The middlegame, the vaguely defined phase between the opening and the endgame, is for most chess players the most significant and fascinating part of the game. Unlike the other phases of the game, which are dominated by theoretical knowledge and systematic approaches, it is particularly in the middlegame that a player's creativity can unfold. The player is constantly challenged to apply the principles of positional play and the elements of tactics to ever-new game situations. It was only relatively late that a systematic and logical treatment of the middlegame was attempted. The book published by Snosko-Borowski in 1922 in its first English edition is considered the first to thoroughly analyze this topic. Capablanca once remarked that it was nearly the only book on the subject that he deemed worthy of reading. This classic was published in German in 1926.