White (2207)
Me (2130)

I reached this position with black and accepted a draw with black to move as the position is fairly stale looking. I'm just curious if anyone thinks this may be a slight slight advantage to me, equal, or a slight advantage to white? I evaluated it as a little better for me, but couldn't find a very good plan. Crashing through with ...d4 for example seemed to lead to favorable trades for white in most lines, and it is difficult to find a way to improve my position. This position arose from the super bland London System.

Any thoughts would be appreciated, thanks guys.

Well, I'm no 2200, but I personally like black better. Bishop is way more active, 2 rooks are actually doing something, and that third rook (was it there in the game??) can come into play in an endgame.

Yea, without the extra rook it does look a bit drawish, and it's the type of position where ONE blunder will surely throw the game, so it's hard not to take the draw. However, I may have plunged in and fought on a bit lol.

Interesting position...

Actually, I came back to this thread and the extra rook disapeared hehehe....my bad . I could put this position into Shredder or another prog to see what it thinks if you want...

Haha, sorry. I think I have the board fixed right now.

Psychologically, it was probably the right choice to take the draw as this guy had beaten me twice in drawish positions (pretty badly blown games on my part), but I'm still interested in this position as it seems I might reach this position often playing against the London System.

I'm not sure
but I think black is better and white have a very cramped position
maybe you should attack kingside where he defends then you do your job in the center
If it were my game I would do that as I don't like drawing

sorry but i think white has a slight advantage here, he might be cramped a little but there is no obvious weakness at the moment in his position, but black has an obvious d5 pawn that is easy to pressure by white, it does not necessary mean that white can win that pawn, but the pressure that white can put on that pawn, will make black's position unpleasant, and from there, white can slowly build up his initiative and could breakthrough black's position.

the plan for black of breaking through with f5, f4 and controlling the e file with his rooks, is hard to achieve because of the pressure against his d5 pawn

OK
Give me your best move for white
(or it was black to play?)
----------------------------------
Note;plz don't use engines

Right, it's tough to break through because of that pressure on the d5 pawn. During the game I was thinking that it would be tough to break through and keep that d-pawn defended. I think at worst I should be equal if I just sit there and defend the d-pawn as white doesn't have enough space to attack it properly.

I don’t see any way of seriously playing for an advantage for either side. The first move that comes to mind is …d4 but I don’t see that it leads anywhere. I can’t find any way for Black to improve the position of his pieces enough to make the advance …d4 effective. As for White his pieces seem to be placed about as good as they can be but there appears to be no effective break for him either. A draw seems reasonable to me.

There are some other ideas for Black, although everything entails a lot of risk. Taking the draw was perfectly reasonable.

Options:
1. Maneuver the Ba6 to e4, ensuring that it is possible to recapture with the d pawn and dominate the d file. Difficult.
2. Bring the queen to g6 and play the h and g pawns forward to h5 and g4.
3. Play ...d5-d4 and see if your opponent can lose a dead drawn ending.

Hi Abba,

Here is a winning line that I found. (Crafty couldn't see it.)

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "?"]
[Round "-"]
[White "?"]
[Black "?"]
[Result "*"]
[FEN "3r2k1/p3qp1p/bp4p1/2ppr3/8/P1P1PB2/1P1Q1PPP/2R1R1K1 b - - 0 1"]
[SetUp "1"]

{--------------
. . . r . . k .
p . . . q p . p
b p . . . . p .
. . p p r . . .
. . . . . . . .
P . P . P B . .
. P . Q . P P P
. . R . R . K .
black to play
--------------}
1... d4 2. exd4 cxd4 3. Rxe5 Qxe5 4. Re1 Qf6 5. cxd4 Rxd4 6. Re8+ Kg7 7.
Qe1 Bb5 8. Re5 Bc6 9. Qe3 Qd6 10. Be2 Rd2 11. b4 Qd4 12. Qxd4 Rxd4 13. g3
Rd2 14. f4 Kf6 15. h4 Ra2 16. Re3 a5 17. bxa5 bxa5 18. Kf1 a4 19. Bc4 Rc2
20. Be2 h6 21. g4 Bd5 22. Kf2 Bb3 23. Kg3 Rc1 24. Bb5 Rg1+ 25. Kh3 Kg7 26.
Bd7 Rd1 27. Bc6 Ra1 28. Kg3 Rg1+ 29. Kh3 Be6 30. Bxa4 Bxg4+ 31. Kh2 Rf1 32.
Kg3 Bc8 33. Bc6 Rg1+ 34. Kf3 Rh1 35. Bd5 Rh3+ 36. Ke4 Bf5+ 37. Kd4 Rxh4 38.
Re7 Be6 39. Bxe6 Kf6 40. Rxf7+ Kxe6 41. Rf8 Ke7 42. Rh8 Rxf4+ 43. Ke3 Rh4
44. a4 Rxa4 45. Rxh6 Kf6 46. Rh7 Kf5 47. Rf7+ Kg4 48. Rf8 g5 49. Rg8 Ra1
50. Rb8 Kh3 51. Rh8+ Kg3 52. Ke4 g4 53. Rc8 Kh3 54. Rg8 g3 55. Kf4 Rf1+ 56.
Ke3 g2 57. Rh8+ Kg3 58. Rg8+ Kh2 59. Rh8+ Kg1 60. Ke2 Rf5 61. Rg8 Rh5 62.
Kf3 Rh2 63. Ke4 Kh1 64. Ke5 g1=Q 65. Rxg1+ Kxg1
*

That was fun, Thanks...