How to unlock a very complicated game

Hi,

I am quite a low rate player. Sometimes. I am struggling to see what to play when everything seems locked, in a very complex middle game.

I know, there's always a "best move". I am also usually trying in such cases to simplify the game by exchanging pieces, but i have to admit my chess expertise is too limited, and it's a risk I take to destroy my entire structure just because I have to play something. Even if I know I have to exchange a "bad piece" agaist a "good" one, it's theory, and on a "locked" board, everything can be considered as good, as being part of a complex balanced structure.

I tried to analyse the games afterwards, and it seems the engine plays slow moves I couldn't figure out, because it's only complex positional moves, out of my reach I assume.

I am curious : in such cases, how do you consider the problem, on which angles, which questions do you ask yourself, do you rather consider tactics/strategy,... If you have clue, anything which can just give me some inspiration.

Note: I am not talking about blitz here of course, but games in which you have time to think.

Opening Principles:

1. Control the center squares – d4-e4-d5-e5

2. Develop your minor pieces toward the center – piece activity is the key

3. Castle

4. Connect your rooks

Tactics...tactics...tactics...

Pre Move Checklist:

1. Make sure all your pieces are safe. 

2. Look for forcing move: Checks, captures, threats. You want to look at ALL forcing moves (even the bad ones) this will force you look at, and see the entire board. 

3. If there are no forcing moves, you then want to remove any of your opponent’s pieces from your side of the board. 

4. If your opponent doesn’t have any of his pieces on your side of the board, then you want to improve the position of your least active piece. 

5. After each move by your opponent, ask yourself: "What is my opponent trying to do?"

Middlegame Planning:

1. Expand your position:

a. Gain more space.

b. Improve the position of your pieces.

2. Decide on what side of the board to play.

a. Queenside: a-c files.

b. Center: d-e files.

c. Kingside: f-h files.

Compare, space, material, and weakness(es)

Play where you have the advantage.

3. DO NOT HURRY.  Regroup your pieces, and be patient. 

wow thanks a lot IMBacon, and especially catdogorb. THAT is a very complete reply. I really appreciate the time you should have spent on this. Indeed, lots of valuable clues for me now. You re right, regarding the fact I should have illustrated with a specific game. But i really needed general approach rather than just a specific analysis on a single setup (you gave me exactly what i needed :) ) THANKS!

Possibly of interest:

Simple Attacking Plans by Fred Wilson (2012)

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708090402/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review874.pdf
http://dev.jeremysilman.com/shop/pc/Simple-Attacking-Plans-77p3731.htm
Logical Chess: Move by Move by Irving Chernev (1957)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708104437/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/logichess.pdf
The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played by Irving Chernev (1965)
https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/most-instructive-games-of-chess-ever-played/
Winning Chess by Irving Chernev and Fred Reinfeld (1948)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708093415/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review919.pdf
Back to Basics: Tactics by Dan Heisman (2007)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708233537/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review585.pdf
https://www.chess.com/article/view/book-review-back-to-basics-tactics
Discovering Chess Openings by GM John Emms (2006)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627114655/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen91.pdf
Openings for Amateurs by Pete Tamburro (2014)
http://kenilworthian.blogspot.com/2014/05/review-of-pete-tamburros-openings-for.html
https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/openings-for-amateurs/
https://www.mongoosepress.com/catalog/excerpts/openings_amateurs.pdf
Chess Endgames for Kids by Karsten Müller (2015)
https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/chess-endgames-for-kids/
http://www.gambitbooks.com/pdfs/Chess_Endgames_for_Kids.pdf
A Guide to Chess Improvement by Dan Heisman (2010)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708105628/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review781.pdf
Studying Chess Made Easy by Andrew Soltis (2009)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708090448/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review750.pdf
Seirawan stuff:
http://seagaard.dk/review/eng/bo_beginner/ev_winning_chess.asp?KATID=BO&ID=BO-Beginner
http://www.nystar.com/tamarkin/review1.htm
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627132508/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen173.pdf
https://www.chess.com/article/view/book-review-winning-chess-endings
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708092617/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review560.pdf

I am not a particularly good player either personally hate closed positions too. However saying what to do in a closed position just is a very general question. I mean the answer is always that it depends on the position.

There are some positions where a pawn break is a available, you use that. A lot depends on how safe your enemy king is. If there is room for an attack then it is worth sacrificing a minor piece for a pawn to open up the position and go for his king.

However again these are just very broad options. I tihnk it would be better if you posted a game of yours where you struggled in a closed position and then things would be easier to look at and explain.

Hi,

Here above one of them. Note: it's a 1 day daily game which is still currently on. So I won't come back on this post until the end, to avoid any kind of external influence, naturally. I chose to post this one, because it's the one I have the freshest mind with.

Thanks again for all your tips !

Since it is an ongoing game, you need to remove it.

Break the Centre

Agreed, Actually i normally never do that, but I played versus another player who did it against me and literally flooded me with pawns. So I don't know....wanted to break the rule just to see. But I won't do it again in daily games (blitz I might), as I saw it leaded me to a closed type of game I am not comfortable with. This game certainly doesn't seem tricky to most of you, but if somebody is curious, we finished it (see below). I tried to play a positional move by putting my dark squared bishop in fianchetto, which gave me a big advantage later in the game, and then exchanging my light squarred bishop with his knight in g6, opening the kingside defense before he castles (which he didn't). But this move made me almost lose, opening his H file with his rook. It was also the move which made me win afterwards i think, but my limited version of chess.com didn't allowed me an analysis of the game after the tenth move, which i find really strange. too bad, I will try again to launch the analysis tomorrow.

Still, I think my opponent deserved to win.

Thanks catdogorb. Castle or not castle, that was a question i struggled to answer myself in the game. Actually, I saw the big deadspace around my king, but even worse, the great attacking potential of the opponent with his dark bishop + queen aligned + open rook and his knight in F6.

Seeing your rating, 100% sure you are right, but I difficultly see which strategy I would have built by then,  with a lone king and my non connected rooks (a1 rook seems terrible...)

Just a suggestion.  After 1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 d6 3.e3 Nf6 4.d4 Nbd7 5.b4 b6 6.d5 Be7 7.Bd3 c5!?

A better continuation than 8.a3 is 8.d5xc6 (e.p.).   The pawn structure advantage for White is obvious.

wow i didn t figure this en passant :o

thanks a lot guys, i really appreciate the time you put on it to help me have an other look at my game