Planning is critical to winning in chess. While other writers offer you thinking tools for building an effective plan, in Chess Blueprints: Planning in the Middlegame Nikolay Yakovlev gives you the bricks – the positional themes and patterns that you need to know in order to make use of those fancy tools.

With 188 positions and 559 diagrams ranging from the classics to little-known gems of Russian chess, the author challenges you to form your own impression and then see how the masters honed in on the key elements to achieve victory, or neglected them and went down to defeat.

Should you castle, or press the attack? Are rolling center pawns worth a piece? Where does determination end and obstinacy begin? Far from a dry listing of ideas and examples, Chess Blueprints: Planning in the Middlegame is a rich collection of strategic tips and psychological advice to help you conduct the attack, defeat your opponent’s aggression, and cash in on a tiny endgame advantage.

Nikolay Yakovlev has been a professional chess teacher in St. Petersburg, Russia, for more than 25 years. His students include the 2006 Russian champion, GM Evgeny Alekseev, and many participants in the Russian and World Junior Championship competitions. Author or co-author of thirty books, he holds the title of International Master from the International Correspondence Chess Federation.