Thanks for the answer

White continues as expected. I'm having second thoughts about my plan outlined earlier, of letting white capture on f5 and then putting my knight on e6. It seems like it'll be tough to get c5 in as long as white has a knight on c3 and a rook on d1, there's just too much pressure on d5. Plus, I don't really like black's chances there. Sure he has play, but that gives white a weakness to focus on and it's not a dynamic position where black has tons of play for a weakness. Currently it looks tough to develop an active plan for white, so I'd rather not give him straightforward play against a weakness. No need to do that.

I like the idea of 13...Nxg3 and then immediately playing 13...c5. That way black can at least get an open file on the queenside and begin finding play there. If white decides to recapture with the f-pawn (which I doubt, given his last move), then I'll just have to ready myself to deal with the pressure on the f-file. But I think long-term it's a better plan than creating a weakness on d5.

I'm still down with fxg3. It seems kind of strange to accept them given white is contorting his position to be able to avoid the doubled pawns, but one thing that I've found to be very dangerous in these positions is to end up without a clear plan. fxg3 ensures white always has pressure on the f file and the g4 break - with more breaks to follow thanks to the handy second g pawn. In a clean pawn structure his only play is something like f3/g4 which doesn't really look appealing since capturing on h5 in that structure leaves f5 and h5 both as glaring holes - not the mention the h4 pawn can be a huge liability there if black still has his dark bishop.

Where does white play if he keeps his pawn structure clean? Black is coming with c5/b5/etc super fast with a rock solid structure on the kingside. I don't see what white can do there.

yeah maneuvring white's best piece from g5 to g3 is really awkward. I also didn't really see anything wrong with Be7, and was quite surprised not to see it played. But then, this position also looks pretty good for black.

Position is now probably technically equal and practically better for black. Ah well, still plenty to play for.

Interesting recapture. It certainly looks more aesthetically pleasing than 14.fxg3, but I'm not sure which was better. The bishop looks like it might take a little while to get active from the g3 square. Oh well, time to move on.

It looks like the time is right for black to break with c5. Black will get the half open c-file whenever he chooses and consequently some play on the queenside. I'll look for an opportune moment to bring the bishop into play, but right now it has no good squares. I'll continue with c5 and see how play develops.

White's most natural move is Ne2. Then Black can perhaps try to re-route the Knight into the game by Kd7, Ne8, g6, Ng7, Nf5, bt it seems kind of long-term. I think Black has a comfortable position here, but probably nothing more. To fight for the initiative Black will have to exchange his Bishop for the White Knight (once it comes to d4), but it seems like an unlikely route to an advantage since a Bishop is better than a Knight.

No saying things like a bishop is better than a knight, especially not in this position. If we got rid of black's bishop and white's knight in this position, black would have an even larger advantage than he already does. It's all about the quality of your minor pieces and in this position white's bishop is just terrible. Even if after some journey white gets it to a 'great' square like d6 it's still not exactly amazing. Whereas black's knight just has so much potential here. In the longterm he has the potential outpost at e4, but even in the short term black's immediate goal is going to be to provoke weaknesses on the queenside - his knight is [relatively] well positioned to aid in that.

And more concretely, right now black's only problem with his position is his king rook. It needs to get to c8 but his dark bishop is rather in the way of that. I think black should be absolutely thrilled to swap bishop for knight.

I'm not completely convinced.. Black's Knight is really badly placed on c7.. I think I'd rather play Black's position with Bishop vs. Bishop rather than Knight vs. Bishop, but I could be mistaken.

Let's see.. 1.Ne2 now my idea of Kd7 might allow c4 ideas -

if Black plays Ne2 cxd4 Nxd4 Bc5 f3 Bxd4 Rxd4 I'm not sure this position is all that bad for White - he seems to at least have some ideas of Bf2 and g4 or Kd2 and c4.

Maybe best play for Black is to follow with c4 and then some kind of pawn-storm ideas on the Q-side

Hahah. I said I think white should be pretty happy to trade bishop for knight from a theoretic point of view - not that he should kamikaze a half dozen tempi in pursuit of it.

