The Abysmal Depths of Chess

  "By isolating the basic elements of master and grandmaster games, Simple Chess attempts to break down the mystique of chess strategy into plain, clear, easy-to-understand ideas." Michael Stean

  "Don’t be deceived by the title - chess is not a simple game .…" Michael Stean

  "The role played by space in the endgame is in fact much more straight-forward than in the middlegame … He who commands more space has more squares for his king, it’s as simple as that. More space means a potentially stronger king." Michael Stean

  "The difficult part of a spatial strategy lies not in the execution which is relatively simple, but in the recognition of the fact that you actually do have an advantage in space." Michael Stean

  "Simple chess always requires flexibility of thought. The opponent can always avert one form of weakness or disadvantage by accepting another somewhere else." Michael Stean

  "Undoubtedly the most difficult game in the book to understand." Michael Stean

  "Black’s position has sufficient 'capacity' for three minor pieces, but not clearly enough for all four of them. This explains why White is willing to invest so much time early in the game (Bb4-a4-b3-c2, h3) purely to avoid exchanges." Michael Stean

  "The real test of our insight into the mechanics of an advantage in space comes when confronted by a completely sound (structurally), solid but cramped position." Michael Stean

  "One of the arts of chess strategy is to recognise which of your pieces fit in well with the pawn structure and to exchange off the ones that do not." Michael Stean

  "We see now the difference between strategy and attack. Attacks can be repulsed, but positional advantages do not suddenly vanish without trace." Michael Stean

  "There are essentially two types of white-square strategy … The objective is the same, to give the opponent a black-square pawn formation, but with no bishop to plug the gaps …." Michael Stean

  "Before the endgame God made the middlegame and an opening to lead into it." Michael Stean

  "… in assessing how bad a bad bishop is, or equivalently how weak a weak square complex is with a view to the endgame, the main criterion must be: how easily can the opponent’s king break in?" Michael Stean

  "… the black square are weak in as much as White has little to counter the black king marketing to e5." Michael Stean

  "In endgames you should try to introduce 'width' into your play, i.e. create trouble on two widely-spaced fronts." Michael Stean

  "Go back to the era of Capablanca and Alekhine and you will see Queen’s Gambits, hoards of them, with hoards of minority attacks descending from them." Michael Stean

  "When faced with any problem too large to cope with as a single entity, common sense tells us to break it down into smaller fragments of manageable proportions." Michael Stean

  "Complications not for complication’s sake, but to pre-empt the minority attack which would certainly have later come, had Black been given time to consolidate …." Michael Stean

  "Minority attacks derive from the pawn structure, pawn structures derive from the opening." Michael Stean

  "Half-open files do not need entry points. The naturally generate pressure." Michael Stean

  "The minority attack has a certain inevitability about it. Though cumbersome, once the mighty wheels have been set in motion, the opposition has no way to apply the breaks." Michael Stean