Which move would you make?

I'd "score" it in favor of black because his pieces are centralized and safe, while most of white's pieces will need to move again. Also because of space, so even one of white's pawns will need to move again.

Qc7 or Qb6 would be the blitz move, played very quickly. In a long game I'd check if Qd7 or Qa5 make any sense. Qd7 may threaten Bg4 with some kind of tactics. Qa5 may try something on the 4th rank or with Qc2. This is a slower idea, but black has some time to spare because white is unorganized. Staying on the back rank adds nothing useful and blocks the rooks. Ne7 adds nothing useful and makes the knight worse.

Oh, and my mind goes to a dark square (like Qc7) first mostly because of the d5 pawn. So instinctively (whether it's right or wrong) I want my queen on a dark square where my central pawn isn't getting in the way, and by being on a dark square the queen's diagonals bolster the dark squares. Because when your central pawn(s) are on light squares, you have necessarily left some dark squares weak behind it.

Qb6 for tempo and make him move his queen back to e2 and then I would wanna castle and play Re8

I would play Be7, but just to be on the safe side. Qb6 or so is bad, as white has b4.

I would play Qd7.  Black wants to keep his bishops, he can castle next and follow up with Ne7 to g6 if he has to defend the king.  I think black is slightly better due to the bishops why trade off that advantage.

queen to g6

If Be7 is correct then it's essentially an admission that you shouldn't have put the bishop on d6 in the first place. I guess I don't see why b4 is such a strong reply to Qb6. It seems like black can just go about his business. Maybe 0-0.

I'm with Rasputin on the eval. I think black is better here. White's bishop on g5 isn't doing anything. His pieces are uncoordinated and after Qb6 he's behind a full tempo in development.

I'm inclined to agree with skotheim2. I know giving up the bishop pair isn't great but f4 f5 from white looks hard to deal with and going queenside with your queen looks useless after b4. But even after the bishop trade if the game proceeds f4 0-0 f5 then the LSB is forced to retreat hanging the d pawn and simultaneously breaking up blacks king safety after f6. Unless I'm missing something black could be in trouble. I'm probably missing something I just started playing chess again so my calculating isn't very sharp lol.

I pretty much agree with rasputin but my plan would differ in one regard instead of the night going e5 I would take Nd4 either after cxd4 or ...dxc3 (assuming white played 2.b4) because then you've won the rook after Nc2.

I realize there are variations to this line if white does not take the pawn on D4 but they all seem OK for black

I like Qd7.

 Qd7 the idea of course is bg4 later at some point if white does not react, but if the q moves back for example, black later have the option of f6 g5 and maybe 0-0-0 and h5. the o-o is also a possiblity if black does not want king side pawn storm.  

Not that I have looked at this in any depth, but what about ...Qb6 forces a Queen retreat by White?  Is there some reason he can't play b4?

Qd7.

For those that want to play Qd7, what's your plan after f4?

When I first look at a position.

I like to count the material.

In this position the material is even.

2nd thing I like to do is:

I like to check development. Who is better developed?

Well to find this out we have to count the pieces who have moved from there original square.

White's pieces which have moved:

Queen

Knight

Dark Bishop

Castle (King+Rook)

I do know some people believe castling only develops the king. However, I disagree with them. I believe it helps active 2 things and develops 2 things. Yes its true sometimes the rook has to move again. However, sometimes it helps support a F pawn push.

In this position white has developed 5 things and if you disagree with me than you can say he has developed 4 things.

Black's pieces which have moved:

Knight

Light Bishop

Dark Bishop

In this position black has 3 things developed;however, it is his move.

We have to take that into consideration.

So if you are using my developing method I guess.

White has 5 things developed to Blacks 3.

Now remember we are not saying this is good or bad yet.

We are observing what is happening in the position.

Which can better help understand what we should do next.

3rd thing I like to do is:

I like to look at the minor pieces to see if they are different.

White has 2 knights + 1 bishop

Black has 2 bishop + 1 knight

Now this is a huge importance. The reason why is because white having the 2 knights is going to want to make the position closed/locked with alot of pawn blockage.

For example: If black was to play the move d4. Obviously your queen is attacked so you can't play d4 right yet but later on in the future if black was to play d4 white would not take the pawn with his c3 pawn he would play moves like c4 trying to keep things locked or closed.

Black on the other hand with the 2 bishops is going to want an open position with no pawns around. Black is going to want to encourage more pawn exchanges. Bishops do well in open positions because they are long range pieces. So if all the pawns disappear they will be able to slice through alot of squares.

4th thing I like to do is:

Check to see what squares my opponent is attacking and how many times they are attacking those squares.

The rule of thumb I use for this is simple.

If the pawns are on the 3rd rank or higher they are attacking squares.

