Exeter Chess Club: General Middlegame Advice


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 ALEKHINE

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

t+l+jL-T
+xD-+xX-
-S-+xS-X
X-+-N-+-
-+-P-+-+
Pb+-+-+-
-P-+qPpP
R-B-K-Nr
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 - what we have here, apart from possibly some nerves, is 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

-+-+-T-+
X-+-+j+-
-X-P-+rX
+-X-X-+p
-+p+pXk+
+p+-+-+-
p+-+-+-+
+-+-+-+-
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...



You and your opponent


Positional play


Planning


Strategical advice


General advice


Space and the centre


Advice about Kings and Queens


Advice about Rooks


Advice about minor pieces


Advice about Pawns


Advice on tactics


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This document (middle.html) was last modified on 21 Nov 1996 by

Dr. Dave