I ntroduction

For anyone wishing to improve at chess, middlegame strategy is among the most important prob­
lems and those that demand the most work. But even in our computerized age, there is much here
that remains unclear.
For the study of endgames, the methods are quite intelligible. Many books have been written on
the subject, and their number continues to grow. Various computer programs also give help of con­
siderable importance. But the main thing is that we know what to do, in what direction to proceed in
order to achieve concrete results: Compile a stock of standard clear-cut positions. Study the techni­
cal devices and methods of combat - those which have general application as well as those charac­
teristic of a particular endgame type (pawn endings, rook endings, minor-piece endings, etc.). In
this way you will attain a certain level of mastery in the endgame. Here everything depends on your
aptitude, will, persistence and time.
How to approach the opening is also clear. The time when players would work solely from
encyclopaedias, opening handbooks, monographs and magazine articles is now past. These ma­
terials are valuable, but need to be supplemented with computer programs for both information
and analysis. A computer will not only give you detailed information on the opening variations
that you intend to play, but it will also suggest which of them appear most acceptable on a statisti­
cal basis (without, admittedly, taking into account your chess tastes, playing style, or whether a
particular line has been refuted, thus rendering a statistical analysis irrelevant). Another very im­
portant point is that in preparing for a specific tournament game, a contestant with the aid of data­
bases can obtain information on dozens or hundreds of games played by the opponent he is about
to face.
Many players follow the line of least resistance in their chess development and spend large
amounts of time just studying the openings. Of course, such work may bring distinct and immedi­
ate results (you study something today and surprise an opponent with it tomorrow). Yet these play­
ers fail to notice that their chess is developing one-sidedly. For there is also the middlegame ! And
its study is a good deal more complicated. Why?
Let me digress a little and give you a logical problem to solve. Take a box of matches and take six
matches out.
Exercise: Makefour equilateral triangles out of these six matches. You must abide by these con­
ditions: the triangles must have equal sides, and every side must be the length of one match, which
you are not allowed to break.
You will find the right answer if you stop looking for it on a flat surface. You must come out into
open space! Make a pyramid, and you arrive at the solution.
So it is with the study of the middlegame - two dimensions are not enough here. You need to per­
fect your abilities in a large number of directions. There is the development of your combinative vi­
sion and the technique of calculating variations. There is the study of typical positions (Sicilian
structures with a backward pawn, the blocked centre, the dynamic centre, opposite-wing pawn­
storms, isolated queen's pawn and related structures, hedgehog structure, etc.), and the ways of
handling them. There are situations involving defence, the initiative and the struggle for it, the need
for restraint, and so forth. There are positions where the material balance has been disturbed. There
are elements of chess strategy such as open files, weak points, the bishop-pair, etc. And much,
much more. In each one of these areas there are a great many guidelines and principles that are use­
ful to know, and it is even more important to understand how to apply them and when to ignore
them completely.
 INTRODUCTION 7

However, there is at present no unified methodology for studying the middlegame - and there is
unlikely to be one in the near future. And this is a good thing for chess creativity, since otherwise,
after reading the appropriate book, we would all become World Champions, and chess would be re­
duced to a game on the lines of tic-tac-toe.
Why, then, was the present book written?
The point is that progress in any branch of knowledge is not to be halted, whether we like it or
not. In chess it is hard to invent anything fundamentally new - much has already been pre-empted.
But there is nothing terrible in this. The process of self-improvement is endless, and painstaking
analytical work is no less complex and fascinating than discovering new concepts. Believe me!
In many years of work as a coach I have assembled a well-ordered set of conclusions. One of
these is that in the body of knowledge possessed by chess-players, there is not enough system. Of­
ten, on receiving some piece of information, we 'swallow' it without digesting it or making sense of
it. And then during a game, when we seek some prompting from our 'library' of knowledge, we use
up too much time and energy finding the 'book' we need, or we fail to find it at all. Imagine you
have acquired tens of thousands of books that have not been sorted into any kind of order. Would
such a library be any use to you?
In the book before you now, abundant examples are collected, some classical, some little­
known. The essential requirement was that they should be united by general themes and a system of
knowledge. I have tried not to overburden the reader with too many analytical variations, but nor
have I permitted any superficiality in the examination of the examples.

