Day 25: Middlegame Adventures
I need to improve in all phases of the game, but middlegame is where I feel like I struggle the most. You can find course after course on opening theory and endgame tactics, but the middlegame is where there seems to be endless possibilities.
This is a position from a recent game:
It is white to move and the engine says that the position is completely even. We have both done a reasonable job of developing our pieces and fighting for space. Black has slightly more active pieces and a better central pawn chain. White has an advanced Queen-side pawn on b5. Both sides are threatening the opponent's castled King. What to do next?
Well, there is what should have been done and what I did! What should have been done is trying to remove the black knight from their very stable and protective perch on c5 by playing Nb3. (Another viable option would have been continuing the Queen-side pressure by playing a4.)
The basic goal here would be to weaken the pawn structure around Black's King and then attempt to infiltrate with the Rooks. Black has a lot of counterplay in this position, which means all of this is a bit tricky and White is probably best suited to get the Queens off the board to limit the possibility of dangerous errors.
In this game, I played a terrible move, which fortunately was missed by my opponent.
Nf3. Massive blunder! The pawn on g2 is pinned by the Black Queen meaning that the knight is just hanging and can be taken immediately by Rf3. That didn't happen though and we both made several more mistakes with the game finally ending in this position.
