Move 30
 

We seem depressingly paralysed now. As far as I can see, moving the bishop off the long diagonal with 30.Bxb5 is out of the question because of 30...Be4. Attempting to activate the queen with 30.Qh4 runs into 30...Re2+ 31.Kg1 Rd1+, or 31.Kf1 Bd3. But on the plus side I don't see what they are immediately threatening if we just leave our queen, knight and bishop where they are, so perhaps we can simply play the quiet move 30.a4 nibbling at the queenside and wait to see what they do?

Any other suggestions?

Perhaps 30.a4 is answered by 30...bxa4 and we've simply jettisoned a pawn and must look for another waiting move. Their queenside pawn structure is spoiled but we're not in any position to exploit that as things stand at the moment.

So maybe 30.a3 is better, so that this pawn is at least out of reach of a rook if they play ...Rd8-d1-a1.

Another possibility is 30.h3. This lets a rook in on g3 if we later move our knight and the pawn is itself vulnerable on h3, but on the plus side it takes g4 away from their white-squared bishop and it gives our king an extra square on h2 which can be used to get out of the potential pin on the long white squared diagonal if we allow them to play ...Be4 later.

Or 30.h4.

We are running out of moves, that's for sure. I think we should keep the h pawn in place for a while longer, so my move would be a3, marking time.

[QUOTE=richs;341816]We are running out of moves, that's for sure. I think we should keep the h pawn in place for a while longer, so my move would be a3, marking time.[/QUOTE]
Yes, I think I agree with you. 30.a3 also hinders them advancing their b pawn to b4. The only technical drawback to 30.a3 is the ceding of the b3 square but that's not an important square for them and we're probably not going to be able to consider playing the move b3 anymore with their pressure on c3.

After 30.a3 they can of course just torture us with a waiting move of their own such as 30...a6, forcing us to find another way to wait and do nothing. But I don't think they can quite put us in "zugzwang" because our bishop should be able to shuffle between c6, b7, a8, d5, whichever squares are not attacked. So the onus is on them to find a way to proceed without letting our queen into their position.

All my exams will be over in 3 hours so I will be able to look at this then.

I think I agree with a3. There really isn't much we can do right now.

[QUOTE=henryzz;342227]I think I agree with a3. There really isn't much we can do right now.[/QUOTE]
Hi David, I Hope you're having a good rest now after all the exam stress.

Now that you've been able to look at the position, it seems you agree with Rich and me. I don't have anything else to add, in any case.

Looks like we all agree. I will post.