Learn to evaluate positions like Stockfish

The BEST way to stop making mistakes, improve your middlegame with White & Black, and gain hundreds of elo points in chess.

Welcome to the first chapter! 

The goal of this course is to help you identify and select good plans in the middlegame. To identify a plan, you must know how to evaluate a position! So we’ll cover exactly that in the first chapter. 

Concepts like material balance, space advantage, piece activity, and king safety are all key when evaluating a position!

Intro to Evaluating Positions

Video 1

Study 1: Piece Activity and King Safety

Video 2

Study 2: Evaluating Pawn Structure/Space

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Study 3: King Safety, Structure and Piece Activity 1

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Study 4: King Safety, Structure and Piece Activity 2

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Chapter 1: Evaluating Positions

We’ve gone over some key points like piece activity, space, material, and king safety when evaluating a position. This is basically the first thing you should do while looking at any position and before creating a plan. 

This will help you play games and solve puzzles better. Your comprehension of classical chess games should also benefit from understanding this chapter.

This chapter is all about what NOT to do in the middlegame. For example, moving one piece multiple times in the opening, creating one-move threats without a plan, and developing pieces to suboptimal squares.

We’ll also check out some model games, just to showcase those bad habits in practice.

Intro to Bad Middlegame Habits

Study 1: One Move Threats and No Plan

Study 2: A Full Game of Bad Habits

Study 3: Being Aware of Danger

Study 4: A Miniature of Bad Habits

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Chapter 2: Bad Habits In The Middlegame

Knowing what not to do is also important, so this chapter showcased it. In the model games, you could see what happens if a player follows bad habits like not developing their pieces or creating one-move threats without a plan.

This chapter is all about attacking! We cover three cases in which we can attack the enemy king; when the king is stuck in the center, attacking queenside while castling short, and vice versa.

Intro to Attacking

Study: King in the Center

Study: Same Side Castling Attacks

Study: Attacking Queenside While Castled Short

Study: Attacking Queenside While Castled Short 2

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Study: Attacking Kingside While Castled Long

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Chapter 3: Attacking

We’ve summarized three ways of attacking the enemy king. There were also some games to showcase the ways of attacking. As you can see, in most cases, the attack begins with a pawn storm aimed at the enemy king. 


Making a plan is key in the middle game. The plan heavily depends on which opening is chosen, which means both piece placement and pawn structure determine it. 

A plan isn’t only “push the pawns, sacrifice something and checkmate”, but also simplifications into a better endgame, or capitalizing on our opponent’s weaknesses.

Intro to Making a Plan

Study: Making a Plan 1

Study: Making a Plan 2

Study: Making a Plan 3

Study: Making a Plan 4

Study: Making a Plan 5

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Chapter 4: Making a Plan

By examining games we’ve showcased some key steps during the process of making a plan. Oftentimes, the most effective one is simply improving your minor pieces. 

Also, one key thing to remember is knowing/identifying your opponent’s plan is just as important! 


Once you choose a good plan and win some material, another important part of the middlegame is to convert winning positions. 

In this chapter, you’ll learn how to simplify, convert a material advantage, convert an attack, or simply a better position.


Intro to Converting Winning Positions

Study 1: Up Material and Simplification

Study 2: Converting a Better Position

Study 3: Converting the Material and Space Advantage

Study 4: Converting an Attack

Chapter 5: Converting Winning Positions

We’ve gone over the ways of converting technically winning positions, which arise from material gain, strong attack, or a positional edge. 

Go out there and convert those wins! 


Defending is also a huge factor that contributes to being a good player. This chapter will try to teach you how to defend under pressure, create counterplay during material loss or defend against a ferocious attack. 

Sometimes, our opponent can overdo the attack, so when the dust has settled, we can even come out as winners!

Intro to Defending

Study 1: Defending Under Pressure

Study 2: Counterplay Down Material

Study 3: Black Defends the Attack

Study 4: Stalling

Chapter 6: Defending

As you can see, defending is also a very important part of the middlegame. Some ways of defending shown in this chapter were: creating counterplay or defending against a strong attack. 

“The hardest game to win is a won game.” - Emmanuel Lasker. Make sure you make it extremely hard for your opponents to beat you, despite their advantage.


