Middlegame
On the opening of the following phase of a chess -Partie is middlegame called. It finally goes into the final .
The opening ends with the achievement of a desired positional pattern in which most of the pieces are developed and the king is brought to safety, almost always by castling . Then the middlegame begins. From now on, the player can no longer rely on known sequences of moves that have already been well researched and documented in opening theory. The player is now dependent on his own tactical and strategic skill. It is true that there are certain principles for middlemen too, compliance with which makes a successful game more likely. However, they still have to be applied to the specific position and constantly reassessed.
If by defrost the number of remaining stones is so low on the board, that the forces are no longer sufficient without promotion of a pawn for a kingside attack, which means game ends.
Strategy in the middle game
In order to make the middlegame successful, a player must be able to correctly assess the position that has resulted from the opening and to make a plan based on this position evaluation. Various factors come into consideration when evaluating a position:
- Material: Usually the player who has more material has the advantage (see exchange value ).
- Initiative: which of the two players is able to build threats? Instead, who has to fend off opposing threats?
- Space: who rules the center? Where are strong and weak fields?
- Pawn structure : are there weaknesses on one side of the pawn? Are there passed pawns? How do the pawns influence the movement of the pieces? ...
- Royal security
The analysis of the position often results in a long-term objective: If a player is materially at a disadvantage, but realizes that his opponent's king is vulnerable, he will try to find a decision in the game in the middle game by successfully attacking the king. Conversely, his opponent will try to simplify the position and transfer it to the endgame by winding it up , where he hopes that the material advantage will give him better chances.
However, often the situation is not that clear-cut. Then the two players will try to create corresponding weaknesses in the position of the opponent in order to then exploit them. For example, a supposedly secure castling position of the opposing king can be weakened by a piece sacrifice (e.g. bishop sacrifice on h7) in order to then carry out the actual mate attack with the remaining pieces.
The party that does not have the initiative will often seek to launch an attack in the half of the board where the opponent is not active. Such a strategy is called counterplay . A precise assessment of the position is essential: The counterplay is ineffective if it either comes so late or the threats are so weak that the opponent does not have to react and can instead continue his attack undisturbed.
Nowadays a decision in the middlegame does occur in championship games. More often, however, the attack and defense strategies of the two players largely neutralize each other. As a result, the players often only try to accumulate tiny advantages, which only pay off after the transition into the endgame.
Middlegame tactics
In the middlegame, tactics are perhaps even more important than in the opening or in the endgame: In the opening, choosing a move often only means deciding between several known variants. In the endgame, however, there are fewer tactical options due to the reduced number of pieces.
When evaluating the position and calculating the sequence of moves, position patterns are helpful, as they appear again and again in many games. Experienced chess players have largely subconsciously stored a large selection of such patterns in their memory through their playing experience and the study of master games. If a certain position pattern appears on the board, call it up and immediately have a possible plan and possibly also possible moves ready. This is the only way to explain the enormous skill level of grandmasters, which they display even with very limited thinking time or in simultaneous play.
- example
| a | b | c | d | e | f | G | H | ||
| 8th |  |
 |
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
8th |
| 7th |  |
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
7th |
| 6th | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
6th |
| 5 | |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
5 |
| 4th | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
4th |
| 3 | |
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
3 |
| 2 | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2 |
| 1 |  |
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
1 |
| a | b | c | d | e | f | G | H |
White to move.
The illustration opposite shows a well-known position pattern in the middle game: The black king castled briefly, but the white pawn on e5 drove the knight from f6, where he was supposed to defend the h7 pawn. White exploits this weakening by sacrificing a bishop:
1.Bxh7 +!
No matter how Black tries to defend himself, he will soon be checkmated. Only one of the many variants is shown here:
1.… Kxh7 2. Ng5 + Kg6 3. Qc2 + f5 4. exf6 + ep Kxf6 5. Rxe6 + Kxg5 6. Nf3 ++ Kg4 7. Qg6 #.
Experienced chess players know this pattern. In similar positions, you are aware of the possibility of sacrificing a bishop on h7. Therefore, they find a possible winning move very quickly that inexperienced players do not even think of.
literature
- Aron Nimzowitsch , Jens-Erik Rudolph (ed.): My system . Jens-Erik Rudolph Verlag, Hamburg 2010 (1931), ISBN 978-3941670198 .
- Max Euwe : Judgment and Plan in Chess , Joachim Beyer Verlag, Hollfeld 1984 (1956), ISBN 978-3888052491 .
- Max Euwe, H. Kramer: Das Mittelspiel , 12 volumes, Rattmann Hamburg 1956–1964.