Does anyone see anything wrong with 18 e5 de; 19 d6 followed by fe? Looks pretty thematic for me (although I did used to play the 4pawns against the KID!)

what I don't get is how e5 "finally works" after Bd7. I expect if Black actually plays Bd7, Tex will find his way to playing another non-concrete move, maybe b3

That was somewhat unexpected. Not sure what move was expected, though... So what is he doing? I can see 2 things: clearing the back rank to connect the rooks and maybe get Rd1 to add support/pressure down the d-file, and getting on the c1-h6 diagonal to support f4 (but I'm not attacking it) or plan some kingside attack. I'm thinking this was more to get the rooks together and just develop as I don't see any clear attack.

Can I take advantage of the new position of the queen? Well it weakens the a5-pawn, but that's already rather well supported. The queen can be attacked by ...Nc4, but that square is still well protected by the LSB. I could play ...Bh6, and that would prevent e4-e5, but I'm not sure yet if it's really a valuable move at this time.

The plan from before is essentially: 18...Bd7 19. e5 dxe5 20. d6 Qc6 21. fxe5 and maybe 21...N6d5 but I'm not terribly pleased with this. I probably shouldn't play 19...dxe5, then. So let's try 19...Nc8 20. Ng5 Kg8 21. e6 bleh -- and in this line, 20...dxe5 21. Nxf7+ Kg8 22. d6 seems bad for me also if I'm not misplacing pieces in my mind. So maybe not 18...Bd7.

Well, I also want my knight off of b6 since it's hindering my b-pawn there, so maybe 18...Nd7. This should prevent an immediate e4-e5. I can probably play 19...Nf8 so that I can play ...Bd7, and from there the knight protects the e6-square which gives me some more flexibility in ignoring the e5-push since I won't be as concerned with further pushing the pawn to e6. Though let's try this out a bit: 18...Nd7 19. Rc1 Nf8 20. e5 Bd7 21. exd6 Qxd6 22. Ne4 oh and I have 22...Qxd5 so I don't lose a pawn. Though if I switch it to 19. Rd1 and hold the rest of the line, then c5 falls.

Does this mean 18...Bh6 is the answer? I'd hate to take the bishop off that diagonal, but it might work. 19. Be3 seems to solve the issue, but again blocks the e-file. Then 19...Bd7? Ooooh, a line just came to me. From above: 18...Bd7 19. e5 dxe5 20. d6 Qc6 21. fxe5 and now 21...Bxh3! (if I'm not hallucinating, 22. gxh3 Qxf3) 22. Ng5 Be6 should be fine, though 20...fxe5 is a bit tougher. Still, seems like my best shot (and I can even consider 18...Bd7 19. e5 Bh6 if we get there).

playing d6 too quickly. e5 dxe5 Nxe5 hitting f7 so Bxe5 fxe5 and e5 is defended well because of the d6 threat running interference. white just gets a huge center with lots of opportunity to roll black up.


also, the Bxh3 gxh3 Qxf3 line doesn't work bc of Bxc5 forking the knights and after Nd5 Bg2 skewers the queen and picks up the Nd5. but still, Nxe5 is better than fxe5 in that line anyway

I can feel Tex's pain with deciding when to play e5, he has everything in control now and if e5 doesn't work, it gives Black more squares and leaves White's position loose - been there done that. However, I expect he is going to man up and play it now

I thought about this position for a long time and had a hard time deciding on what to do. Obviously e5 is a move that is screaming to be played, but after looking at the position and calculating for a while, I like getting a5 in first.

First and foremost, it puts the black knight on an awkward square. Something like 19.a5 Nc8 20.e5 and white has a nice game with the full center. Black can't immediately reply with 20...dxe5 21.fxe5 Bxe5 because of 22.Nxe5 Rxe5 23.d6! and the rook is lost. That's a common tactical trick in the Benoni.

If black tries to get something going on the queenside with 20...b6, then I'll reply with 21.axb6 and black needs to reply 21...Qxb6 to avoid losing the a-pawn and the Nc8 is still awkwardly posted.

