Steinitz's Principles: Harmony and Coordination

One of the hardest tasks in chess, is finding a good plan. Many players are fantastic at attacking, conjuring sublime tactics and precise opening play but sometimes struggle when it comes to finding a good plan.
In this article, I'd like to share my journey on how i navigated past this stagnation and discovered a whole new world of strategic creativity.

Now of course I still make silly mistakes but progress is what matters - and it all started when I learnt about Wilhelm Steinitz' Table of Elements.

Wilhelm Steinitz

Steinitz was the embodiment of imagination.
The first official World Champion is considered the father of modern day chess strategy.
Born in May 14, 1836, Prague, he broke away from the School of Romantic chess, and proposed a more scientific approach, formulating middlegame principles and laws that are still powerful even today.

Dr Emanuel Lasker, who defeated Steinitz for the Championship title, 1894, was the first to describe and fully break down what those advantages were, in what is now known as Steinitz' Table of Elements

Now these principles were revolutionary at that time. The chess world shift from Romantic to Positional, so much so that even he once said :

"I was champion of the world for 28 years...The players of today such as Lasker, Tarrasch, Pillsbury, Schelter and others, have all adopted my principles " - Wilhelm Steinitz, 1889 via The Modern Chess Instructor

Even the great attacking players learned to build before they attacked. Henry Nelson Pillsbury was noted for having "a refreshingly attacking style" but whose play was based on building a set-up after Steinitz introduced positional principles.

https://archive.thedailystar.net/magazine/2004/04/01/time.htm

Discovery in chess is a beautiful thing.
Whether it's a new opening innovation or some other middlegame strategy and endgame discovery, learning about new ideas always brings a sense of satisfaction and freshness.

My Journey

That was certainly the case for me when I was 1700 rapid on chess.com.
I was a relatively solid player and decent tactician.
Golam22-1813
FortKnox94-1735
My opponent allowed Nd4-e6 which won the exchange, but my Bishop on h3 was locked out.

I think after Nd4, ..b5!? was good to try and activate the Qside. For e.g 1. Nd4 b5 2. Rb1 bxc4 3.Qxc4 Nb5 4.a4 Nxd4!, Black has freedom. The game continued 1.Nd4 0-0-0 2.Ne6 Rde8 3.Nxg7 Qxg7 4.Bd4 Re5 5.Bxe5 and I felt I was objectively better

But after hitting a long plateau I began to review my games in depth with an engine, having previously decided that computer evaluations were not very useful at my level, desperation had crept in.

I discovered that I only played what I knew and made some serious mistakes ,which fortunately, opponents couldn't take punish me for. But more crucially, I couldn't formulate a good plan. I struggled and it started to leak onto my OTB play.

October 14, 2023, I played in the North West University Open, losing two and winning 3.
The two games I lost hurt the most because the same problems occurred, I couldn't find good plans.
Xulu, Lindokuhle
Sefuli, Mongezi

In the first round, I faced the top seed who was rated around 1950 and I at 1430, and reach this position in the Smith-Morra.
I already lacked ideas, and tried to go after the h pawn but he played Bg3, to which I thought Rd8 would maintain a solid position until I somehow found something to do - but..
18. Nxe6!
Clearly my skilled opponent had other ideas.

19. .. fxe6 20.Bxe6+
was how the game continued, my position was rather pitiful.
More resilient was to shift the Rook to e8, but Black would still have been worse, although not completely lost.

I fought on bravely for a few moves but it was futile and I resigned shortly after.
But thankfully, I went on to win the next 3 games in a row only losing in the final round cause of fatigue (excuses, excuses).

Harmony And Coordination

A few weeks after my painful losses at NWU Open, I decided to invest time into dealing with my lack of creativity.
I searched around for good material, and eventually found something more to my level : Herman Grooten's Strategy for Club Players.

Now this book is very large, and exhaustive so I decided to take on chapters which I had studied before but never fully grasped.
Harmony and Piece Coordination was one those chapters.

The book was important to me because it was the first time I came across principles that had already discovered over 100 years ago by the visionary Wilhelm Steinitz!(Okay guess I am living under a rock)

With the losses from the NWU Open still fresh in my mind,I was eager and dove right in..One of Steinitz Elements I put a lot of effort into understanding: 7. Strong Pawn Centre
Image by author

Going back to the game against Xulu Lindokuhle, I then realised that the restrained pawn centre which I had, required me to focus on my pieces and harmonize them. It wasn't too difficult to remember the principles of improving the inactive pieces and found , on my own, moves like Be7-d8-b6, followed by Qa7 and Rac8, Rd8 etc, instead of what I played, even the engines approved of the idea of piece improvement.
Progress!

Soon after my breakthrough,I decided to permanently switch to Lichess since computer analysis was unlimited and free, I needed some consistent feedback to help shape my newly found knowledge.(of course I have more than one account, but I closed my last one due to rage quitting, I digress)

The importance of Interpretation

It was key for me to understand intuitively how to harmonize my pieces based of the factors of the position. So naturally I queued some games to get much needed practice and feedback.
When you're in a game, you have no assistance but your own mind. It's important to have good intuition when it comes to planning and also pattern recognition plays a key role in strategy just as much with tactics.

So in my online praxis, I noted some recurring scenarios where Harmony plays an especially important role, simplifying the concept even further.

• Harmony in Attack

• Harmony in Defence

• Dynamic Harmony

• Static Harmony

Conclusion

In all the games the centre was pivotal in what was happening on the board.
Of course other elements played a key role in planning and evaluation, making the overall strategy work.

Chess is indeed a beautiful game, complex and full of discovery to those who dare to take on the path.

I learnt my lesson at the NWU Open October 2023, and continue to be a student of the game, till one day I reach a master level.

Sources
Wikipedia
Stockfish 19
Thedailystar.net