What is your strategic plan in this position ?

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WGF79

Greetings, chess strategists !  Below is a position that i get quite often in blitz and OTB chess. Imagine you have the final position on the board and want to win the game, knowing that you are better at endgames than your opponent. What were your general plan in this position ? How could one attack the double pawn ? Or should one try some kind of minority attack on the kingside ?
 
The next move are simple I guess, develop the knight, bring the king to the center and get the rooks on the open file, but what's a good general strategic plan here ?
 
 
 

Unmaster

On the up side for black, both open files are files he has a strong pawn on.   On the downside, he controls no open files and has as yet no play at all with his rooks.  

I think a significant strategic factor here is that white has a bishop.  This isn't good or bad yet, but the more the board opens up, probably the stronger that bishop is going to get.    So as black, I'm thinking to maybe get some kind of static position - I'd love to see a black pawn on c4, for example, just hold that doubled pawn up until I can kill one or both of them with knight and rooks...   Playing c5 here immediately as black is kind of fun... white's dead meat if he accepts tripled pawnd.   

There's not a lot of mating potential on the kingside, black could probably be quite aggressive with his king there, even running toward the middle of the board.   

TheGreatOogieBoogie

Good assessment!  Personally, I'd think of putting pawns on dark squares so that white's bishop has fewer targets and the king could maneuver on dark squares too.  Black has two pawn islands vs. white's three, but white has more active rooks.  The bishop is also more active and can be placed on e4, not good for black and in fact directly hits the rook.  a d5 pawn can blunt it though. 

13...f5 sounds contradictory because it's a light square, but it restricts the opponent's activity. 

13...Nc6 14.d5,Ne7 may give something too. 

13...Nc6 14.d5 might be too good for black, white might not play this.

I like the 13...f5 14...Kf6 plan best as it's difficult finding where to transition the knight but keeping e4 from the bishop seems reasonable here. 

WGF79

Interesting thoughts, thanks ! 

Once I won a game with putting the rooks on h/g files and starting a minority attack, but actually my opponent blundered so i'm not sure, does this make sense from a positional point of view ? Or is there more risk as white can get a passed pawn through this, a pawn that is well enough protected by rooks+king ? Blunting the bishop is ofc. important too. How about fixing the double pawn with d5 ? Or will this just give white the chance for c4 + opening up the game in the long run, where his bishop will dominate the knight ?

LoekBergman

Great to read the posts. Three people, three different ideas. This will be idea number four:

Being black I would try to get the knight on c5. First of all because it blocks some pawns and it can not be chased away by white unless he gives an exchange in return. From c5 controls the knight 8 white fields. The shortest route to c5 is via d7 or a6.

I would not go via a6 because you need to prepare that with a5 and keeping the rook passively at a8 and the bishop can exchange the knight.

White can not prevent this with Bb5 because of a6 and b5. But he can play Be4. If black plays d5 then retreats white the bishop to d3. After that can black play c5, but white will be able to keep a pawn on d4 and the knight will not be able to come at one of his ideal fields.

Therefor will black has to prepare c5 playing first c6. White plays c4.

To get his knight and queen rook into the game plays black Rc8.

If the c-file would be opened - implying that white has captured with cxd5 or cxb5, then has black a shot at c2. Therefor will white play Rd2. The other rook has now also more fields to enter the game and they might be doubled on the d-file. The last reason could be a reason for black to keep the position closed.

Black plays Nd7.

From now on are there too many plans to keep on evaluating.

White can go for f4-f5, he might put one rook on the e-file and the other on the f-file. He might double his rooks on the d, e or f file.

Black can play a similar move like Rd2, namely Rc7 to give the other rook more mobility. Black can go to f6, chasing the bishop.

Maybe should white put more pressure on the king side of black and therefor not play Rd2 but Rd3. The other rook can stay behind the pawns, the rook on d3 in front of the pawns, and they will both attack the black king directly.

Goals for white:

- prevent a knight on c5,

- prevent a knight on e5 after white has played f5,

- opening lines to the king with f4, g4 Rd3-h3, maybe Rf2 - g2, f5 or g5.

- opening the position and trying to exchange the pawns in the centre. The bishop is faster from the queen side to the king side in an open position then the knight.

Goals for black:

- keep the position as long as possible closed,

- try to have only pawns on one side of the board. In this position has that to be the king side,

- get the knight supported by a pawn on a black field (d6 for instance) in or near the centre,

- be careful with making a move with pawns. They can not go back. If the knight is on the ideal field, then can some pawns enter white fields as long as they are covered by the knight on that dark field. That restricts the movement of the bishop. An example: with the knight on c5 is the pawn on e6, although the field is white maybe not a weakness but a strength as it helps to restrict the movement of the white bishop.

WGF79

Helpful comments, thanks !