10 most important Middlegame Strategies

01. Control of the center:

Establishing control over the center squares is a key aspect of the chess middlegame. This gives you more space to move your pieces, and makes it harder for your opponent to do the same.

02. Piece development:

Developing your pieces to active squares where they can be used to attack or defend is crucial. Knights and bishops should be placed on squares where they can attack enemy pieces, and rooks should be placed on open files where they can control the center or penetrate the enemy position.

03. King safety: 

The middlegame is a good time to start thinking about your king's safety, especially if the enemy has a strong attack. Castling is a good way to secure your king, but make sure you don't castle into a dangerous situation.

04. Pawn structure: 

Pawns play a critical role in the middlegame. A strong pawn structure can restrict the enemy's pieces and control important squares, while weak pawns can leave your position vulnerable to attack. Consider pawn chains, isolated pawns, backward pawns, and doubled pawns when evaluating your pawn structure.

05. Piece coordination: 

Making sure your pieces work together is crucial in the middlegame. Attack with multiple pieces, and make sure your pieces defend each other. Avoid exposing your pieces to enemy attack without a good reason.

06. Strategic sacrifices:

Sacrificing a piece in the middlegame can be a good way to create threats, break through the enemy position, or simplify the position. However, sacrifices should be well thought out and based on a solid plan.

07. The power of the bishop pair: 

Having two bishops can be a significant advantage in the middlegame, as it gives you more control over the board and makes it harder for your opponent to coordinate their pieces.

08. The importance of squares: 

Different squares can have different importance in the middlegame, based on the pawn structure and piece placement. Understanding the significance of key squares can help you choose where to place your pieces and how to attack the enemy.

09. Prophylaxis: 

Anticipating your opponent's plans and taking steps to prevent them from coming to fruition is an important part of the middlegame. Consider what your opponent is trying to do, and try to stop them before they get started.

10. Understanding the stage of the game: 

Knowing what stage the game is in, and what that means for your strategy, is crucial in the middlegame. In the early middlegame, you may be focused on developing your pieces and castling. In the later middlegame, you may be focused on creating threats and launching an attack.

Lesson 18

Pawn Structure

Pawn structure is often the backbone upon which the strategy in a game rests. There are several things that need to be looked at when evaluating the pawn structure of a game. These include whether the game is open or closed, open files, open diagonals, vulnerable potential outposts, pawn islands, pawn chains, doubled pawns, backward pawns, passed pawns, protected passed pawns,

overall majorities, and local majorities.

A game is considered open if the center pawns (the ones on the d and e files) have been captured. A closed game is where they have not been captured. In general, an open game means pieces are able to move more easily through the center of the board, which leads to a more active and generally tactical game. A closed game means that positional considerations are more important. The players generally have more time to build a plan and the game, while often lasting longer in general, often hinges on subtleties that are less likely to be noticed by novice players. Usually beginners are encouraged to strive for open games to improve their tactical ability and only play closed games after they develop more of a feel for the game.

An open file is one with no pawns on it. This is basically a path for rooks to move on. This is usually their most powerful position. Often play can focus on who gains control of a file because this gives the person controlling it an advantage. A half open file is one where only the opponent's pawn is on the file. This is often a good second choice for a rook because it attacks the pawn in

question and often opens up the rest of the way.

An open diagonal is again a diagonal with no pawns blocking it. This is one that a bishop can traverse. Usually an open diagonal that travels through the center of the board is preferable because it allows the bishop to move to the greatest degree.

A vulnerable potential outpost is a square in the opponent's territory that can not be defended by an opponent's pawn. This is usually the result of a pawn that has been advanced too far or a weakened pawn structure. Placing a knight on an outpost gives the knight attacking potential and makes it a relatively stronger piece. Other pieces may also be placed on outposts as well.

A pawn island is any pawn or group of connected pawns separated from any other pawns by an open or half open file. Having two or three pawn islands is usually necessary to activate your rooks, but more than that indicates a weak pawn structure. The endpoints of pawn islands are typically potential weaknesses and a large number of breaks in your pawn structure means there are more places your opponent can penetrate into your territory.

A pawn chain is a set of pawns linked so each one is protected by a pawn behind it. Pawn chains form on diagonals. Pawn chains often contribute to determining which side of the board a player will try to open play up on (pawn chains point toward the direction that typically are attacked because a bishop can be on the diagonal behind it. This allows the bishop to attack the opponents

side of the board without worrying about their pawns getting in the way and with relative safety from opposing pieces that have to get around the pawn chain to attack the bishop. A pawn chain is most effectively attacked at its base (the pawn that has no other pawns protecting it).

Doubled pawns are pawns on the same file. This happens when a pawn captures. Doubled pawns often are seen as weaknesses because the lower pawn can not advance beyond the top one and doubling pawns usually leads to openings into your own territory for the opponent to attack. However, doubled pawns do have some advantages. For instance, a doubled pawn can advance without leaving undefended outposts or backward pawns. Tripled pawns are always weaknesses.

A backward pawn is one with no adjacent pawns behind it or on the same rank. It often needs to be defended with a piece and can not prevent an opposing piece from parking in front of it and using that square as an outpost while preventing the pawn from being able to advance. 

A passed pawn is a pawn that has no opposing pawn in front of it and is past any adjacent opposing pawns. This pawn has the potential to advance to the 8th rank and queen. It can only be stopped by an opposing piece or the king. A protected passed pawn is a passed pawn guarded by another pawn. capturing the pawn still leaves you with a passed pawn on recapture. If the only opposing piece is the king, neither pawn can safely be captured because that would put the king behind the passed pawn. The passed pawn can then advance and the king will never be able to

Chess Software (Part 02)

Playing software

For beginners playing often (as in daily) is the best way of improving. Willing and able opponents are usually not readily available in any household and the computer (as an opponent) could be a reasonable substitute. For a number of years now some excellent playing software programs have been entering the market. 

