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Understanding middlegames

Have you ever found yourself unable to find a move in the middlegame? Of course you have. We all have. About ten years ago, this was a recurring problem for me, which led to a lot of frustration. My conclusion was that I needed to learn how understand middlegames. So what better way than to read a book with the title Understanding Chess Middlegames? Sound like the perfect remedy, right? Ok, let's find out.

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What can you expect from this book?

I first read this book when I was just starting to study chess seriously. I bought it after reading a recommendation in an online forum. I would say this was ten years ago, but the book came out 2011, so it couldn't have been before that. Anyhow, my playing strength was probably around 1200 (I was unrated at the time) and I was having trouble choosing moves in non-tactical positions. Basically, I was playing without any kind of plan, and mostly without any positional understanding.

As I picked up the book, I saw that the book had a section that's called "When you can't think of a plan". Perfect! That's exactly my problem. So I flipped to page 52 and started reading. And I didn't understand a thing. There was just a short paragraph followed by a couple of annotated games. What's this? How is this supposed to help me?

I gave the book some more time, and got increasingly frustrated. Eventually, I concluded that the book was above my level, and I needed something else. So I put it away and continued my search for a good book. That's when I got The amateur's mind, which I have written about in a previous review.

I have learned a lot (?) about chess since then, and recently decided to give the book another chance. As I first read it, I didn't understand the point of the book, but now I do - I think.

The book has two initial chapters in which Nunn discusses some general aspects of middlegame theory. These are followed by the main body of the book. As the cover indicates, the book covers 100 middlegame ideas. These are clustered together in eight chapters:
  1. Material imbalances
  2. Strategy
  3. Activity
  4. Attacking play
  5. Defensive play
  6. Pawn-structure
  7. Typical central pawn-formations
  8. Typical mistakes
As the attentive reader will have figured out, there are 10-20 topics/ideas/concepts in each chapter (100 of them distributed over 8 chapters). Each topic features two annotated games which are covered on two pages. Many games are given in full, but not all. You can read an excerpt of the book on the publisher's homepage, and I think it gives a quite good impression of how the book is structured.

True to his habits, Nunn gives quite detailed annotations, and tends to present the key moves "in context" rather than snippets. Some readers prefer analyses to be presented this way. Personally, I think a book communicates more clearly if it only focuses on the key positions, ideas and variations. This also saves space and gives room for more goodness (see for instance Under the surface). So your reading experience will likely depend your preference in this regard.

Understanding chess middlegames is an ambitious book. Middlegames are complex and often difficult to explain. And covering 100 different ideas makes the challenge even bigger. I think Nunn deserves praise for taking on this challenge, but there are some downsides to this undertaking. First of all, it is hard to find 100 distinct middlegame ideas. And to be honest, there could be some debate on whether all of the topics are strictly middlegame ideas. I would argue that some are more tactical and some are psychological. 

But this is not my main quibble with this book. Rather, I think that two examples per topic is not always enough. It is difficult to convey the main learning points from such a small sample. Also, each topics span over just two pages, including the two games. This means that there is simply not enough room to explain the topics properly, which means that the readers will have to do a lot of the work on their own. Personally, I find that it can be quite difficult to extract the main points and learn something that can be applied in my own games. This being said, the games are well annotated and the book features many interesting and fascinating maneuvers, attacks and defenses.

I think Understanding chess middlegames is an interesting read, and if you are prepared to put in the work to really understand (no pun intended) the examples that are presented, you will probably learn a lot from it. However, if you are a bit lazy (like myself), you may find the book a bit superficial.

Who should read this book?

According to the back cover, the book contains "lessons that everyone can understand". While this may be true, I don't think this book is for everyone. As described above, I struggled with the book as a beginner. But as a seasoned patzer it is far more digestable. So this should probably not be your first chess book, but it may be a good read once you have established some basics of chess strategy. I would estimate that it is a good fit for readers with a playing strength in the 1500-1800 range.

About this book

Author:John Nunn
Title:Understanding chess middlegames
Type of book:Middlegame
Level:Intermediate
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Comments

  1. LBBMay 20, 2021 at 5:59 AM

    So far I've only read the introductory chapters and the first few lessons, so I can't contradict your review. But as someone with a 2000 rating, I find this book so far to be extremely instructive and entertaining. With only having read a small part, I already feel confident that your recommended rating range of 1500 to 1800 is off. I think even master-level players can get a lot out of the book. After all, the annotated games are between masters, and the players are making mistakes and Nunn is correcting their play.

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