This is a pretty exciting position. Playing this position as white after a c4 from black looks awful, but there's no good way to stop it. On the other hand c4 from black also takes all the immediate pressure off of white. It should be great to see how both players respond to it.

So... Ne2 now, or later? It's getting played soon no matter what.

Let's say later and begin the tortuous maneuvering to get the bishop somewhere useful after I spent all this time making it bad. I had some tempi to waste, why not waste them?

If c4 immediately, then Bg5 and White has good K-side play. I think best is Be7 to have f6 against Bg5. And if Be3 in reply, then we can play c4.

Hmmm. Interesting idea. I'm assuming white is planning to play Be3 and try to put pressure on the c5 square. Could he have another idea with this move? I doubt it's to try to push the g-pawn forward, that plan doesn't seem to accomplish much. I'm guessing he realized the bishop is in no man's land on the kingside and he's trying to get it back into the action.

So what does black do here? Right now the only real imbalances are that white has a lead in development and more space, but I don't see that being able to lead to anything. Black has the half open c-file to help further his play on the queenside, and has been able to achieve his typical c5 break to undermine the white center. Other than that, things are fairly equal. In situations like this (fairly equal positions), my standard go-to thought process is what Silman often recommends. I try to tip the scales my way by creating a favorable minor piece imbalance since there isn't a ton else going on.

In this position, I would like to try to trade my dark square bishop for white's knight for a few reasons. First and foremost, that would leave white with his bishop, which has relatively few prospects. Nearly every white pawn is on a light square, and with the locked center I don't see things ever opening up for the bishop. Also, again with the center and kingside fairly locked down, most of the remainder of the game will take place on the queenside. In that case, I like having a knight to be able to attack squares of both colors and also hop around and probe at weaknesses. The fact that it doesn't have short range powers won't be too much of a disadvantage because play will be confined to one side of the board.

I think I have a way to accomplish that plan here. I can take on d4 with 15...cxd4, which virtually forces 16.Rxd4. White can try 16.Ne2 (16.Na4 loses immediately to 16...b5 and 16.Nb2 is no good), but after 16...Bc5 white has to recapture with the knight and I can accomplish my goal of trading. So after 16.Rxd4, I like 16...Bc5 17.Rd2 (forced to not hang the f2 pawn) 17...Bb4 followed by 18...Bxc3. If white plays 18.Rd3, then 18...Bxc3 19.Rxc3 and things get interesting. I like 19...Nb5, and there are a couple of interesting variations here. If 20.Rb3, then 20...Nd4 forces 21.Re3 to stop the threat of the fork on e2. Then I'd probably play 21...Rc8 to threaten c2, forcing 22.c3 and follow it up with 22...Nc6 when the knight is on a better square and black has a pawn to attack on c3. If white plays 20.Rc5, then I'll follow with 20...Nd4, threatening the fork, and after something like 21.Be3, 21...Nc6 and the knight is again on the better square and putting pressure on e5. So after something I think would be a better reply for white, like 20.Rd3, I would look at 20...a6 to play Na7 and Nc6 and get the knight where it needs to be. That's about as far as I can calculate concretely, and I probably even missed something there.

Sorry for the long post, hopefully I'm not WAY off the mark here.

It seems extraordinary Ag didn't strongly consider c4. It's a tricky move since if white can get in Kd2 and fight for the a-file actively then black might end up in trouble with his kingside congestion interfering with getting his second rook into the game but if white can't get sufficient counterplay on the queenside he would simply lose without a fight since he has no play anywhere else with how fast black's queenside play comes.

But his variation also seems quite risky. In his line with 20. Rd3 a6 black has 21. Be3 - the most logical square for the bishop but also one that leaves black in a lot of trouble! That knight is going to be forced back to c7 which is going to leave black's position very awkward all the sudden. I'm sure he won't play that. The line I expect to see is: 1. Ne2 Bc5 2. Nxd4 Bxd5 3. Rxd4 Na6 with the idea of Nb8->Nc6. But it looks like the advantage he had is probably completely gone there. I don't see how he'll be able to bring his queen rook into the game in any sort of a timely fashion. g4 is always a big concern if his rook tries to enter the game - not to mention the question of where his king is supposed to go.

