TL Chess Match 4 - Page 120

We're not gonna win by trading off into a Bishop pair for black, which is for the most part what Bxc7 does. I don't think it's best to get greedy after pawns, though tactically I see nothing wrong but positionally I'm not a fan. Nd2 looks interesting, but not to the point where I feel good about black's b rank dominance.

I can't find a hole in that line either, but I do have that same feeling.

It might be related to the fact that we pin our own knight?

After 23. Bxc7 I see:
23...Rb1+
24. Rxb1 Rxb1+
25. Ne1 Bxa3 (threat of both Bb4 and Kxc7)
26. Bg3 Bb4
27. f3 Bd2 -+ (the rook is out of squares on the e file as far as I can tell)

That's kind of what I was thinking. So it would restrict our Rook's movement a bit, as he's covering the knight, until we could relieve the pressure on our king by moving one of those last 3 file pawns up. My question is, can we do this before he forces us to move that Rook off that file by using his F-file pawn in combination with the remaining light square bishop, king, and possibly dark-squared bishop if we don't trade those off?

Bg3 and f3

not 23. Rc1 or else 23. ... Bc4 comes next, with the a3 pawn falling shortly thereafter.
the continuation for 23. Bxc7 that was given is deviated with 25. ... Bxa3 26. Bg3 Bb4 27. f3 Bd2 and our position looks really bad from there.
i like 23. Nd2 since it basically forces the Rook on b3 into action. it also helps cover the b1 square. 23. ...R3b5 can be covered with 24. Re1. theory behind Nf1 afterwards looks interesting.

23. Rc1 Bc4 24. Nd2, as TruthIsCold says below you.

Yes, Black can trade Rooks, and probably will. We take back with the f-pawn. We haven't given him a free tempo at all. The Knight is much more useful on d2 then on f3 in this situation:

a) It prevents Black from putting a Rook on b3 or b1. That makes it harder for him to do something useful with his b-Rook.
b) It pushes him into trading Rooks on our terms (i.e. on e3). That allows us to get the f-pawn to e3, which does two things:
--1) It gives us two central pawns to contest Black's two (in the only area where he had a pawn majority)
--2) It eliminates the possibility of a back-rank mate (letting our Rook go to c3, for instance) and gives our King a way to join the fight.

I definitely do want to play Rc1, to get our Rook into a more active position. I just don't want Black to have the response ...Rb1 available. That's why I think it's best to begin with 23. Nd2.

As for the b-rank dominance that mastergriggy mentioned, I think that with two of the most important squares on the b-file (b1 and b3) closed to Black, we have much less to worry about. We could even challenge his Rook on the b-file directly with Rb1, although that's not necessarily our best option. In fact, as far as I can see, 23. Nd2 does more to reduce Black's control of the b-file than 23. Rc1, not less.

23. Bxc7: 2 (chesshaha, ApocAlypsE007)
23. Rc1: 2 (mastergriggy, TruthisCold)
23. Nd2: 2 (qrs, SausageLinks)

22. Re3: 19 (qrs, Cloud 9157, jdseemoreglass, Archers_bane, Raysalis, chesshaha, SheaR619, ffreakk, hp.Shell, aphorism, ApocAlypsE007, dtvu, Mash2, mastergriggy, GenesisX, Bill Murray, wizard944, Malli, itsjustatank)
22. a4: 1 (LaXerCannon)
Abstain: 1 (Blazinghand)