English Rat Defense: Clawing back

Last night while sitting at home I heard a minor commotion outside my bedroom window like a neighbor was frantically clearing out storage. When I left the house in the morning there was a package of sliced turkey on the stairs. A cat must have been struggling to tear it open and get at the meat inside. I debated if I should bother throwing the package out or leave it for the cats, ultimately deciding on the latter. On the way to work, however, it occurred to me the meat might attract sewer rats.

In this morning's Blitz game Lichess matched me against one arcolombo698, rated 1665 out of the U.S. Lichess classifies the opening he played against me as the Rat Defense: English Variation. Unfamiliar as it was to me, I couldn't tell if opponent knew what he was doing or was trolling. He knew what he was doing -- but that is the kind of opening the Rat is. When Black loses castling rights on move four, White can't help feeling he's gained an advantage, and that makes the inevitably ensuing feeling of being positionally stuck all the more frustrating.

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Position 1: White to move

Assigned the white pieces I opened 1.d4 and after 1...d6 continued 2.c4. Black pushed 2...e5, and this was officially the English Rat. I exchanged pawns and queens with 3.dxe5 dxe5 4.Qxd8+ Kxd8. With Black having lost castling rights and me being a move ahead, one would think the eval bar would favor my position -- but no, and after 5.Nf3 I was down to -0.2. It turns out the engine wanted 2.Nf3. Black defended e5 with 5...f6, and I continued 6.Nc3. Black pushed 6...c6, and I pushed 7.e4. Black and I developed with 7...Be6 8.Be3, and Black correctly played 8...Kc7. With Black's king awkwardly positioned on the queenside, a pawn storm there seemed like a sensible plan. The engine disagreed and 9.a4 increased Black's advantage from -0.2 to -0.9.

It got worse, though. Black correctly replied 9...a5, I developed my bish with 10.Be2 to prep kingside castles, and after 10...Nd7 and 11.0-0 Black's advantage grew to -1.7. What the engine wanted was 11.0-0-0, which seems absurd given how porous the queenside was and how safe the king looked on g1, but Google Gemini explains that with the queens off the board king activity was a higher priority than king safety and queenside castles had the advantage of immediately positioning a rook on the d-file. Black developed with 11...Nh6, I correctly centralized a rook with 12.Rfd1, and when Black developed his bish with 12...Be7 the eval bar swung from -1.5 to +0.5 because of a tactic involving the square Black developed his bish to. I missed the tactic with 13.Rd2, and the eval bar returned to -1.6.

1. Why did I choose the move 13.Rd2?
The d-file was open, and stacking rooks on it seemed like a natural positional plan.

2. Why is my move not ideal?
Black was gearing up for a major invasion of his minor pieces -- a knight to g4, the other knight to b3 and a bish to c5. The pressure on my position would be overwhelming and that was where my attention needed to be focused.

3. Why is the better move better than my chosen move?
My move overlooked a tactic, beginning with 13.Nd5+. Since it's a fork on Black's bish, Black can either retreat the king with 13...Kd8 to defend or chop with 13...cxd5. If the king retreats, 14.Nb6 attacks the rook, and after 14...Rb8 White can exchange with 15.Rxd7 Bxd7 and pin-it-to-win-it with 16.Rd1. If Black chops, then 14.cxd5 attacks the bish and 15.d6+ Bxd6 is followed by 16.Rac1+ winning the bish.

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Position 2: White to move

Black infiltrated with 13...Ng4, and after I stacked on the d-file with 14.Rad1 he chopped my bish with 14...Nxe3. Rechopping with 15.fxe3 left me with doubled iso e-pawns, four pawn islands and an eval of -3.4. 15...Bc5 attacked e3, and 16.Kf2 defended. Black expanded on the kingside with 16...h5, and 17.Nh4 invited 17...g5. 18.Nf5 invited 18...Bxf5 19.exf5, but Black advanced with 18...g4. I correctly attacked Black's bish with 19.Ng7, and after 19...Nf8 I correctly exchanged with 20.Nxe6+ Nxe6. After 21.Rd7+ material was equal and I had achieved a rook on the seventh. Surely this was worth something? No, the engine still evaluated me at -2.1.

Black moved his king to safety with 21...Kb6, and after 22.g3 the engine dipped down to -3.2. Black shifted his attention to the kingside with 22...Rag8, and I prepped to double rooks on the seventh with 23.Rf7. Black split his rooks with 23...Rg6, and I doubled mine with 24.Rdd7. Black defended b7 with 24...Rb8, and I attacked h5 with 25.Rh7. Black forked with 25...Nf8, but I parried with 26.Rdg7. Black exchanged with 26...Rxg7 27.Rxg7 and attacked my remaining rook with 27...Ne6, and I attacked h5 again with 28.Rh7. Black attacked my rook with 28...Ng5, but this allowed 29.Rxh5. Black checked with 29...Nh3+, but this was a blunder and the eval bar shifted to +0.7. My 30.Ke1 was not the best move, however, and it reset the eval bar to 0.0.

1. Why did I choose the move 30.Ke1?
It's possible I overlooked my threat of 31.Bxg4. There were three square available for my king, and I didn't perceive there to be an inherent advantage of one over the other.

2. Why is my move not ideal?
I think that on e1 my king was inviting a fork with ...Rb8-d8 and ...Be3-d2. Gemini believes that e1 was too passive a square for the king as it needed to be active vis-a-vis my kingside pawn advance.

3. Why is the better move better than my chosen move?
30.Kg2 was the Fish's top move, pressuring Black's h3-knight and limiting its escape squares.