I also played 19.a5 because it disconnects the rooks and keeps the Rb8 bottled up. Black can't reply with 19.a5 Nc8 20.e5 Bf5 because 21.exd6 wins the game.

At some point white can bring the bishop back to c4 (since the knight is no longer on b6) to attack the weak f7 square if black ever captures on e5, which he surely won't want to do.

So after 20.e5, what does black play? I don't really know. If 20...Ne7, then I think 21.e6 looks promising.

I also like that the Bf2 is pressuring the c5 pawn. If I can capture on d6 at some timely moment, that c5 pawn is going to be very weak. Of course capturing immediately, or anytime soon it looks like, allows the queen to take up a nice post on d6. I don't want to do that too soon, I want to keep some tension in the center.

I'm curious to see how this game finishes up and what y'alls comments are like. I struggle in positions like this one where my position is slightly better (I think) but there's no clear, forced win. I'm just hoping to learn something from this game, so if y'all have any words of wisdom, I'd love to see them in the comments.

Ok, so moving my knight seems best, and I have only 2 choices that don't lose it -- c8 and a8. 19...Na8 seems weird, and the only value in that would be if I need my rooks to stay connected. Otherwise, 19...Nc8 is best as it helps support d6, and can also consider moving Nc8-a7-b5. I'm quickly looking at the board and not seeing a need to keep the rooks together, so Nc8 it is.

I plan to play ...b5 very soon, but in the case of ...b5 axb6 e.p., I'm not sure how I'll recapture as I can choose between my knight, rook, and queen.

hmmm... why is that? I don't see anything after 21.. Nxd6.

yep, 21.g4 seems good though

Or e5 is avoided forever and Black consolidates and breaks through on the queenside somehow. Last few moves by White are just forcing Black to improve his position, and eventually it will be true that e5 doesn't work.

This move is pretty much the continuation of my last spoiler post. I don't have much new material to add, but am curious to see how the game develops here. I feel pretty good about the white position, but there's always the chance that I could have overlooked a tactical shot of some kind. Moves like this always make me second guess myself because this is one of those critical moments that changes the course of the game. I feel like it is warranted, though. White's pieces are nicely placed, black's pieces feel awkward and uncoordinated, and he has some weaknesses like f7 and potentially c5 that I hope to take advantage of at some point.

I'm happy with this move as it finally makes the pawn push so I can stop worrying about it. Hopefully this brings some clarity to the position now, in that sense. I'll consider 20...dxe5, 20...b5, and maybe 20...b6. I'm not sure what else is really possible.

A) 20...dxe5 21. fxe5 Bxe5 22. Nxe5 Rxe5 23. Rxe5 Qxe5 24. Bxc5 and I don't think I can protect my b4-knight so this seems bad.

B1) 20...b5 21. exd6 Nxd6 looks fine to me.

B2) 20...b5 21. e6 fxe6 22. dxe6 Bxe6 is fine. I'm struggling a bit with 22. Ng5 exd5 23. Nxd5 as there are threats of a Bc4 or Qd5 that coupled with Nf7+ start to make a smothered mate type of position, but I guess 22...e5 should at least be acceptable.

B3) 20...b5 21. Ng5 dxe5 22. Nxf7+ Kg8 23. Nxe5 loses a pawn. Can I get away with 21...Bf5? Eh, then 22. e6 is looking dangerous

Sigh. It seems Ng5 is an annoying threat. Maybe I should deal with it on move 20, then, with 20...h6 or 20...Bh6. The problem with 20...Bh6 21. Be3 is like I mentioned some moves ago -- I don't think that really accomplishes anything for me as yes, the e-file gets blocked, but the white DSB adequately defends that diagonal and I'd prefer my DSB on the long diagonal. So if 20...h6, I can handle 21. exd6 or 21. e6 I believe. I don't want to play 20...h6 as it weakens my kingside but it's looking necessary.

Actually, I need to come back to something: 20...b5 21. Ng5 Kg8 22. e6 fxe6 23. dxe6 Bc6 might be fine. Oh, but 20...b5 21. axb6 e.p. Nxb6 22. Ng5 Kg8 23. e6 fxe6 24. dxe6 Bc6, and no, I think this might actually be ok. Sure, white has a pawn on e6 and a knight on g5 but I think it holds up?? Ok, let's play it -- I need to sleep and the alternatives make me cry.

oh dear...

plugged position into my engine. Seems to think white is 3.19. lets see if tex blunders or can convert this in a cool way

my dog says hi guys!

