Ten ideas for the middlegame.
Your pieces are out and your king is safe. Now what? These ten plans help you find a good move when there is nothing obvious to do. Each one comes with boards to step through, and some for you to solve.
- Improving
- Lesson 4 of 8
- 10 ideas · 27 boards
A battery on a file
A battery is two or more long-range pieces lined up on the same file or diagonal. Together they hit much harder than one piece on its own.
Two rooks
Queen and rook
In the next position the black knight on c6 is pinned by the bishop on b5. It can’t move without losing the queen. How can White pile on the pressure?
Build the battery
Make it a triple battery
A battery on a diagonal
Queen and bishop can make a battery on a diagonal too. It is an easy way to build pressure on a key square, like h7 next to a castled king.
Bishop in front
Queen in front
Finish it
Pawn breaks
Once your knights and bishops are out and you have castled, a common next step is to break open the centre with a pawn. That gives your pieces open files and diagonals to attack along.
All of White’s pieces are ready, and Black’s king is still in the middle. This is the perfect time to attack. Which pawn move opens the centre?
Break open the centre
Black tries to get the king to safety by castling. What can White play now?
Win a piece
The whole combination
Trade a weak piece for a strong one
Knights and bishops are both worth 3 points, but they are not always equal. If you can swap one of your weak pieces for one of your opponent’s strong ones, you usually should.
Example 1: stop the threat and swap
White’s queen and bishop are threatening Qxf7 checkmate. Black’s knight on d7 is doing very little. Can Black stop the mate and swap that knight for the strong bishop?
Defend and attack
Example 2: swap off the strong bishop
White’s bishop on b2 is powerful and controls lots of central squares. Black’s bishop on e7 is passive. How can Black fix this?
Make room for the bishop
Relocate a knight to an outpost
An outpost is a square your opponent’s pawns can never attack. Knights love outposts, because no pawn can chase them away. In this position, d5 is an outpost for White.
The d5 outpost
Too quick
Bring a second knight
Attack with a pawn storm
When the kings have castled on opposite sides, a great way to attack is a pawn storm: push several pawns towards the enemy king. Here White’s king is on the queenside and Black’s is on the kingside.
Start the storm
If Black ignores the attack
If Black takes: option 1
If Black takes: option 2
Use a rook lift to attack the king
A rook lift brings a rook up the board and across to the king. Usually you push the pawn in front of the rook two squares to clear the way. It even works when both sides have castled on the same side.
Rook to h3
Create weak pawns
Doubled pawns get in each other’s way and can’t protect each other. Isolated pawns have no neighbour pawns to protect them. Both are usually weak.
Doubled pawns
Isolated pawns
White has just castled and it is Black to move. How can Black give White a long-term pawn weakness?
Spoil White’s pawns
Eliminate a weakness
Your opponent’s threats can arrive at the worst moment, when you have several problems at once. Grandmasters often fix a weakness before it is even attacked.
Nothing is attacking White’s bishop on c4 yet. But many grandmasters would play Bb3 here anyway. Why?
The grandmaster move
What if White castles?
Make an opponent’s piece ineffective
Sometimes you can set up your pawns and pieces so one of your opponent’s pieces has nothing to do.
Why give up the bishop?
Black’s set-up
Try it over the board on Saturday.
Our coaches go through these ideas in every session. Bring your questions, and your notation sheet.