I'm the kind of player that wins most of his games with good tactics. But I don't know that much about strategy, positional play, planning, judgment in the middlegame.
Can you recommend me some books or other resources that would help me learn and train it? Something that's neither very basic, because I've learned a thing or too already from watching lots of YouTube videos, nor too advanced.
Ik you said you already watch a lot of YouTube videos but maybe Watching Agadmator's analysis' of Computer Chess games will help?
There are a lot of books with 'strategy' or 'middlegame' in their title to pick from plus you have game collections and the books that present openings through annotated full games. Pachman's book(s) were the standard when I was learning. Sokolov has some recent books on chess MGs. I've only been thru 2 but liked them a lot. I'm working thru Baburin's 'winning pawn structures' now [I was very lucky to find a copy] and it's good too. I've heard very good things about Yusupov and Grooten's books too. Gelfer has a book of 500 excellent examples from MG to EG that I plan to work thru next. ...... There are a lot of choices!
@swimmerBill "There are a lot of choices!" - That's precisely why I'm looking for recommendations. I wouldn't know which book too choose without reading any. Thanks for the suggestions.
@LeoHao I've always been skeptical of Agadmator's analysis. He's not that great of a player compared to other YouTubers that provide similar content but play way better. I'd rather trust them :D
I really enjoyed Chess Training for Post-Beginners: A Basic Course in Positional Understanding by Yaroslav Srokovski. At 256 pages it covers the main middlegame elements well, but is easy to finish. I'm enjoying Herman Grooten's prose in Chess Strategy for Club players a bit more, but it's about twice as long.
"The Complete Manual of Positional Chess" has two volumes that cover basically every topic. It's available on ForwardChess for easy reading. Stein's "Simple Chess" is excellent as well (don't confuse simple with simplistic! It is anything but.)
Alternatively, basically every collection of annotated games focuses heavily on the middlegame. For example, Alekhine's "My Best Games of Chess" is essentially a complete chess course, with the bulk of the text covering middlegame (or complex endgame) positions. Tarrasch's "Three Hundred Chess Games," Reti's "Masters of the Chessboard", Fischer's "60 Memorable Games," Bronstein's book on Zurich 1953, all of these will teach you middlegame ideas and strategy, and as a bonus, you will learn chess history as well. These have always been my favourite form of middlegame study.
If you're looking for something general maybe My System by Nimzo. Ultimately though, the middlegame is the continuation of the opening so something to keep in mind.
And incidentally, the guy who wrote "Simple Chess" is named Michael Stean (just to make it easier for you to look up). I recommend that one too. :)
'The Middle Game In Chess' By GM Reuben Fine :]
Just analyze games of attacking players (Tal, Fischer, Kasparov)
