A Middlegame Lesson

The thought behind position play is called the plan. The plan has breadth and depth which are imposing and which, by slow, methodical building, give a structure to the position. The position-player thinks backward: he conceives a position to be arrived at and works toward that position of which he is more conscious than the one on the board. He sees successive stages of the position of the position aimed at and he visualises the stage in a reverse order.