An interesting position

It seems white's plan would be g4, followed by a kingside pawn storm.  Though it looks dangerous, black can counter the attack.  If black can trade off some pieces, especially his passive knight for white's active knight, I think he will be okay.  So, I would consider the maneuver Nb8-c6.

i thought about the same but more because of the blockade.

Another option for black is to play Rfe8, the idea being to play Qc5-f8, when black has a solid defensive position.  I think white has a slight advantage in this position, but with best play black should be able to hold on.

I think that the black knight is the only piece that can protect the king well from f8. That is why I think that that knight has to move to that position.

Furthermore do I think that the black bishop on b7 has the possibility to be strong, but as long as white controls d4 (a black square) will that bishop play no role at all. Black will play with a piece less. Sacrificing the exchange is winning at the same time winning a piece, because the bishop can come into play.

Black should think about an exchange sacrifice on c4 and play

Rc4, Rfc8 and Nf8.If the bishop is active again, then might the pawn storm starting with g4 be impossible to start with due to the pin with the king.

White on the other hand has a king side attack. He can not start it directly, because the knight will get lost when the queen moves. The queen must stay on the board as well, hence is the best move for white c3. White will not that the black bishop becomes active and will not that its own bishop will be used to get an exchange. Hence, will white not accept the sacrifice of the exchange using the bishop.
Might go like this:

Ummm, while ...Rc4 is undoubtedly a distant option, playing that immediately loses because the d7 knight is loose: 18...Rc4? 19.Bxc4 dc4 20.Nf5! and the knight is decisively planted at d6/e7 (or white enters a completely winning exchange-up ending).

even though its a mistake right away because i missed that the knight is loose, i had the same idea as loek that otherwise black would essentially be a piece down. well not only that, but it was one of my considerations as well

Here's a line to consider.  The analysis here is not intended to be exhaustive, but to give some general ideas of possible play.

White has a space advangate center, and Kingside.

Blacks French LSB is junk, as usual.

Both queens are lined up on the same diagonal. if white does not wish to trade queens, he cannot currently move the knight.

Whites knight on d4 is strong. But it may be stronger on the Kingside, hitting the weak h6 and f6 squares. But I think it needs to stay on d4, blockading the d-pawn.

Plans look like stardard fare for the french. White wants to engineer f5. That will take preparation. Black wants to play b4. He can do that right now. But white may try to lock the queenside up with a4. Black may need to prepare his break.

Black needs to hit fast and hard on the queenside, before his wekened kingside kills him. And the position allows for this.

I am uncertain how to evaluate this position.

I think white has a very big advantage. If i had to guess, probably .5 or .6 computer advantage. It is very easy to play, and his plan is simple: ram on the kingside.

OK, thank you all for the input.

The position is from a correspondence game I played on LSS, and has finished a few hours ago (I was white). I will post the whole game with complete analysis in another thread, because it's a nice positional game, quite characteristic of the total domination the monster at d4 can create over the whole board.

To start with, Black's position is rather unpleasant on the eye: Less space, the usual problematic LSB, some dark-squared weaknesses on the kingside. Ideally, black would wish to cover those weaknesses, as well as trying to solve the problem of the LSB by the typical ...b4-a5-Ba6 recipe. The problem is, he cannot do both, it just needs a lot of time, which he doesn't have.

18...Rfe8 looks logical- vacating f8 for the knight, or queen. However, this virtually abandons the idea of getting some activity with f7-f6, and white can start creating dangerous kingside threats by 19.h4!

18...b4 looks even more logical, but neglects kingside defense: 19.ab4 Qxb4 20.Qh4! (the monster on d4 is indirectly protected) when Black is in quite some trouble.

18...Rce8 just looks very artificial, and besides that Black neglects protecting the dark squares on the kingside- 20.h4 and I think nobody would envy Black's position.

18...f6 is the brave man's choice, yet it's indeed the most consistent, positionally-wise. I think I would pick that OTB, and pray my opponent not finding something crushing. hoynck correctly pointed out that white should play 19.Qe3 (taking on f6 just helps Black) Rce8 when white cannot smash Black with h4 or Qg3 (by a whisker), so it has to be satisfied with a typical structural slight advantage after 20.b4.