Awesome position in any case. I love games like this since there's high doses of strategy and latent tactical ideas as well but with neither really dominating.

I don't see why c4 is all that. Even if Black gets to play c4, b4 and a4 what is he really threatening? White can refuse to open files and play on the kingside, or maybe open the c-file and put a rook on it. If Black had a queen there would be a bit more venom here, because he could eventually sacrifice a minor piece to open lines on the queenside.

I don't really believe cxd4 is best either. I guess I would play Be7 and keep some options open. But at least there is some plan to it -- steer for a position with a clear imbalance which Tex will probably play better. My prediction: at some point Kyle will struggle to form a coherent understanding of the position and a move too late realise he has the choice between a losing N v B ending and a fatal rook invasion.

Well he's threatening to make threats!

I agree but I'm also only half joking. Though it does look like white can hold there, if we bring black's kingside rook into the picture then it's indeed curtains. The thing I like about c4 is that white seems to have practically 0 play whereas black has a clear and relatively simple plan to make progress.

It definitely raises concrete issues that would need to be evaluate but I'm just shocked he seems to have not even considered the move. It feels antipositional but that has to be balanced out by how constricting it is on white's game. I've no idea if its the best move but it's certainly one I'd spend plenty of time deliberating.

Do it right: re: where his king should be? I think it will remain in the centre of the board in your plan. In your scenario - we are trading down pieces fast and I think king tempi's might be very important for black as ultimately he will be wanting to break on the kingside rather than the queenside after he has now made cxd.
The problem I see for black will be dark bishop. Ag - points out that all his pawns might end up on white squares as if that is a virtue I think the opposite if he does not trade dark square bishop off the fact black can manuevre and find stronger homes for his bishop and also pressure d8 a key file might be enough for white to hold.

In my scenario we are trading down pieces? I'm not sure what you mean. In the idea with c4 you not only keep more material on the board, you trade nothing - at all.

Playing on the kingside is very very undesirable for black in this position. His main edge is white's lack of anything tangible. Start trying to play on the kingside and white's pieces are going to be zooming all over the board. It's up to white to prove he can make progress on the kingside, not for black to do it for him!

As mentioned in my previous post, I'm aiming to trade bishop for knight because it seems like white's bishop will have trouble finding something to do in the current pawn structure. I'm going to play 16...Bc5, anticipating 17.Nxd4 Bxd4 18.Rxd4.

Black's knight is going to have to go back to a6 fairly soon if it wants to be involved in the game.

I'm thinking White should be playing for c2-c4 to exchange Black's extra centre pawn and kind-of open things up. So something like Nxd4 Bxd4 Rxd4 Na6 Kb1 Rc8 Rc1 Ke7 c4 Nb4 a3 Nc6 Rdd1 dc Rxc4 Rhd8 is likely. I guess this is so symmetrical it should be considered drawish, but White hasn't found any solution to his main problem and if the rooks come off he might suddenly be losing.

While white's bishop may be bad, there is nothing good about black's knight either. It doesn't have a good home to land at at the current moment and is probably as bad as white's bishop. What about Nb5 a4 Nc7, weakening white's queenside? Although then the bishop would have some better squares to go to.

I'm guessing he wants to trade bishop for knight here. I should probably do that. It is an indisputable, scientific fact that bishops are always better than knights, because the knight's only use is cheap tricks that you hope your opponent doesn't see in time.

That said, Tex is a better player than me, so he might just survive the BvN battle intact due to my own inabilities to live up to my noble piece's potential.

Do I have any other options? I'm kind of inclined to just ignore it and assume that I can always get that pawn back later, because that never ever goes wrong for me when I think like that.

At least that'll complicate up an otherwise boring position.

Rh3? f3? Bg5?

There's some interesting lines where he follows any of those moves with d3, Rxd3, Bxf2 and I've sacced a pawn but gotten that pretty, pretty f-file to play on. I don't know if he'd go for that or not, but this position is entirely too boring after exchanging everything on d4.


tl;dr: I'm bored with this game let's do something unsound. Gogogo!

...d3 splat?

17...d3 18. cxd3 Bxf2?? 19. d4 +- and Kyle has more than just the f-file for the pawn. But 18...d4 looks interesting.