Chapter-by-Chapter Outline

The book comprises five independent chapters, each of which is of interest for studying a specific
field of chess strategy.
The significance of being able to form a plan of action in a game of chess is something that no
one needs to have explained to them. The capacity to resolve this question correctly is what consti­
tutes supreme strategic mastery. This is the theme of the first chapter, which gives not only general
recommendations but also practical advice on their implementation.
Getting ready for a tournament game, controlling the course of events in it, analysing its psycho­
logical content afterwards, drawing up practical guidelines for your subsequent duels - recommen­
dations on these matters are furnished by the system devised by the author, to which the second
chapter is devoted.
The 'advantage of the bishop-pair' is a familiar piece of chess jargon - but when is this term jus­
tified and when is it not? You may say that plenty of books and articles have been devoted to this
question already. But if you study the third chapter you will not begrudge the time spent. For what
you have before you is a system!
'Warning - trap ahead! ' What chess-player is not mesmerized by the word trap ? Who among us
has not fallen victim to an opponent' s cunning? But then again, we may recall our delight on seeing
the opponent caught in a snare of our own. This is a most important tactical, strategic and psycho­
logical device; but how do we learn to utilize it properly? An algorithm for the setting of traps will
be discussed in the fourth chapter.
Although the theme of 'opposite bishops in the middlegame' is not new, I have my own views on
it. You will come to know them when you read the fifth chapter.

Methodology

When assembling material for the book, apart from traditional teaching tasks (processing of infor­
mation, training in the technique of calculating variations, etc.), I set myself one other goal of the
8 ELEMENTS OF CHESS STRATEGY

first importance but not easily attained: that of helping the reader to learn to think logically. I there­
fore took special pleasure in bringing to the reader' s attention those examples which require you
not only to work out concrete variations accurately but also to detect and construct a logical chain
of reasoning to solve the problem.
In preparing the book I wished to present the material without recourse to either stereotypes or
'dry' formulae. I therefore took the liberty of including some witticisms and literary digressions in
the text. Hopefully the well-disposed reader will understand me and the severe critic will forgive
me.

Note on Exercises

In the majority of cases, the examples are accompanied by exercises, usually with a diagram in the
relevant place. Note that these are not in most cases clear-cut tactical positions, where precise anal­
ysis will lead to a firm conclusion about the 'right' and 'wrong' answer. In many of them, the ques­
tion is more about the assessment of the position and its strategic elements. There may well be
several valid continuations, or it may be a matter of taste how to proceed. At these points you
should pause to weigh up the position and how you would proceed before reading on. If your an­
swer agrees with mine - wonderful - but if it does not, and checking with a computer suggests you
have not missed anything critical, then you have perhaps found a valid alternative that also suits
your playing style. I have striven to consider valid alternatives where they exist, and to point out
plausible but inferior lines, but chess is a rich game and it is impossible to anticipate every idea.
You will get by far the most benefit out of these exercises if you devote a good deal of effort to
them before looking at the solutions. Rather than ask that you keep pieces of card handy to cover up
the solution in these cases (and hope that somehow you avoid seeing a key part of the answer when
doing so), the answers to the exercises have been placed at the end of the chapter. But note that the
exercises are an integral part of the chapter, and a good deal of the primary discussion occurs in
their solutions. Therefore you should tackle them and read the answers before continuing on to the
next example. In all cases there are page references to the material that follows, so you should never
become lost!
In the exercises, you are often asked to evaluate a position. It i s suggested that you answer
according to a five-point scheme, namely:
• White has a won position;
• White has the better position;
• the game is equal;
• Black has the better position;
• Black has a won position.
It is clear from the above scheme that you are not being set the task of defining how much better
or worse the position is. (After all, during play we don't attach a percentage score to a situation; we
merely register it emotionally - do we like it to a greater or lesser degree?) But distinguishing a won
position from a merely superior one is something that a high-ranking player is obliged to do.

And one final word. When working with this book, what matters is not the quantity of material
devoured, but the quality of its assimilation.