1. You should know your plan before the game.

Nowadays there are a lot of well-known plans for the various middle-game
positions and openings.
Of course if you know these plans this makes your job easier. We will talk a
little more about this later.

2. You should compose a plan when you don’t know what to do.
Though it seems obvious, it has a profound effect.
What do chess players usually do, when they don’t know what to play? They try
to find the right move; I recommend you to find the right plan.

3. You should compose a plan after the opening.

4. When a position changes, you should make adjustments in your plan.

A position changes in 2 cases:
- An exchange;
- A pawn move.

“How to Compose a Winning Plan”

. two steps to composing a plan:

1. You should detect the direction of your attack (the object of an attack).
2. You should find the exact way of how to attack in that direction (that
object).

realize the direction of your future attack.

There are 3 possible directions:
- the center,
- the king-side,
- the queen-side.
However, practically you should focus your attention mainly on the center.

the center is the most important part of a board. Centralized pieces have more
activity and dominate the opponent’s pieces.
A position in the center bears powerful influence on the flanks. It
determines whether your flank attack will be successful or not.

That’s why, if you attack in the center, it will usually be more effective than
an opponent’s flank attack.

a great practical rule: if you can play (attack) in the center – do

it!

“Is it necessary to put the pawns into the center?”

No, it is not. It is important to keep control over the central squares; it
doesn’t matter whether you do it with pieces or with pawns.

OK, I hope that you will try to attack in the center and to get control over
central squares first of all.
What you should do next? What is the goal of an attack in a center? How you
should use your advantage there?
Actually, in such situation you have domination; therefore you will be able to
realize any plan you want.
In general there are 2 ways you can exploit your advantage in a center:
1) You can continue your attack in the center:
- create a passed pawn and push it;
- or force through the opponent’s position and start a direct attack of his
king or material.
 2nd way of how you can exploit your advantage in a center:
2) You can redirect your attack on a flank.
Since you have an advantage in a center, more free space and even domination,
it will be simple for you to transfer an attack on a flank.
An opposite situation happens for your opponent: for lack of free space he
won’t be able to bring his pieces to the flank, where they are necessary.

“When you may choose an attack on a flank?”

There are 3 types of situations, when you may do it:
1) When the center is closed.
If there are pawn chains in a center and you can’t play there – you should
start playing on a flank.

2) When you have an advantage (domination) in the center already.

When you attack in the center and get an advantage there, you may transfer your
attack on a flank. In this case, it has great chances to be successful.

3) When you have enough control over the central squares, which doesn’t allow
your opponent to attack there.
It is the hardest type of a situation. Here I mean the position, when you don’t
have an advantage in the center or domination.
Nevertheless, you control central squares well enough to prevent an eventual
opponent’s attack here, to not allow him to open the position.
I’ve said that it is the most difficult situation, because it is hard to assess
whether you have an enough control over the center or not.

center control:

There are 5 types of centers:

1. An open center.
It is when there are no pawns in a center.
2. A closed center.
If both players have pawn chains in the center, then it is closed.
3. A static center.
It is something between an open center and a closed one. It happens if both
players have 1 or 2 pawns in the center and it is not totally closed.
4. A pawn center.
Here I mean that one player has some pawns in a center, while another one
doesn’t.
5. A dynamic center.
It describes an undetermined situation, when the central position has not been
defined yet.

the correct plan for the positions with an open center.

1. You should attack in the center and try to occupy it with your pieces.
2. Then, you should use your powerful central position to attack on a flank.

* Also, it is important to not move pawns. For an attacker, it is useless, for

a defender it is bad.
* That’s why if you want to use the opponent’s weaknesses, you should open the
center.

open center are often tactical, and then of course you should orient on concrete
variations mainly.

TWO possible plans for the positions with the closed center:
1. An attack on the flank where you have a space advantage, where you have an
advantage in activity or where you can create such advantage;
where your central pawn chain “looks”.
In this case, you will attack the base of an opponent’s pawn chain. This is the
classical plan.
2. An attack of the head of an opponent’s pawn chain. Here you play rather in the
center and you are hoping for an activity of your pieces.
This plan is riskier and you need to assess the concrete position accurately.

