I thought this was pretty interesting, the two moves that seemed reasonable for me are either taking the his knight with my Q, or moving my far pawn up one space. Moving the Q guarantees me his knight, but leaves the Q in a spot where it can't do much good, while right now it's in a very open space which is relatively safe.

OTOH moving the pawn does not guarantee me his knight right now, but it seems almost sure I will get it, and it opens up my far rank which I feel is good for a castled king (is this actually true?). It can also allow me to do more useful stuff with my Queen in the future.

What move would you sharks do here? It's probably super obvious, but keep in mind almost all my experience is random games against family, so I'm probably a little behind the curve

My whole game up to this point is you have any other comments:

1.e4c5
2.Nf3Nc6
3.c3e5
4.Bc4Nf6
5.O-ONxe4
6.d3Nf6
7.Qe2Ng4
8.d4d6
9.Ng5f6
10.Nf7Qb6
11.Nxh8cxd4
12.Nf7dxc3
13.Nxc3Nd4
14.Qd2Be6
15.Bxe6Nxe6
16.Nd5Qc5
17.Qb4Qxd5


Thanks for the input

Is this game still going? If it is, sorry but we can't really comment, sort of an unwritten rule here. If it's over post the entire notation and I am sure you will get a plenty of responses

Is it considered unethical to use external resources while playing a game? I've been trying to learn the game over the last couple weeks and when playing correspondence I usually google a bit, especially during the opening.

I don't really care about winning that much, I just want to improve my game and am not nearly motivated enough to put in research while not playing.

Anyways this game is over, here is the whole thing

1.e4c5
2.Nf3Nc6
3.c3e5
4.Bc4Nf6
5.O-ONxe4
6.d3Nf6
7.Qe2Ng4
8.d4d6
9.Ng5f6
10.Nf7Qb6
11.Nxh8cxd4
12.Nf7dxc3
13.Nxc3Nd4
14.Qd2Be6
15.Bxe6Nxe6
16.Nd5Qc5
17.Qb4Qxd5
18.h3Nf4
19.Bxf4Nh2
20.Bxh2Qxf7
21.Rac1d5
22.Qb5+Kd8
23.Rc5Bxc5
24.Qxc5Rc8
25.Qxa7Qc7
26.a4Qc1
27.Qxb7Rc7
28.Qxd5+Kc8
29.Qg8+Kb7
30.Qxh7Qxb2
31.Qb1Qxb1
32.Rxb1+Ka6
33.Bg3g5
34.h4g4
35.h5Ka5
36.Ra1Rd7
37.f3gxf3
38.gxf3Re7
39.Be1+Ka6
40.a5Rh7
41.Rb1f5
42.Rb6+Ka7
43.Bf2Rxh5
44.Rb5+Ka6
45.Rxe5Rg5+
46.Kf1Rh5
47.f4Rh1+
48.Ke2Rh5
49.Kf3Rh3+
50.Kg2Rh5
51.Kg3Rh1
52.Rxf5Rf1
53.Re5Rxf2
54.Kxf2Kb7

I'd play 18. Nxd6+ (desperado) Bxd6 19.Qxg4

After your 18. h3 he could have done it to you with Nxf2 e.g. 19.Rxf2 Kxf7

External resources are generally fine unless otherwise specified by wherever you're playing, but external people are generally not fine unless explicitly specified.

Resource !=engines though

Databases are normally ok in correspondance games. Live games normally should have no outside help

Normally I'd be against the 'obvious' Nxd6+ just because it really brings his pieces to life for very minor material gains. But...

-His center is about to come to life. If he can play d5 safely you are close to lost. Hard to play d5 without a d pawn though!

-1. Nxd6+ Bxd6 2. Qxg4 actually comes with tempo since you are threatening Rd1.