I have always found this opening aesthetically pleasing. Unfortunately my results with it have never been very good, so I no longer play it.

Nothing can be argued here, but I will regret the dsb's imprisonement as white.

@jkarp if 4.e4?? simply Nxe4 and the Nc3 can't recapture as it is pinned.

Joe might have been thinking of the King's Indian Defence. Other moves that have been tried here are 4.Nf3, 4.Qc2, 4.Qb3 and 4.a3. The last of these featured more than once in the Botvinnik-Tal Match of 1960.

See my previous reply.

Very similar to your other game (if I remind well), where you played as black the symmetrical c6. By controlling g4 and e4, white has a huge space advantage.

A known pattern. Black now can reopen the diag for his lsb by dxc4, Bxc4, but this is of no use right now, because g2 is covered by the clever f3.

My next comment may point to the need of c5 here instead by black.

Very interesting! BxN is the common following, hoping in scramble a little white pawns, creating a weak point in a3 and c3. But here, after Nxc3, white is simply ok. This may indicate that the Black's dsb situation must have been handled sooner by black, playing at once 7... BxNc3, or 7... c5, trying to react. If 7... c5, 8. a3 (say), cxd4, and then white has to choose among Nxd4 or axB, followed by cxNc3, and there the pressure is somewhat released on black, if he manages to exchange Q. I'm not able to assess all the possible lines from there.

Following your own comment, b4 might have been good here...

I did consider b4, but decided to play for e3-e4 instead. As it happens b2-b4 is played later too!

So do I. Looks hard to meet.

I fear these kind of situations... there are so many lines! On an "institctive" basis, I would have not opened the white diag without a very concrete plan. But white seems strong enough to cope with all, having got into the field his dsb.

I would have taken on c4 I think.

Maybe dxc4 was more in the spirit of keeping free the white diagonal, making difficult for white to exchange Blsb, and kind of blocking f3 where it is.