Well, my instincts were wrong. Rc8 is too slow--after Bc5, the only way to increase the pressure on the bishop is Nd7, but Black can't pressure c5 effectively while defending b5 and f7, and the whole enterprise fails if White can move the knight from c4. (White can easily move the queen between f3 and b3, for example, and Black's ideal set-up in this context of Q@c7, R@c6, N@d7 is one tempo too slow.)

On the other hand, a5 looks sound, and the rook is still useful on a8 (if a bit vulnerable after Qf3, but this is less of a concern with the queen on the 8th rank as well). From a strategic point of view, I think this is a good idea, and perhaps the best way to take advantage of White's dalliances.

It's also a good idea, I feel, to make concrete moves rather than play these maneuvering games.

So 33.Bc5 a4 is very likely here, but I'm not sure what comes next for Black. d4 is pretty secure with the B@c5 (too many minor pieces for d4 to cause White problems, especially now that f6 tactics aren't in play), but no matter; if the goal was to push the queenside pawns, that's happened anyway. The only drawback is that a6-a5 means that b5 is now undefended, so Qd7 is probably going to be played soon (also covers f7 and defends a4, so this is a good square). It's a little less clear where the rook belongs.

Thinking slightly longer-term, I guess Black can push the queenside pawns a little further, but it would be wise to put the N@f8 into play before creating weaknesses there. Taken together, I think that gives me a pretty decent plan for the next 3-5 moves or so. I don't think White is really causing any trouble at the moment.

At some point, White might play a3/b3 on his own. And g4-5 is always going to be something Black needs to keep in mind. An reasonable way for White to create a distraction. But I think Black's position is easier to play again. That actually would be a pretty fun use of in-thread polls, to see the popularity of one side or the other shift during these games.

As stated, I feel like I'm playing with out a plan and no real idea of how to approach this position. This is obviously bad and a reason it has taken me a bit longer to get my moves out as I am at a loss as to what I should plan to do or even what continuations to analyse.

I think I have to break up blacks Q-side pawns, and that doing so also justifies moving my bishop to this diagonal. My minor pieces are, as they have been for a decent amount of time, pretty good placed. The Bishop may have to go to c5 but I see no reason to do that just yet, especially if I plan on breaking up the black pawns. It might be the logical move if black plays Rc8 anyway so it may just be a move order issue. I think I can play Ne5 in response to Nd7.

Preventing a4, but this is comfortable for me. White's not threatening anything, as taking on b5 just helps Black, and Qb3 to increase pressure on the pawn is impossible due to a4. The fact that Black always has the option of taking on a3 here whereas White can't take on b5 means that I'm pretty happy to have the pawns opposed like this.

More generally, I think Rb8 is probably the future home for the rook, but I don't see any need to rush it (via Rc8-b8, for example). I'd rather White waste a tempo moving the bishop.

In keeping with the plan from my previous post, it's the f8-knight that deserves attention rather than rushing anything further on the queenside. I'd rather avoid Nd7--keeping the pressure on d6 highlights the coordination problem with the White minor pieces. Ng6 doesn't seem to accomplish anything concrete. It's a little tempting, but not really consistent with playing on the queenside.

So Nh7, looking to recycle the knight via f6 is more natural to me--compared with the position around move 28, White's minor pieces aren't really in a position to bother the knight there anymore.

I feel like we're just "playing chess" at this point, so we'll see what happens. This feels much more natural than pruning decision trees, at least--at some point I'll need to ask in the low content thread whether anyone plays correspondence chess seriously here, and if so, what their usual thought process is like.

But for the moment, I'll be planning on playing Nh7-f6, and ultimately settling on squares for my major pieces once White settles on squares for his minor pieces. Taking on a3 "prematurely" is always an option if White is not cooperative, but I'd rather be ready to put the rook on the b-file (especially), and to replace the knight on d5 (lower priority) before doing that.

i like a3. Depending on circumstances, White can consider fixing black's queenside pawns on black squares via a3-a4, even if this involves having to play b3 later. I don't think a Nc3 troubles white too much.

