It all starts with a plan

Planning! I am currently reading a book on how to make a Life Plan and that is planning BIG! We all need to get focused on our goals and mission in life. It resembles much a business plan and since we take time planning for work and for our home why not planning for that which matters most? I think everyone should consider charting a personal Life Plan in order to live well, with purpose and so getting to a desired destination. What about chess, you might ask? Well, I hope you would not be surprised if I told you that planning is everything in chess! Every move must be part of a certain plan or else it is just a loss of time and that could bring the initiative on the other side of the board. Many players know that the plan arises early in the game, from the very beginning, depending on what opening one chooses. We know that different pawn structures are the footprint to definite plans according to which we choose the arrangement of our pieces. So the plan prompts us to action, generally to understand which side we will most likely attack on. In order to find a good plan we must first ask the right questions and answer well to them :) It is like the process of cooking. Today I applied myself to that! I planned on cooking a tasty bean soup so what did I need at first? First, I needed to go to the kitchen, to chop the ingredients and to make them boil respecting a certain order and in the end to catch the moment when the soup was ready so I could put the fire down. In the same way, let us say that we are planning on attacking the opponent's castle on the king's side. So we choose which pieces we will attack with and find the maneuvers to get them on the king's side. Then we decide the order in which they will enter the scene to play their own role, let's say will the pawns go first and open the files for the rooks on the back or shall we attack directly with a bishop and knight, then bring the pawns to help? Once everything is set and ready we must catch the moment to crush the castle, maybe with a piece sacrifice and break in so we finish the game with a beautiful check mate! :) Yes, it is as simple as that! And how about my today's bean soup? As you supposed, it turned out to be simply delicious!