How to play this position

Eventually, I lost this game in which I found myself with a (what I think) winning position after move 13 (I am black in this game). What I would like to know : my strategy was to focus on the 3 doubled pawns and try to gain one or two, and then try to open lines for my rooks. I only managed to get one pawn though, and after opening the files for my rooks, I missed a tactic and lost the endgame.

Loosing with the tactic can be learned (don't miss the tactic!), but again, I am eager to learn how to play this position after move 13.

Here is the game.

I still have to analyze it myself, so no annotations yet.

Thank you,

Kristof

I definitely think you're winning after move 13. Your opponent's pawns are just abysmal. Nice play to there, now let's go on:

Ok, moves 13-20, you put your pieces on sensible squares, won the weak pawn - You're still ahead here. 21...f6 seems a little pointless, just weakening your pawns by providing an easier target for your opponent in my opinion, you're not going to trap that bishop. 23...e5 seems a little illogical if you're playing for the d5 break, better was perhaps retrieving the bishop with Bf7 (actually making use of your move f6) and then playing e6 setting up d5. I know you're not supposed to place your pawns on the same colour as your bishop but the position is going to break open anyway so here that was perhaps a better plan.

24...d5 - this came before you were prepared for it I think. You had time to double your rooks or maybe should have done this before instead of weakening moves like 21...f6. Anyway back to 24...d5. After the rook recaptured, he pinned it and you had to resort to desperate measures to try and extricate it. I say desperate because I don't think 27...f5 works, what about the continuation 28.Rd6! Qxd6 29.Qxc4+ Qe6 30.Qxe6 Rxe6 31.Rd8+ and White comes out on top I think.

After what he did play, you were fortunate to get your rook back, then he blunders awfully with 30.Qg4+, and you didn't take the queen!? You may have meant to put in Qg5+ here perhaps?

After that you had no hope. Summary:I thought you played well in the opening stages, but then lost your way breaking open the centre. The most important factor was that you had time to prepare d5 properly and make sure all your pieces were focussed on it.

Steinar,

Yeah, I think you're right, the focus on the d5 square made me forget that other breaks might be possible. The queenside is indeed the way to go!

Is having a 1700 USCF rating enough to boast of 2300+ here? Maybe I should consider playing to feed my ego :p

Qe4 is a nice real game type of tactic but keep your pieces safe man! Should've smelled that from 3 miles away

ur opponet is mentally challenged. on move 3...Nxe4!! would have been better ( 4.Nxe4 d5)

Thank you all for your feedback. It has been really valueable!

@waller: yes, it was Qg5+ instead of the Qg4+ as put in the pgn.

As for my thinking process: I really wanted to open lines for my rooks. They were blocked behind my own pawns and wanted to get them some activity. I underestimated the power of my oponents rooks though. I think I now realize that I should focus more on the queenside.

The blunder is not so much in d5 (altough it is a bad move), but rather in taking the pawn with the rook next move. That looses the game.

But the plan I came up with (openign files for my rooks) may have been incorrect or maybe I should have opened on the Queenside rather then the center (where my oponents rooks are).

As for my e5 push, I wanted to play d5 for a long time, but was worried about e5 of my oponent after that. So I wanted to stop it with e5 myself. And for that, I had to play f6 first in order to remove the pin of the bishop. So f6, e5, d5 was my plan all along. But I should have switched as soon as my opponents rooks were both on the d-file.

Thanks a lot for the feedback I got here, I will take the lessons learned to my next game (this evening!)

Regards,

Kristof

I want to weigh in on this interesting discussion. Strategy doesn't mean poo unless you're calculating correctly is IMHO unassailable -- but it works the other way around too! If you shoot yourself in the strategic foot the tactics will all flow from your opponent.

 PaulGottlieb said don't dismiss a missed tactic as "oh well just a tactic" -- I completely agree. 

But Kristof when you wrote: "The blunder is not so much in d5 (altough it is a bad move)..." honestly I see that as more than a blunder: it reveals a big hole in your positional judgement! Neither e5 nor d5 makes any sense in that position.

And the really intesting part about your game  (I expect I may hear some disagreement) is in the tripled pawns -- Your twelfth move 12.Bxc3 is very questionable.

You create a static plus for Black in the position, but not nearly enough of one IMO to compensate for the dynamic plusses it creates for White.

This is a lesson Jeremy Silman hammers away on in How to Reassess Your Chess, and it's a great lesson.  It's the lesson every winning IQP game teaches: Pawn structure is a double-edge sword. Bad pawns often mean good pieces --  So, where you see tripled pawns after 12.Bxc3 (and if you could magically remove all the pieces instantly and go to a king and pawn ending, yes, you'd have an advantage)  I see: two half open files for White's rooks to create pressure on -- and Black's kingside is weak on the dark squares yet he has no dark square bishop while White does!

Basically 12.Bxc3 turns White's sleepy position into an active flexible attacking one and your compensation? An endgame that is going to be hard to reach. I'd take White at move 13 any day. I don't think it's a coincidence that in this game Black loses to White rook pressure on one of the half-opened files and White's infiltration on the kingside dark squares. 

I agree with your plan for White Bh6 and f5 etc. I'll pass on actually backing up my bluster with actions though! I'm in a no-games moratorium...