The Ultimate Strategy: Improving the Pieces

Maybe the most important ingredient of a successful middlegame strategy is to know when and how to improve the position of your pieces, making them both active and effective participants in your major plan on the board. Oftentimes, this step requires the recognition of the worst placed piece and the creativity to come up with the most efficient way to improve its inferior position relative to its opposite-colored counterpart. In this lecture, I take the time to explain that process through a highly instructive example of sound planning by the long-time veteran and promoter of chess mastery, GM Nigel Short. In a game, he plays again fellow GM Boris Gelfand, Short demonstrates his creativity and precision when it comes to the middlegame, crushing his opponent in a position where even Rybka would feel helpless. Take a moment to watch my lecture and learn one more weapon to add to your chess arsenal of middlegame planning principles.