7 tips to upgrade your Chess Middle Game

If you could study just one subject to improve your entire chess performance, you’d be wise to choose the middle game. While learning openings and endgame tactics is important, the chess middle game is the most decisive part of a chess match. It's ultimately where your results are going to be impacted the most.

But with every chess middle game being so different, how do you know what to study? Here, we offer seven powerful middle game plans and principles to pick and choose from in any game. Pay close attention! These ideas might just take your game to another level.

1. Open the Center, Wield Your Rooks

After the opening, the center of the board may have become congested. Both sides have been vying to control the center, yet perhaps not many pieces have been exchanged.

With the center of the board overcrowded, it’s not always easy to utilize that critical chess middle game principle: get your rooks into the game! Yet, by creating open and semi-open files, your rooks (and queen) can begin wielding enormous influence. You may even discover an immediate attack!

Other times, breaking the center may open up diagonals for your bishops to become more active. This can be especially powerful when bishops have been fianchettoed. One pawn move in the center can sometimes open up the central diagonal for a fatal attack!

In this example, White can open up the center by playing cxd4. With the c-file open, White’s rook and queen battery attack not only White’s light-squared bishop, but also the c7 pawn behind it. Note also that Black can’t recapture with its e-pawn without exposing its dark-squared bishop to White’s other rook.

By simply stationing its rooks and queen skillfully and opening up the center at the right moment, White can go on to dominate the game comfortably!

2. Find Your Least Active Piece (LAP)

In the middle game, there are many pieces to choose from. While it can be tempting to focus on your most active pieces and go after a quick attack, seasoned chess players usually try to keep all of their pieces thoroughly active throughout the middlegame. Finding your least active piece (LAP) and activating it is a stellar strategy for success.

For example, maybe your knight is on the a- or h-file, and only four squares it can move to. By moving toward the center, it suddenly has eight squares to move to and exerts far more influence on the game. Even if you don’t see an immediate benefit, just wait to see how it pays off later down the line!

In another example shown below, the bishop is being blocked by its own pawn and isn’t serving much purpose in the game. By pushing the pawn forward, the bishop suddenly accesses the central diagonal, challenging White’s fianchettoed bishop for control. If the bishops are traded, White’s king is left with a vulnerable ‘hole’ in front of him – a real boon for Black!

This example also highlights a related middle-game strategy: Trading a passive piece for an active piece. If your opponent’s piece of equal material value is playing a more powerful role in the game, it’s usually a good idea to swap it off if you can!

3. Pawn Storm

Another classic middle game strategy is the pawn storm. Also known as a ‘pawn avalanche’, the tactic involves multiple pawns charging down the board to overwhelm the enemy defenses.

Pawn storms are especially effective when the two sides have castled on opposite sides of the board. Since the flank pawns aren’t needed to defend the king, they can be used to march toward the enemy camp and dismantle the all-important pawn structure defending the king.

It must be understood, however, that pawn storms aren’t appropriate in every game! Many beginners, upon discovering the tactic, overuse the pawn storm. But like every other middlegame strategy, it’s only applicable in the right situation. Assess the board carefully before sending your pawns into battle!

In chess openings where the two sides castle on opposite sides, pawn storms become a common middle game feature. The Sicilian Defense Dragon Variation is a classic example. In this master game between Jan Smolen and Jozef Veselsky, after castling, both players race their pawns toward the enemy fort:

While Black utilized a conventional pawn storm with its a- and b-file pawns, White simply drove home a single pawn on the h-file supported by its rook. White reached the opponent's pawns first which helped Smolen win the game. If you decide to try a pawn storm, it’s often wise to do so as quickly as possible!

4. Eliminate Enemy Pieces in Your Territory

When an opponent’s piece moves into your half of the board, alarm bells should be ringing. Any enemy piece in your half of the board is a potential threat and should be eliminated as quickly as possible. This important middle game principle is often referred to as ‘Fischer’s Golden Rule’.

