As tournaments books go, they are not necessarily treatises on the middlegame, but Bronstein crafted this to be one, and what a middlegame book for the ages it has come to be.īronstein’s approach in this book is to explain the middlegame encounters among the world’s top players vying to become Botvinnik’s challenger for the World Championship the following year. This monumental work by the great David Bronstein is a book on the 1953 Zurich Candidates Tournament. Silman’s logical and imbalance based-approach allows intermediate players to view the middlegame the way masters do, and this will only take their level a notch higher and improve their practical results. Playing with a plan is a fundamental middlegame precept as it will give harmony and cohesion to one’s play. Not least is accurate calculation, which is very necessary for pushing advantageous imbalances to a favorable result. Another is the mastery of imbalances that naturally arise from the different openings. Chief of this is assessing positions correctly, the key to determining strengths and weaknesses from both sides. He gives a chapter to each of these and illustrates thoroughly how advantages in these imbalances are skillfully and decisively exploited.Ī playing-system like this requires and develops various essential skills. Silman points out seven different imbalances or areas where they may lie, specifically: superior minor piece, pawn structure, space, material, control of a key file or square, lead in development, and initiative. The key to playing and winning the middlegame is to be quicker than your opponent in exploiting your respective strengths, and to be grittier when it comes to your weaknesses. This system is based on imbalances, which are essentially the differences in White and Black’s position insofar as strengths and weaknesses are concerned.
In this book, Silman teaches the foundations of positional play through a very logical system of thinking.
#Must read chess books how to#
Jeremy Silman’s How to Reassess Your Chess helped me cross this divide. Intermediate players are considerably good at tactics, but while some will remain at this fundamental level, others will develop understanding of real chess and mature from being just a tactical to a positional player. Pinning, forking and skewering all become second nature to us that we don’t really miss them except in time trouble or blitz games. I’ve paid my dues as a chess player, and here are my list of the best middlegame books that I turned to at one point in time and still refer to whenever my middlegame play gets very depressing.Įveryone begins by learning tactics and we get very adept at them. One part of this process is serious self-reflection, and the other is the diligent survey of middlegame literature which we, fortunately, enjoy much of. In my opinion, the best way to develop our middlegame abilities is to identify which skills we are wanting and find books that will fix them. The middlegame, in other words, measures true chess talent. Sure, chess books can tell us what middlegame skills are vital or instruct us how to improve calculation or intuition, but the extent that we develop them depends much on our chess aptitude. Whereas reasonable proficiency at openings and endgames could be achieved with general understanding, memorization of choice lines, and honing of technique, mastering the middlegame always proves baffling. Studying the middlegame poses some of the most difficult challenges in chess training. The middlegame requires many important chess skills such as calculation, judgment, intuition, assessment, and planning that strong players often create the decisive advantage in this phase of the game. Chess’ real battle lies in the middlegame, and it’s where good players make their mark.
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