Curtains vs PoG

[StregaChess]

I’m going to take an alternative view of evaluating this position for the sake of discussion. This might not be the line I’d approach in playing a game out but surely it’s part of my corrupt thought process and how I often evaluate position.

White’s king has reached the center and we could achieve the opposition if so desired, but do we care? How much further can the king penetrate and can it harm us? Our king is well placed on e7 and his only entry way with our pawns unmoved is Kb6. So if we allowed him to get to b6 our worse case is we’d have to play Kc8. And he can not deny us Kc8. As strange as that seems if white moves his King off of b6 we would regain Kd7 and therefore the e7 square too. All that being said he could “weaken” us if we move our g6 pawn giving him another path in, and would that truly weaken us or would we have Ke8.

So if all of the above is true do we consider Nb3 as it temporarily takes critical squares away from the bishop? We may very well find the knight has other creative square and it is possible that it shifts to the kingside and “bothers” the white pawns. My final point in favor of Nb3 is now that we have two pieces playing chess and not one.