Curtains vs PoG

[xorbie]

timm,

16...d4
17. Qf3 Re1
18. Rd1 Ne4

eh? i think Bb2 still has some problems, eventually we would want to move the knight over to block the diagonal i think, and move the queen to d5 and sort of clog up the whole middle, attacking his pawns.

[NajdorfDefense]

[ QUOTE ]
16...Re8 looks compelling.

[/ QUOTE ]

Re8 followed by Rc8 is probably best, get on those open and half-open files with our heavy artillery. If he defends with Qf3, then Qe7 adds to the pressure.

[StregaChess]

[ QUOTE ]
(after 16...Re8)

I think we can still play Qe7 there (Bg5 Qxe2 Bxf6 Qxf3+), or maybe Ne4.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's the line I had concerns with, Qxf3.
Two pawn islands vs four, ouch... could be bad.
However rook endings at tricky, my gut is that we might be OK but white's rooks are going to more active!?

[Stephen H]

Well, looks like all I missed were the fairly forced moves earlier. Unfortunately, I too have no idea how to play this stage of a chess game.
What happens after
16 ... d4
17 Qf3 Qd5

Does trading queens work out for white, with 18 Qxd5 Nxd5 19 Rd1 Rce8 (or Rae8, I'm not sure which is better), or does he put a rook on us with 18 Rd1 Qxf3 19 Kxf3 Rad8, or does something else happen? That second line seems like 20 Bb2 has us lose the pawn. I'm not sure if we have alternatives.

[aaronk56]

I'm a fan of d4 here but like some other people here this is the point of the game where I usually do something stupid and lose. Anyway I'm thinking:
16...d4
17. Qf3 Re8
18. Rd1 Nd5

[TimM]

xorbie:

[ QUOTE ]
16...d4
17. Qf3 Re1
18. Rd1 Ne4

[/ QUOTE ]

19.Bb2 is bad (19...Ng5!) but he has 19.Be3 winning our d-pawn because of the pin against our queen.

Strega:

[ QUOTE ]
Two pawn islands vs four, ouch... could be bad.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah but one of our islands is a passed extra pawn that will be hard to win back. And we have alternatives too.

Stephen H:

[ QUOTE ]
What happens after
16 ... d4
17 Qf3 Qd5

[/ QUOTE ]

Both of those lines after 18.Qxd5 and 18.Rd1 look good for white. Our d-pawn is very weak. If we do play d4 it needs to give us something very quickly or we will just lose that pawn. If we can't get his queen off that f3 square shielding the king it's hard to do anything that's worth the loss of this pawn. He just has to watch out for Ne4-g5 but that's not hard to prevent.

aaronk56:

[ QUOTE ]
16...d4
17. Qf3 Re8
18. Rd1 Nd5

[/ QUOTE ]

19.Rxd4

[The Yugoslavian]

curtains,

How long are you spending generally to go over each move so far?

Yugoslav

[grando]

I vote Re8

[aaronk56]

I still favor d4. Can we get a poll started?

[Stephen H]

The more I play around with d4, the worse it seems. At best I think we lose the pawn - that's not very good.
I've basically convinced myself that Re8 is the way to go, although Rc8 seems fine too.