Below are several important practice middle game positions containing topics such as:
- Open king
- Material advantage
- Development advantage
- Open files and diagonals
- Attacking an uncastled king
Every position has an advantage and an explanation method on how to utilize it properly to win the game.
I recommend you to play at least 5-10 times each position against the computer, increasing or lowering his strength depending on results.
Middle game position 1. Open king
- Set up this position with white’s turn on the chess pro. In the settings set the level of 1200.
- Go ahead and take the knight on f6, opening up blacks king. If black does not capture back you have a choice to move the bishop away and continue the game with material advantage or sacrifice the bishop on g7 to further open blacks king.
- Black recaptures your bishop on f6 following the rule of capture, and so start an attack at the exposed king by sacrificing your bishop on h7 which leaves king with no defenses, or simply going qh5 immediately which brings your queen right to the king.
- Anticipating white’s attack, depending on black’s strength level, computer should be going kh8 or taking your bishop. However it does not stop qg4 or qh5 which brings the queen right at the king.
- If you feel there is not enough power to checkmate, go ahead and bring your rook to increase the attack by going Rf3 followed by Rh3 or Rg3. Only if necessary, consider to deflect black queen by taking the bishop on d7.
Objectives: to checkmate the king or get a significant material advantage. If you win the level of 1200, add 100 points and play again until you cannot win.
Let me know at which level and why you are not able to beat the computer. Good luck!
Middle game position 2. Open king
- Set up this position with white’s turn on the chess pro. In the settings set the level of 1200.
- Go ahead and take the knight on f6, opening up blacks king. If black does not capture back you have a choice to move the bishop away and continue the game with material advantage or sacrifice the bishop on g7 to further open blacks king.
- Black recaptures your bishop on f6 following the rule of capture, and so start an attack at the exposed king by going Nh4 which provides a pathway for the queen to go to h5 to create a check mate threat. A second position on the right is an example.
- Anticipating white’s attack, depending on black’s strength level, computer should be going kh8 or f5 moves like, which does not stop qh5.
- If computer went f5, see if sacrificing the knight on f5 works so that you can checkmate with the queen and bishop. If not, I suggest to add more power by adding a rook on f1 by going f4, rf3, rg3 or rh3.
Objectives: to checkmate the king or get a significant material advantage. If you win the level of 1200, add 100 points and play again until you cannot win.
Let me know at which level and why you are not able to beat the computer. Good luck!!
Middle game position 3. Converting an extra bishop into a win
- Set up this position with white’s turn on the chess pro. In the settings, set the level of 1200.
- As you should know, there are 3 strategies in a position with material advantage. Trade pieces, attack the king, or attack pawns. Your 3 candidate moves to start are: Qe7 – offering the queen trade, nd4 with a long term idea of nf5 and qg3, or simply qb3 attacking the pawn on b7. My advice to you is to try to combine these strategies together. See example below.
- Let’s say we played qb3, attacking the pawn on b7. Black pawn can’t push because white bishop is also attacking the pawn on a6. If computer pushes b5 pawn then counter-attack by playing a4! Let’s say black defends to pawn by Qc8. We can then go nh4 with ideas like Ng6; or Bd3 and Nf5 to start building the attack on the king side.
- If after qb3 computer plays qc8 you can also go re7 which is equally aggressive in attacking pawns and king.
- See what computer plays after qc8 and test both continuations re7 and nh4. Be aware of computer queen moves, make sure to not fall into back rank checkmate and not lose your queen side pawns.
Objectives: to checkmate the king or slowly win the game by increasing material advantage or simplifying by trades. If you win the level of 1200, add 100 points and play again until you cannot win.
Let me know at which level and why you are not able to beat the computer. Good luck!!
More positions coming soon...