Yes, thanks - that was the model game I looked at! But with c3 - instead of Rb1 after Qxb2, he should have played Qf3

Dear all

As a very infrequent visitor to these shores, I apologise if this is covered in one of the threads - I could not see it.

I have been preparing 4P lines and have come across what seems a petering out of the nice e5 e6 d6 line a solid pawn down:

1. d4 Nf6 2c4 g6 3Nc3 d6 4e4 Bg7 (move order irrelevant here) 5f4 0-0 6 Nf3 c5 7d5 e6 8Be2 exd 9cxd Re8 10 *e5 dxe 11 fxe Ng4 12 *e6 fxe 13 *d6

The main follow up is ...Bd7 14 0-0 and then Qb6 15 *Ne4 Be6 16*Nfg5. A few games had c4+ 17Kh1 and then c3 giving White a winning game according to Fritz (+3.5) after 18Bxg4 cxb2 19Bxb2 Qxb2 20 Qf3! Also 17 Ne3 is nice for White.

The lines with Bxe4 are also good for White.

But according to Fritz, after 16...c4+ 17.Kh1, Ne5 is -1.1 or so, and does not get much better for White than -0.8 after 10 best moves. There are no games with this simple Ne5 manoeuvre after c4+ in Chessbase.

...Ne5 here seems very natural. I am not sure I would volunteer for this pawn down position as White after ...Ne5. Help (and encouragement) most welcome!