09-03-2012, 04:51 PM
Well, you've been spot on in predicting both players' moves so far David. (Though if Black had replied to 9.Nh3 by taking it I'd have asked him some pretty searching questions about how exactly he had bypassed the knight on e6!)
Judging by Clement's last post, we may be in for something of a hiatus here (and even if we're not both players seem pretty sure that the next move is going to see a lot of castling, so one more move before the weekend break won't make much of a difference to how people think about the position), so it seems a reasonable time to post some general thoughts on the position.
It's an English, so we're still a decent bit away from any particularly concrete tactics breaking out, but both sides have some interesting ideas. Clement's presumably going to realise that the ...f5 break isn't an immediate priority for Andrew, and will be starting to think about how he can make progress. Both sides would quite like to advance their d-pawns (Clement relatively immediately, Andrew after preparing it with ...c5) but will be aware that that will weaken their e-pawns. If d4 can't be advantageously achieved relatively quickly, then as White in this position I'd be quite tempted to expand on the queenside with b4 at some stage. I might follow that with Bb2, given that the black knight's access to g4 renders e3 a less-than-secure perch.
Not really sure about any of this though. I'm not really at home in any position where bishop sacrifices on h7 (or at least a thuggish h-pawn lunge) aren't feasible, so I'd be interested in hearing others' takes on what's going on here.
Judging by Clement's last post, we may be in for something of a hiatus here (and even if we're not both players seem pretty sure that the next move is going to see a lot of castling, so one more move before the weekend break won't make much of a difference to how people think about the position), so it seems a reasonable time to post some general thoughts on the position.
It's an English, so we're still a decent bit away from any particularly concrete tactics breaking out, but both sides have some interesting ideas. Clement's presumably going to realise that the ...f5 break isn't an immediate priority for Andrew, and will be starting to think about how he can make progress. Both sides would quite like to advance their d-pawns (Clement relatively immediately, Andrew after preparing it with ...c5) but will be aware that that will weaken their e-pawns. If d4 can't be advantageously achieved relatively quickly, then as White in this position I'd be quite tempted to expand on the queenside with b4 at some stage. I might follow that with Bb2, given that the black knight's access to g4 renders e3 a less-than-secure perch.
Not really sure about any of this though. I'm not really at home in any position where bishop sacrifices on h7 (or at least a thuggish h-pawn lunge) aren't feasible, so I'd be interested in hearing others' takes on what's going on here.