Greetings to all chess fans! I'm posting another example of middle game play. Often, beginners focus on the opening phase and study many opening ideas. But, games are not won in the opening, specially for advanced level and intermediate level players. Most of the fight happens in the middle game where the true strategy and planning comes into play. I'll show a sample game when the opening is over and players must transition from opening theory to positional play and attack.
The game started with 1. e4 d5 2. e5 e6 3. Nf3 c5 4. d4 Nc6 5. Bb5 Qb6 6. Nc3 Bd7
Black is threatening to win the d4 pawn so I decided to take the knight on c6. 7. Bxc6 bxc6 8. O-O cxd4 9. Nxd4 c5 10. Nf3 Ne7
My e5 pawn has a cramping effect on Black. It restricts his position and exchanging it with f6 will weaken his e6. My next moves were aimed to protect e5. 11. Re1 Ng6 12. b3 Be7 13. Bb2 O-O 14. Ne2 d4 15. Ng3 Bc6 16. Ne4 Bxe4 17. Rxe4 Rad8 18. Qd3 Qb7 19. Rae1 Qd5
My e5 pawn is solid and over protected but I don't know how to proceed. Black has a weak pawn of a7 but it's not easy to attack it. My next moves were just shuffling pieces. 20. Bc1 Qb7 21. h3 Qb4 22. a3 Qb7 23. Bd2 Rb8
At his point, I had an idea to attack on the King side. Black's pieces are concentrated on the Queen side while my pieces are poised on the King side. 24. h4 Rfc8 25. h5 Nf8 26. Rg4
Suddenly my pieces are dangerously eyeing Black's king. Black's next move is a blunder because it let me open the position. 26. ...g6 27. hxg6 Nxg6 28. Bg5 Bxg5 29. Nxg5
I'm threatening to infiltrate via h3. 29. ...Qe7 30. Qh3 f6
Blunder but the alternative was Kf8 Qxh7 and Black will lose another pawn on f7. 31. exf6 { White wins. } 1-0
The threat was f7+ followed by Qxh7.
Game link: https://www.chess.com/game/live/186935454640?username=iamchessguy01&move=0