What should black's plan be in this position?

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Avatar of Axew
Often times when I play strong opponents I get out of an opening where I am at a loss for what to do. For example here's a position out of the opening. How do I proceed in these positions as black?

Here it seems white has all the initiatives. None of black's pawn breaks in the center achieve much, it looks actually worse if I play e5 or d5. Isn't white soon to play something like g4? I never know what to do in positions where there doesn't seem to be any clear initiatives at least from a player of my rating and below. If black can't hope for much here, is the potential area of improvement, in general, the opening? All I can see is maybe bishop b7 slightly questionable.

Avatar of A-mateur

I do not know how to call this in English, maybe it's called a "pawn tsunami" or a "pawn storm". Anyway, in the following diagram, you can see that White (V.Korchnoi) advanced 3 pawns on the Queen's side in order to open lines there and to try to invade the enemy's position. 

 

Maybe you should do the same thing, i.e. attack on the Queen's side with by pushing your pawns (fori instance a6-a5, b5-b4) and opening lines on this side of the board, but you will have to be very quick, knowing that white is about to have a strong attack on your king.

This is only a suggestion, and it may be not a good idea at all.

Avatar of chyss

Well, you can still improve the placement of your queen's rook before worrying about pawn breaks. 12. ... Ra-c8 suggests itself. You could indeed charge down the queenside with your pawns as A-mateur suggested. You could also consider closing the centre with ... d5 which would potentially make the pawn structure resemble something a bit more like a French defence. 

More concretely, 12. ... Rac8 13. Qd2 d5 14. e5 Nfd7 and now you are threatening d5-d4. So, again, concretely, you might meet 15. g4?! (the move you were concerned about in the earlier position) with 15. ... d4! 16. Bf2 and now there's a nice tactic 16. ... Ncxe5 (opening up the b7 bishop against the f3 knight) 17. Nxe5 Nxe5 18. fxe5 Qc6 and white is busted (black threatens both Qg2# and Qh1#). 

Obviously, white can do better. If white avoids 15. g4 and plays something more sensible like 15. c3 then you can instead try to break with 15. ... f7-f6 (typical French defence move) when you have much clearer plans available to you, and the position is probably still about equal. 

Avatar of ThrillerFan

Black's space advantage lies on the Queenside.  White's on the kingside.  You do not want to advance pawns on the side you are weak on until you are forced to.  Black needs to do just enough to defend his King, and otherwise perform operations on the Queenside.  His goal is to shatter White's queenside and reach an endgame advantage or get some kind of unstoppable passer.  Direct attacks on the White King are not in the cards here.

 

For White, he has to determine whether to go for an all out attack on the Black King, or temper expectations and try to keep the Queenside intact before going after the King.

 

Usually, if White "goes for it", either he will succeed quickly, or if he is stopped, his Queenside is likely to be shattered beyond repair and he will likely lose a long game.

Avatar of Total_Carnage

12...Nh5 13...Qd8 14...Bh5 and win eventually at some point trying to take control of h5. Black wants to win, I like to play AGGRESSIVE!

Avatar of chyss

Wyatt124, umm ... how is 14.  ... Bh5 even possible? Also, if you're playing 12. ... Nh5 first then you'll have two pieces on h5 and white can attack them both at the same time with g4. (Like a weird fork!) Dude, I'm so confused!

Avatar of Total_Carnage

Bh4 I commonly make mistakes. I would like to make an aggressive attack on the Kingside in this position because I am an aggressive risky player. Sorry if I confused you, I occasionally do that.

P.S. -If you care to remember, please refer to me as Wyatt. 

Avatar of ThrillerFan
Wyatt124 wrote:

Bh4 I commonly make mistakes. I would like to make an aggressive attack on the Kingside in this position because I am an aggressive risky player. Sorry if I confused you, I occasionally do that.

P.S. -If you care to remember, please refer to me as Wyatt. 

Black's position is not ready for a Kingside Attack.

He should be attacking the Queenside.

I want to win, not end the game in 10 moves, because if I am ending this position in 10 moves as Black, it would be because I am the one that is dead, not White.  How so?  Trying to attack where I am not prepared to attack.  No Thanks!

Avatar of chyss

Sorry Wyatt, I should've figured that out. Silly me! 

Avatar of Total_Carnage

ThrillerFan, you may be right. Na6 c4 for black's possible moves attempting to loosen Whites queenside Pawn position?

Avatar of chesschesskid

Just get all of your pieces in optimal position that you could do a pawn storm

Avatar of Total_Carnage

I like to storm the enemy. LoL.

Avatar of pfren

The usual queenside pawn avalanche- I see nothing wrong with say 12...a5, and I would gladly take Black here.