attack and defence. Every chess player has at least once experienced the h and g pawns rushing toward his king. It is useful to have the ground idea about countering such escapades.

And also, if you are contemplating a flank attack, it is good to know that it is most efficient when the pawn structure in the centre is closed (or static, if you wish).

The Sicilian defence is an opening where the above described scenario often occurs.

The following game should really belong to “learning from the best” category, since we see the Najdorf virtuoso, Robert James Fischer in action.

7. OCCUPY OPEN FILES WITH HEAVY PIECES

A file is open when there are no pawns of either colour on it. Utilizing open files is self evident for any strong player, but it is worth mentioning nevertheless.

Once you place your heavy pieces (most often rooks) on an open file, you maximize their potential. This mechanism is particularly effective when there is only a single file open on the board, and control of open files becomes more important as the number of the pieces is reduced on the board.

A rook on an open file can infiltrate the enemy position and threaten the pawns on the 2nd/7th rank, or in some scenarios, introduce a mating threat on the 1st/8th rank.

The most vidvid example of open file control is surely the famous Alekhine – Yates encounter. Note how Black was completely paralyzed with the strongly positioned white rooks on the c-file.

Also, the final combination is well worth remembering.

8. PLAY WITH A PLAN

Another very common principle taught to beginners is to always have a plan. Often it is said that it is better to play with a bad plan, then without a plan whatsoever.

In his book Think like a grandmaster, grandmaster Alexandar Kotov claims that every strong player has a clear plan already around move eight or nine. In the modern, computer era, the move number is probably even lower.

So how does playing with a plan look like? I know I have struggled for quite some time to understand how exactly a plan in chess is executed.

We have already mentioned some points that might be defined as a plan.

Some possible plans might include the following (you will notice that some of the clauses were already mentioned in the article):

  • Attacking a weak pawn
  • Preparing to attack the king
  • Utilizing a weak square
  • Undermining the opponent’s centre, etc..

NOplan

For instance, on move 15 in the afore mentioned Alekhine – Yates game, White’s position is better. His plan includes either invading the sevent rank via 15 Qc7 or start the maneovre to put his knight on the c5 square.

We see from including the word either in the previous sentence that often one’s plan may be highly dependant on the opponent’s moves. Therefore, it is important to remain flexible with your plans, and to be able to adapt your plan according to the circumstance.

Furthermore, we see that Black was unable to prevent both White plans in the aforementioned game. However, there are instances where that is not necessarily so. Which brings us to the next point.

9. PREVENT YOUR OPPONENT’S PLAN(S)

You should always keep track about your opponen’ts plans, as well as your own. And if it is possible, you should do your best to prevent your opponent’s plan.

A practical example? Take the following position into consideration:

 

10. IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO,  IMPROVE YOUR WORST PIECE

Finally,  there are certain positions when it is not possible/easy to devise a constructive plan. For instance, sometimes a position is just dead equal no matter what you do or try to do. Other times, finding a plan can be extremely hard and you sometimes simply don’t know how to proceed in a certain position.

In such instances, it is useful to remember the chess evergreen : “If you don’t know what to do, improve your worst piece.”

Sometimes such an approach might not alter the evaluation of a position. But since playing equal positions is also a very important skill to master, with such an approach one can hardly ever go wrong.

As an example, take the following position into consideration:

What should White do here? Double the rooks? Advance the pawns?

Generally, this position should be around equal. But there is still some play left in the position.

Here for instance White can probably try to improve his knight on f3 which is doing nothing and bring it over to the queenside. Therefore, a move like 1 Ne1 is legitimate here, heading for the d3-c5 or maybe d3-b4 route.

Black can prevent this maneovre with a move like 1… Bb5. But this is an indication that there is still some play left in the position.

With this, we have come to the end of this article. I hope you have found some of this principles useful. Naturally, we haven’t included every possible middlegame principle out there, so if you want to add anything, feel free to comment below, or contact us on continents.obp@gmail.com.

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