I feel like I'm not progressing anymore, what to do ?

Hello,

My main issue is i can't find plans in middelgame. I can ''manage'' the opening with the basic principles i learn, and i know some of the basis of engame.

I know i have to think about what engame i want when i play middlegame. But very often i have a better position after oppening and i miss pretty much everything in middlegame and i need my opponent make a blunder or mistake for maybe comeback.
I do puzzles, i ''analyse'' my games, i make studys to learn but i feel i have no progression in middlegame.

What can i do from my occasionnal beginner player level for understanding more middlegame?
I want make winning sacrifices and traps :)
Thank you for any help.

@Shaquille-O-Neal I looked at your chess insights and compared the precision of our moves. Mine are similar to yours.
You will need someone that is better than us (in puzzles) to say something about the middle game.

Try this out: Capture a bishop, then open up the game.
By the middle game, you should have made an outpost for one piece.
Solve each move by looking at ways to defeat each piece.

Find other chess principles that you do not do and try to apply them during your chess games.

Imagine there is only two phases in a game, an opening and an endgame. Like a mountain, you go up and then back down. A middle game is the peak of a mountain. Before going up you must know your going to go down. Pawn structures tattletale how the game could end. So continually look at the pawn structure as the game unfolds to an end. The structure in a way hints where the pieces can go. It's up to you to decide if a piece is going to be useful or good to place at a particular outpost.

@Toscani thx i will be more carefull about pawn structures.¨
a nice article about pawn structure
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pawn_structure

@Shaquille-O-Neal i totally get you i havent improved much since 2016 :(

Caro-Kann Formation gives a slow middle game.
There are other pawn formations ...
http://www.chessmasterbob.com/Pawnstructur.htm

Do at least an hour of tactics a day they are free on lichess. Also work on avoiding blunders. If you become proficient in tactics you will not only see threats but also make threats on your own. But if you want to improve I must say the easiest way is to get better at tactics and avoiding blunders. And if you really want to improve you gotta get better at tactics and blunders. And just so you know for middlegame attacking ideas just get your pieces on aggressive squares toward your opponents king. Anyways I hope I helped

Well, an old-school book might help to acquire some fresh ideas.

you are not improving cos you are playing too much blitz and bullet as i see on your account also i have checked your games(longer ones) and i see you have a weakness on the end games. If i were you i would be studying end games and not to worry about middlegames for now, you also hang pieces very carelessly on the middlegame as your opponents are making a very clear plan to win a piece but you dont do nothing about it am not a stronger player but i can see that maybe thats why you think you flop on the middle game, so my advice stop playing bullet and blitz and learn end games which is your weakness and also stop playing SF and start playing humans and if your opponent makes a move ask yourself what the threat before making your move

you should consider buying a book, there are a lot of middlegame books available on amazon. It will not only make you better at middle games but you will be able to calculate better as you get familiar with the board and its notation.

As always, I think more tactical work is the solution here. The reason is that tactics are how you find ideas in positions. To give an example:



That game is a French exchange, which should lead to pretty sterile middle games. But so long as you keep a creative tactical eye open, dynamic ideas are everywhere even in those sort of positions. I think the most important move there was 25. Bc1. Just when it seems like the ideas are finally running out we get the idea of Bc1/a4/Ba3.

Of course such ideas are completely obvious once you see them but the hard part is getting the point of being able to easily see them, and that's where tactical practice comes in. The real value in tactics is not only in solving the tactics, but then having these ideas in your subconscious which enables you to immediately spot ideas that can lead to these tactical ideas.

I think in any any given chess positions you have a fixed set of 'tools'. And then your option is to either use one of these tools, or to play a move that can help you create more tools - or on occasion nullify your opponent's tools. But the whole point is that the only way you'd ever know these tools even exist is through tactical work.