Planning

So...I have been studying chess quite a while now.  I often am better out of the opening, just due to actually following those basic principles you hear about.  And I know some tactics.

But...how exactly does one plan?  You often hear about it...that you should have a plan...but if a plan is to be more than a long tactic, how does one do it?  Even watching game analysis videos, you will usually see tactical lines discussed much more than plans.  There may be a few nods to one side would like to control a particular square or diagonal...but really not much.  So...how bout it?

A simple middlegame plan is the following:

Middle game:

When you have completed the Opening Principles, you are now at the middle game.  Now you need to formulate a middle game plan.  The middle game is a very complicated part of a chess game.  A simple way to develop a middle game plan is to perform the following steps.

1.      Scan your opponents 5^th, and 6^th ranks (3^rd, and 4^th if your black)

2.      Look for weak pawns, and or weak squares.

Ø  Weak pawns and squares are Pawns, and squares that cannot be defended by another Pawn.

Ø  Knights are excellent pieces on weak squares.

Ø  When deciding on weak squares, and weak Pawns to attack, the closer to the center the better

Learning many common endgame evaluations and reading a book on strategy helps a lot. Also I really liked Pawn Structure Chess by Soltis. Read it all, even if you don't play those structures, and you start to get a feel for e.g. what side of the board to play on and which pawn breaks are important.

Maybe a simple engdame example, but how in R vs R with pawns on one side of the board:
1 vs 2 (pawns) up through 3 vs 4 are draws (excluding special cases).
But 4 vs 5 is (technically) winning.

If you know a lot of stuff like that, then you may be on move 20, waaaaay before any endgames, but you can evaluate, for example, which minor piece trades are acceptable and which would be really bad. Or whether you can trade queens, one pair of rooks, both pairs, etc. Not always applicable so early, but just giving you the idea.

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As for more direct planning, it's often short term goals (like improving a piece, setting up a pawn break, or changing the pawn structure). But it's true this often happens in the larger context of which side of the board you're seeking play on (usually where you have more space and active pieces). A lot of focus on the pawns and minor pieces... at least that's how I tend to read middlegames currently. Anyway, endgames and a strategy book is what I recommend.

A more indepth way to formulate a middlegame plan in a nutshell:

1. Seperate the board into 3 sections:

a-c files (queenside)

d-e files (middle)

f-h files (kingside)

Look at each part of the board and firgure out the following:

1. Material - who has more material (pieces, not pawns) on that side of the board?

2. Space - Who has more space? (pawn position)

3. Weakness(es) - What weaknesses does each side have?

You determine what part of the board you play on depending on where your advantage lies.  If you have the advanatge in 2 out of the 3, or 3 out of the 3 then that would be where you play.

Obvioulsy there is a lot more to this, but thats it in a nutshell.

Yeah, which squares pawns and minor pieces do control / are able to control usually gives the broad ideas.

It may sound funny, but the more valuable the piece, the less effective its defense. For example if a pawn defends a square, no piece (except another pawn) dares to land on it. But if a queen helps defend a square, it can't afford to trade itself so sometimes its defense is meaningless.

In other words, if you coordinate your lesser pieces on squares that the opponent can't easily reach with their lesser pieces, then the defense is very difficult / impossible  

Oh, and sometimes you have to just cheat (so to speak).

Chess is hard, and a lot of great players have worked on ideas over 100s of years. Just playing over a lot of games and noting to yourself things like which side of the board the players seek play on, and how (just very generally, are they using pawn or pieces) gives you ideas you (probably) wouldn't have found on your own.

They don't even have to be from openings you play, you don't need to fully understand the game, and you don't even need to spend more than a few minutes per game. Make a routine of something like 5 GM games a day from a major tournament (past or present) making brief notes to yourself. Over time good ideas start to sink in.