Also there are 2 specific rules for the positions with the closed center:
1. It is important to move your pawns. An attacker should do it, a defender may do
it.
2. Usually it is impossible to defend, therefore it is necessary to create a
counterattack.

> In positions with the static center, you should play in the center. More
specifically, you should:
- Struggle for a control over the central open files.
- Put your pieces on the squares which are protected by your central pawns.

> There are 2 other important things:

- When your opponent covers weaknesses, he is creating new, more significant
weaknesses at the same time.
- The static center is something between the open center and the closed one. That’s
why similar rules work here.

pawn center:
> The side with a pawn center should push it forward to get a space advantage and
probably domination.
Then he can continue attacking in the center or transfer the attack on a flank.
> The other side should attack the opponent’s pawn center to destroy it or to
blockade it.

There are some specific rules for the positions with the closed center:
* A pawn center gives you advantages when it is well supported by your pieces.
Otherwise, it is a weakness and an easy object for an attack.
* To blockade an opponent’s pawn center you should put strong pressure on it and
force an opponent to move one of his central pawns.
Then, you can impose a blockade on the weak squares.
* The fixed pawn center can’t help to open a position and to create an attack,
that’s why it is usually not dangerous.
* While blocking an opponent’s pawn center, you are putting your pieces on the
excellent central squares. It is another argument for a blockade.
* It is important to play vigorously in positions with a pawn center. Both players
are struggling for the center;
and the one who makes it faster and more insistently will win the game.

In the positions with the dynamic center, you should attack in the center and try
to get one of the favorable central constructions.

There are some specific rules for such positions:

* You should be very careful with pawn moves on a side.
* Since there is no direct contact between the opponents’ pieces, you may prepare
the realization of your plan thoroughly.
* It is good to keep the tension, because it makes it harder for your opponent
practically.

There are 2 additional ideas, which can help you in this stage:(object)
* You should use the opponent’s weaknesses.
* You should use your advantages.
 What other advantages can be used?
> A space advantage;
> An advantage in activity;
> Material advantage;
> A piece without an opponent’s counterpart;
> A pawn majority and so on.

These were 2 additional ideas, which will help you to detect the direction of
your attack and your plan in general.
I called them “2 universal keys”, because you can apply them to any position.

“How to Realize Your Winning Plan”.:

how to prepare your attack and direct the game to reach those favorable
positions.

What follows is the correct way of thinking: you should focus your attention on
your every piece
figure out how that piece can help you to realize your plan.

Usually there are pieces that are already placed well, if that is the case then
you don’t need to move them.
Of course there are usually some pieces that need to be transferred to better
squares.

> You should focus the attention on your every piece and figure out how it
can help you to realize the plan.
* It is important to do it in a well-organized manner (think about EVERY piece in
your position, starting from the highest value piece and then going down).

When you perform both steps of a planning, you will find your winning plan.

> Finally, I recommend you to sum up and to define your plan in 1-2 sentences. Thus
you will help yourself to understand your plan clearly.

grandmaster secrets of planning:

How to realize a plan:

> A Grandmaster realizes his plan (ANY plan) to the maximum insistently.
> If your opponent has no counterplay, you should play slowly and prepare your
plan as well as you can.
> Don’t be distracted from your plan by trying to create a snare.

If you can’t find the right plan:

> Prevent an opponent’s plan.
> You should compose a plan in stable positions and orient rather on
calculation and on the general strategic principles in complicated positions.
> If you can’t find a good plan in quite a short time period, simply choose any
plan and realize it insistently.
> If you have no idea regarding what to do – offer a draw immediately.

Special recommendations:
> Your plan should be maximally concrete.
> You should know your plan and your opponent’s plan.
> If you think in the right way, you will solve the problem of a defense
automatically.
> Think about your plan during your opponent’s time.
 > You attack an opponent’s king to get a positional advantage.

How to improve your planning skills:

> Train the ideas of this course.
> Study different typical positions.
> Play different positions and use different plans.

key:
steps of planning:

1.direction and object? -what?

2.how to realize this attack on the object in the favourable direction by our
resource(pieces-force)-how?

practical tip: sumup and define ur plan.(abstract)-fav exchanges?