One year already! (News)

by markakeen, Saturday, March 24, 2007, 11:23 (6601 days ago) @ Don Lester

? The stuff I have mentioned before, though the format seems elusive, is
? positional assessment/plan development for positions that don't have
? tactical advantages to exploit. I would love something like this, but I
? have no idea how I would deliver it if our roles were reversed.

I agree. Sometimes I get to a position where both sides are developed and then struggle to find a plan. Sometimes I look through GM games and they start repositioning their pieces, but it's not usually apparent to me why they choose the squares they do.

Also sometimes you see commentry along the lines, "White plans to post a knight on c5". Then after about 5 intermediate moves the knight comes to c5, and then black captures it immediately! Maybe that is the real intention to force the exchange, but it's not readily obvious to me why forcing such an exchange is better for white.

I'm trying to come up with my own plans. Assuming there is no tactical line to gain material or mate, I generally look at the pawn structure and wonder how I can force a pawn through to be queened. I'm sure there are often better plans, but coming up with them is hard.