How To Make A Plan In Chess

Planning is a key skill in chess that helps you move beyond just reacting to your opponent’s moves. It involves thinking ahead, setting goals, and working towards them with a series of coordinated moves. Having a good plan makes your play more focused and purposeful, which leads to better results. In this blog, we'll break down the steps to make a solid chess plan, from assessing the position to choosing the right strategy. Whether you're new to chess or looking for a way to improve, understanding how to make a plan will help you play more effectively and get better results.

A Quality Plan versus a Poor Plan: How to tell the difference? 

A good plan is a plan that is aimed at exploiting your opponent's weaknesses while strengthening your own position, giving you a higher winning chance of that game. 

A bad plan is a plan that is poorly suited to the position, ignores key principles, and leads to weakened positions or missed opportunities. 

EXAMPLE POSITION #1

Here's our first example position, it's white to play. What do you think white should play here? 

It can be clearly seen that white has an active queen on the g5 square, which could be really useful in the attacking plan. And here, f4 would have been the best move! Firstly we're threatening e5, trapping the f6 bishop, also it allows white to play something like Rf3, bringing more attackers! 

EXAMPLE POSITION #2

Here we are, our second example position, it's white to play yet again. What do you think white should play here? 

Firstly, you can see that almost all of white pieces are developed and active already, only the a1 rook which is going to be developed very soon, compared to black pieces, who hasn't developed their queen and rook yet. 

The best move for white would be Qc6, very strong move, attacking the c6 pawn that can be defended by only move, Rc8 which was played in this game. And after this white will go Re1, Nf3 and then Ne5 crushing Black's position.

EXAMPLE POSITION #3

Finally we're here with the position with black to play. So, what should black play here? 

You can see at first that the position is almost equal, although, black has a very strong move with an interesting idea behind it!

The best move would have been Queen to e5! Which was played in the game. The idea of Qe5 was that black is threatening Bd6 and target the h2 square which is really hard to defend.

You can see the follow-up below!

Conclusion :

Making a plan in chess involves a combination of strategic thinking, positional evaluation, and tactical awareness. First, assess the current the position, including material balance, piece activity, pawn structure and king safety. Identify both your and your opponent's strengths and weaknesses. Next, develop a strategic goal that aligns with these observations, such as targeting a weak pawn, controlling key squares, or preparing a pawn break. By following these steps, you can create effective plans which enhance your overall chess play.