most definitely not Rxd3 (both taking with d1 and h3 rooks suck, even after Bxf2 u can't instantly double on the f-file), but rather cxd3 and suddenly white's position is much more pleasant IMO since d4 is incoming and h3 rook is ready to swing wherever needed, while black might have trouble consolidating.

Three posts in less than half an hour after I moved just proves that I've succeeded in making the position interesting. Even if they are all probably just three different variations on "lol that is bad."

i like a6! with the idea that we now threaten Nb5-a7-c6 with a tempo-win on d4. Thus White doesn't have time for DIR's Be3 idea.

I like the idea, but a6 Nxd4 Bxd4 Rxd4 Nb5 Rb4 might be problematic.

Well, that's an interesting move. I was expecting the "automatic" 17.Nxd4, so I didn't consider this move at all. Time to start breaking it down.

On first glance, I wonder if I can win a pawn with 17...d3. Hmmm. I'm thinking my bishop gets trapped after 17...d3 18.cxd3 Bxf2 19.d4. It looks like white can slide the d1 rook over and my bishop is a goner. So that's no good. What does look interesting to me is the idea 17...d3 18.cxd3 d4. That move shuts down the d1 rook, stops the h3 rook's operations along the third rank, entombs the bishop for the foreseeable future, and gives black's knight the d5 square as an outpost. However, the downside is it gives white's knight the e4 square which it will in turn use to plant itself on d6. A sample line I'm looking at is something like 17...d3 18.cxd3 d4 19.Ng3 Nd5 20.Ne4 Be7 21.Bg3. I just don't think that position helps black at all. His own bishop is as worthless as white's and the white knight, which I want to trade off, is on a fantastic square. I don't think that's a good line for black.

I'm struggling to come up with a line or plan that I really like. The biggest issue facing black is what to do with the knight. Right now it's worthless on c7 and I need to find a way to get it back in the game. 17...Na6 is what first pops into my head, threatening 18...Nb4 which wins a tempo on the a-pawn and then it can drop back to c6. But if 17...Na6, then 18.Nxd4 Bxd4 19.Rxd4 and I'm not sure what my knight is doing. It can come to c5 but I don't see anything great about that square.

How else to relocate the knight? 17...Nb5 doesn't seem to accomplish anything after 18...Rb3. And 17...a6 looks attractive, with the idea that 18.Nxd4 Bxd4 19.Rxd4 Nb5, but 20.Rb4 is uncomfortable.

Nothing really thrills me, but it's time to play something. The more I look at the position, the less I like trying to untangle on the queenside with 17...Na6 or 17...a6. It looks like white keeps applying annoying pressure via moves like Rb3 and a timely c4. I think what I'm going to play, for better or worse, is the 17...d3 18.cxd3 d4 idea. I looked at it more deeply and white can't immediately play 19.Ng3 because of 19...Nd5 and the bishop has to retreat to d2 or somewhere. He can't counterattack with 20.Ne4 because after 20...Nxf4 21.Nxc5, 21...Rc8 wins a piece.

If white takes the d3 pawn with either rook, then I'm taking on f2 with the bishop and I think black is ok there. I don't think white's activity compensates for the pawn.

Another reason I'm trying it is I've never employed an idea like this before in the Caro, so it's uncharted territory for me. It might be a bad idea and y'all might roast me for it in the spoilers, but I'd rather try it out in an unrated game and see what happens. It should promise an interesting game at least.

Btw Kyle, when you read this after the game, I really like your 17.Rh3 move. It was much tougher than first met the eye, really well played. I might be overlooking something obvious but it looks deceptively strong.

I'm now thinking maybe Na6 was an interesting option after all? For example Nxd4 Nb4! and now if a3 (Nb3 Bxf2) then Bxd4 Rxd4 Nc6 (night relocation successful (and with a tempo), but not sure if that resulting position is very good anyway.

I think this was a good alternative. But I'm happy Tex played d3 instead since now we will see a more interesting game. After cxd3 d4 we have a very confusing position. I think it's better for White though. The Knight comes to e4 and Rg3, Bg5 and Black seems to have some problems on the dark squares. Unless Black is in time to create some play in the next few moves, he could end up in a difficult position.

I think I lucked out a little bit. Well, a lot bit.

I played Rh3 for some mediocre reasons. One, it looked kinda cool. Two, I felt like black was forcing me into a boring game that he knew I wouldn't be good with. Three, it seemed like there might be some possibilities saccing the f2 pawn. But I can't seem to make it work.

Rh3 d3/R(either)xd3 Bxf2 .... and now what? I want to double rooks on the f-file and push the g and h pawns, but I can't find a way to make it work that doesn't drop another pawn or just generally devolve into awfulness. The black bishop just dominates the board in every line.

