Situation Analysis

Hi all,

The computer is rating this as 0.73 in White's favour and I (black) went on to lose. I thought I was in a good situation going in though: two pawn islands vs three, no doubled pawns vs one doubled pair. Is it just a matter of having the centre?

Any insights appreciated!

EDIT: Looking at move 19, King takes e2

It's pretty even, but I would prefer to have white because the central pawn phalanx is quite powerful and I have a potential target for my rooks on the half open b file. Also my King is nicely activating in the centre. Black on the other hand has no targets for the rooks and I think your next move was a quite big mistake 0-0, removing the king out of the action and now white has the extra advantage of a more active king. Kd7 was preferable and actually in the subsequent moves you brought your king over from g8 to d7 costing valuable time. It belonged on d7 all along. 

Agreed that 0-0 was a mistake. I need to get more attack out of my king in general. Thanks for the d7 suggestion, looking back at it that definitely looks more stable.

'The king is a fighting piece' - Wilhelm Steinitz.

Your pawns may be statically OK looking, but dynamically, they're not great. You don't have any pawn breaks, so even if White didn't do very much, it's hard to know what black will do to progress. As it is, b7 is weak, f7 is weak, white's rooks have more scope etc. White can probably force you to play ...b6, at which point a well-timed c4-c5 by white, maybe with a rook on b5 and the other on c1, can soon cause you all kinds of grief.  So yeah, white is certainly clearly better in that spot.

A few of my thoughts. 

Thanks for the analysis. I had a long think at the position I marked and, as you say, nothing much showed up, so I ended up castling. The more I look at it the clearer it is that it's not a great position. I think I was just surprised because I managed to do the things I usually try to do (breaking up the enemy pawn line, getting them doubled, preventing castling) but still ended up losing quite badly. Maybe c5 could have given me a chance too.

Thanks for the thoughts catmaster0. I agree the pawns and the wrong way around. I was too slow to move the b pawn forward and c5 stopped me from progressing it unfortunately. After 23 I was just out of ideas and couldn't find a way to hold back the oncoming king/rook as they drove through. After the mistake at 19 I think it was essentially done...

Nice game by you both..You're at the level I'm trying to reach..