The point in the game where you Just don't know

funny you should ask!

try the "Now What?" course by IM Jeremy Silman:

"We've all been there: you toss out your opening moves. At times you follow book (or at least think you are following book!), and at other times your opponent leaves book quickly, simply because he doesn't know the line as well as you do. In either case, once the basic moves are out of the way you find yourself pondering a burning question: Now what? Indeed, confusion is king as you find yourself having to reinvent the wheel over and over again. The followup questions haunt you: What's the plan? What in the world are you supposed to be doing? Why don't I already know this stuff? The fact is, all openings demand a certain amount of memorization. But far more important than the memorization of a bunch of moves is the understanding of what the pawn structures call for, where your pieces should be placed in these situations, and what the plans for both sides offer the respective players. Once you absorb this basic information about all your favorite opening lines, you'll find your results improving, the time you take in the opening diminishing, and your confidence soaring. The material in this course is designed to give you a taste of what these "prepackaged" plans look like, and this will help you search for such setups and plans in your own systems."

see: http://www.chess.com/chessmentor/view_course.html?id=302

:)

I see what you're saying Erik

 but if only there was some resource on the web that could help us with this question of now what?.........some web site with tools that would teach us to become better chess players, and understand our openings, middle games and end games...........that was easy to access and understand........I'm really at a loss on this one.....totally.......at a loss.............

there is chess337 a chess.com premium membership.

i don't know how to make it any easier for you :( i guess i could build a robot that goes to your house and gets your wallet out and subscribes for you?

Um... am I the only one who thinks chess377 was probably being ironic there?

When you end up in a position like that you should always look for good places for your pices and come up with a plan.

I think that if you study the openings in books or in other ways learn more about them than the moves you should not have so big problems with the plan. Often in books they tell you what you are suppose to aim for (in general) in the opening. And when reading the books: don't stop reading when the opening stops! Viewing masters play games with the opening also after opening stage makes you understand how to make the plan better.

Early middlegame planning is one of the most difficult area in chess. That's exactly what I'm working on most of the time to try and improve.

A good way to work it is to go through annotated games in your chosen openings. You can find them in famous game collections such as Zurich 1953.

Another good suggestion is to try Silman's chess mentor course, as stated above, because it will give you keys on the way of thinking at this stage of the game.

Thanks to all for a great question and a terrific set of helpful responses! I'm even grateful to rich Lancashire (sic) for unexpected instruction in how it is possible to be at once petty and perverse. Otherwise, this forum is a sterling example of what makes Chess.com a great site.

Learning at 60 

When I learned to play chess I never studied tactics. My books were a middlegame book by Pachman and Basic Chess Endings. Also books of Botvinnik’s and Reshevsky’s games. My openings were what they played. The result was an initial rating in the mid-1600’s and even today Fritzing those old games turns up few tactical errors. Playing positional chess didn’t allow opponents the opportunity to catch me in a lot of tactical traps. All I look for in each position is a tactical motif (pin, fork, undefended piece etc.) and if I don’t find one I know the likelihood of a tactical shot probably doesn’t exist and I can get to planning my move. On the other hand if I see a motif I know to at least look for a tactic.

I recently played a training game against a 1400 and I noticed nearly all of her errors, discounting a gross blunder of overlooking an obvious move, were the result of playing moves that were positionally ill advised. The result was I was able to build up a lot of positional advantages until her game just collapsed and resulted in a mating combination.

Actually plans usually consist of nothing more than a series of short range maneuvers. Like repositioning a poorly placed piece or occupying an open file or an outpost. A good rule of thumb if you can’t come up with anything is find your least active piece and reposition it where it does something or at least has more activity.

Another vote for "Reassess your chess."

This book seems to be about this exact situation, and gives step by step methodology for deciding what to do next.

I find that chess books in particular are filled with unlikely scenarios and tend to be more confusing than helpful. I try to think outside the box and pin, fork, and check whenever I can. The best plan is to have a plan.

 Yes but let's say all your pieces are on optimal squares, now what do you do?

Forum high five DeepGreene!!  Yes, I was being ironic!  I do definitely plan on getting a membership, it's just that right now with the economy the way it is...well....you know....but Erik if the chess.com robot ever shows up at my hosue I will happily give him my wallet to sign up for me.

Many games are lost because the player had the wrong plan.  Wrong plan is a result of wrong analysis.  Correct analysis comes from proper chess understanding, and that includes situations and its exceptions.  This take years to aquire.   See, each situation tells a different story, many players get trapped because they GENERALIZE the situation and come up with some plan that applies to a general principle.  But if they looked a litle closer, they would have noticed that the current situation may be( may not be) an exception to the general ideas and draw up a plan according to that.  I think many grandmaster level games are won or lost because of this.  Most amateur level games are deciced because a player blunders (more tactically, than positionally)  

these positions are the key to an element of chess you do notunderstand yet. the next time this happens save the position and study it after the game. It is never good that you dont know what to do, however, it is good that you can learn from this.

SPOILER said "Many games are lost because the player had the wrong plan.  Wrong plan is a result of wrong analysis.  Correct analysis comes from proper chess understanding, and that includes situations and its exceptions.  This take years to aquire. "

I would just like to second those remarks, as I found them to be very true. For what it is worth, I did not reach a state of never having a position where I did not know "what to do" until after reaching Master in Postal Chess. Then for a period of several years as the peak of my game, always knew pretty much what to do in every game. Even as Expert, there were times when thought I knew what to do but adopted a wrong plan. Now having fallen off of peak ability, I again find positions where I do not know for sure what to do. Or make mistakes of the type where playing an "exception" to general rules of strategy, which turns out to be in error rather than a correct exception.

So in light of this, I think it is safe to say that Knowing What To Do is actually a state of attaining Mastery of the game of Chess. Not only in knowlege, but in correctly implementing that knowlege. And so doing that, assumes correct analysis is made, "as a given". Thus, know that you are not alone, but among about 98+% of players when you struggle with the question of What To Do.

Study, study and study more and it may eventually come. If you are wondering, "Yes" it does feel rather "golden" to reach that state where you can feel you always know what to do. Of course it must be realized that even then, sometimes "what to do" is STill to lose the game and Resign gracefully . . . haha.

G/L in your Quest. It can take a lifetime, or more. But most of the fun IS in getting there~!