I had two options - attack or develop. Please share your thoughts on them.

Dear friends,

Can you help me identify the pros and cons of the two options. Aim is to analyse and improve understanding.

I am sharing the initial position and then the two options. Option 1 is to attack by advancing the g pawn while option 2 is to develop by bring out (activating) other pieces.

Initial Position

Option 1 - attack by advancing g pawn

Here by advancing g pawn I get to attack black's knight (Nf6) and also attack black's g and h pawns in future.

And as a side question - do you think advancing g pawn is a good idea? It could break open access to black's king but it also undermines position of white's king as it has less cover now.

Option 2 - Develop other pieces first

In this option I am resisting attacking right away and focusing on developing - bringing out the bishop and then castling and then activating the rook and knight who are currently sitting in the left corner.

Kindly do share your thoughts on pros and cons of each approach. Can use this game as discussion point.

Thanks!

g4 loses the pawn Nxg4, it opens the g file though to blacks King but your king isn't exactly safe, could be interesting in blitz but as white isn't well developed it's more likely white will be on the receiving end. A better idea, IMO is Nc3, Qc2 castle queen side then kingside pawn storm, you get a good attacking game with some safety, white looks better able to fend off a queenside attack. 

Very insightful points. Thanks for sharing!

For g4 I missed that it is unprotected and black's knight can get it. So maybe should first play h3 and then g4.

One query - if queen side castling is done (Nc3, Qc2 castle queen side) then will the king be safe enough as the b and c file pawns have moved up and so the queen side is quite open?

White has a positional advantage : more space and good control of central squares. Black not only lacks space but also lacks freeing moves. Meanwhile White is behind in development. So it's just not a position for swift attack. The correct way of playing for White is to finish development while carefully watching Black's attempts to free himself. Those attempts are mainly a5-a4, d5 and Ne4-Bf6. For instance if White plays Nc3 without d4, then d7-d5-d4 may be an option for Black. So the right way to play is probably a3 first followed by Qc2 then either Be2 0-0 or d4 Bd3 0-0 according to what Black does. Once Black is tied up White will be ready to attack.

Thank you for the reply. Some queries on what you have said:

1) "if White plays Nc3 without d4" - if d4 is played it blocks the dark squared bishop of white and also the pawn structure if broken (pawns of d, e and f file are forming a chain). So I am not sure one needs to play d4 before Nc3.

2) "So the right way to play is probably a3 first followed by Qc2" - I did not understand why a3 needs to be played ie what purpose would that serve. Can you pl elaborate.

Yeah it's a strategy with some risk but will your rooks on g1 and h1, the kingside pawn storm and everything aiming at his king, it certainly  won't boring, fierce attacking games are often some of the best and worth the risk.

How is this related to the discussion we are having?

This idial checkmate

For rooks to come on g1 and h1 I will need to castle queen side. So that means do development first and then the king side pawn storm. So you too seem to be saying development first (in our scenario)?

1. Playing Nc3 without d4 will fail in most cases as Black will try to play d4 himself under good circumstances : if in the initial position you play 1. Nc3, then Black replies 1... d5. Then White may run quickly into trouble : 1. Nc3 d5 2. Be2 d4 3. exd4 (3. Nb5 d3 is even worse) Nxd4 is not what you want : you have a backward d pawn and a weak d4 square; moreover if you trade on d4 one more time then Qxd4 attacks the f4 pawn and you can't castle. So instead of Nxd4 you probably have to castle, but then Black has many ways to develop his play and get a satisfactory game (c5, b6-Bb7, Bc5, Nf5, just anything really). Also not great is 1. Nc3 d5 2. Bd3 d4 3. Nb5 dxe3 4. dxe3 Nb4 when Black's pieces start to play.

After d4 the Bb2 still controls the central d4 and e5 squares so this pawn push doesn't really decrease the scope of the bishop, appearance is deceptive. But as said, the main issue is that trying to play without d4 after d5 by Black often just fails because Black will play d4 himself and get a good game, so d4 will have to be played at some point in many cases. d4 also solidifies White's space advantage and limits the possibilities of pawn breaks by e5 or c5.

To be fair it seems there are some lines where White can try to avoid d4 while keeping an advantage, like 1. Be2 d5 2. a3 b6 3. Qc2 Bb7 4. Nc3 d4 5. Nb5 dxe3 6. dxe3 Qc8 7. 0-0-0 when now White can think of attacking by g4, but this required extremely precise play (for instance 6... Ng4 would be great but fails tactically to 7. Rd1 Qc8 8. Ng5). Black can also probably force White to play d4 with something like 2... Bc5, although the result is good for White.

2) a3 is an important move in those queenside structure (a5 vs a2/b3/c4). First, Black can often play a4 and this move is fairly disruptive : sometimes a3 kicking the Bb2 is an issue, especially when the N is already at c3 and the rook still at a1, and sometimes axb3 allows a rook trade and grants the Nc6 the b4 square permanently. The move can even be played as a pawn sacrifice sometimes. a3 by White first makes a4 by Black completely ineffective since White then replies b4 with a huge superiority on the queenside. Another point is that b4 needs protection, otherwise Black can use this square to his advantage : after d4 or d3, Bb4+ is an option, and Nb4 becomes one if White plays Bd3 or Qc2 without a3. One illustrative line could be 1. Qc2 a4 2. bxa4 Nb4 3. Qb3 d5 4. Be2 dxc4 5. Bxc4 Bd7 6. Nc3 Bc6 and Black has excellent piece play for the pawn, White's queenside is seriously weakened.

If h3 as you suggest, black would play Ne4.

"For rooks to come on g1 and h1 I will need to castle queen side. So that means do development first and then the king side pawn storm. So you too seem to be saying development first (in our scenario)?"

Well yeah, fast attacks are great but they'll fizzle out if you're under developed, you just gotta choose the right moment and White's not quite ready yet. 

You need to focus on keeping your king safe. Was that bullet chess?

There is a fine line between attacking and defending.

Oddly enough, I just posted a game in Games Showcase that highlights the difference. -I overlooked a pawn fork to my queen and knight... and made some lemonade out of it.

Victory!

 This answers my query very nicely. Thanks!

Haha.

No it was not bullet but rapid chess.

Strategy and planning are meaningless without tactical alertness!Since your g4? fails miserably to Nxg4 and Bh4+, giving Black an excellent position, it's not worth considering, If you didn't notice that, you need to work more on your tactical awareness