In a recent game, I found myself down a knight and a bishop, and my opponent down a queen.

Sounds great for me, no?  Not so fast.

I discovered attacking and defending my opponent’s 4 minor pieces proved difficult because doing so meant putting my major pieces in peril. 

At one point, my opponent had 2 bishops and a knight pointing at my king and queen.  How do I defend that? 

On the attack, I tried trading down, but exchanges initiated by me would have been met with a loss of my rook(s) or queen.  How do I attack?

So…

The Question—what strategy would you recommend for dealing with a situation like this?

I’ve included the game.  Comments are welcome!

Thanks for your help!  ~Lisa

18. Rxe3 19. Nxe3 Qxf4 effectively destroys whites bishop pairs and greatly increases the strength of your queen.

Thanks for pointing that out.  I like that combination much better.

Other comments?

15.) ... Bb7 has to be played here [ 15.) ... Bc6 ] is not good for black as it takes away a square for your queen or knight to move to and prevents you from opening up some space on the c-file by blocking your pawn on c7.

However, next time play 4.) ... exd4 in the opening....

Black puts more pressure on the e-file and is better in that position.

Yeah, I was going to annotate Bb7 was better but chose Bc6 to cover e8.  The move is a mistake in hindsight.

4....exd4  Never considered that.  Thank you!

Also, as far as the middle-game goes above, the best strategy you can use when you are up points in a game, or material, is trade off pieces (knights for bishops, knights for knights, pawns for pawns, etc.) AND keep your Queen safe.  Even a rook for knight or bishop trade initiated by you above would be OK if you found your opponent becoming more aggressive in the middle-game. 

I thought as much.  I just found trading pieces difficult when I had 2 minor pieces to my opponent's 4.

I guess that's where tactics jump in.(?)

Yes!

"Chess is 99 percent tactics." - Teichmann

21... Nxf3+ would win a pawn and simplify things a bit more.

In truth, I think you're overreacting a bit about the power of the minor pieces. Exchanging down isn't the only way to win such a situation. All White's pieces are good for here is defense--they're not actually attacking or threatening anything. If you just develop your pieces to strong squares, your material advantage should begin to tell. Eventually White will probably have to acquiesce to trade-offs in order to keep something worse from happening (a mating attack, for example).

It is true that two minor pieces can provide ample comp for a queen--but only when they're posted aggressively (and usually the player will need other compensation as well, such as the possibility of a kingside attack). Here though you have a nice fluid position with no weaknesses, all of your pieces are in action, and White has little chance of counterplay.

21.... Nxf3+ is why you are a NM, and I'm not.  lol  Thanks for showing that.

What you write makes sense.  I think I would deliberately exchange my queen for a knight and a bishop only if I were on a mating attack.  Glad to hear a different strategy from trading down.  Much appreciated!