What to do after the opening stage?

Everyone chess player has his/her own Achilles heel – after all, we’re humans, and no one can always win. However, many chess players’ Achilles heel is the transition between the opening stage and the middlegame stage of a chess game.

After the opening moves are completed, they ask themselves “Okay, what now?”. Sadly, most of them do not really what to do, and they play random moves and end up on the losing side. Now, let’s look at a practical example:

It is a typical position that depicts the transition between the opening and middlegame stage, and it’s Black to play. How should Black proceed here?

Okay, first, let’s take a quick scan at the pieces to see if we need to improve any of them and place in a better position.

• a5-knight: It looks quite fine there, attacking the c4-pawn. 
• a8-rook: It looks good on the open a-file. 
• g7-bishop: The fianchetto bishop is placed on the long diagonal and it also guards the king on h8.
• h5-knight: Currently, it’s doing nothing there. So maybe Black should improve it. 
• c8-bishop: It is undeveloped, but if Black wants to develop it, it seems it has no perfect place.

So, what do you think? What should Black do here? What is your plan? Please, take this task seriously and try to come up with a good plan for Black and then you can watch the introduction video to the course “From opening to middlegame” below:

WATCH THE YOUTUBE VIDEO 

 If you purchase the course “From opening to middlegame” on or before Saturday, 17 June (offer period) you will get another course by IM Asaf Givon “How to play like a chess PRO” (worth $15 USD) completely FREE!

Use coupon "otm20" and save $8 USD on the course (huge 20% discount!) 

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C6 looks good enough for me