The most popular in SA is perhaps the Fritz and the ChessMaster programs. Fritz is a more professional package aimed at the serious player and ChessMaster is aimed at the more social player who likes a good quality game on his computer. The chess playing programs all have “chess engines”, the part that calculates the moves, and some claim to be more “positional” and others more “tactically” programmed. Set on their strongest level, these programs can play close to GM strength on modern PCs.

Recently a few companies have been packaging multiple chess CD’s in one package. These might include a few chess teaching programs with older versions of the playing program.

The underachieving player may want to spar against a computer playing program, rather than lose face against stronger opponents in a classroom situation. When the coach wants to use the playing programs for maximum benefit he (and his students) will have to learn how to change the settings and choose the desired options from the drop down menus. Parents may be able to afford expensive software, but it is (like good chess books) of no use if not applied to improve the player’s chess skill.

While the coach can introduce a playing program and the correct settings for optimal training for an individual, it must be remembered that the program is just an aid to training. Children soon learn how they can ‘cheat’ the machine like limiting the thinking time or even play second best moves to trap the computer in a slow positional game where it plays weaker. The machine doesn’t mind, but this may also lead to an attitude of disrespect for his opponent or unwillingness to really think hard on a position. Playing human opponents helps a player to deal with side issues such as human behavior and reactions to his own behavior, forces the player to practice good chess etiquette and respect written and unwritten accepted social behavior. One of the coach’s biggest challenges is to get a six year old player to sit still and not talk while making the moves.

Chess Software (Part 01)

Visual Instruction

There is a wide range of electronic aids available to the chess coach and the chess learner. The coach/parent/teachers and players will benefit provided the CDs, DVDs or playing programs are used for the purpose it was designed. 

Players (especially the lazy ones) will look for “quick fixes” to help him to “win” a tournament or make the team. It is doubtful that such a “magic wand” exists – if chess was that easy why does it have such an extensive literature? To try and find short cuts is a (very) short sighted approach and though some initial success against other low level players may be inspiring, such an approach will not produce a good higher level player.

 The coach, when using a particular visual training aid must, when planning how to apply it, first decide what he wants to achieve by using it. Every student learns in a different way, some learn well by going over their games, others not. Some like to go over problems, but for others this may be pure drudgery. A good coach should find out which form of media the player(s) get the most value: books, CD’s, DVDs, audio tapes, flash cards, rhymes, etc. In a class with mixed levels of playing skill the coach, with the help of the chess teacher/supervisor may need to differentiate extensively and having a variety in chess training aids may help.

 For teachers starting out with chess at a school and a small budget to start off the large beginner classes, a video to introduce players to chess and in which all the basic chess moves are explained and illustrated may be very suitable. Remember that such visual lessons can be viewed over and over again by younger or older players, be used for retraining and also viewed by several classes at various stages. GM Susan Polgar produced a number of videos for the beginner chess player which can be a good substitute for a coach if the school cannot afford a professional coach every week. However, the teacher (in charge of organizing chess) should review the material beforehand and when planning the chess classes apply the principle of giving a little time for theory and a lot of time for practice. An hour long instruction video (or DVD) must be broken up into smaller sections (simply pause the CD/DVD if no logical stop was put in). The teacher must give time to practice the moves (which were illustrated on the video) on the real chess board. The video instruction certainly does not mean that the chess teacher can sit back and relax – quite the opposite - it should be merely an illustration of the planned lesson for the day. 

  Many good videos feature grandmasters, or seasoned instructors as presenters, they explain opening theory or endgame theory which might be fairly advanced in content and above the ability of lower level players. Typically, the coach that introduces an electronic aid will have to study the DVD first on his own and make an assessment of the content, the time required and the level of player that will benefit by it. An instructional video is not a “movie” that players view with popcorn and soda. The coach will prepare the students in advance and perhaps produce a paper with questions which can be answered only if the player paid close attention to the instructor on the video. The coach will probably play only a part of the video to highlight a specific discussion; further parts will be covered in further lessons, with the proper preparation.

 The greatest advantage of network software or visual instruction is when it supports learner participation. Loading, for instance, a tactics program on a school’s network can allow users in a class to log in with their respective IDs and complete a course over weeks or even months. Having students capture their games in electronic format is likewise a very effective way of distributing and working with information.

Best 5 Chess Android Apps

1. Chess.com - The app allows you to easily play live and daily chess, to solve puzzles, and to watch videos. It's not as richly featured as the chess.com site is, but the new beta version is bringing many, many more features to the app.

2. Follow Chess - This app allows you to follow lots of major super tournaments live and support was just added to easily view all previous rounds of a tournament. The UI is gorgeous and unique, and the games can easily be passed over to Analyze This for engine analysis.

3. Chess Book Study - Simply reading a Chess book without a Chess board is not easy. The app allows you to load in any chess book in pdf or epub format and play through the material with a split screen chess board. Not many people have pdf or epub chess books, but if you do, this is a must have app.

4. DroidFish Chess - DroidFish is an Android port of the very strong Stockfish chess engine, combined with a feature-rich GUI.  It is a very powerful, free engine. While it may not have the prettiest interface, it works very well and is quite full featured.

5. ChessOcr - This app utilizes the camera to recognize Chess Diagrams in books using optical character recognition (OCR). It allows you to use your phone to scan a chess diagram (book or computer screen) and import it into one of your other chess programs for saving or analysis. It is remarkably accurate and only takes seconds.