This game seemed fairly even, not exactly uneventful but nothing in it eiter way, when suddenly it blew up into a tactical melee. In the complications that followed I don't think either of us played optimally, but it was sure exciting to play!

I have always rather preferred the Exchange Variation as offering an interesting positional clash between White's centre, and Black's undermining counterattacks.

The very first time I faced the Grunfeld (back in 1973), I played this very move, but only because I thought 7.Bc4 would be criticised by the more knowledgeable. The pin after ...Bg4 became annoying, I flubbed a pawn, and barely managed to scramble a draw with an attack by the heavy pieces down the h-file. The wheel turns full circle, and I play Nf3 once more...

In some lines of the Grunfeld there is an 'Exchange sac' line that follows upon pawn exchanges on d4, followed by d4-d5. I thought I would duck that idea.

That exchange sac (white giving up the rook on a1 in return for the black bishop on g7) is more in lines where white plays Bf1-c4 and Ng1-e2.

Rooks.

I thought the central position and active pieces well worth the flank pawn. That Black gets two co-joined passed pawns on the extreme flank IS a consideration, of course. So White can't afford to faff around.

Not to say the a- and b-pawns!

Yeah. This pawn sacrifice is well known but if an ending occurs black has connected outside passed pawns, which should be decisive in even most materially equal endings.

I've played this with mixed results OTB. A GM crushed my endgame with black because I foolishly gave him the pawn advantage without getting a definitive attack in as a response.

I am not really a Grunfeld player and rarely start with d4 so I don't see these lines. I am curious how these games tend to go if white accepts the pawn here and also puts the rook on the 7th rank with pressure against the e pawn. Seems interesting but there may be a real tactical refutation that I am unaware of.

I think that Rxb7 does come seriously into consideration, and I know I came close to playing it at some point - it might have been here - but opted for something else.

One of the marks of the 2000+ players is this: even though those obvious moves exist on the board, the ability to look deeper into the position and see a bit more than a typical class A player.

This move came as no surprise. I had a bit of an eye on the databases (the Gameknot ones) myself.

Big, big decision, here. I near as a toucher played 14.h3 and 14.d5!? also came into consideration. I don't much like advancing the d-pawn just yet, which seems to yield to Black control of the dark long diagonal. I was soon to change my mind though...

Again I am interested in the idea of Rxb7 with a potential Rxe7 with lots of central pressure. Probably I am just hurrying the position as white if I do that but it does seem interesting to me. White seems to have lots of reasonable options to choose from and wonder if that means black has done something slightly wrong in the opening. The databases I use seem to think black is still reasonable but it does seem easier to play white here.

The problem with a move like Rxb7, is I would ask where is the follow through? How does white maintain the initiative here?

If Black wanted to induce the d-pawn to advance, he succeeded!

During the game I had a vague feeling that this was going to turn out OK. My very first thought was to wonder about the exchange sac with the hope of exploiting subsequently the weakened dark squares on the K-side. But, apart from the vague thought, it was a while before I came to examine the idea in more depth...

On the one hand this move jumps out as reasonable but the pressure that black has with that lovely bishop on g7, even protecting the queening square on a1 just seems like it is worth more than the rook that is mostly just protecting the e4 pawn. Na6 seems fine, but I might even consider a5 or something and ask white what their long term plan is for breaking down the position.

The added benefit of playing here vs OTB: more time to review tough positions! Here's one I would have stopped took some time away and made my next move. Certainly a bold call by black and now white has an interesting decision to make.