I vote 9. Bh4, as per the plan. There's a good chance Martin will be in big trouble now.
It would make no sense for us to play 9. Bxf6 imo. Giving up a bishop for a knight is even worse now than in regular chess, since bishops are worth more than usual because of the Queenbuilder event.
Bh4 definitely
Martin doesn't have to play 9 ...g5. Positionally, g5 looks insane. I wouldn't play that with black. I assume that if 9.Bh4, then Qe8.
I thought we covered that tho
yeah, Nb5 is the move chesspro saw
Bh4 makes the most sense
idk that's what i got
Nd2 is illegal in your example, Dax
hmm, yeah ok. i guess the knight escapes without too much fuss then. objection withdrawn
Here are a few moves Martin could play besides 9...g5 and how we could reply to them. Also Dax, after 9...Qe8 10. Nb5 e4 11. Nxc7 Qd8 12. Nxa8 exf3, we don't have to take on f3 right away. We could instead make the in-between move 13. Bxf6 (before taking on f3), so our h4 bishop doesn't have to get trapped.
I haven't found anything good for us yet against 9...exd4 10. Qxd4 Qe8 or 9...exd4 10. Qxd4 Nb6, and I'm afraid Martin might play one of these moves. I also haven't looked that much at the knight moves Martin could play with his f6 knight after 9...exd4 10. Qxd4 g5 11 Nxg5 (instead of playing 11...hxg5).
I think after Nb5, Qxe2, Nxc7, black has Ne8 which wins the knight on c7
I think after Nb5, Qxe2, Nxc7, black has Ne8 which wins the knight on c7
Exactly, I saw that move when I looked at 9...exd4 10. Qxd4 Qe8 briefly before, and it's the reason I struggled to find anything good for us in that line. Initially I thought that despite being down a knight, we might have some crazy tactic starting with 13. Qf4 where we sacrifice all of our queenside pawns to get a mating attack.
Unfortunately I realized later that I had made several illegal moves in my initial analysis of the line (on some of the moves I did not make a capturing move when I was required to). You can see my (incorrect) analysis below. Of course the analysis below is wrong because of the illegal moves I make, but maybe it's possible to do some slight modifications to get it to work.
I have yet to find a way to get the above line to work, and I haven't found any other good ways to play against the 9...exd4 10. Qxd4 Qe8 line yet. After 11. Nb5 Qxe2 12. Nxc7 Ne8 I've been thinking a little bit about the crazy queen sacrifice 13. Qxg7+, hoping to regain material by taking the rook on a8, playing Rc1 and Be7 (while black is busy taking the pawns on a2, b2 and c4 with his queen) and then winning the c8 bishop after winning the exchange on f8. But this doesn't seem to work with correct play from black.
I will look more on the 9...exd4 10. Qxd4 Qe8 line and try to find a way to play that actually does work.
Haven't been able to get up to speed with this game, as repairmen have been in and at my house constantly the last two days.
But, I really like the deep analysis that has been coming from The World team members.
Just remember, Martin holds back and plays conservative moves waiting for us to overextend ourselves.
The crux moves are yet to come as long as we play conservatively. So, as Tom Petty used to sing, "The waiting is the hardest part."
I have a feeling positional subtlety will eventually rule the day.
What's everyone voting for?
Going according to the plan...
Going according to the plan...
JARP, I still don't know where things stand, but I know you've put a lot of thought into the game, and love this post of yours.
Also love that Ry — and I think I have this right — just… essentially… referred to Martin as a mortal. 
Things sound like they're looking up!
I vote 10. Nxg5 of course.
No