Middlegame framework

 As a programmer, I have done some debugging in the past 39 years. The most important thing in debugging the way I do it, is that I change only one parameter at the time before I retest. So that when the outcome changes, I know which parameter is the culprit.

Of course there are other ways to debug. If you change 10 parameters at the same time and the outcome changes, you know that the culprit must be somewhere between those 10 parameters.

Usually guys who debug this way lose the thread somewhere in complex environments. On the other hand, they may have much faster results in simple situations.

Chess has multiple parameters. Getting mated can be seen as the ultimate bug.

Given my step by step approach, systems with multiple parameters take an awful lot of time to penetrate into. That is why I have trouble with systems like HTRYC. I cannot keep an eye on 10 parameters at the same time. I need more hierarchy in my parameters first.

After 23 years of chess debugging, a big picture starts to emerge. I'm not saying that it is the big picture, but it is a big picture. Well enough for me.

Most of the time the past 23 years, I have focused on tactics. Only since the past 10 months or so, I changed my attention fully towards other directions, like positional play.

I have found a method of how to study. The method is applicable for any area of study, not alone chess. Now I am looking for the best what to study.

The end or the endgame

Capablanca said:

"In order to improve your game, you must study the endgame before everything else. For whereas the endings can be studied and mastered by themselves, the middle game and opening must be studied in relation to the end game."

This is the typical good advice and half truth which are so abundant in the chess world. It sounds logical, it is said by a world champion, so you can't argue with that.

But since I must find my own truths, I try to look beyond such advice. I'm inclined to replace "the endgame" by "the end".

There are usually two ways that a game ends. By mate (60%) or by an endgame (40%). In the Art of Attack in Chess Vukovic describes how to conduct an assault on the king. But his work feels a bit amputated. Or unfinished is a better expression, maybe. You start there where your opponent is already on the verge of losing.

There is an apparent gap between the opening and the two ways a game can end. In this gap, you can find a whole bunch of parameters. The difficulty is to make sense of these parameters. The most important thing to me is that these parameters must be combined to a coherent framework.

The middlegame framework

When I investigated tactics, I unearthed the PoPLoAFun system. 

• PoP = point of pressure (focal points in terms of Vukovic)
• LoA = line of attack
• Fun = the Function of a piece

Albeit the system is inevitably, I never have been very enthusiastic about it. Firstly it is a lousy name, and secondly it didn't help me to solve tactics any faster. Yet all thinking about tactics was structured around this central idea without I could help it.

I entered the tournament that I played lately with an open attitude. I knew that I had found one piece of the puzzle, but it was evident that a few pieces are still missing. The travel time offered me a great chance to rethink everything.

My bad results gave me an ample opportunity to think about why I lost some games and what is necessary to change that. And slowly the PoPLoAFun system started to impose itself in the area between the opening and the attack. Developing your pieces means to put them on the starting square of the line of attack. While on the other end of the line of attack, you find the focal point near the king OR an invasion square.

And slowly the PoPLoAFun system starts to alter in a framework that can be used to describe the vicissitudes of the lines of attack.

I chose the Colle more or less by chance as the base to start my investigations of the framework that is so dearly needed between the opening and the kingside attack. And when you know what you are looking for, chances to find what you need increase. The book about the Colle contains a chapter with thematic tactics. It contains 20 tactical themes that are common to the Colle. It treats 16 kingside attacks, 3 traps and 1 undetermined tactic, which in itself is interesting for that very reason.

This gives me the opportunity to study the Colle after the opening and into the middlegame. The vicissitudes on the lines of attack deserve their own study. I'm excited!