Black needs to develop the Knight. The question is which square is better. After 1 ... Nc6, 2 Ne2, Black's Knight doesn't have anywhere special to go. For that reason, I prefer 1... Nd7, which gives the Knight more options later. After 2 Rab1, Black plays Rb8. The Knight is safe, and Black can castle and consolidate the position a piece up.
What are the plans for White and Black?
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Thank you for your replies and congrats you both mentioned Nd7 which agrees with Chessmaster X (for whatever that is worth). Seems I was on the right track, but chose the wrong plan for White (see below). After further analysis of what I thought white's threat was, turns out to be a phantom threat. I needed to look just a few moves further to see that what I thought was "really bad" was actually really bad for white and I would outlive the suicidal attack. Below was my post game analysis.
Post Game Analysis
During the game my thoughts were just on trading all the pieces with reckless abandon, since I'm up on material, so I played Bxd4. However, I just recently reviewed the chapter on Material advantage from Silmans Reassess Your Chess and I think that my approach to trading down has been very flawed to date. Good players will trade down when up material, but will also retain their positional advantage or give material back to disrupt the oppenents position. Another option for me here is to see if my pieces should regroup. I do have a hanging pawn on f4 and an uncastled king and an underdeveloped knight. Not to mention white is still set up for attack. I went for the bishop knight trade here, but that only served to fix his pawns in the center and killed my bishop pair. I have better moves.
MY ATTEMPT AT SILMANS PLAN
Black is up a knight. White is developed, black has work to do. Whites pawns are better although we both have two isolated pawns. Black has a doubled pawn on f4, but it doesnt seem bad. The only piece that could attack it are the queen and the g2 pawn. If g2 wants to attack then I'll rid myself of the pawn and open the h file weakening the white king. To summerize, black is up on material but white is way ahead everywhere else.
WHITES PLAN
I think white wants to put a rook or two behind the queen and somehow make use of that battery. Also, e6 is seriously a point of contention. If white were to sac it's knight and drop its queen on e6 before I can develop, that would be very bad.
BLACKS PLAN
Develop my pieces while stopping an attack on e6. Use my material advantage by giving back material (if I have to) to squash white attack. I want my pieces on Bd7, Nc6, 0-0, Rc8, Ra8.
So if I could play this again I would play Bd7 first.
60 seconds CHESSMASTER TOP 3:
1. Nd7 (-3.92)
2. Nc6 (-3.83)
3. 0-0 (-3.78)"
I'm reading Silmans book Reasses your chess and spent some real time and effort trying to figure out the plans for white and black, then what the next move for black should be. This was a game I played in USCF G30. So my real analysis came after the game. After I did my own analysis on the position, I ran chessmaster for 60 seconds to get the top three moves. My move did not make the top 3. SO..I'm curious about what my peers think, especially titled players or Silman himself. -afterall its your system Mr Silman ;0)
I wont tell you my thoughts just so I don't influence anyone. After a few posts, I'll post my analysis. Maybe my thought process is flawed and somebody can point it out to me.