If all goes well, we will try to do Segment #2 next Monday  Dec. 14th, 2009 at 2 PM PDT.

(5 PM EST).

Blunderprone is right.  Rd3 is coming, then white improves his queen position after that, bothering black on both flanks.

Thus Re3 leads to initiative in the middle-game.  Qe3 leads to initiative in the ending; purely a matter of taste!

Becerra played Rxe7, forcing a draw, due to team considerations I am sure.

Is the alternative solution to be published here ?

Unfortunately, as a European viewer, last week's delay of an hour plus meant I could not watch. 11pm is OK, but 12 - 12:30 is a bit late !

31. Re3 does a couple things. The first is that it addresses the pressure on f2. Secondly, it now has more mobility on the third rank in comparison to it's black counterpart.

The rook will have more opportunities on teh third rank as 32. Rd3 is coming and if the black queen tries to keep the pressure on f2 by transferring to f4, white will be able play g3 in preparation to placing the bishop on g2.

I don't have a concrete plan to winning, but to improve white's position, I would probably fianchetto the bishop to g2 in combination with b5 at some point to get some queenside action. Also the rook seems to have a hard time getting into black's camp so maybe it should drop back to e3 or d1 where it has the option of helping the queenside pawns roll. How is my answer? I think this blog is a great idea.