Chess Analysis

better is

14.....Bb7 to consistent attack the diagonal

Yes, 14...Bb7 is probably best. To deal with the White queen pressure down the g-file, and get your f8-bishop into play, you might have thought about a fianchetto instead of the bishop block.

To be honest, just about all of your moves after move 13 were bad. You say that this Najdorf Variation is your speciality, but I wonder. Maybe you've memorized opening lines (?), but I didn't see much understanding.

On move 6. you said you were in a hurry to castle then the next turn b5?!

18..Qc6 and you're still fine maybe. You should be thinking about artificial castling, so 18...Qc6 then get the h8-rook out then move your king in. Just stay off the dark squares where White is strong.

The Qf3 idea can lead to an opening advantage, but probably not after the fast b5, instead if black plays 7.... Be7 then white has more time to support the pawn without playing Bd3. Perhaps even a3 would be better at move 8 in that case.

 Thanks for the advice all.

14. Bb7 is good, but then Be7 isnt possible,as the queen is staring down on the g7 pawn. I did consider Bb7 though. As for 7.b5!? I feared that white was getting to much play and Be7 was very passive. I felt as if I needed to threaten b5, and then Be7 followed by 0-0. But yeah, I agree with my poor moves after move 13! :-)

7.b5 may be a good move, my point was that it's dubious (?!) when the turn before you state you are in a hurry to castle. How does 7.b5 help you to 'get on with kingside castling quickly'? You may not have been in a hurry to castle in the game and just 'retrospectively annotated' perhaps, but if you were desperate to castle I don't think 7.b5 contributed to that plan, and my point was simply one of playing with a 'clarity of ideas', not changing plans multiple times for fear of creating a messed up position, direct uncomplicated play, etc.

Castling was a good plan, and Be7 is not a passive move. It may look passive pushing your bishop out one square, and in fact the move itself is passive, but because it paves the way to castling it is indirectly a strong move because castling is such a strong move.

You have to fully appreciate what castling does for your position: Once you have a castled king and your rooks are connected it frees your entire army to attack your opponent without fear of the myriad of tactical motifs that materialise around an exposed king, or the worry of back-rank infiltration. You could say that castling is indirectly a very attacking move.

Having said all that, I don't think 7.b5 was a bad move in isolation: it created a pawn hole on c5, but it further restricted other pieces on the queenside, gained you some space, and it was important that you activate your buried c8-bishop. Perhaps you just got the order wrong, or maybe there was still time to castle after 7.b5 (I think so).

Your f8-bishop is very important in this position, I think, because of your pawn structure - remove your f8-bishop and your position turns into swiss cheese, with a lot of empty unprotected dark-squares behind your lines, as you found out (and if you had fianchettoed g7-g6/Bg7 to stop the g-file pressure from the White queen your position would be further reliant on your dark-squared bishop staying on the board, so maybe that's not such a good idea and e7 is the best square for it, developed but out of harms way - hmmm, maybe I just learnt something about the Najdorf).

 Reading your Description I actually agree now that Be7 is probably the best move. I miscalculated there, and greatly paid the price :-), thanks for writing a lot on this topic, as I learned something from you and something about castling.

Thanks again! :-)

Although I play the Najdorf I don't know too much about the h3 variation, e5 is the mainline from black but e6 is ok too I think, I wouldn't say it's passive, it's just different and is the move I would probably play against any variation. I know in the h3 line white usually plays g4 Bg2 and O-O, unlike in a lot of variations of the najdorf where they play O-O-O and go for a kingside pawn storm. Hope this helps.

 Yeah, I've been studying the Najdorf and e5 is popular. I've gone off it a lot though, as I'm only using e5 in unrated games, and as I said d5 becomes a big weakness where white usually moves his knight to.

As for e6, it resembles the Scheveningen line, and is quite handy in the Najdorf when you aim for d5.

Anyways, thanks for the comment!

6.h3 is not passive, however, you e6 move was passive