game i totally misunderstood.
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i'll comment if you dont mind as I know the game also :)
8...Ne4 important to control the e4 sq in the nimzo.
17.Qe4 not a bad move but always under threat by the black light sq bishop
18...Nd8 you're correct Na5 is better but it's not terrible, just trying to attack your queen
23.Be4 i never felt i was better in the game up to this point, i felt equal at best and i too ran the game through my engine and it also shows white with an advantage for most of the game and one can only assume it it because white has the bishop pair so i was happy to exchange here
25.Qxg6 i too am happy you decide to exchange queens as here i thought i have the better minor piece, better pawn structure and more space with a slight advantage
31.Ra1 a great move and one i had difficulty meeting proving that my plan was incorrect with Na5
well played
I just went through it really quickly, but thematically, it seemed like you really got awefully preoccupied with building up on the kingside to counter his pressure. You have the two bishops. Your supposed to try to trade off your doubled pawn and open the position for the bishops, and I think you lost focus on that.
I guess the computer is saying that you did a good job defending and black had nothing, but I'm just wondering whether you needed to be in defensive mode in the first place.
Kind of skeptical about 14 bd2, just so passive. If you need it for defense, Be3/retreate to f2 is something you see in the kings indian against pawn storms, maybe that would work here. But I'd look at 14. ba3.
I think you really needed to get your center moving, and 15 d5 ne7 16 e4 and if 16 . . .f4 17. e5 followed by pxp and sacrificing the cpawn might be interesting to look at.
shero73. thank you very much, you are a good sportsman. as i told you then i always felt you were much better, i spent the game worried about your attack.
after f5 i felt: black not only equalized but also got better than white. this is maybe a thought of someone that is not used to this opening. computer continues to say that i have an advantage (usual advantage for white in the opening) and sometimes it even said i had +1 (but maybe i didn't let the computer think long enought)
ArtNJ, i will look at what you said carefully, yes you are 100% right. i just worried all the time that black could have something against me, but i never saw a proper way to go against his game. i will recheck move by move and see where i could have done better.
and about all the trades, have you got anything to say? was i just 100% wrong?! for me the principles were right, but i also agree with shero, i have the bad piece. being able to open the game is just speculative. maybe i would just save myself trying to close the game even for his knight (hard job)
thanks guys
By 23, I guess black's plan is move the queen, h5 and g4. So while I'd love to say play ba3 and c5, I'm not so sure it seems on point anymore. And I dont really have a plan to open the center and expoit the two bishops at this point. If black's attack is nothing, then I guess your fine, but in terms of humans and who should feel more comfortable, black looks to have a plan, and I dont know what your plan is. The trades seem like a concession that you are in fact worse, although it doesnt seem like that huge a deal. So I'd be really curious to plan around with it from move 23 with an engine. Do that and let us know if you have time!
very thankful for your help. saddly i had no plan since move 9 as i said. my best moves were e4 and e5, which i was quite glad to be able to play. but even that .. closes and reopens the diagonal for his bishop. so i was never sure of my game.
i was always expecting to be able to go to the queen's side, but never saw how.
ok, today it's late, but tomorrow i will check first your opinions about what i should have done earlier, and then what i could do after the trades. i will write it here. but as i said before, the computer said i am worse after trading, so maybe it will suggest defensive play and closing the position.
I play d4 with the DSB inside the pawn structure, usually black hasn't the time to build up the attack, so maybe the problem was that you used 3 times to get your queen to e2.
I could be totally wrong but I usually play 9 Bb2, it seems to be doing nothing there but it will come eventually into play after you will open the center.
I Usually play Rfe1 preparing e4 to open the center, I feel confortable in this positions.
I don't know if positionally I'm playing fine but I think that here rather than black is white the one who has the initiative .
hi
from reading your comments, it is pretty clear that you panicked after f5 and were unfamiliar with the position. that happens and it is fine, as long as you try to learn from the experience.
white's advantage in the middlegame comes from his very strong center, the truth is that white is very solid and black has nothing. black's bishop and knight have trouble joining the attack and he has trouble engineering a pawn break in g4, which would activate his pieces.
so it follows the comment on move 17 is off. the kingside is where black has more space and all his pieces, so you should definitely not be seeking to open the position there.
as for plans for white, you could try to infiltrate on the queenside with something like a4-Ba3-c5.
the Bd3 prevented black from using the squares f5 g6 h7 to coordinate his pieces, and by trading queens white is handing away the better chances to exploit his space advantage. then the position is about pawn breaks to activate the rooks.