Somehow I thought that black needed to do something about the a3 pawn. I can't take on b4 however I can fix his pawns on black squares and prevent him from advancing with them on the Q-side.

It should be positionally good with my dark-squared bishop to fix the pawns like that and with my knight on c4 the a5 pawn may become weak later. The downside is that I likely will have to play b3 at some point thereby giving up the c3 square. However I think the positional upsides more than compensates for this.

It may have been inaccurate of me to not just play a4 straight away but I think it is more appealing with the knight on h7 compared to f8 as it is further from the queenside. I don't think I have any K-side problems and I think he is just rearranging the knight to go to f6.

Again I am playing without much of an overall plan but making these small positional improvements seems like the right thing to do. Generally speaking I think it is difficult for either side to do much. Black probably want to put some pressure on the d-pawn which will take a lot of time and rearrangement to do. I think I need to play g4-g5 in order to create something here. But that will also take some time to set up and I am contend with making these small positional moves for now.

I just wish I didn't suck at positional chess

Hmm. A little surprised, but this makes sense--White looks to close the queenside. But why not 33.a4 in that case? On the other hand, wasting the tempo definitely lulled me into a sense of complacency--my lack of attention paid to the immediate 33...bxa3 or this reply 34.a4 is notable.

I don't think I'll be able to play b3 myself (although if the knight can stay on b4, it might be worth a pawn?), so likely will try to force b3 quickly. (Otherwise, b3 can be a good square for the White knight. Similar to that line in the Slav, actually, although only rarely does that b3 knight accomplish anything.)

There are sensible moves on the board for pretty much all of my pieces though, so I'll need to take some time. And since correspondence players apparently do approach things by pruning move trees, maybe I'll give that another shot.

Worth mentioning, of course, is that this might be better than 33.a4 because Black doesn't have Nd7 any more.

But OK, I'm leaning towards just playing Nhf6 anyway. Basically, my comment before my last move "I'll be planning on playing Nh7-f6, and ultimately settling on squares for my major pieces once White settles on squares for his minor pieces" is still true. I'd rather know which way the bishop is headed before moving the rook, rather than moving the rook first. The reality might be that the rook just belongs on c8 now, making that consideration moot.

In any case, if the reason to force b3 is to prevent the knight from arriving there, I don't need to worry about that until White secures the bishop.

I need to look more closely at more forcing moves (Qe8, Qd7, Ra6, Rc8; Nb6 just loses a pawn, which is why only *almost* all of the pieces had sensible moves), but Nhf6 is clearly playing the role of improve the worst-placed piece and continuing the last move. It's the default choice if nothing better turns up.

After a lot of thought, I think the queen belongs on d8. Here it protects a5 and also retains the possibility of heading to the kingside. On d7 it does defend b5, but that's not an immediate problem, and it's not really a stable square. e8 might be better, but it's again very passive/committal.

Between, then, Rc8 and Nhf6 it seems that the former move will always transpose to the latter, but not vice versa. With White's pieces drifting from the kingside, Ng4+Qg5 is an annoying option that actually looks pretty viable.

Ra6 I just don't like. It an awkward square for the rook and invites trouble.

Looking forward, the pawns stuck on dark squares definitely have the potential to become weak--but c3 is going to be a nice home for a knight, covering b5 and serving as Black's gatekeeper on the c-file.

I'm not sure what incentive either side has to take a draw here. Way too much play. Black has a pawn and white has some vague attacking chances. It may be roughly even, but a draw doesn't seem that likely to my feeble analysis.

that's exactly how the old guys at my first club thought. Moderately interesting opening phase, not much going on tactically, neither side has a big material advantage, "it's just a draw", move on. And then they would claim that it was a "Kampfremis" (fighting draw). In the end this became a standard joke between the others.

My bishop is likely heading to either c5 or e5. I don't know where yet as I depend on where black puts his pieces.

So I'll try to prepare my other plan here, g4-g5. The best way to do that is Qf3 I think. The good thing about my position is that I can't see what back has to do here. At least that should give me some time to play Qf3, g4 and prepare g5. It might take some time with rearranging my bishop and generally paying attention to the queenside.

