How do you improve your strategic play and become better at chess middlegames? This is what the top coaches and authors say.
Chess strategy is the hardest of all elements of chess skill to improve at. I consists of numerous smaller segments one must master. It’s not as simple as: “Here’s a book on strategy, learn this and you’ll play better and win in the middlegame.”
It requires, as Rownson said, unlearning of bad habits and patterns and learning and trynsforming new patterns into applicable skills. Chess strategy is planning ahead and being able to focus on what could make your position better.
Strategy, just like positional play, serves to improve your position to a point at which tactics work. As Fischer said: “Tactics flow from a Superior position.”
Strategy is important because you can rely on ti more often than on tactics, which you could get wrong. Timman said “Half the variations which are calculated in a tournament game turn out to be completely superfluous. Unfortunately, no one knows in advance which half.” – Jan Timman“Half the variations which are calculated in a tournament game turn out to be completely superfluous. Unfortunately, no one knows in advance which half.”