Learn · Strategy
How to Make a Plan in the Middlegame
What to do after the opening: reading pawn structures, finding weak squares, using open files, improving your worst piece and choosing where to attack.
The opening is over: your pieces are developed and your king is castled. Now what? Many players feel lost at this point and start making random moves, waiting for something to happen. Strong players make plans, and those plans almost always come from the same few features of the position.
Start with the pawns
Pawns can't move backwards, so the pawn structure is the most permanent feature of the position. It tells you where to play.
- Attack where you have more space. If your pawns point towards one side of the board (for example, a pawn chain d4-e5 pointing at the kingside), that's where your pieces have the most room and where your attack should be.
- Pawn breaks. A pawn break is a pawn move that challenges the enemy pawn chain, opening lines for your pieces. In most structures there are only one or two natural breaks for each side. Identify them, prepare them with your pieces, and push when you're ready.
- Pawn majorities. If you have more pawns than your opponent on one side, advancing them creates a passed pawn, which is a big asset in the endgame.
Look for weaknesses
A plan needs a target. Common targets are:
- Isolated pawns: pawns with no friendly pawns on the files beside them. They can only be defended by pieces.
- Backward pawns: pawns that have fallen behind their neighbours and can't safely advance, often on a half-open file.
- Doubled pawns: two pawns on the same file. They're not always weak, but they tend to be inflexible.
- Weak squares: squares that no enemy pawn can ever attack. A knight on such a square in the enemy half, called an outpost, can dominate the board.
- An exposed king: missing pawns in front of the king, or a king that never castled.
Open files and diagonals
Rooks need open files, ones with no pawns on them, to get into the game. When a file opens, put a rook on it, and consider doubling rooks on it. The goal is often to reach the seventh rank, where a rook attacks pawns from the side and confines the enemy king. Bishops need open diagonals: a bishop blocked by its own pawns on its own colour is a "bad bishop", and fixing that, by trading it off or rearranging the pawns, is a plan in itself.
Improve your worst piece
When you can't find a concrete plan, use this simple rule: find your least active piece and make it better. A knight on the rim, a rook still in the corner, a bishop staring at its own pawns: give it a better square. Coaches repeat this advice for good reason: it's the most useful idea in quiet positions. It often prepares the real plan without you even noticing.
Exchanges
Trading pieces is a decision with consequences.
- Trade when you're ahead in material, to make the extra material count.
- Trade your bad pieces for their good ones. Your bad bishop for their good knight is usually a good deal.
- Trade defenders when attacking. If a knight on f6 guards the black king, exchanging it can open the way.
- Avoid trades when you're cramped, unless they free your position. When your opponent has more space, trading usually helps you, because fewer pieces need fewer squares.
Prophylaxis: what does my opponent want?
Before you make your plan, look at your opponent's. Which pawn break do they want? Which piece would they love to put on an outpost? Sometimes the best move simply stops their idea, and their position runs out of good moves. This kind of preventive thinking, called prophylaxis, is one of the habits that separates strong club players from everyone else.
A simple planning routine
- Check for tactics first: checks, captures and threats for both sides.
- Look at the pawn structure: where should I play, and where should they?
- Find the weaknesses on both sides.
- Decide on a target and a plan: which piece goes where, and which pawn break comes when.
- If nothing is clear, improve your worst piece.
Practise it
In your next game against the computer, stop after move 15 and write down a plan in one sentence before you continue, for example "put a knight on d5 and double rooks on the c-file". At the end, check whether you followed it. Planning is a skill like any other: the more often you do it consciously, the faster it becomes.