Well it unpins my bishop, protects that pawn again, possibly will set up a heavier artillery attack on White's King if that pawn moves or is gone later, opens up the file for the rook to go there and take the file from White's Queen, and lastly my queen is immune to knight harassment in that square for the moment thanks to the c pawn. So Why not?

I'm not sure what the main purpose or goal of his move is. Here I can develop a piece with Bd2 or play h3 and protect my h-pawn from a potential Bxh2 when the black f-pawn is cleared.

I'm going to go with development. however Bd2 seems weak for white, as ...Bf5 seems problematic. 14. Bd2 Bf5 15.Qd1 seems weak for white.

If I play 14. Ne5, I threaten Bxf4 winning a pawn and getting my bishop out. If he plays g5, protecting his pawn, I play g3, with the f-pawn pinned as the knight on f6 isn't protected from my rook.

14. Ne5 Qb6 leads to some interesting play

I can't find a reasonable way to hold the pawn so this seems like the best move to at least beat back Black's forces a little. Nxf3 is forced if White wants to keep the pawn advantage, as Qxf3 drops the d pawn on the bishop/knight exchange, Rxf3 leads to a bishop skewer. gxf3 holds the pawn edge I guess but that move looks stupid. After Nxf3 I guess Bg4 and then I can take the e -file.

It doesn't matter if a move 'looks stupid'?

The exposure of White's King may matter, though. And, so does creating a couple isolated pawns.

But, gxf3 allows a future f4 which supports e5 for long-term White occupation. A future f5 may cut off Black's lines of attack against White's kingside.

15. Nxf3. The simplest response. Moves I see for him are ...Bg4 ...Ng4 ...Re8 to which I reply h3, h3, and Qf2 respectively.

Pins the Knight protecting the h pawn and prepares for my rook to take the e file? None of this is a big deal for White but idk wtf else to do. I'm down a pawn for little compensation. I have a slightly better developmental/position of pieces but I am in the disadvantage of having to win this game before it gets to an endgame and right now these chances look bleak.

Black threatens Bxf3, followed by Bxh2+ winning a pawn. 16.h3 as planned.

I think i have an advatnage. 17. Kf2 is blatantly horrible. 17. Kh1 Nh5 and White looks pretty in trouble. 18. Ne4 Raeb 19. hxg4 Rxe4 20. Qxe4 Ng3+ 21. Kxh2 Nxe4+ 22. Kg1. This is the best I can come up with this doesn't even look like a sure win but there is nothing better i can find right now.

It would be a nice analysis by Pyramid, except that there is a problem - black has a bunch of hanging pieces, and even when the knight takes on f1, it is trapped and cannot escape. So all White has to do is to move the queen without giving black a chance to attack it with any of the hanging pieces. So after 17. Kh1 Nh5, 18. Qd3 does not work because of 18.. Ng3+ 19. Kxh2 Nxf1+ 20. Kg1 Bf5! followed by 21.. Ng3. 18. Qf2 does not work because of Bg3 which allows black to save his pieces and enjoy some nice compensation. However it seems to me that a weird-looking 18. Qd1 is winning for white. What can black do? Bishop on g4 is hanging, if it moves, bishop on h2 falls. After Ng3+ Kxh2 Nxf1+ Kg1 both knight on f1 and bishop on g4 are hanging, but after Bxf3 Qxf3 the knight is trapped and will be lost. It seems that black loses material in all lines.. Qd1 is a bit unnatural and pretty hard to find though, I tried for like 10 mins to make other queen moves work when it dawned on me.

I think your analysis is all wrong. firstly Qd3 is equivalent to Qd1 because both cover f1 at the end, 20...Bf5 which you give an exclam appears to just lose the bishop. secondly, in the main line, Black should be able to escape with Bxf3, Ng3 or alternatively with Qh2+ Kxf1 Qh1+ Kf2 R(either) e8 with rook against two pieces, but some compensation because White's pieces are tied down.

but I could also be totally wrong here

oops, for some reason I thought that the same fork works the other way around, so then after 18Qd3 18..Bf5 immediately, followed by Ng3+ and Nxf1 where black ends up an exchange. And yeah, in the main line black gets a rook for two pieces (and a pawn from earlier), but how is that not a winning advantage for white? After Qh1+ Kf2 Rfe8 white has Qd1 followed by bishop wherever and GG soon.

Only move. I'm kinda worried for some reason that YKW and roundtower are posting.

yeah, ykw is right, Bf5 immediately works against qd3, and in the other line white unwinds with qd1 etc. and should be winning.

so Bh2+ is just a blunder probably (white has to find Qd1, but it looks like Pyramid didn't really analyse any moves). Pyramid told me he thought he was "just a pawn down for no real compensation" before that, I don't really agree with and think his position was totally playable if he didn't force matters.

I'm kind of surprised not to see a ...Re8 intermezzo here

Re8 might be better (if Nh5 is indeed losing) but it's not exactly an intermezzo as Black won't be threatening to fork the queen if he plays Re8 and then Nh5

I hope I get out of this only losing an exchange...

so he plays the correct move (I think), but still thinks that he is losing an exchange? One of us is wrong heh

I'm actually a little disappointed that that came with no analysis. I'm sure he analyzed, but he didn't share any of it. That, or he has great instincts.

After looking through a million ways to try and foce a win I can't but after the trade downs it looks like Ill be able to get my queen on the bank rank and take advantage of both the vulnarable king and his's queens bishop being pinned to win some material. I'm not gonna post every single continuation I went through because that would take forever but here is the most complicated continuation i found were I still end up winning.

... Ng3+ 2. Kxh2 Nxf1+ 3. Kg1 Bxf3 4. Qxf3 Qh2+ 5. Kxf1 Rae8 6. Be3 Qh1+ 7. Bg1 Re6 8. Ne4 Rfe8 9. Re1 f5 10. Qb3 fxe4 11. Rxe4 Rf8+ 12. Ke2 Qxg2+


Everything else i saw that he could do I end up winning a piece or something. I'm pretty confident in calling this game a win got Black. Of course I've been horrendous and predicting his moves and I'm also sure he'll end up doing something weird I didn't anticipate that ****s me. So whatever.

20.Kg1 Better than 20. Kh1 Bxf3 21. Qxf1 Bd5. The game will likely continue 20. Kg1 Bxf3 21. Qxf3 Nh2 (...Ng3 22. Bf4). 22. Qf2 followed by Bf4, hoping to win the knight.

Haven't checked if 6. Be3 and 8 Ne4 are the best moves but can't white just play 9. Nf2 winning at least the exchange after Rf6