pawn structures - tag
How do you get better at playing middlegames? There is no simple answer; it has to be a complex study. To improve your middlegame play, you should work on your tactics, calculation, positional understanding, planning, and many other things. If there are any shortcuts, it is probably to study typical pawn structures.
Middlegame generally begins when all the pieces have been developed and the kings have reached safety. This is the part where each player’s understanding of the position is put to test. For the players who are trying to improve, studying this part is crucial to their further development. So, why is the middlegame so important […]
The London System for a long time was considered to be a harmless and unconventional opening for lazy players. Things have changed once the current world champion Magnus Carlsen started using it to beat the best players in the world. It immediately caught everyone’s attention, and the opening got a huge boost of popularity. Nowadays […]
Pawn Structures. Ten? Can there be so many of them? Really? Yes, my man. They can and they ARE. In fact, each of them is pretty important, and you will come by them every now and then. If you are not ready, you might just fall into a nasty trap and end up losing the […]
Back in the 18th century, the famous chess player Francois Andre Danican Philidor was underlying the importance of the pawns and “playing them well”, concluding that “pawns are the soul of chess”. In the coming years, more and more strategical concepts were put together and nowadays we have a whole set of guidelines that help […]
Pawn structures, their studying, and understanding the typical plans in each one of them is one important step to improving your chess level. It will help you find the best plans in the position easier, you will already know where the pieces go, what you should be looking for, what to avoid and what your […]
Have you ever stopped and asked yourself in which positions you feel comfortable? I know that for a long time I did not. It is all too easy to get carried away with your repertoire, you choose to play the King’s Indian because you have seen a few beautiful games ending in some spectacular mating […]
Semi-Slav and its Plans and Ideas. The Slav is a very popular opening and a reply for the black player against 1.d4. There are many lines and set-ups possible for both players, but in this article, we are going to focus on the Semi-Slav and one very common structure that appears in this variation – […]
The question that gives the title to this article is one of those to which every chess player has his own opinion and answer. It is an extremely complicated matter. Sometimes we are in a tournament situation where the full point is the only acceptable result. The most common reasons are the chase for a […]
Analyzing Your Own Games: It is common knowledge that the key to making progress in chess is the consistent and deep analysis of your own games. Once you have learned the most typical nuances of positional play and tactics, it is worth finding out what you miss in your own practice. It is necessary to […]