TL Chess Match 3 - Page 13

Told you this was the obvious continuation for black. Next will be Bd6 or Nf6... maaaaaaybe Kb8 if he wants to stall. But the thing is, Bd6+Nf6 looks scary. He kinda turned this into a better control of the middle for black. The d6 bishop will be a pain, and there's not much white can do about it. I really don't think that g3 prevented anything just yet.

As for what white should do... either push the c pawn to try to get it on c5, but it will most likely be blocked next move, or move the queen so that Nf6 doesn't force a queen move on white's side.

Right, so he's following the most reasonable line, that I was talking about above anyway. I played with this for about half an hour and it will most likely end into bishop (black) vs knight (white) end game, which is not that cool for white but should end in a draw.

As for what to do now.. I'm not sure. But please consider that his next move(s) will involve getting the Knight on f6. I can't see any way of preventing this, really, so another idea would be to try and force the bishop off d6. Unfortunately, we need 2 moves of the C pawn to do that, and it will most likely be blocked after 17. c4 with c5. Another way would be to try 17. Re1 and then after a forced 18. Qe2/3, we could bring the Knight to e5. Doing so without Re1 would result in losing material (1 pawn). Also, after 17. Re1 he can just f6 but then he won't have his knight on f6, so I don't think he'll do that.

Now, I played with the Re1 line a bit and it doesn't seem to be that advantageous because of the d4 pawn which is a liability. There are a few lines where he can attack it with something like c5 and defending it is a tricky job. That's why I would have preferred the king on b1 rather than that pawn on g3. The game is now moving completely on the Queen side, and our king is not perfectly positioned. That g3 pawn doesn't help at all just yet.

So yeah, the "safest" move I see is 17. c4 forcing him to c5. Then we can retreat the queen and he will play Nf6. This is the line that seems to result in the bishop vs knight game I was talking about in the first paragraph, which leads to a draw (most likely). I can't really see white winning this anymore.

Thoughts?

My vote will be 17.c4, unless someone else comes up with a solid plan... or at least some ideas.

Also please consider Re1. Maybe there's a gimmick there that I didn't spot.

I'm also looking at the Bf4 move right now. I didn't think of it before, but it seems to force a bishop trade, which I think is acceptable due to the fact that his black-square bishop is much more of a pain to us than ours is to him. I didn't really think this through though, as I have to go, but it might be good to consider. (and yes, the obvious disadvantage is that it leads to doubling f-pawns which might cost us the game in the end).

I agree that 17. c4 is the best move to play now. I wouldn't move the rook at this stage because I don't see the e-file being of particular use to us at this time.
If he does indeed play 17 ... c5 then I would follow up with 18. Bc3
Now our position here looks fine. You begin to see why g3 was such a strong move.

Interesting, didn't think of this line but it seems to work out fine. But again, tends to go towards a draw (the way I played it vs myself )

Just one comment:
18. Bc3 xd4
19. Rxd4 Nf6
20. Qh4

On 19, he won't really have a reason to bring his knight to f6 anymore, other than to chase away our queen. He'd be better off moving the bishop back to e7 in order to kill our plans on getting the game on the king side. Then bring his rooks together and try to force down on the king.

Would 17.Bf4 be playable? I know it leads to doubled f pawns, but we get counterplay down the g file later, and he can't play g6.

Not really, Bf4 is just a bad exchange for us.

If we wanted to attack the g file we could have played Qg4 before g3 which isn't a terrible move. But since we played g3 (which I think was a better move) we've committed ourselves to a Queen side attack.

In my opinion our only other decent option besides c4 is Kb1.