Chess Position Survey Two

I prefer to wait till the very end before launching an engine, but that's just me.

I'm pretty sure our bunch of analysers can find many plausible variations in this position

Well, everything us amateurs say can't be taken totally seriously, and neither can computer evaluations all the time.

Absolutely -- other people, professional players, have examined this position (and the position a half-move earlier) ... but it isn't an absolutely trammelled patch of theory in, oh let's say, mainline Najdorf sicilian or Nimzo-Indian, where every blade of grass has been inspected and reinspected... I think there's some room for enthusiastic amateurs to turn over a few rocks and poke around...

For me it's always interesting (and generally futile... but an optimist keeps panning for gold) to try to overturn some bit of accepted theory. This is ECO B13t (if instead of a N on b6 you put the N on d5 and push the black pawn to e6 you have ECO B13u).

Anyway... my original question was: why can't i evaluate this position properly... and I think the answer to my question is: when dynamic factors are involved, if you just rely on your "snap-look eye-picture" impression you'll be led astray -- you have to calculate a few variations to understand the position. The more I actually dig into the position with moves, the more I understand White's advantages here (although Elubas has me wondering).  As another poster mentioned, we're kind of doomed by our early lessons. "Doubled pawns = bad" -- it's a hard mindset to shake!

Anyway, even at the strong GM level Black does occassionally win a game from here... so maybe those doubled pawns really are bad... I keep hoping!

Like I said earlier, I would prefer white in a heartbeat if d4 was safe (just too much initiative for black to seriously threaten the pawns), but d4 not being safe forces him to get tactical with a move like d5 sooner than he would want in my opinion. So in this case it all depends on how well tactically d5 works, and I don't know yet.

You know how when the game gets tactical and open sometimes it just leads to a bunch of trades? Well yeah, that's exactly what black is hoping for to happen, because if his development is smooth he will have fun attacking the k side pawns, though it would be hard to say that even best case scenario when the weak pawns are the only factor that a win would be forced. But chess is a draw after all!

Here's a couple interesting games on this line (see moves list for embedded games):

White d5 attacking the knight and black has to move there knight away you also have a pawn that can more than likely become a queen

White d5 plain and simple

Wow, it's been literally years since I've witnessed an over 10+ years necro on a forum hahaha.