I had a lot of trouble deciding between this move and 21. Ng5. As I mentioned on the National Open thread, I'm trying to play more big boy chess and am looking for ways to liven up the position. In this instance, I thought Ng5 would do just that. But ultimately I decided on axb6, and here's why.

Thoughts on 21. Ng5
This move looks good because black is limited in how he can defend the f7 pawn because of the Bd7 being stuck. 21...Re7 loses the game to 22.exd6, and I doubt he'd want to play 21...Rf8 because it's so passive, so I guess that really leaves 21...Bf5 or 21...Kg8.

For 21...Bf5, I thought about 22.e6 fxe6 23.Nxe6 Bxe6 24.dxe6 but couldn't find anything else in that position. I don't see a knockout blow, and it looks like black's pieces will soon come to life and that queenside majority will make itself felt with the powerful Bg7. Black's king looks slightly weak, but I can't see how to take advantage of it. I also thought about 21...Bf5 22.g4, which looks really interesting. I don't think black can afford to give up the two pieces for the rook with Nc2, so I guess 22...Bd7 would be in order, which gives up the f7 pawn. That seems to work well for black.

But for 21...Kg8, I couldn't find a winning/promising line. After 22.e6 (what else?) fxe6 23.Nxe6 Bxe6 24.dxe6 the position is similar to the one above and I think black will ultimately be better there.

Thoughts on 21. axb6
I came to decide that I like 21.axb6 best here. Reason is I feel like black's pawn majority over there will be too strong eventually. He can threaten to play c4 at some point and focus on the d3 square (in conjunction with a Bf5 at some point) and the pawn on b5 also takes away the c4 square from my pieces. Plus, the a5 pawn will be perpetually weak and white will always have to worry about it. So I really don't like white's play if I don't capture en passant.

Black has different ways to recapture, each with their own plusses and minuses, so no point in analyzing too much here before ganstaman makes his move. Once he does something, I'll look into it more, but I still think I like Ng5 after that. Lots of similar threats remain except I think those variations are more favorable to white, but who knows. Positions like this are tough to calculate I think.

surprised he didn't consider Ne4, with the simple idea of playing against the d6 and c5 pawns (also the Nb4 gets trapped really easily after Bc5), looks like it's just as good after any of the recaptures here, so ab shouldn't be a mistake, but not considering it should be. after all why else do you play e5?

Ne4 seems key. Qxb6 now looks best. Unless a knight manages to get on e4 in the next couple of moves (via g5 is also OK), I'm not sure how White improves his position.

This should be easier than some previous moves as I really only have 3 moves to consider. I think that 21...Nxb6 is best due to, as mentioned before, it helps guard against Bc4. For example, 21...Q/Rxb6 22. Ng5 Kg8 23. Nxf7 Kxf7 24. e6+ Bxe6 25. dxe6+ Rxe6 36. Bc4. Now, in this line, I could play 24...Kf8 or 25...Kf8, but this is my general concern.

If I could see some advantage to 21...Qxb6 or 21...Rxb6, then I would want to investigate further to make sure I'm safe from all Bc4's. But it's complicated and I would rather not be caught by surprise due to missing a line somewhere, so I'd rather play it safe. Plus, the knight is better on b6 than c8, I think.

One line that does need to be checked is 21...Nxb6 22. Bxa6 Nxa6 23. Rxa6 Nc4 24. Qe2 Nxb2 and I think I'm ok with 25. exd6 Qb7 and 26...Rxe2 or 25. Rxd6 Qxd6 26. exd6 Rxe2 27. Nxe2 (Rxe2 ...Bxc3) Nd3 and ...Nxf2? I think other moves are worse for white than 24. Qe2: if they don't attack my knight, then 24...dxe5 and my knight on c4 helps recapture on e5, and 24. Qd3 Nxb2 gets the b-pawn with a tempo so I should be fine.