far as possible to reduce my subject to such principles as are
generally applicable.

Finally, as regards the MIDDLE GAME, to which the whole of Part
II is devoted, I have again made the handling of pawns, the
hardest of all problems of strategy, the starting-point for my
deliberations. I have shown at length how the various plans
initiated by the various openings should be developed further. To
ensure a thorough understanding of the middle game, I have given
a large number of games taken from master play, with numerous and
extensive notes. Thus the student has not to rely only on
examples taken haphazard from their context, but he will at the
same time see how middle-game positions, which give opportunities
for special forms of attack, are evolved from the opening.

It has been my desire to make the subject easily understandable
and at the same time entertaining, and to appeal less to the
memory of my readers than to their common sense and intelligence.
I hope in that way not to have strayed too far from the ideal I
had in mind when writing this book, namely, to apply to chess the
only method of teaching which has proved productive in all
branches of science and art, that is, the education of individual
thought.

If I have succeeded in this, I shall have the satisfaction of
having contributed a little to the furthering, in the wide
circles in which it is played, of the game which undoubtedly
makes the strongest appeal to the intellect.