Fortunately, the only other option that leaves me is cxd3, which seems surprisingly strong.

cxd3 Bxf2/d4 traps his bishop, so he's going to either have to play d4 or let me play d4, so I've somehow kept my center pawns intact-ish.

I've done a lot of analysis of the various positions that are coming up, but I don't really feel like trying to type it all out because there's a lot of variations and most of them won't matter because I have to wait and see what he plays.

if he plays d4, then the position is crazy imbalanced and way more fun than it looked like we were heading for. His knight gets to d5 immediately, but my knight will eventually get to e4, and the d6 hole isn't pretty for him.

If he doesn't play d4, then I'm going to play it and the position is still imbalanced but wit white having a much better center than in the earlier variations.


tl;dr: Failed into a win with my last move.

I really like nb5 I think we want white to play d4 - with either a pawn weakness either at d4 or c3 depending upon whether we trade off knights I think black gets to the queenside far more quickly than white can organise to defend with a semi-exposed king and we can pretty safely 0-0 as white shovelling pawns down the kingside I think will be too slow and with too few pieces against our queenside counter play.

Nb5 can be met by d4 and Rb3, with a4 if necessary, so black must move the bishop to b6. Nb5 d4 Bb6 Rg3 g6 and white can possibly even play a4 Nc7 b4 cramping black a little.

As mentioned in my previous post, I'm continuing with my plan of 18...d4. It has some positives and negatives, but more than anything it intrigues me and I think the game will be more interesting with the slight pawn structure imbalance now. I don't know if it was a good or bad decision to go this route, but it'll be fun.

Yeah, I'm starting to get in over my head here. This is the kind of position where I'd just be happy that it was complicated and assume my opponents will make a mistake before I do. I don't have anything more concrete planned than just trying to improve my pieces and testing out lines as I go.

Ng3-e4 seems kind of obvious, but I'm not sure I'm in love with it. My pieces aren't going to find some good, long-term homes until I make some more holes inside their area of influence, which is mainly the kingside. So I want to make good use of the rook that's already there with Rg3.

That more-or-less forces g6 (I think), making f6 impossible and his dark squares permanently weak. Then I can vacate g3 for the knight, and my bishop should be well-placed on g4. I'll have to play Kb1 at some point, too.

Interesting move here, I wasn't expecting that. I've said that a few moves in a row now, sounds like I need to get better at anticipating my opponent's ideas. So what does his move accomplish? Obviously it attacks the g-pawn, and playing ...g6 seems pretty forced. I'm trying to see what his follow up plan is. On the surface, I don't see what the move accomplishes after g6. It seems like it just takes away a square for his knight. Maybe he's planning Rg5 to try to attack the h-pawn and play g4? That doesn't work though, I can always play Be7. I hope I'm not missing something but I don't see a follow up after g6. Maybe he's planning to play Bg5 and Nf4 to trade off the d5 knight? I don't know.

My dark squares would obviously be weak, but I don't see any way for him to take advantage of it. And after that I don't see anything preventing me from getting queenside play going by taking the open c-file and bringing the knight to d5.

I can think about a future plan more next move, no need to spend time on it here. 19...g6 looks like it must be played.

I'm going to need to play it at some point in just about every line anyway, so now seems good.

As usual, time to see what white is up to with that move. My first guess is it would be to put a rook on the c-file. But I don't know how that move fits in with white's last move of putting the rook on g3. Maybe he wants to re-route the knight to b3 via c1, but that doesn't seem very likely. The knight won't have much of a future on b3, so I'm guessing it's to put a rook there.

Obviously I have some undefended pieces on the c-file that need attention. My first inclination is to castle here, then on 21.Rc1 play Bb6 when everything is defended, c7 is covered, and I can begin to challenge the c-file and bring the knight to d5 whenever I want. My only problem with that line is that the bishop on b6, while defending the c-pawn, doesn't have much of a future. But I knew that would be the case when playing the pawn to d4, so maybe I can just sit tight and see how white decides to proceed.

In my sample line, I was thinking something like 20...0-0 21.Rc1 Bb6 22.Rc4 Rd8 23.Bg5 Rd7 and black is starting to get tied up. I don't have a good way to bring my knight into the game or dislodge the rook from c4, plus it's tougher to challenge the c-file. So that seems like a no-go.

I still like that general idea, I think it's a good arrangement for my pieces. I'm trying to see if I can find a way to make that work tactically. What I'm looking at now is something like 20...0-0 21.Rc1 Bb6 22.Rc4 Nd5 (idea being white can't take the pawn because the bishop is attacked) 23.Bh6 (or Bg5,Bd2) Rfc8 and black is fully mobilized. I'm trying to see if there are any holes in that line but I think it looks good.

