Atanas will discuss the 8 steps that he thinks chess players should address to become a strong player.  He will also go over some chess games that have been the most influential in his development

Camp 2 - The g7 square - French blocked structure

A brief glance at the typical French Defence blocked structures with Black's short castle is enough to reveal Black's Achillee's heel: the g7–square.

 All the other pawns are safely defended (the h-pawn could advance to h6 to enjoy his colleague support, for instance) or of low interest (the queenside pawns mainly), but the g7–pawn stands apart. Placed in the immediate neighbourhood of the king (which is also its only defender) this pawn has certain responsibility, as advancing it to g6 would weaken the h6– and f6–squares, which could have heavy strategic consequences.

***Taking all thiese into account, we can understand that one of White's main attacking ideas is sacrificing on g7, thus exposing the king and weakening the aforementioned squares for the invasion of the remaining pieces.

 My favourite scenario included Qg4 and Bd3, putting g7 and h7 under observation. The queen's bishop would be well placed on c1, as would be ready to intervene to h6.

 - Opening bluff

In chess sometimes appeared such situation, when one of the players starts to play for win at any price. In some cases it is possible to do it from the early openings. We call such way as BLUFF and the most brilliant figure of this style weas great Mikhail Tal. He used this method in different situations, but in the openings he was successfull with this method too.

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- Middle game with c3-d4 pawns

Middle game positions with a pair of pawns, c3–d4 (c6–d5), can be seen frequently in practical games. Analyzing positions with this type of pawn structure allows us to draw the following conclusions:

(1) it is important to restrict the movements of these pawns and take control over squares c4 and d5 (or c5 and d4, respectively);

(2) the side with the c and d pawns must recognize that passive play will likely only result in a draw, therefore, this side must create a dynamic structure with hanging pawns c4 and d4 (c5 and d5), or it must build up an active game on the King side.

This article highlights games where the pawn structure c3–d4 (c6–d5) is the center of the theoretical dispute in those games.