How does one exploit won tempi?

In many of my games, I end up with an extra tempo going into a middlegame.  But how do you use a tempo?  I can't seem to find a good way to exploit a won tempo, and it usually is completely worthless to me in a middlegame.

what's a won tempi?

As I haven't seen any game you mention, it's hard to tell exactly what kind of time advantage you mean.

An approach of counting tempi which is still in use would bo count how many moves the respective pieces of each side have made, or even trading a piece which has moved twice for a piece which moved four times (which would constitute an advantage of two tempi). I assume that you are referring to this kind of count.

Alas, this classic approach is way too formalistic, and has seen its most glorious times at the beginning of the 20th century. Modern players often seem to defy the principles of swift development, but they only do that to obtain other positional assets. However, in today's chess it is impossible to separate these factors, and so it may well be that in the games you talk of you may have had a formal tempo advatage, but none in terms of the connection of the above factors.

John Watson talks a great deal about this issue in his famous book "Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy", and when introducing the topic of rule-independence he cites a rather shocking game, where Black makes a large number of pawn moves, only develops his queen, then starts a one-piece-attack and wins. What is important to note here is that Black's opening strategy is well founded in spite of its peculiar look, and he doesn't win because White commits a gross blunder but rather because White doesn't find the appropriate means to counter Black's play, which is a rather common cause for losing a high level chess game I will give the game below, but without the commentary, as I suspect that might violate some copyright or other (Actually I just reread that passage in question, and Watson says he himself found that game in a book by Andrew Soltis).

On the other hand, of course it may well be that you enter the middle game stage with a real development advantage, so then the classical principles still hold true: Maintain the initiative, create threats and don't hesitate to sacrifice material in order to do so. This should do the trick, although still no player is immune to miscalculation - but then this happens to everyone at times and in this case losing doesn't have to mean that your overall strategy was wrong. Post-mortem analysis of the game in question will reveal which was the case - a most useful tool for self-improvement!

Right, I have rambled on for long enough, so here's the game from the Watson book:

and that is how you use the caro kann :)

Wow, that was a crushing game.

With tempi, a lot depends on the type of position. If you have an extra tempo in an open position, then continuing swift and accurate development will often result in at least winning material, or gaining a winning attack. In a closed middlegame, however, such an advantage is less clear, and I think structural moves should often be considered instead.

That's a good question. In general one may exploit a tempo to better position an awkwardly placed piece. In the opening that means developing a piece. In the middlegame you can play many things. For instance, if you have an attack, you can use your extra move to launch another piece which, in a normal situation, would have had been a loss of tempo for yourself. Or you can play a pawn to gain some space (or restrict one of your opponet's piece activity). You can place the knight on an apparently weak square in an attempt to redirect it to a stronger square some time later. Or, with an extra tempo you can play a knight (or whatever) to block your strong bishop knowing that on the next move you will have a discovered threat.

It depends on the position really, but in an equal position you can always think big and play a certain piece ( I recommend the rook) which will give you a good activity in the endgame. Don't forget that in the middlegame-towards-endgame activity is the most important factor, so you should try to take control on as many squares as possible.

If you came across this many times but you were never able to exploit it, it means you are not playing with a plan. If you have a master plan (defending or attacking) you will have no problem exploitting an extra move to consolidate your position. Did you ever wish " if only that piece was not there" or "if only my knight was here"...An extra tempo is a wish come true

I was taught when you have a time advantage, look for attacks at a specific target. When you have a space advantage, look to alternate attacks to create structural or material advantages.

The question that I am mentioning is those cases in extremely closed games with locked pawn structures, where it seems like there is nothing to do.

ELBEASTO> The question that I am mentioning is those cases in extremely closed games with locked pawn structures, where it seems like there is nothing to do.

In that case, an extra tempo often doesn't matter so much as in an open game. You may see elaborate knight maneuvers by both players in such middlegames.