Re: when to do prophylaxis

You should think prophylactically on every move -- always consider your opponent's plan (what he is trying to do). Prophylactic thinking is always good, prophylactic measures sometimes aren't. Like I said before, if his plan is not serious, then don't worry about it. If your opponent has a serious positional threat, then you should consider stopping it. BUT, that does not mean playing passively by just reacting to your opponent at the loss of time or coordination. Prophylaxis is not passivity. You will notice that Rad8 in the third example stops e4, but it also develops a rook to the center of the board, which is where rooks belong anyway.

For someone struggling with prophylaxis, I'd recommend the following:

For lower rated players - when you play a game over the board with someone, go over it with them afterwards. Write down your opponent's ideas, and when you get home ask yourself first why you didn't see his intentions, and second how would it change your own move now that he told you what he was planning to do.

For higher rated players - study Karpov’s “My Best Games” paying particular attention to the prophylactic thinking behind his moves. If any of the games seem easy, then you need to study them again because you will find mastery.

Also keep in mind that you rarely win games, it's usually your opponent who will lose them. So, you will have better results in practice if you err on the side of active prevention of your opponent's plans than just focusing on your own (you aren't going to find a plan that wins the game in a balanced position). Ok, but now we've gotten way beyond "Basic Into to Basic Planning," which is just a starting point for how to get ideas for a plan.

Congrats, this is the most watched video of the day!

This is extremely well done! I have yet to see better videos about playing with a plan. The examples are great (and I'm happy I found all the moves but the last one) and the concepts they teach were amazing! I really enjoyed this

Are you going to do any more of these kinds of videos in the future? I sure hope so!

A good player to look to for deep and interesting planning is Karpov. I was the original author of the question you answered (thanks!) - just had a slightly different name because I'd accidentally made two accounts on the site - and this is basically exactly what I was looking for. What does make me feel good is that I figured out the plan in all games except the prophylaxis one, and I got the idea that was supposed to occur, just not the right move - was thinking rook to e1 so that when they opened up the center, you'd be ready for it, but yeah.

Edit: Oh, didn't see the second page of comments. Nice. Yes, Karpov has become a favorite of mine for studying.