RussBell: Thanks for the links, your blog post about positional chess & planning/strategy feels very relevant to me. Being able to create tactical opportunities and weaknesses in opponents position is essential to win against players who are strong enough to not make any obvious mistakes.
You recommend quite many books, have you personally gone through them all? I like your avatar, btw.
Analysis aside, game well played. You lasted 50 moves against a much higher rated opponent, and you kept your pieces.
Sorry, I haven't read any comments. Just looked at the position for two or three minutes. In this position I would probably want to play ...cd with the aim of creating tactics by playing ...d5 and if necessary, recapturing with a piece in order to blockade white's d-pawn and weaken the b7 bishop but black hasn't finished the opening yet. First things first. All the minor pieces are developed but the opening isn't finished because black needs to play a6 and probably centralise at least one rook. I think the a-rook is the one to move, not the f-rook.
I think the c-file and the d-file are both candidates for the a-rook. I would probably play 11. ...Rad8. I've played this exact position countless times. But then, I like both QGD positions and hedgehog positions.
Btw good rook moves aren't mysterious. In an otb game with plenty of time to think, it's often worth thinking for at least 20 minutes about where to place the rooks, based on an analysis of which files are likely to open, how they will open and what targets are on them. And then, if you have placed your rooks well and your opponent doesn't do the same analysis and maybe gets his rook placement wrong, that will create the pressure you use to win with.
RussBell: Thanks for the links, your blog post about positional chess & planning/strategy feels very relevant to me. Being able to create tactical opportunities and weaknesses in opponents position is essential to win against players who are strong enough to not make any obvious mistakes.
You recommend quite many books, have you personally gone through them all? I like your avatar, btw.
Yes. I own every book mentioned in all of my blog articles. (I've collected lots of chess books - hundreds - over three decades) I go to lengths to choose what I consider to be the better chess books. I spend time with each recommended book, becoming familiar with its contents and its suitability in terms of instructively covering its respective topic(s), be it opening, middlegame, endgame, positional chess, pawn play, etc. Glad you like the avatar!
By the way, you might check out the posts by @blueemu in the following forum thread. He presents instructive commentary on the four major principles of chess - force, time, space and pawn structure. These principles are the subject of two of the books I recommend in my blog article on positional concepts - "Play Winning Chess" by Yasser Seirawan and "New Ideas In Chess" by Larry Evans.
https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/gm-larry-evans-method-of-static-analysis
Btw good rook moves aren't mysterious. In an otb game with plenty of time to think, it's often worth thinking for at least 20 minutes about where to place the rooks, based on an analysis of which files are likely to open, how they will open and what targets are on them. And then, if you have placed your rooks well and your opponent doesn't do the same analysis and maybe gets his rook placement wrong, that will create the pressure you use to win with.
When that makes it so clear and decided it is an example of an "obvious" move that the OP wasn't asking about.
Incorrect.
It's pretty clear that the last two people to post haven't a clue about how to analyse.
A structure with e5, d6, c5 is usually bad when your knights are like that. So after e5 if white plays d5 you're going to be pretty miserable for the next 20 moves.
First of all I would resolve the structure into something I'm more familiar with... a hedgehog. So I'd capture on d4. After that your pawn breaks are on d5 and b5. In a hedgehog your queen rook belongs on c8 and your other rook d8 or e8.
You call this a quiet position, but if you did get a hedgehog, that calm is deceiving. It usually explodes with a huge mess of tactics meshed with positional and endgame ideas all at once. Very technically demanding to play this position well for the next 20-40 moves.
OK so I studied the position for about seven or eight minutes and I found the winning sequence. No doubt you both found it in half a minute. There was nothing mysterious about the rook move. Just a question of trying to win a game of chess. There were a couple of divergencies that had to be looked at but they were no better for the opponent. In all cases the R got in behind the pawns, which couldn't be defended/.
You just have no tactical ability.
In case you are curious how the rest of the game went, here it is:
I'm surprised there's a 400 point gap. I thought you play just as well as him. Good job 
Unlike optimissed I noticed your username, avatar, and account creation date, so good luck baiting me 
You shouldn't make a fool of yourself by getting so angry and you shouldn't judge others according to your own low standards.
And why should I be interested in how old their account is. OK so you're some previous troll or whatever. Really who cares and why are you such a fool?>
He even told me I was arguing with Carlsen, so now he's claiming to be Carlsen? He has the logical ability of a demented octopus.
I just called him something, and you seem to think that's raging? A right pair of kids. Now you may be trolls or whatever but that doesn't give you the right to dictate how I have to respond to you. You both showed that you can't play chess too well and then you both became angry. And that's what happened. Now goodnight. Past my bedtime.
He even told me I was arguing with Carlsen, so now he's claiming to be Carlsen? He has the logical ability of a demented octopus.
Hmm, I was giving you the benefit of the doubt because I've seen you on the forums for a long time, but now I can't tell if you're being stupid purposefully or accidentally... which mean it's time to say goodbye.
It's just that I always thought the idea of "mysterious rook moves" is really pompous. Just slightly deep, that's all.
A bit like Einstein's "spooky action at a distance" when all the time he thought that the entirety of quantum physics is pre-determined by hidden "variables". He held back the progress of physics by ten years or more. That meant the Germans hadn't invented the A-bomb before WWII so it worked out OK I suppose.
Good Positional Chess, Planning & Strategy Books for Beginners and Beyond...
https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/introduction-to-positional-chess-planning-strategy
https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell