Understanding Chess Middlegames

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• Material Imbalances 21
  • 1 Advantage of the Exchange 24
  • 2 Rook vs Two Minor Pieces 26
  • 3 Piece for Three Pawns 28
  • 4 Queen vs Rook and Minor Piece 30
  • 5 Queen vs Two Rooks 32
  • 6 Queen vs Three Minor Pieces 34
  • 7 Queen vs Two Minor Pieces 36
  • 8 Playing with an Extra Pawn 38
  • 9 Playing with a Pawn Less 40
  • 10 Bishop vs Knight (1) 42
  • 11 Bishop vs Knight (2) 44
  • 12 The Two Bishops 46
• Strategy 48
  • 13 Creating a Plan 50
  • 14 When You Can’t Think of a Plan 52
  • 15 Central Pawns 54
  • 16 Improving Piece Position 56
  • 17 Space Advantage 58
  • 18 Manoeuvring 60
  • 19 Liquidating to an Endgame 62
  • 20 Using the Whole Board 64
  • 21 The Minority Attack 66
  • 22 Inferior Positions 68
• Activity 70
  • 23 The Curse of Passivity 72
  • 24 The Initiative 74
  • 25 Open Files 76
  • 26 The Seventh Rank 78
  • 27 Outposts 80
  • 28 The Dominant Knight 82
  • 29 Misplaced Piece 84
  • 30 Good and Bad Bishops 86
  • 31 When a Bad Bishop is Good 88
  • 32 Opening Lines 90
  • 33 Positional Pawn Sacrifices 92
  • 34 Liberating Moves 94
  • 35 Positional Exchange Sacrifices 96
  • 36 Other Positional Sacrifices 98
• Attacking Play 100
  • 37 King in the Centre 102
  • 38 The Íxh7+ Sacrifice (1) 104
  • 39 The Íxh7+ Sacrifice (2) 106
  • 40 Disaster on g7 108
  • 41 The Íxh6 Sacrifice 110
  • 42 The Weak f7-Square 112
  • 43 The Nd5 Sacrifice in the Sicilian 114
  • 44 The Nxe6 Sacrifice in the Sicilian 116
  • 45 The Nf5 Sacrifice in the Sicilian 118
  • 46 ...Rxc3 in the Sicilian 120
  • 47 Castling on Opposite Sides 122
  • 48 The Rook-Lift 124
  • 49 Advancing Pawns against the Enemy King 126
  • 50 Bringing up the Reserves 128
  • 51 Excluding Defensive Pieces 130
  • 52 Opening Files against the King 132
  • 53 Attack against the Fianchetto 134
  • 54 The Deadly Long Diagonal 136
  • 55 Marginal Sacrifices 138
  • 56 Breakthrough to the King 140
  • 57 The All-Out Attack 142
  • 58 Surprise Moves 144
• Defensive Play 146
  • 59 The Risks of Attacking 148
  • 60 Exchanging Attacking Pieces 150
  • 61 Avoiding Weaknesses 152
  • 62 The Defensive Sacrifice 154
  • 63 Coolness under Fire 156
  • 64 Running with the King 158
  • 65 Counter-Attack 160
  • 66 Don’t Panic! 162
• Pawn-Structure 164
  • 67 Isolated Pawns 166
  • 68 The IQP 168
  • 69 Hanging Pawns 170
  • 70 Doubled Pawns 172
  • 71 Two Bishops vs Doubled Pawns 174
  • 72 Backward Pawns 176
  • 73 Pawn-Islands 178
  • 74 Weak Colour Complex 180
  • 75 The Central Passed Pawn 182
  • 76 Queenside and Kingside Majorities 184
  • 77 Pawn Breakthrough 186
  • 78 Pawn-Chains 188
  • 79 Pawn-Chains and Space Advantages 190
  • 80 Sacrificial Demolition of Pawn-Chains 192
• Typical Central Pawn-Formations 194
  • 81 The Open Centre 196
  • 82 The Open e-File Centre 198
  • 83 Closed Ruy Lopez Structure 200
  • 84 French Winawer Structure 202
  • 85 Sicilian Scheveningen Structure 204
  • 86 Sicilian Najdorf Structure 206
  • 87 Caro-Kann Structure 208
  • 88 Sämisch King’s Indian Structure 210
  • 89 Benoni Structure 212
• Typical Mistakes 214
  • 90 Falling into Traps 216
  • 91 Underestimating an Attack 218
  • 92 Overestimating an Attack 220
  • 93 Missing a Tactical Defence 222
  • 94 Overvaluing a Material Advantage 224
  • 95 Overvaluing the Two Bishops 226
  • 96 Automatically Accepting Sacrifices 228
  • 97 Lack of Alertness 230
  • 98 Allowing a Swindle 232
  • 99 Losing the Thread 234
  • 100 Giving Up 236
• Index of Games 238