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Chess Strategy: What to Do After the Opening

You've developed your pieces, castled and reached a playable position. Then comes the question every improving player knows too well: now what? This guide gives you the principles, the planning method and the pawn structure basics to answer that question in your own games, without needing a grandmaster's memory.

What is chess strategy?

Chess strategy is the long-term thinking behind your moves: where your pieces belong, which pawn breaks to aim for, which pieces to trade and where to attack. Tactics are the short, forcing sequences that win material. Strategy is what puts you in the positions where those tactics appear.

On this page: Principles · Making a plan · Pawn structure · Trades · FAQ

Strategy vs tactics: what's the difference?

Tactics answer "what can I win right now?" Strategy answers "what should I be doing over the next ten moves?"

They work together. Good strategy creates tactical chances, and tactics are how you cash in. If you're still regularly losing pieces to forks and pins, start with our Chess Tactics guide. If your games drift after the opening and you're not sure what to aim for, you're in the right place.

The core principles of the middlegame

Improve your worst piece

Find the piece doing the least, and give it a better job. It's the simplest plan in chess, and often the strongest.

Fight for the centre

Pieces in and around the centre control more squares and can switch quickly to either side of the board.

Keep your king safe

Don't push the pawns in front of your castled king without a good reason. Every pawn move there is a permanent weakness.

Create and target weaknesses

Isolated, doubled and backward pawns, and holes your opponent's pawns can no longer guard, are what plans are built around.

Open lines for your rooks

Rooks need open files. Put them where the position is about to open, before it opens.

Play where you're stronger

Attack on the side of the board where you have more space or more pieces. Your pawn structure usually tells you which side that is.

How do you make a plan in chess?

You don't need to see twenty moves ahead. A plan is just a short answer to "what am I trying to achieve?" Use this four-step routine whenever the position is quiet:

  1. Check for tactics first. Checks, captures and threats for both sides. A plan is useless if you're about to drop a piece
  2. Look at the pawns. Which pawn breaks are available to you? Which side of the board do they point to?
  3. Find the weaknesses. Yours and your opponent's: loose pawns, weak squares, an exposed king
  4. Pick a target and improve your pieces towards it. Move your worst piece first, and make sure every move contributes

Re-check your plan when the position changes (after a trade, a pawn break or a big threat). Plans aren't fixed. They're your best guess until something changes.

Pawn structure: the skeleton of every plan

Pieces move around. Pawns can't go backwards. That's why your pawn structure decides so much about the middlegame: which side to attack on, which pawn breaks to play, which pieces are good and which are bad.

A few structures come up again and again, and each has its own well-known plans:

Go deeper with our Chess Pawn Structure Guide, covering every major structure and the plans that go with it.

Learn to read the pawns, and the plan follows

The Pawn Mastery Trainer is an interactive pawn course with 2,010 puzzles and an Endgame Lab. You'll learn the key structures, the breaks and the plans behind them, then practice them until you recognise them on sight. One payment, no subscription.

See the Pawn Mastery Trainer Prefer printable? See the cheat sheets

Attack or defend? Reading the position

Before you choose a plan, ask who the position favours and where. Signs you should be attacking: you have more space on one side, more pieces near the enemy king, or a pawn break that opens lines towards it. Signs you should be defending (or simplifying): your opponent has those things and you don't.

Good defence isn't passive. It means trading off attacking pieces, keeping pawns in front of your king intact and counter-attacking in the centre or on the other wing. Our post on chess defence covers the habits that save half points.

When should you trade pieces?

Trades change the character of a position, so make them on purpose rather than by habit.

  • Trade when you're ahead in material. Fewer pieces make an extra pawn or piece easier to convert
  • Trade when you're under attack. Every attacking piece you remove takes power out of the attack
  • Trade your bad pieces for their good ones. A bishop blocked by its own pawns is worth less than it looks
  • Avoid trades when you're attacking or cramped for space (unless the trade frees your position)

This is also where the middlegame meets the endgame. Before a big trade, ask yourself: would I be happy if all the pieces came off? Our Chess Endgames guide helps you answer that.

How do you find the best move?

Most players don't need a clever move. They need a sound one, every move. A simple thinking routine helps:

  1. What did my opponent's last move change? What does it threaten?
  2. What are my checks, captures and threats?
  3. If nothing forcing works, which move improves my plan or my worst piece?
  4. Before I play it: is anything left hanging?

Read more: How to find the best chess move and Best move thinking. For a printable version, use the Blunder Avoidance and Best Move Checklists.

How do you get better at chess strategy?

Strategy improves through understanding, not memory. Three habits make the biggest difference:

  • Learn the main pawn structures from your own openings. The structures you reach most often are the ones worth knowing deeply
  • Play through annotated master games. Pause before each move and guess the plan, then check the notes
  • Review your own middlegames. After each game, find the moment you lost the thread. What was the plan you should have had?

If you want a classic to read alongside, our post on Nimzowitsch's My System explains why it still matters.

Tools to train the middlegame

See all middlegame training

Questions people ask about chess strategy

What should I do after the opening in chess?

Check for tactics, look at the pawn structure to find which side to play on, then improve your worst piece towards that plan.

What are the basic principles of chess strategy?

Control the centre, keep your king safe, improve your worst piece, create and target weaknesses, open files for your rooks, and play where you're stronger.

How do grandmasters make plans?

Mostly from pawn structure and experience. They've seen similar structures thousands of times, so they know the typical plans. You can shortcut this by learning the structures from your own openings.

What is positional chess?

Playing for long-term advantages (better pieces, better pawns, safer king) rather than immediate tactics. It's another name for strategic play.

Should I learn strategy or tactics first?

Tactics first, for most players. Once you rarely hang pieces, strategy is what moves you up the next rating band.

What's the best chess strategy book?

My System by Aron Nimzowitsch is a classic. Pick something written for your level, and play through the examples on a board.

Read next: middlegame and strategy guides

See all middlegame guides

More guides in this series

Know what to do in every middlegame

Explore middlegame training

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What's Your Weakness?

Pick the part of your game that costs you the most points. For many players that's tactics or endgames, with openings coming after.