This chapter includes everything important about pawn play. Pawn breaks, which activate our position, are one of the most important subjects you’ll learn. 

Occupying a certain color complex with your pawns to obtain a great positional advantage is also covered. The goal is for you to give purpose to every pawn move you make. 


Intro to Pawns

Video 1 

Study 1: Pawn Breaks

Study 2: Color Complexes

Study 3: Pawn Storms

Study 4: Pawn Breaks to Attack the King

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Chapter 7: Pawns

From occupying a color complex to pawn storms, we’ve gone over some key elements regarding pawn play. 

After this chapter, it should be easier for you to recognize the correct pawn strategy to choose during your games! 


We’ve covered pawns, so now it’s time to cover the pieces! This will teach you how to use your pieces correctly. You’ll learn about the power of the bishop pair, how to coordinate your pieces so that they complement each other, and finding good squares for them.

Intro to Piece Utilization 

Study 1: Bishop Pair Utilization and Rooks on Open Files

Study 2: The Beauty of Coordination

Study 3: Controlling Both Sides of the Board

Study 4: Optimizing All Your Pieces

Chapter 8: Using Your Pieces

By going over some high level games, we’ve shown the importance of treating your pieces right. Finding good squares for them, coordinating them well, and utilizing their synergies contributes to a healthy middlegame play.

Knowing when to trade and when not to trade pieces is very important. A good trade might lead to a mating attack, or a great positional advantage. This chapter will teach you when it’s a good idea to trade, or when to force our opponent to make a bad trade, which weakens their position.

Intro to Trading (And When Not To)

Study 1: A Good Trade May Lead to Winning

Study 2: Forcing Bad Trades

Study 3: Trading Pieces in an Attack

Study 4: Some Trades in a Stonewall Structure

Chapter 9: Trading Pieces (And When Not To)

Some trades are good, some are bad. After this chapter it should be easier to differentiate between them! We’ve also gone over the Stonewall setup, which is characterized by a trade of minor pieces in the center.

This chapter will help you to improve your navigation in closed positions. We’ll discuss piece maneuvering (rerouting a piece to a better square), attacking, and finding an “entry” square, which is a square used for a breakthrough in an otherwise closed position.

Intro to Closed Positions

Study 1: Maneuvering in Closed Middlegames

Study 2: Attacking in Closed Positions

Study 3: Closed Position Game Ends with Double Rook Sacrifice

Study 4: Entry Points and Pawn Breaks in Closed Positions 

Chapter 10: Closed Positions

Generally, closed positions require a lot of planning. Piece coordination and maneuvering are both key concepts. Many times, a closed position is cracked with some kind of sacrifice, as we saw in the third study.

Let’s take a look at some very common sacrifice ideas! One of the openings where a sacrifice can occur is the Caro-kann, so we’ll analyze a game against a Grandmaster. Most of the time, a sacrifice is used in order to blast open our enemy’s king and deliver a checkmate.

Intro to Sacrifices

Study 1: Sacrifices in the Caro-Kann

Study 2: Multiple Sacrifices Against the King

Study 3: Sacrifice on h3

Study 4: The Greek Gift

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Chapter 11: Sacrifices

When the pieces are all placed very well, a sacrifice is sometimes possible. A very typical way of sacrificing is to snatch a pawn on h3(h6) when the king has castled, so their defense is ruined. 

The next one is “The Greek Gift”, where we use our bishop to sacrifice on h7(h2)  and knight+queen combo to initiate a deadly attack.

Creating weaknesses in our opponent’s position is a great way to create a plan! We can often place our pieces in such a way that targets a certain weakness in the enemy camp. 

Some openings are deliberately played in order to create a weakness, like the Trompowsky where we trade on f6 for a doubled pawn.

Intro to Weaknesses

Study 1: Never Play f6! 

Study 2: e5 Weakness in the London

Study 3: Weak Pawns in the Trompowsky

Study 4: Attacking Light Square Weaknesses!

Chapter 12: Weaknesses

The last chapter covered weaknesses, which can be either easily targeted pawns/bad pawn structures, weak squares, or whole color complexes. 

This chapter also covered two openings (the London and the Trompowsky), which are typical at targeting Black’s weaknesses.