Middlegame training : how to ?

Dear all,

Would you kindly help me determine how to train for middlegame and strategy ?
Maybe the question has been discussed lot of time but for me it is still unclear.
- For openings, we can take theoreticall materials, try to understand each moves and lines, the ideas and tactics behind
these moves and lines and, once understood, learn them
- For endgame, we can learn key positions, main ideas and play them against a computer
- for tactic -that for sure help in middlegame but IS NOT ALL in middle game, we can solve puzzles

But how to train in a efficient way to improve middlegame and strategy ?
Are there the strategy equivalent of puzzle ?
Is this all about game analysis -GM and our own game analysis ?
If the most part of middle game improvment is games analysis, how to choose games to work on and how to work on it properly ?


Thanks for your help,

cladsam

generally the easiest way is to study the pawn structures which are common in your games. If you post the openings you play people should be able to teel you what pawns structures to look at and learn plans for.

Obviously general tactics training and analysis of past games will help you a lot as well.

I think the best way to improve your middlegame/strategy skills is to read good books about this topic. For example:

"How to reassess your chess" from Jeremy Silman is about imbalances in the middlegame. A quite good book with more than 650 sides. (1600-2200)

"Unterstanding chess middlegames" from John Nunn is about the hundred most important middlegame topics. These are demonstrated in 200 master games (There are two games for each topic). (1400-1900)

"Understanding chess - move by move" from John Nunn. This book is a little bit easier than than the others. (1100-1600)

Thank you very much for these really quick answers.
I will have a look ath these reference books for sure but it let the question partially unanswered for me.
I mean :
-  I already no some of the inbalances concepts.
As a really simple example, imagine I have 2 bishops against 2 knigths.
A general idea that could be the base for a plan is to "open the position" in order for bishops to show there full power.
But how to train to choose the best move in a practical game ?
Does "Strategy" puzzle exist as "tactical puzzle" does ?
I saw for example that a "Strategy 3" software from convekta exists,
Is it a list of puzzle where you need to chosse the best 3 or 4 moves regarding srategy ideas behind the position ?

- "the easiest way is to study the pawn structures which are common in your games"
--> what do you mean by studiying these pawn structure ?
is it looking for GM or string player games that contain similar pawn structures and see how the game go or what ?

thanks again !

Well generally the pawn structure dictates the strategical nature of the game. For example: your available pawn breaks, where your pieces would be best etc. By studying the plans behind the pawn strucutres you often reach, which yes could be done by looking at GM games, you will have a sort of guide to deciding between candidate moves ingame.

In my opinion the pawn structure is just a small part of the middlegame ( nevertheless it's an important imbalance) and nothing to concentrate on specifically. It thoroughly makes sense to study pawn structures but on my mind the most effective way to become a feeling for good and suitable moves and many different middlegame positions is to study well commented master games (In this point, "Understanding chess -move by move" is a very suitable book). This helped me to increase my elo (in Germany it's called DWZ) from 1250 to 1650.