One of us is counting wrong.

Agree with my opponent that there's no reason to draw now--actually, I tend to be pretty reluctant to agree to draws in general, so no reason to change that policy now. Especially since I really don't have a strong enough grasp on the position. Although I don't think I'm worse -- I'd say that the game is pretty even. White obviously also plans on playing on the kingside now that the queenside is starting to lock up. So no draw, and no Ng4 either.

I think the main decision now is whether I want to spend a tempo to force b3. I'm pretty sure that the queen is going to have to return to d8 if I move off the d8-a5 diagonal, since the pawn on a5 will need protection so the rook can move.

So Qe8, Rc8, and Nd7 look like the the three main ideas here. One big advantage that Nd7 has is that I can attempt the rarely seen double-knight-wheel, with Nf6-d7-f8-h7-f6-d7-f8-f6.

Rc8 sort of thinks about the idea that the Rc2 is undefended, although I can't see how that matters immediately. Qe8 would simplify life by clarifying the position on the queenside. But nothing really leaps out at me...

"Black has a pawn" is a true statement, I believe. In fact by my count, he has six! I'm pretty sure, though, that white also has six pawns...

So when I set up the position on an analysis board earlier to follow, I shorted white a pawn. Or else someone has been cheating.

Summary:
Putting the queen on d5 seems like a good idea.
Rc8 seems viable, with the idea of Ne7/(Nf5)/Qd5 (see diagram).
I still need to check Nd7 and other 35th move possibilities.
Many more words will happen before I move.

Have the idea of Qd7/Nc3 (idea:Qd5), but this hangs the rook on e8...playing Qe8 just to follow up with Qd8 seems a little silly -- especially if I'm likely to move the rook to c8 at some point anyway. So I think I'll set this aside and focus on the other main alternatives: Nd7 and Rc8.

This is, for me, a hard position to evaluate. So instead, I'll look at some typical lines and just pick based on that.

First, an aside on what White might be cooking up--since in the absence of a good plan of my own, I might as well prevent White from causing me trouble. With the knight on the queenside, I no longer see g4-g5 as a significant threat. It's easy to prevent, and it opens a hole on f4 which would be pretty easy to exploit--even something like Nh7-f8-g6-f4 would probably be good. (That knight is sort of a free agent here; it's function is sort of ill-defined compared with my other pieces, so it's easy to move it around without really weakening anything.)

The other target which I have newly created is the pawn on a5. Unclear why I rewarded White's knight's journey to c5 like this, but OK. This more or less requires either the queen to stay on d8. (Defending with the rook is just not going to work in the long term, in part because of the quasi-pin of the Nd5 via the Qf3.) Other than that, there's not much going on.

35...Rc8

36.b3 -- justified tactically by 36...Rxc4 37.bxc4 Qxd6 38.cxd5. Some serious complications in the event of 37...Nc3, though, and Black has alternatives to 36...Rxc4 (...Nd7 is still reasonable, for example). I think Black has both solid and speculative replies, so I'll save my limited study time by ignoring this.

36.Be5 -- the wrong way, I think

36.Bc5 -- logically closes the c-file, covers b6, prepares various knight sorties


36.Be5 Nb6 highlights the undefended rook on c2 and the pawn on a4. Maybe 37.b3 is almost forced in which case Nxc4 38.Rxc4 Rxc4 39.bxc4 Nd7 leaves White with a tough decision at the time control, since Nxe5 is in the air, White's pawns are weak, and b4-b3 is coming. This looks really bad for White.

36.Bc5 and Black needs to look at Nd6 and Ne5. Now Qd7 looks plausible, but there's even another drawback to Nc3 which is Nb6, forking the queen and rook. (Maybe I missed that in the first line of this post.) In fact, this theme will repeat, as Qe8 is not safe either (due to Nd6 forking queen and rook). This actually look a little troubling here. Black can sort of shift his pieces back and forth (Rb8, Rc6) but these moves aren't doing anything.