18...Qd8, eyeing at the dark squares (and h4 in particular) is the most cautious approach- Black does not wish to risk anything, yet the move is quite passive. Black does not risk being smashed, but he is "doomed" to defending passively for many moves.

So, that leaves Houdini's choice: 18...Nc5. Black of course does not intend chopping the bishop on d3 (even a schoolboy can understand that the resulting position with a monster at d4 vs. a fat pawn at b7 is at best depressing), but rather planting the knight on e4. One problem with that plan is that white does not have to take the knight on e4 directly, but he can do it at the most appropriate moment. The second problem, is that white may FORCE Black taking on d3, using a clever, but not-so difficult to spot pawn sacrifice. hoynck has already spotted it: 19.f5!

Ole man Steinitz would play that move instantly, no doubt about that. Yet, the move is not in the top-five list of Houdini.

Black cannot take the pawn directly, or plant the knight on e4, as he is smashed tactically- so the only reasonable choice is taking the bishop on d3, and then the annoying pawn on f5. But then, he is left with the permanent problem of the monstrous knight on d4, vs the impotent bishop at b7, at the cost of a measly pawn.

White needs to be very precise to utilize this positional advantage, but I think I coped with this task pretty efficiently. To sum it up, Houdini's recommendation (18...Nc5) is a BIG, probably decisive positional lemon. Needless to say, Houdini did see those things hoynck mentioned, plus much, much more, but the stategical collapse of Black's position was far outside his "thinking" horizon. And- sice engines have no fear, they cannot understand that the only thing that prevents white getting nasty with a direct f4-f5, is the pressure the d7 knight exerts over the e5 pawn, so the knight HAS to stay there for quite a few moves, to avoid disaster.

My opponent (rated 2350 at LSS) trusted Houdini, played 18...Nc5? and was wiped off the board after a few moves.

Already mentioned that I will post the whole game fully analysed in another thread (maybe in my blog). For the moment, here is the whole gamescore, without comments- just to show to engine lovers how bad the engine's choice can be a lot of times (and not just in openings and endgames)...

no we have to thank you for the lesson. very instructive.

Wow, not only did he play Nc5 but he took the bishop?  Haha :)  I'm surprised his position held out as well as it did.

I don't quite understand the move f6.  Is the idea to make the move f5 uncomfortable by pressuring e5?  I think I was too afraid of open kingside lines to see this move.  This is a good lesson for me then.

Oh, and Qd8 coming to the kingside dark squares is a logical idea I didn't consider.  Very good.

Can you use engines on that site?

That's very instructive game. As a strong player, you should think about writing articles. This one was great! :)

Well, Black has no choice after 19.f5: The only move to avoid tactical massacre is taking the bishop on d3.

Resigning at the final position seems at first a bit odd- after all material is even. However, the e6 pawn is a thorn, and white has a very simple plan: Rook on e3, king on f2, and after that the queen is free to penetrate via d6/c7, eating pawns or assisting the pawn to e7/e8. Black is unable to meet that simple plan effectively, and resigned (Houdini evaluates the final position as +2.80, which needs no further explanation, methinks).

Notice that the knight who landed at d4 at move 17 did not move from there until the end of the game- yet he dominated the whole board.

@ MSC157: Engines usage is allowed at the big correspondence servers, unless the tournament rules explicitly forbid that. I'm not bothered that much- my motto is that a patzer with a super computer and the strongest engine is still a patzer, if you know how to handle him. My computer is an ancient Core2 (8 years old) but for the moment I don't think I need something more powerful. I prefer using my brains, and have the engine just for spotting my occasional tactical blunders. Usually I don't take the engine's evaluations for real- they aren't worth much, really.

OK pfren, that was really cool. Thx for the awesome lesson.

Personally I chose b4, because I was to lazy to study the position at hand. So is f6 the best move? From the looks of it black seems to be in trouble.

Thank you IM Pfren.  I find your analysis very instructive.  However, when I put the position into my computer (Houdini Pro running on Core i5 processor), after 30 minutes it gave Rfe8 over Nc5.  I'd be curious about how the game would play out then.  Of course, black is passive, but will end up with a solid defensible position.  So can white eventually break through?