So with the help of Mastering Chess Openings, I'm trying to understand closed games better rather than just hating on them because I don't understand them. It's been fun so far, but the results have been mixed. This game started out as a closed Ruy Lopez when I made a mistake, but he took advantage of it in the wrong way and we ended up in this interesting position:
Unfortunately, he disconnected at this point and that was that, I would have loved to play it out. After gxf6 and we both retreat our bishop (probably to h4 and b7), black's up a pawn but white's got so much compensation, mostly in the forms of weaknesses to attack and strong pieces.
The rook is dominating the e-file for the forseeable future. The bishop can go to c2 and be a strong piece. Black's dark bishop, meanwhile, is miserable. White's knight may be able to create some serious havoc on the weak f5 square.
For targets, white has the exposed black king and weak pawns on c7, f7, f6 and a7. Black has little to target, except maybe the g2 square.
I wish I'd gotten a chance to play it out, I thought it was a great example of how material is important, but other positional factors can sometimes be more important. I definitely think white is better here.