I've gotten rather good at reaching utterly crushing positions, and fluffing it on a bigger level than Black Wednesday. This wouldn't be such a problem were it not for the fact that I'm utterly talentless, and have had to work very hard to get to even 120/1850 level or thereabouts (under the cusp right now but working on it). What I'm doing at the mo, is feeding my games to Fritz, and annotating the resultant hybrid-man-beast-performance, from my own fantastic openings, then seeing the machine's perfect attacking play. Along with annotating (as best I can) Capablanca's open games, this may help, but will only take me so far. I'm considering between buying The Middlegame, The Art of Attack, and Simple Chess (this latter possibly as an aid to whichever of the former). To give you some background, I sometimes go through Deadly Chess Tactician (too sac oriented for me), and found my first great leap (a whacking great ECF 55-->107 leap!!) by reading Better Chess by Hartston. I have my bible, aka Muller's Fundamental Endings, and Rizzitano's tome against 1 d4. So naturally, what's missing is the great expanse of the game that comes between the bits I'm not bad at.

Any advice on which books (or even not!) to buy?

The Art of Attack in Chess (Vukovich) is all about hitting the castled king (as I recall). If that suits you then the book is probably for you as it is highly regarded.

If you want to learn more on middlegame planning Euwe and Kramer's The Middlegame is good. Two volumes.

Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy (Watson) is very well regarded. 1400-GM says Silman.

The Amateur's Mind (Silman) likewise well-regarded. 1100-1800 says Silman.

How to Reassess your Chess (Silman). Another frequently recommended book. Best used with the Workbook--so that's two books. Often read after Amateur's Mind.

You know, there are lots of middlegame books out there. Many good choices. Have fun picking out yours.

Fritz Technique Trainer is software about winning won games.

I am one of the few, I guess, that does not have Silman's endgame book. I have FCE like you. I think it teaches well but what do I know. I also have Shereshevsky's Endgame Strategy which I like a lot. A wordy endgame book...a very good companion.

If you are running through Capa's open games you might throw a bunch of Morphy's in the mix. Except for the Harrwitz match he's almost all open games. My two-cents

Irving Chernev had a section in "Logical Chess: Move by Move" about attacking the king.

I am currently reading "Attack with Mikhail Tal", by Mikhail Tal and Iakov Damsky, which is entirely about attacking a king. You might also want to get "The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal" which will expose you to a lot of different attacks.

Study alot of games from the romantic era. Anderssen, Morphy, and Chigorin come to mind.

Also, what is your rating?

As I mentioned in my first post, I play to around ECF120/ELO1850 standard at best, and am currently graded 100 ECF, which converts roughly, to ELO 1750.

Perhaps I should clarify my aims here.

I wish to improve in both:
1) middlegames in general,
2) winning from won positions.

And I'm wondering, given my history and skill level, whether the books I suggested are right for me in your experience, or whether you can think of better.

Re: Tal, I've toyed with buying his annotated games, but given Capa's simplicity of play if I could extract anything decent from personalised annotations, it would save some dosh for now re general learning of master games and ideas. You're talking about studying master games; but that is what I'm already doing. I'm quite literally not strong enough to draw out the major points of games just by reading them with GM annotations-hence the deeper books I'm considering which deal more with elements of attacking positions, digested for yutzes like me who can't learn at a relative canter from master games.

Re Secrets by Watson, I've also heard very good things about this book, but have also heard it's not so easy going for someone at my level (though I imagine nor is Middlegame). I suppose I'm just wary of buying anything that tells me things I already know, or doesn't show me what I need in the correct way for me.

As for Silman, the books you mention are all psychologically based, and involve assessing my weaknesses, which believe me I already have.

And as for AoA, it deals with all forms of attack posture on Kings in castled/uncastled/castled fianchetto forms.

I suppose it all boils down to this.

If I bought and learned everything in one of these books, would I still significantly benefit from either of the others? And if not, which is best for purpose?

Hope this isn't all getting too complex or out of the realms of individual experience.

Two books that might get you over the hump:

Improve Your Chess Now by Jonathan Tisdall
Think Like A Grandmaster by Alexander Kotov

I really should have given you guys more info at the beginning
There's one rather whacking great hitch with this idea. (Asides from that you didn't really tell me much about IYCN, and I've only seen patchy reviews online.) Which is that Think Like A Grandmaster, is in that category of books along with How To Choose A Chess Move, which when I read, utterly, UTTERLY, numb my brain to any understanding I have already acquired, for a great while. It's like it's the utter antithesis of what I've learned to think like, which is more lucid and descriptive than pure variations and strict control over analysis lopping. My thought processes will never be as robotic as Kotov requires, all the time, and it would be futile of me to try to change that If I'm being picky, TLAG isn't really a middlegame book either from what I remember of it (though I could be wrong).

I have to say I really don't understand why you guys are recommending books that aren't on the subjects I've mentioned This could be me having less common sense than Poohbear, but surely that defeats the objective of my question? -Prepares to be smacked down like Damiano's Defence-

While you may have asked for middlegame books you indicated that your problem was that you were obtaining crushing positions and just not converting them favourably. This is a problem that I have faced at times and in my opinion the two books suggested will help you get beyond this problem.

Here are my reviews of these two books:

Improve Your Chess Now by Jonathan Tisdall

Think Like A Grandmaster by Alexander Kotov

Kotov offers a framework which while not ideal is certainly worth looking at even if you ultimately adopt a modified approach. Kotov's tree of analysis was mentioned in half a dozen of the books that I studied upon my most recent return to chess competition after a very long absence.

I can suggest other books but these seem to me to be the best two to get you out of your current problem. Also I am limited in my suggestions by your current chess strength as some options may be over your head and others may actually in the short term result in some regression (your results will get worse).

I have recently taken halting steps in using computer technology such as Fritz and other engines but I have to fight myself as my natural inclination is to work things out for myself and only use Fritz when I find myself stumped after numerous extended tries at it. It is possible that premature reliance on Fritz is what is causing your problems in the first place.

On the books that you suggested I would probably try the Vukovic book though I haven't read it myself. I did read a now out of print Vukovic book on sacrifices at a period of chess transition from B player to A player. Coupled with "Tal's Life and Games", "Botvinnik's 100 Selected Games" and "Think Like A Grandmaster" and Euwe's "Road To Chess Mastery" I started converting those winning positions.

I think that some of the other posters have given you excellent suggestions as well. Silman's "How to Reassess Your Chess" is quite good and could help with your problem of not converting winning positions but it has the drawback that it might temporarily cause your results to get worse until you incorporate the ideas into your reasoning process.

Here is my review of Stean's book by that name. I believe that there is a second book out with the same name by a different author.

Simple Chess by Michael Stean

There's a book by Andy Soltis on turning an advantage into victory. Look for it at Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more