On anything else I think 20.0-0 looks fine, I don't see anything crushing for white unless I'm overlooking something major, which of course is always possible. Alright, I'm playing it.

Oooooo. That seems to be a bit of a slip from tex. I think white can grab the initiative here with 1. Rh3! Nd5 2. g4 with natural kingside play to follow where white's pieces are suddenly all working together super awesome and the d4 pawn can easily end up falling as well.

It'll be interesting to see if Kyle latches onto this or goes for the automatic Rc1.

It possibly makes sense to start with Rc1 to force Bb6. It might be important in a line like Rf3 Nd5 Bg5 that Black no longer controls the e7 square.

Let's say 1.Rc1 Bb6 2.Rf3 Nd5 3.Bg5 Rac8 4.Rg1 and Black looks to have serious problems. Or maybe some version with Rf3 and Ng3-e4, with or without Rc1, is stronger.

White has a promising position, but there are lots of options, so it's important to calculate and choose the best one.

No, b6 is a better square for the bishop as it can go to c7. Besides, Black can't make use of e7 anyway because d4 would be left hanging.

Rh3, g4 and Bishop and/ or Knight heading to f6.

White pretty much has his dream attacking position. This can get ugly fast.

These are exciting times for the white minor pieces, the whole ...d4 plan seems a bit counterintuitive because it improves white's minor pieces far more than it does black's. And now black has played ...g6 and ...0-0 he's asking for it.

First glance looks like white is just winning

Lots of comments = castling was a blunder. Awesome.

Man these Malkovich games are torture haha.

edit nvm.

That just doesn't look right. I'm not really sure how to exploit it, but it definitely doesn't look right. There's got to be something on the kingside for me, but his queenside play seems really slow right now.

The key part about Kb1 is that I can play Rc1 to keep him from dominating the c1-c3 squares in any attack, and black's bishop has a really awkward time attacking any important queenside squares.

But just because his qside play is slow doesn't mean my k-side play is fast. I think I'm playing Rh3 100% of the time here unless I talk my way out of it as I'm typing. I need to clear g3 for my knight and I think I can crack open the h-file in some lines.

Okay, I do see why 0-0 is a problem. Rh3 Nd5 and now my bishop has a new home on h6 instead of just getting stuck being traded off or moved to d2. Bh6 forces the rook to move, which he was going to do anyway but that still seems like it saves me a half tempo in there somewhere.

Then I think I have two choices. An immediate Ng3 seems like it gives white a pleasant position. But I've got a little bit of initiative here and that just flutters out with Ng3. I want to keep forcing the action. g4/hxg4 looks promising, but I just can't quite calculate if it's sound or not. I think I can follow that up with Rg3 to get the pawn back or Rh2 to try and double up on the h-file and push the h-pawn forward. I kind of like the second one, because taking back pawns immediately is just too easy. But I'm way too deep into calculation at this point and I'm guessing this will all be made moot halfway through the line because I'm not really considering forced variations here, just stuff that looks pretty for me.

As usual, I'll start with looking at white's move and plans/ideas. I was expecting 21.Rc1 here after Kb1 last move, so this is a bit surprising. I'm trying to figure out what he's going to do. The most obvious thing appears to be getting the rook out of the way of the g-pawn for a g4 push and to try to get something going on the kingside since I castled. Maybe this is why everyone was posting stuff after I castled haha. Crap, too late.

So, what should I do now? I think I need to get the knight into the game and start putting some pressure on the white position. Currently white has very few troubles and I need to at least do something, even if it is only attacking the bishop. I'm anticipating something like Bh6 or Bg5 after Nd5, so I'll see what he plays and go from there.

The more I look at it, the more I dislike my position. I have very little active play and am not really doing anything on the queenside. I thought the d4 push would be interesting but it seems to have hurt me more than it did white. Basically he just has a free hand on the kingside and my d4 pawn will probably become weak. So hopefully I can maintain enough tension/pressure in the position to hold off the upcoming kingside pawn push.

After 21...Nd5, I might even need to or be able to re-route the knight to f5 (to help defend the kingside) if necessary via e7 if he doesn't put the bishop on g5. I've got to remember to keep an eye on the d4 pawn. Right now it looks like the only potential soft spot in white's position could be the pawn on e5. I've got to keep pressure on that as well to force white to tie down a piece, or maybe play f4, to defend it.

If white plays the immediate g4 after Nd5, I'm thinking something like this 21...Nd5 22.g4 hxg4 23.Rg3 Kg7 to start trying to shore up the kingside. I'll see what he's thinking and see how things are developing, but I've got to get something active going.