TL Chess Match 3 - Page 15

The short term reason is to defend c4.

But more than that Qe2 is a strong positional play.
In the long run Qe2 defends f2, h5, c4, b2 and the eventual g4+f2.
If pieces get swapped off, which is likely, we want our queen in this strong position.

Part of me thinks we should play d5 now. Since he didn't take the oppurtunity to play xd4 or Nf6 followed by xd4, maybe we should take advantage of that.

Ok so some good moves to play from here are:
Kb1
This is a good positional move putting our King in a much stronger position.
Possible lines might warrant playing Rc1 defending c4 and ensuring our King is well defended.
Or if Black attempts a King-side push we can play a3 followed by Ka2.

Ne5
Puts our Knight in a strong central position. Black will probably trade the bishop for our Knight to prevent f4.
19. Ne5 Bxe5
20. dxe5 Nd7
Or
19. Ne5 cxd4
20. Rxd4 Bxe5
21. Rxd8+ Rxd8
22. Bxe5
We're likely to accelerate to a endgame from here.

There might be some other possibilities like
Rh4 and xc5 maybe.

Now, I'm not really sure what to say here.
I do want Kb1, it was my move of choice when I got into this game about 5 moves ago. I do understand its strengths but there's one thing that bothers me: You guys moved g3. If you move Kb1 now, then g3 was somewhat pointless. It didn't help thus far, and we could have just as well moved Kb1 back then and g3 (or something else) now. I feel that Kb1 now is losing tempo. I was hoping for alternatives that do use the f4 square.

Maybe I'm not seeing this in as much depth as I should, but it just seems that if we do the Kb1 now, we'd have lost a bit of an edge by losing tempo.

He probably expects Kb1, in order to proceed with 20. ...cxd4 and then after 21. Nxd4 he can free up his queen with 21. ...Qc5.

I can't say that I agree with Ne5 because, central as it might be, I feel a lot of pressure in holding the e5 square in the future. It's just in line of fire of too many things in a couple of moves. And since I think he'll most likely follow-up with cxd4, our knight will get on d4, which is just as, if not more annoying than e5.

Please discuss more, as this is a crucial spot in the game. I feel that the board will start clearing up in the next 10 moves, so we need to make each one really count.

Cube has some really good points men :S I don't see the strength in playing Kb1 now. Let's give jfazz the option to follow here. We are much better positioned and i think that anything that he trades is actually putting him in a worse position than us. We are pinning 2 of his pieces with a simple pawn, so I don't know I am liking this move the best.

the more time we give jfazz to set-up and position the harder it will be for us to win against him. We need to start forcing him to move, and let's face it, we arent going to get a much better position than so might as well start the trades.

The last game we played was too conservative and we didn't challenge black at all. Kb1 looks way too passive for me.

We can probably play Ne5 next turn. We don't have to worry about being passive, ultimately there's a lot of Chess to be played from here.

We need to protect against Qe4 and can develop our rook at the same time; the other options are Rhe1 and Rde1.

What about 21. ...g5? I know it's not a particularly strong move by black but it's annoying. We won't have any place on the 4th rank to take our rook to, and we'll have to move it back to h3/h2/h1 (h2 being the best I think), none of which seem really useful at this point, and we'll have lost tempo (again).

If we play Rh4 and he also does a silent move like Kb8, then our best option in my view would be to capture on c5, forcing 22. ...Bc5. I played with this line a bit and it seems to increase our attacking potential.

Also, I don't see what's wrong with his Qe4. We would trade queens, and then as I see it, we would trade our bishop/pawn for his knight/pawn, which isn't the best thing at this moment but the positioning should still be on our side.

I fail to think of a better move than Rh4 though, even though I don't like it. I'd vote Re1 but that would make the game stall even longer.

So yeah, Rh4 it is then.

Are you aware of En passant?
21. Rh4 g5
22. hxg6
We can take the g pawn if he moves past us.