Instead, I am going to pin my hopes on 36...Ne7 -- again with the idea of Qd5 (and Nf5). This is a little dangerous because of the a5-pawn, but I think everything works out tactically because of the weakness of the R@c2. But I need to check further. I'd post the critical position, for all to contemplate, but chessvideos seems to be down, hopefully not permanently as this forum has come to rely on it quite a bit. Rehosted...


35...Rc8 36.Bc5 Ne7

Here, the 37.Bb6 Qd5 is forcing but seems OK for Black, and other ideas attacking a5 are going to be critical.

(Previous experience tells me to explicitly check for Ne7 ideas in other lines, but this is again problematic because of the x-ray attack on a8 by the f3 queen.)

Anyway, this is a pretty rich and critical position, so I'm going to take my time. I still need to address the rest of this, and then also turn to the Nd7 lines.

And I'll also give Qe8 another look. Given all of the knight-fork issues, I think I may come to find that e8 is a better square than d8 for the queen, and try to defend a5 tactically with threats against the R@c2? That seems to work in those Ne7 lines--at the very least, dismissing it out of hand now seems unjustified.

Clearly I need to work on making my chess writing more concise. I don't think that post contained enough information to justify that length...

35...Nd7 appears to invite a repetition 36.Ne5 N7f6 37.Nc5, although I'm sure White would play on here, with 37.Bc5 instead, when Rc8 38.g4[?] is the most obvious continuation, as the aforementioned Nh7 preventing g5 no longer works due to the threat against f7.

Which suggests 35...Qe8, but although it seems sort of plausible, I don't find it very natural. 36.b3 Nd7. (In the Nd7 lines, Black might benefit from Q@e8, in the Rc8 lines, White benefits from having already played b3, so this is the better of the two choices.) But now the B@d6 isn't under immediate threat, N7b6 doesn't really threaten anything...

It seems like Qe8 is something that might work, but I don't really feel it--I'm having an easier time seeing good (one hopes) ideas after Rc8.

In the 35...Rc8 36.Bc5 Ne7 line I had thought that 37.Bb6 would be most critical (threatening to win the a5 pawn) and was happy that Black seemed to be doing well there. Unfortunately, 37.Nd6 looks stronger for White: it moves the rook off c8 and prevents Nf5. So this is going to take a little longer...

35...Nd7 looks like it should be OK, though. White's options should include Bc5/Be5/Ne5/b3 and lessor lines. Black is more assured of having the opportunity to exchange a pair of minor pieces, though, which can only help.

I'm trying to improve on the earlier line with 35...Nd7 36.Ne5 N7f6 with 36...Nxe5. (Although I think my earlier skepticism about the merits of g4 without minor piece support were reasonable as well.) This capture is a little surprising, but the knight does a good job of dominating the bishop after the otherwise positionally desirable 37.dxe5. So 37.Bxe5 is probably preferred, and I think Black will be OK. g7 is the only weakness and there are lots of ways of defending it.

36. Bc5 Ra6 covers everything, and after Rc6, Black is comfortable.

Partially by process of elimination, I think Nd7 should be strongest. That knight continues to get a workout, though.

The pace has definitely slowed...posting to ping A.Ertbjerg.

so that obviously makes the immediate g4-g5 less attractive. With that said it doesn't do much for black in terms of attacking.

At some point his knights have to run out of steam because they must be pretty ired from all this moving around

So where do I put my pieces? the problem is as it have been for a long time that they are really well placed and hard to improve upon. Black will get the option to exchange a set of minor pieces I think when I decide where I want to place my bishop.

I think f7 may prove to be a weakness after Be5 Nxe5 Nxe5. Nf6 Qb7 looks good for me so he will likely have to play Qe8/Qe7/Qf8 and I think it's fine for me. My knight is very well placed on e5 and black can't really play f6 as that leaves his pawns looking horrible. That would give me some time to get my rook into his position with something like Rc5 or Rc7 if he moves the knight.

I think that is the line that gives me the best chances.

Of course black don't have to play Nxe5, but I'm not sure what his options are if he doesn't. Rc8 seems most likely but I don't think that gives me any troubles after Qd3 (then I'll respond to Nxe5 with dxe5 and I'll get a really good d6 square for my knight).