Spring-loading

 Study of the middlegame is not easy.

A lot of authors try to offer you a quick fix. 

• Learn this opening with black and you will beat 95% of your opponents with it
• Obey these 3/5/7 rules and you beat everyone below 2000 with it
• Don't move your pawns in the middlegame
• To take is a mistake
• CCT
• Don't blunder and wait until your opponent does so
• Attack, attack, attack!
• Do not attack!
• Don't worry about your pawn structure, mate ends the game
• I wasted years memorizing chess openings, until I learned this
• People waste years losing at chess, until they learn this SIMPLE STRATEGY
• Play like Tal/Karpov/Capablanca/Magnus Carlsen
• Give Me 19 Minutes and I'll Teach You How to Beat Everyone at Chess
• My life changed when I learned this

All these teasers are aiming at to sell you something. This blog is a testimony to TANSTAAFL. At the end of the day you will have to think for yourself!

The good thing is that nowadays it is easy to find important and interesting positions with loads of comments that gets you started. But you still have to connect the dots yourself. Stockfish isn't of much help, because it doesn't discriminate between moves that promise progress and moves that do nothing more than not giving anything away. You must already have some idea what you want.

r2q1rk1/pp1nb1pn/2ppb2p/4p3/2P1P3/1PN1BPP1/P2QN1BP/R4RK1 w - - 0 14

The move of interest is 1.f4!

I was looking for pawn breaks that I could judge by "how many my pieces does it unleash vs. how many of my opponents' pieces does it restrict".

1.f4 doesn't free your pieces. In fact it blocks 4 pieces. The crux is that the pawn is mobile. A pawn that is very well guarded, usually stands in the way. The pawn is overprotected. This construction has the following effects:

• The protecting pieces are free to go while the pawn stays protected
• The pawn acts like a cork. When it uncorks, the pieces behind it spring to life via the pivot point f4
• it restricts the use of square g5 by the enemy
• it softens the long diagonal for your light squared bishop

Of course you must have a look at black:

• 1. ... exf4 2.gxf4 making your e4 pawn mobile too while not giving away any squares
• 1. ... Bf7 giving you the chance to uncork f4 anytime you want

And you have to judge the counter attacks 1. ... b5 and 1. ... d5 by black which are no good to him.

This spring-loading is such a typical idea that I mentioned in the previous post. You have to experiment with it and you will probably lose a few games with it. But I deem it to be a very powerful idea!