English Opening: Jeruchess OTB

Our weekly chess club has one Sunday remaining before the summer break, and earlier today I asked that some of this evening's class be devoted to ways of dealing with the English Opening from Black's perspective. I don't face the English often, but when I do I defend poorly against it.

In this evening's game I played a 10+10 against Liron Aviv and tried the English for the first time as White. Liron has a penchant for sharp, tactical games and usually gets the better of me, regardless of the time control -- but all our games are wild in their eval swings and instructive. After a quiet start, a miscalculation on Liron's part led to my gaining an advantage in the middlegame, which grew to +4.3 on move 26, but on move 29 I blundered into a knight fork-check and shortly thereafter lost on time.

Position 1: White to play

Assigned the White pieces I opened 1.c4, and Black replied as I would have with 1...e5. We developed knights with 2.Nc3 Nf6. I prepped a fianchetto with 3.g3, and Black offered a pawn trade with 3...d5. Had I first developed 3.Nf3, Black's best reply would have been 3...Nc6; in the game, the engine wanted 3...Bb4. I chopped with 4.cxd5 and after 4...Nxc5 fianchettoed with 5.Bg2. Black defended his knight with 5...c6, and I prepped castles with 6.Nf3.

Black defended his e-pawn with 6...Bd6, and here I pushed 7.d4 -- but since it was a casual game what I annotated in my notebook was "7.d4 (0-0?)," and indeed castles would have been better, albeit only slightly. Black moved his bish again to pin my knight with 7...Bc4, and I defended with 8.Qd3. Black chopped with 8...exd4, and I rechopped with 9.Qxd4. In my notebook I recorded, "9.Qxd4 (Qe4+?)," but an intermezzo check with the queen would have been a blunder. Black offered a queen trade, which I accepted, and after 9...Qf6 10.Qxf6 Nxf6 I continued 11.Bd2 because I didn't like Black's threat of 11...Bxc3 12.bxc3 leaving me with two iso pawns. Black developed 11...Bf5, and I castled with 12.0-0. The eval bar, at +0.4, surged to +2.3 after Black developed 12...Nbd7 but returned to +0.3 when I continued 13.Nd4.

1. Why did I choose the move 13.Nd4?
14.Nd4 pushed Black's bish back to g6, reducing its scope, and opened up the diag for my light-square bish.

2. Why is my move not ideal?
There was nothing positionally weakening about 13.Nd4, but it missed a tactic.

3. Why is the better move better than my chosen move?
The engine found 13.Nb5, threatening 14.Nc7+ and 14.Bxb4. If Black were to chop my knight with 13...cxb5, my bish would chop with 14.Bxb4 and Black's queenside pawn majority would be useless because of his doubled b-pawn. If Black were to chop my bish with 13...Bxd2, I would check with 14.Nc7+, attacking Black's light-square bish and the pawn on b7, and after 14...Kf8 and 15.Nxd2 I could chop on b7 and leave Black with two iso pawns.

Actionable takeaway: I need to consider the squares my knight can land on from which it can give a check the next move.

Position 2: White to move

Black retreated his bish with 13...Bg6, and 14.Rfe1 lined my rook up with Black's king. Black castled with 14...0-0, and I attacked his dark-square bish with 15.a3. Black rocked his bish back with 15...Ba5, and I activated my corner rook with 16.Rad1. Black copied with 16...Rad8, and I continued my pursuit of Black's dark-square bish with 17.b4, prompting 17...Bb6 and 18.Nf3.

Black slid a rook to his semiopen e-file with 18...Rfe8, and I pursuit Black's bish yet again with 19.Na4. Black thought 19...Bc2 won him material, but 20.Nxb6 Bxd1 21.Nxd7 Rxd7 22.Rxd1 left me a point of material up. However, Black's pressure on d3 with 22...Red8 forced 23.Kf1, and the added pressure of 23...Ne4 forced 24.Ke1. Black relieved pressure with 24...Nc3, allowing 25.Rc1, and 25...Na4 gave me a +4.3 advantage. As coach Alon Cohen pointed out, this was my chance to remove my imperiled bish from danger. That was my idea with 26.e3, but there was a better way.

1. Why did I choose the move 26.e3?
My plan was to land my knight on d4, thereby neutralizing the effect of Black's doubled rooks on the d-file.

2. Why is my move not ideal?
26.e3 restricted my bish, leaving c3 as its only available square to move to.

3. Why is the better move better than my chosen move?
The engine's top move was 26.Be3, improving rather than restricting my light-square bish while keeping my pieces safe, active and coordinated.

Position 3: White to move

After Black's 26...Nb6 I anticipated his next move and returned my rook to its defensive assignment with 27.Rd1, but what I should have done was continued with my plan of 27.Nd4. Black forked my bish and a-pawn with 27...Nc4, and now 28.Nd4 was too late and Black chopped with 28...Nxa3. My advantage was still +2.9, but it flipped to -2.9 when I attacked Black's knight with 29.Ra1.

1. Why did I choose the move 29.Ra1?
My idea was to pin Black's knight to his pawn on a7.

2. Why is my move not ideal?
I overlooked that Black could sac the exchange with 29...Rxd4 and after 30.exd4 fork with 30...Nc2+ and win my rook.

3. Why is the better move better than my chosen move?
The engine's top move was 29.Bf3, where my rook and three minors are still better than Black's two rooks and one minor.