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Breaking Through?

Breaking Through?

loveinouterspace
| 1

Finally, an interesting game (and win!) after a little bad patch. My opponent played a kind of fixed setup opening beginning with a series of small pawn moves - I run into players using this approach in plenty of online games, but don't always manage to break through…

I suppose I know to grab the center and continue with development, but honestly didn't find it too easy to find a safe way to open the position and take advantage of those pluses. I caught a few breaks with slow and weakening moves from Black, and seemed to come up with a better position after trading some pawns. 

Now, the plan of moving my queen through e1 to the open f-file looks pretty obvious in hindsight, but the best feeling I got from playing this game came from actually having a plan like that to execute, rather than just reacting to my opponent's moves. I suppose having the time to cook up those plans is one of the luxuries of having a big space advantage. After trading queens, I was left with a strong rook attacking several undefended pieces on the sixth row and then doubled the rooks on the file, leading to a nice combination. 

What I want to know is about 12...c5 - is this the right way to break up black's structure? Is it even the right idea to try to open holes in a game like this?

Here's the game with some notes on my thinking through the game. 


Middle aged patzer and dad, just trying to improve. All criticism, input, advice and insults welcome.