Can you describe the 5 in middle game in a little more detail. It sounds like something that could stick with me also!
Guidelines
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Working on that for you Mr. Crow
The Middle Game Principles in detail.
- Consolidation
- Preparation
- Liberation
- Liquidation
- The Art of Ignoring
So you have made it out of the opening. Now what? Its time to form a plan (easier said than done) This is usually revolved around the pawn formation or the use of pawn breaks. These 5 guidelines are a useful reminder of what needs to happen in the middle game.
1. Consolidation – Consolidating your pieces to revolve around your plan. When you play your opening you should try to place your pieces on the best square for them. This is to save time in the opening, but once your done with that phase of the game your piece may not have landed on the optimal square, or your plan may not call for the placement of that pieces position, or a forced capture may have dislodged that piece from its current job. This calls for consolidation. This could be a rerouting of the Bishop or the Queen, or the recirculation of the knight for an outpost.
2. Preparation – From the opening we hear the rule, don’t attack until you are developed. This runs on the same principle. A simplified idea of this is that you would not push your pawn into the attack of an enemy Rook that could take it for free, you would prepare this by attacking the square in front of that pawn by something else first. If you saw a tactic that would only work if your opponent’s knight were gone, then you prepare the attack by trying to deflect the defender.
3. Liberation – Throughout the middle game different pieces have their own jobs to do. One tactic to look for is an overworked piece. So to liberate a piece is to release a job for a piece, whether its getting out of a pin, guarding a piece/pawn/square with something else so that piece can now move. Liberation could also be considered preparation for an attack. Every time you break a pin you are liberating the piece the pin was on.
4. Liquidation – There are times when your opponents pieces prove to be too much of a liability and need to be taken off, or a threat has been made and you do not want to lose time by retreating. This is when you liquidate those pieces. This is nothing more than a trade that does not yield a material advantage or imbalance, but it may buy time, space, or manipulating the pawn structure in your favor.
5. The Art of Ignoring - When a threat is put on you and you either counterattack with an equal or greater threat, such as a Zwischenzug. Or sacrifice the piece for a more long term positional threat.
Below I have added an example game, it may not be the best game, but it shows a lot of the princpipals above. Any criticizm is welcome and I hope this helps!!
Your middle game advice glosses over the most important part of the middle game, coming up with a plan! I think your summary of middle game principles should be based on forming plans using the imbalances in Silman’s Reassess Your Chess.
Great advice. Thank you. Forming a plan IS the most important idea in the middlegame no doubt, Silman's RYC is one of my favorite books and I have taken many ideas away from reading it. My goal here was not to replace his ideas of formulating a plan but rather to have little catch phrases for general ideas during the game, just something like a checklist in your mind. That is why it is not as much detail as Silman's book. Do you think there are any points that are absolutely missing in my 5 steps that should be covered?
We have all seen the different ideas (Guidelines) in chess and they have been broken down to the 3 main parts of the game. The opening, the middlegame, and the endgame. Ive found a great site that has several of these listed.
http://home.comcast.net/~danheisman/Articles/Dan_sayings.html
My goal is to simplify these rules as much as possible and trying to give the rule a catchy phrase so the idea stands out. I believe Ive got a good start on the opening and middle game.
The Opening
With those 3 ideas anyone should be able to make it through the opening. They are broad enough that other specific ideas like moving a piece twice fall under developing your pieces, sense moving a developed piece dosent help your development.
The Middle Game
These 5 ideas were given to me by a guy in the park and they really stuck with me and helped my middlegame. I liked how they all seemed to flow together and encompass most if not all of the specific middlegame ideas. (if anyone knows another source they come from please let me know)
Ive attempted to do the same with the endgame and have only come up with a few.
Would anybody here be able to give me ideas for the endgame and/or critique any of the other ideas Ive listed. I think the goal is to keep them under 5 rules that cover as much as possible, or at least have the most important aspect of that part of the game.
Thank you for any help given.