Because beginner chess players often don’t know this rule, they’re often complacent about allowing opposing pieces to stray into their territory. Oftentimes, an intruder appears relatively harmless, and novice players are renowned for being distracted by their own attacking plans! Yet a harmless-looking advance can often spell disaster later on.

In the diagram below, White is too busy thinking about its own attacking ideas to notice that two of Black’s pieces have entered its half of the board. While there might not appear to be immediate danger, Black is waiting to play Nc3+, a discovered attack on White’s knight. If White captures (bxc3), it’s checkmate in two moves.

Although White had ambitions to attack f7, it had neglected to do its housekeeping. Since the enemy pieces in its territory can hit first, its dreams of attack prove fruitless. Black goes on to win the game comfortably.

5. Find Weak Squares for an Outpost

We just discovered how dangerous enemy pieces in your half of the board can be. So what’s going to be your winning attacking strategy? You’ve got it – land a piece on a weak square in enemy territory where the opponent can’t easily dislodge it. This is known as an ‘outpost’.

But how do we identify weak squares? Primarily, we’re looking for squares on the 5th and 6th ranks that can no longer be challenged by an enemy pawn. If the weak square is guarded by an enemy piece, add more pieces to support it. It’s also ideal if the weak square is backed up by one of your pawns.

In this example, White has four weak squares that can no longer be guarded by its pawns. Black is gearing up to land a knight on d4. Even though d4 is guarded by an enemy knight, Black’s second knight ensures that one of its knights will remain on d4 regardless.

A knight posted securely in the enemy half of the board is especially dangerous. So many squares are controlled, and other pieces can soon join the attack. International Master Jeremy Silman even stated that a knight established on the sixth rank is worth about the same as a rook!

6. Set Up a Battery

A simple, yet effective middle game strategy to overwhelm the opponent is creating a battery. What is a battery? In chess, a battery is where two or more pieces combine their strength on the same rank, file, or diagonal. A classic example would be two rooks stacked on the same file to attack an enemy piece.

Batteries can even involve three pieces stacked together – usually two rooks and a queen. This demands that the opponent make great efforts to defend the challenged piece. Occasionally, it may even be possible to set up vertical and diagonal batteries for combined power!

A common middle game plan following the King’s Gambit is to attack f7. Here, White has mounted both vertical and diagonal batteries to attack that square. Even though f7 is well-guarded, White’s four pieces simply outgun Black’s three. F7 is doomed to fall on Whites’ next move.

This example highlights how certain middle game plans couple with particular openings. If you’re an attacking player who likes shooting for checkmate in the middlegame, the King’s Gambit makes an exciting choice!

7. Rook Lift

Which pieces are most often neglected in the middle game? Of course, its the rooks. And while centralizing your rooks and prizing open the center of the board is an important tactic, there’s another fun strategy that can sometimes prove remarkably powerful.

Until the 20th Century, rooks almost always remained on the back ranks until the endgame. There’s wisdom in this. Rooks are precious pieces and are safest when kept tucked away. But gradually, adventurous chess players like Paul Keres began advancing rooks toward the center of the board in the middle game. A new chess tactic was born: The rook lift.

Rook lifts involve the rook advancing forward (often to the third rank), before moving horizontally (typically into an attacking position). It’s amazing how often this can be used to deadly effect! In the example below, White has just traded its f-pawn and moved its rook to f3. With deadly timing, the rook can now slide across to g3 and h3 to support a mating attack.

From here, White’s best move is to first capture h6 with its dark-squared bishop (Bxh6). If Black captures (...gxh6), White utilizes its rook and queen to checkmate in four moves. In other scenarios, the rook can be wielded to pin Black’s g-pawn to its king or attack the open h-file.

Conclusion

Middle game plans and tactics are not only imperative to becoming a better chess player, but also fun to learn and try out. The next time you're playing a game, why not experiment with one of these strategies to see how it works for you? You might be surprised by what an impact it has!

If you’re looking for even more ways to improve your middlegame, you can’t beat a good chess book on the subject! John Nunn’s ‘Understanding Chess Middlegames’ has won rave reviews around the world for its sparkling clarity and helpfulness.