Many times in tournament play my opponent and myself manage the opening well, pieces are developed, kings castled, rooks connected, position even, no obvious weaknesses to exploit in the opponent's camp, and book theory is exhausted etc.
What now??
If I were in a snarky mood, I say something like: "Now you have to think!" While this is true enough, I often wonder how others here proceed when there seems to be no good moves, and no clear attacking chances for either side, as the opening ends, and the middle game begins.
Lasker's manual is 100 years old but it is still good. He explained that you attack the weakness in your opponents position. Finding that weakness is the hard part. All of this seems obvious and it is obvious but hard to do.
The book is cheap but good.
There are a lot of helpful books on the subject, one already mentioned, but I often find it helpful to run down a list of prioritized considerations. Even if it's not enumerated so strictly, there's a process we all use to make our next move. When there's not an obvious move that seems exciting, as you've described, I try to address this list more deliberately. In particular, I often find that there's a piece I'd rather reposition, or a pawn break I can work towards. Increasing my intentionality can force me into a move. It's not the most clear advice, I suppose, but maybe it's useful.
@mchillsaid Many times in tournament play my opponent and myself manage the opening well, pieces are developed, kings castled, rooks connected, position even, no obvious weaknesses to exploit in the opponent's camp, and book theory is exhausted etc.
What now??
If I were in a snarky mood, I say something like: "Now you have to think!" While this is true enough, I often wonder how oth ...[text shortened]... tacking chances for either side, as the opening ends, and the middle game begins.
Any thoughts??
I agree with you.Without having a photographic memory for lots of positions you have to rely on gut feelings I think.When you read the chess columns they say things like "in 1857 in this position such and such played ne6 or something which to me is totally unhelpful.
I just tend to try and work out what my opponent is planning, if there are any weaknesses(backward pawns, blocked in bishops etc)and try to exploit them or rectify them if they're my weaknesses.
There's also standard things like putting rooks on semi open files, not over exposing your king and not attacking too early but as you say , not easy.
Opening to middlegame transition
29 Jan '19 21:26
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