With his main goals achieved (castling, Bg2's defence, freeing his dsb, reinforcing the centre), white is not really free to play, but at least has a decent position. A plan could be to use black's pawns as a self-defence, playing f4!? and trying a kingside attack while holding the centre. Not sure.

Confirmed. 11...d6 is the most played move here.

Many thanks!

i had also looked at 11...Re8.But getting rid of that potential pin (like Charles says) was the deciding factor. Sonata's comment is correct.11...d6 may very well be the best move.

What if white plays e5 ? The N has to jump (Nxd4), and the exchanges go Nf3xNd5, e6xNd5, Bxd5, BxB, QxB, Nc6, after which white can munch black's pawns almost at his will, or forcing black to play Bb6, blinding it while c4 is occupied. In sight of this, d6 would make Nc6 impossible (at the end of the shown line), so I think h6 is wiser, at least for one aspect.

12.Be3 or even 12.Bf4 may have been better.I had no intention of taking on c3.

f4 is not so crazy if we consider that white can leave the two black's pawn where they are (using both N for that), and black wouldn't be able to take advantage of the open black squares diagonal because of c6, that blocks his B.

this is an 'error' i believe. Opening the c6 square for Blacks Knight, and opening the diagonal for blacks Bishop is worth more then a pawn.The c5 and c4 pawns are worthless. Diagonals, files,and certain squares for her pieces are What white seeks.

It should be said that the c5 and c4 pawns are not so much worthless - they really are putting a crimp on White's Q-side - but are what you'd call... expendable. 13.d6 is an attractive looking move, but before playing it, I would have been very concerned about freeing the light squares on Black's Q-side. I was supposing that White was a bit worried about the possible opening the e-file, but he doesn't mention that. It has to be admitted, though, the tension at d5 suits Black far more than it does White.

The problem with this move, IMO, is it makes almost useless Rb1. It headed for a hard break (b4), trying to exploit Bb7 is defenceless right now. Qa4 could be considered, to add pressure to black's field (being d5 still in place)... a potentially good plan. But d6 is heading to a completely different line of attack, that could have benefitted from a move different than Rb1. Maybe f3, or f4, not Bf4 because of e5 but Nf4, and if e5, Nd5 or Nh5 are possible.

Black just about has a mortgage on the Q-side territory as far south as the 3-rank.

This could be partially fought with f4(xe5, Rxe5, Bf4...)

...trying to open the kingside, that is black's weakest side, activating your R on the f file...

Perhaps 15.Na5 was a little more consistent.

Optically this looks pretty good for White: what a centre! And yet there is an air fragility to the whole thing. The e-pawn is attacked by 3 Black pieces, and has not a single friend to help. Awww....

while 16...Ng4 is decent. 16...Rxe5 may have been better.

Mind you, Black's knights are looking pretty lively - prancing about all over the place.

Fascinating position - the hallmark of a real stand-up fight.

this what i meant by 'balcony' .

Threatening 21.Ne7ch, presumably?

This is a Master move by White. I realized a few moments ago (but not during the game) that by this move White, just about equalizes the position for.