game

Instead, 6.Ngf3 is the Colle System.

Black should play Bd6 first. Then caturing on d4 will force a recapture with the c-pawn, which allows Nb4.

Neat. White must not allow the c3 pawn to be removed from that square.

There is a third reason: taking with the c-pawn would leave the e-pawn backward and vulnerable - and hard to push forward. In short, taking with the e-pawn gives White an easier life.

Aout here White should I think be looking to active counter-measures. A possible plan is to advance the Q-side pawns preparatory to a minority attack on that flank (...a6; ...b5 etc). I feel very uneasy about Black's exchanging minor pieces on e5 - White will get the ideal pawn formation he looks for in this opening.

I play a lot this kind of positions, and my play is based on the tension I create by having the knight there - just having it there. Without the c pawn, black has to be very creative in order to find countergame. As black, I would have thought on plans like b5, b4. This is why black castled, right?

In my view this dates the downhill turn of Black's game. Up to here she has been well in it, but this exchange leaves White's bishop raking the the king-side.

Castling a rook straight onto an open file. White has a dream game right now. What resources does Black have to add a nightmarish quality to the vision?

I reckon this is as good as anything else she might have tried. White has an imposing centre: Black strikes at it.

Not what you'd call subtle! Instead, 13.Nb3 looks pretty good. Both bishops would then be in action, and the c5-square might turn out useful for the knight as well. The text is OK, though.

I think that if she were going to play this, she might as well have saved herself a tempo and played it a move earlier. 13.exf6e.p. would have been just as welcome as 13.exf6 in the circumstances. Quite playable is 13...g6, keeping alive the chance to take on e5. A possible line runs: 13...g6 14.Qh6 Qg7 15.Qxg7 Kxg7 16.Nb3 f5 with a reasonable game for Black.

Black looks to be insisting on Q exchanges. To stay in the game she will have to undertake a gruelling defence - not impossible yet, but difficult given the lack of space to work with.

Never in this world would I play such a move - I would be reluctant to play ...h6 even. The key to defence when faced with a direct attack against the castled King is to leave his protective pawns strictly alone. There will come a time when you will have to move them not to incur worse, but it's best (broadly speaking) to make White work for it - like pulling teeth. Possibly Black should be thinking about mobilizing her Q-side. White still has work to do fully to mobilize his attack.

That g5-square was a big concession by Black.

Black hoped maybe for g4, and the queen's exchange with a pawn more on the spot.

Very smart idea, and difficult to spot at because you abandon a wonderful pin. But g4 was not the right path to win.

But 20.Nf7 is good. But another idea is 20.b3, and 21.Ba3, striking at the rook on f8.

And this is very good as well. It is a measure of how firmly the advantage lies in White's hands that three such disparate plans can all be good.