Chess middlegame
portion of a chess game between the opening and the endgame
The middlegame is the portion of a chess game between the opening and the endgame. It is generally considered to begin when each player has completed the development of all or most of their pieces and brought their king to relative safety, and it is generally considered to end when only a few pieces remain on the board. However, there is no clear line between the opening and middlegame or between the middlegame and endgame. At master level, the opening analysis may go well into the middlegame; likewise, the middlegame blends into the endgame.
Theory on the middlegame is less developed than the opening or endgames. Since middlegame positions are unique from game to game, memorization of theoretical variations is not possible as it is in the opening. Likewise, there are usually too many pieces on the board for theoretical positions to be completely analyzed as can be done in the simpler endgames.
Defining the middlegame
Views vary on when the opening ends and the middlegame begins. In general, the opening is defined as ending when the development of pieces is mostly complete.
Similarly, there are differing opinions and criteria for when the middlegame ends and the endgame begins (see the start of the endgame).
“Chess middlegame” enters the record as portion of a chess game between the opening and the endgame. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Chess, middlegame and portion can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Chess middlegame” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.