[Lori]

[ QUOTE ]
In this position I think rather than "what should we do", the correct question is "what is our opponent's plan". If we don't move over the next few moves, he will play Bb2, Re1 and say Qd3, after which he'll trade off minor pieces and win the pawn.

I think there are two ways to counter this plan. We can either try to play d4 and either create a passed pawn or trade the pawn off, ridding ourselves of the weakness. Or, we can attack somehow on the kings side or in the center.

Rc8 looks very natural, but I'm not sure it assists us in countering his plan.

[/ QUOTE ]

I quite like the look of Qc8 with the intention of moving to g4 and invading the white squares while adding some defense against the threatened fianchettoed Bishop.

I'm not really in favor at the moment of anything that doesn't prevent him lining up his Bishop and Queen at our King, as our defense doesn't seem very adequate.
I think with Qc8 we end up in a lot of lines where we trade Queens, get the open file first and end up with a difficult but manageable endgame.

That all being said, I'm not sure _I_ could manage the ensuing endgame against a player like curtains, but feel that the rest of the forum probably could [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

Lori