If the knights are off the back row they are attacking squares.

Exception to the rule is with the Queen, Bishops, and Rooks they all are long range pieces so they can attack squares from the back row in some cases.

So using the above rule of thumb we are going to list those squares.

What squares are white's pieces attacking!

Queen = d1- e2- f3- g4- h5- g5- g6- h6- h7- f7

Knight = h1- e2- e4- f5- h5

Dark Bishop = c1- d2- e3- f4- g5- h6- h4- f6- e7- d8

Pawns(only the pawns 3 rank or higher) = e4- d4- c4- b4 - b4 (b4 getting attacked by 2 different pawns so write it twice)

Now show the squares which are being attacked more than once and give the number of how many times they are being attacked!

e2 = 2

h5 = 2

g5 = 2

h6 = 2

e4 = 2

b4 = 2

5th thing I like to do is:

Check to see what pawns & pieces my opponent is attacking and how many times they are attacking those pawns & pieces.

Queen = h7- f7

Dark Bishop = d8

Now show the pawns & pieces which are being attacked more than once and give the number of how many times they are being attacked!

In this case the pawns and pieces are only being attacked once each so you skip this step and return again later if things change lol.

We have gone over a lot of information in this position.

From things being attacked to different idea's each side has.

So the question remains what should we do?

Well at the present moment our queen is under attack.

We should consider 3 things!

• What squares can we move the queen to out of danger?
• Can we issue a threat more dangerious than the threat we have upon us?
• Can we block the queen from danger?
  

The above 3 things can be done in any order.

I put them randomly in the above order but nevertheless we should consider all 3 so lets take a look.

What squares can we move the queen to out of danger?

Squares = c8- b8- d7- c7- a5- b6

Can we issue a threat equal or more dangerious than the threat we have upon us?

Yes, pawn push g6

Can we block the queen from danger?

Yes, Be7 or Ne7

Lets go over what we found above and start to try and to weed out some of the moves.

The Square's c8 and d7

Lets go over both those squares since they do similar functions.

Whats so wrong about putting the queen on c8 or d7?

Well by moving the queen to c8 or d7 we protect the b7 pawn.

We also set up a battery with our light square bishop.

Can we find anything wrong with either one of these moves?

Actually I do see something wrong with one of these moves.

What do I see that could be poteintally a wrong square?

Well if we put our queen on d7 our bishop on e6 will have very limited squares!

Now the reason this is important is because if white one day plays the move f4! It will come with a threat of f5 trapping our bishop.

On c8 if white was to play f4 and f5 than we could move our bishop to d7 with out worry!

Because of this 1 little subtle difference I don't like Qd7.

By putting the queen there it could cause a future problem.

An we don't know if white will play f4 or not but if they do we want to be prepared and we want our queen in a spot to hand such a move.

So we are scratching off the square d7.

We are keeping the square c8 for now since we haven't found anything wrong with that square yet.

OK so lets go to the next set of square's.

The Square's b8 and c7

Whats so wrong about putting the queen on b8 or c7?

Well by moving the queen to b8 or c7 we protect the b7 pawn.

We also set up a battery with our dark square bishop.

Can we find anything wrong with either one of these moves?

Actually I do see something wrong with one of these moves.

We have caught another culprit!

Oh yes we have.

Sniff out those bad squares.

If we put our queen on b8 it blocks in our rook.

Now 1 benefit of the queen on b8 is it helps with a b5 pawn push.

However, We could put the queen on c7 and than move our rook to b8 to do the b5 pawn push.

Which means moving the queen on b8 would be counter productive because our rook will have some problems.

So we are scratching off the square b8.

The last 2 queen moves I will skip for right now. I will come back to them later because I got something to say about those lol. It might take up alot of writing lol. I might have to make a post only of those 2 moves lol.

The Square a5

The Square b6

Ok so lets go to the last 2 issues

Can we issue a threat equal or more dangerious than the threat we have upon us?

Yes, pawn push g6

^^^^

Now we could threaten the white queen with g6.

It is very interesting to think about for sure.

However, The question we have to ask yourself is does black really need to go down this road?

I personally think we don't need to make such a move.

Can we block the queen from danger?

Yes, Be7 or Ne7

^^^^^

Now we could block with he bishop and offer a bishop exchange.

However, I will admit I do not like that idea.

The reason why is because we have the bishop pair.

Why should we give up the bishop pair?

White's 1 move threat is really not so terminal for our position.

Furthermore, I believe white would completely love a bishop trade.

All whites pawns are on dark squares

All blacks pawns or the majority of blacks pawns are on light squares.

Which means we will have some issues with our left over light square bishop.

The last thing I will talk about will be the move Ne7 which I like actually.

However, I will talk about it in the next post I do I believe along with the other remaining moves.

So see you again lol in another post.