17. Rac1

This covers the c3 knight, blocking my potential rook sac. Now my d5 pawn really is hanging, so I have to defend it somehow. I could bring my queen back into the defense, or I could slide a rook behind it, but those are passive moves that don't do anything except try to hold on to the status quo, which isn't too great. Instead, I like Rc5, which puts a second defender on the pawn while simultaneously removing one of the two attackers, and putting the queen en prise. Now he has to either retreat his queen, at which point things will start looking more even, or else push her forward, at which point she may end up offside.

Moves so far:
1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. cxd5 cxd5 5. e3 Nc6 6. Bd3 g6 7. Nge2 Bg7 8. O-O O-O 9. f3 e5 10. Qb3 b6 11. Bb5 Na5 12. Qb4 exd4 13. Nxd4 Bd7 14. b3 Bxb5 15. Qxb5 Rc8 16. Bd2 Qe7 17. Rac1 Rc5

Current Position:

so what happened in these games?

I went on vacation, lol. They're technically both still active though, once I get home, and should both continue and be finished some day