Read Pawn Structure Chess. Just kidding! (Kind of). I think that you're freaking out a little bit, but blaming the opening for the result of this game is entirely misguided. You should probably study "positional play" and "dynamic play," judging only from this one game. You got an excellent position out of the opening, with a very large lead in development. I might have played 10.g4, 10.h4, or just 10.Kb1!?; in essence you want to open lines when ahead in development, right? Sometimes chess is an easy game...except that there's no easy way to open lines just yet. So you gain space, play flexibly, and see how Black proceeds. The last thing I'd think about is closing lines with 10.d5 e5--though admittedly this isn't so bad right now, as Black has weakened his queenside squares tremendously. You still had a very large positional advantage after that move (now is the time to turn to Pawn Structure Chess); it's similar to a King's Indian or Old Indian Defense. On move 15 there was no reason to close lines, though--why did you play 15.g5? The move makes sense if you have some kind of piece-for-two-pawns followup sac on h5 to attack the king, but you don't. You can continue maneuvering slowly with 15.Kb1, 16.Ne2 (intending to go to g3 and preparing to gain more space with c2-c4 at some point). You're clearly better. In fact, one move I'd seriously consider, since you've already closed the center, is 15.h5!?. Now if 15...g5 Black has about the worst dark-squared bishop possible and his f5-square is weak (in fact, ALL of his light squares are weak). You can then proceed with the Ne2-g3 maneuver, Kc1-b1 and possibly a1, c2-c4, Put your rooks on the b and c-files, and eventually break through on the queenside. It's just a King's Indian gone irrevocably wrong, and I think that White's strategically winning after 15.h5 g5. By the way, I'm surprised that on move 14 you say "I'm surprised that I couldn't find a way to a clear advantage." You have a clear advantage, and it's quite large; that comment is very telling to me. Study some King's Indian-type structures and you'll see that Black has absolutely zero counterplay in your game, while you can build up, gain space, and break through at your leisure. Honestly, to me it looks like you're pretty much "strategically winning." Those kinds of positions are the reason I play 1.d4. So...maybe read Pawn Structure Chess and Dynamic Chess Strategy? Me recommending Soltis' book has become almost a running joke on this forum, but games like this are exactly the reason I recommend it.
|