Interesting Position

Hey all, just wanted some opinions on the final position of a recent game of mine; my significantly better opponent offered a draw, it being the final, non-decisive game of a tournament; and I, unsure of how to progress, and in a chickening-out kind of mood, accepted.  Wondering if anybody has ideas on potential play:

Opinions etc?

Let me try to take a quick stab at it:

Opposite colored bishops and opposite side castling ... interesting. Plans tend to dictate an all out attacking race at the enemy king. White doesn't have enough firepower ready to throw the kitchen sink at your king ... and similarly your pieces aren't quite ready yet on the queenside.  So there's a To-Do list for you ...   Your b8 knight needs a productive home. The squares c5 and d2 jump out as nice...perhaps... Nb8-Na6-c5.  Breaking open your a/b/c files can't be bad for you with the rooks ready to lock and load down at yout Q + K.

I don't see really anything White can do to scare you here.  h4-h5 doesn't guarantee busting open your files so much and it appears far too slow with ideas like  Nc5 and the b5 break that you have in play.

I think it was harder for white to keep playing than it was for you.

Interesting... but isn't a b5 break a little premature considering the pressure against the b- and c-pawns (and a potential Bxc6 fork)?

I think I was probably paying too much attention to the pawns, though.  It's hard not to when you've got a passer on the 6th rank, I guess!

wow

Taking a quick glance, I think black should be very happy. For one thing he's simply a pawn up, which will be useful later, and black seems to have better chances of attack because he has simple ideas like ...Nc5 and ...b5 as mentioned, which will quickly open a file against white's queen (and pressure on b2 can be increased by say ...Bf6).

Of course white can try to put a knight on the juicy d4 square and maybe pressure e3 a bit, but the ...b5 move not only opens up queenside files but also helps undermine white's pawn chain. If he can remove this then black's pieces will become even more free and he will be able to challenge that d4 knight. White would not even be justified in attacking here really, because the best he can do is open a file with h4-h5 (none of the other pieces are in the attack, but it's very slow.

So although the position looks complicated (in fact, I was thinking to myself at first glance I'm too lazy to take the time to make a good evaluation here I should just skip this, but actually looking just a little it actually wasn't so bad!), to me it's easy to see black is better. Simply put, black can achieve his goals much more easily than white can, and a pawn is a pawn, even it is a little weak.

You should be rather happy to lose those b and c pawns, especially if it means trading off white's c and d pawns (or one of the two), which gobbled up some space. You will have a ton of open files and no central problems, and will be able to make a big attack. Of course, the break must be timed correctly, when it tactically works best, but don't necessarily be afraid of sacrificing a pawn at some point (especially since you're up one anyway!) for the files.

Perhaps you could play 1...Nd7, and if white plays 2 dxc6 bxc6 3 Bxc6 just play 3...Rb8, when I think the open files are worth the pawn. If white plays 2 Nd4, then just 2...Nc5 3 Qc2 Bf6, trying to play ...Ne4 and looking at possible ...c5 ideas, revealing the long diagonal as well. You have a lot of play.