An alternative that might have been of interest to Black is 6...Bg4, threatening - for what it might be worth - 7...Nd4. White might well hit the Bishop with 7.h3, when Black has to decide whether to retreat the bishop, hoping that if 7...Bh5 8.g4 Bg6 will leave white's K-side vulnerable, or to capture: 7...Bxf3 8.Qxf3 Nd4 9.Qd1. Having said all that, it is by no means clear that White would be so very much incommoded if he does allow 7...Nd4 and the consequent doubling of pawns on the f-file. Occasionally the open file proves more an asset to White than the shattered K-side a liability. The jury is still out on this one, for mine.

Not sure about this. It seems to devalue White's bishop, though he is in a position to exchange them if Black's bishop retreats to d7, say. But what if Black were to play 13...Nxb3 here? 14.cxb3 Bd7 leaves a position hard to assess. Both Black's rook-pawns are isolated, the a-pawn on an open file at that, but White's b-pawn is backward and also trailing loose at the end of an open file. White has knight for bishop in a fairly closed pawn position, but Black has retained his "good" bishop to cover the central light squares. Perhaps we could call the position even - for a given value of "even".

Not really a pin. I like 15...Nd4 here for Black...

Another idea is 17.Ke7, envisaging a quick transfer of Q or R to the K-side. Castling is out of the question for a long time to come - probably for good, and the K seems safe enough on e7 for the moment. Black will have, however, to watch out for rooks doubling on the a-file to take on a7 and attack along the 7th rank.

This would probably be White's response to 17...Ke7 as well...