If you play 1.a4 you should consider 1. ... bxa4 2.Rxa4 Nb4 3.Ra1 a5 with strong queenside attack for Black. Black shouldn't castle but play Ke7 to connect the rooks. Your only chance is to make some progress on the kingside in this situation - a4 only opens the position on the side you don't have the advantage.
Superior position?
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In the following game I ended up in the following position (playing white). I'm interested in knowing two things:
1. Who has the superior position and why?
2. What's the best next move?
My thoughts are:
- I'm not castled up till this point because a few moves earlier it would have been threatening on the king side due to pressure from the queen and one bishop
- I'm concerned about the b4 square with substantial pressure that and this made the particular move involved most agonizing
- I consider my pawn formation fairly strong, making it virtually impossible for black to attach anyway except going around the bottom of my pawns queenside, and making the process fairly costly
- My strategy in these formation is to pawn rush the side they are castling and back it up with other resources, in this case my forces are behind the pawn line, they don't have a ton of space right now but will have the ability to be fairly soon
Feedback is appreciated