Colle Opening : Opponent Mirror

Hello everyone

I just wanted to try the Colle a couple times and ran into someone that literally mirrored my moves until I eventually blundered... I could not figure out how to take advantage of someone doing that until it was too late.  Please let me know how I could have broke up the game to my advantage.

I played as white:

1.d4 d5 2.nf3 nf6 3.e3 e6 4. Bd3 Bd6 5.c3 c6 6.Nbd2 Nbd7 7.O-O O-O 8.Re1 Re8 9.Qe2 Qe7 10.e4 e5

at this point I had no idea where to go... i got into a pawn exchange and then went off the rails.  how better could I have directed it up until this point or after this point?

Thanks

You wouldn't call it an exciting game up to that point, but you certainly haven't done anything all that wrong, objectively.  Where did it go "off the rails?"

the next moves were

11.exd5 exd4 12.Ne4 Nc5 13.dxc6 Nxd3 14.Nxf6+ gxf6 15. Qxd3...

after that last move I ended up losing a piece on the echange when tthe queen and rook came down the E File and I had to throw my queen in front of the rook to protect the king.  I lost a queen, knight and rook in the exchange so I was down a bishop going into the endgame... lights out.

To be completely honest, nothing that your opponent has mirrored so far would've enabled any major advantage if played differently.  You just didn't manage to reach that sort of tactical position yet.  There are different moves you could've played of course, like 3. Bf4 or 3. Bg5 to get your bishop outside of your pawn chain, 5. c4 to more aggressively strike the center, and so on, but you opted for a non-confrontational system and your opponent did the same.  By which I mean precisely the same.  Can't do much about that in certain cases, and the moves you've shown so far are unfortunately one of them.

Thanks very much for your feedback Harryz... if I had followed your suggested line and played 7.e4 ... what would have been your strategy to either attack?  or gain material?

Sorry I dont know how you used posted a simulator board or I would have replied with one

What you could have done differently is 13.Nxd6, winning the game outright.  Black is down at least a piece, and simplifications are easy afterwards, since almost every major piece on the board is already facing off across the open e-file.  You go into a trivially easy endgame up a piece or more.

If black refuses to relinquish the piece, your forces are stacked up against his terrible back rank weakness.

Thansk Fairy princess... you're totally right.  And thanks again Harry for pointing out some faults in my logic with this opening.

I know its a beginner opening but i like you can get into it easily... so I want to throw it in once in a while as long as I understand when to deviate and the point of each move... wish people were more descriptive in videos as to the point of every move in a main line opening.

I didnt know what order the moves of the Colle had to go in order to be efficient.

I think you should play 8.e4 and break the symmetry. After 8.Re1 e5 Black can break it instead and after 9.de Nxe5 10.Nxe5 Bxe5 11.Nf3 Bc7 you get a Caro-Kann structure where even though the rook is on e1 you can't play e4 because you'll lose the bishop pair. So instead you have to play 12.c4 but here I think Black is ok with the isolated pawn. The bishop on d3 gets in the way of White's pressure on d5 and White might be more vulnerable to Bg4/Qd6. After 8.e4 e5 well I'm not really sure what to do... 

In your game 9.e4 looks good and you get the position I mentioned with reversed colors. After 9.Qe2 e5 that same isolated pawn position could occur for Black but with the queen and rook on the e-file and no way to play e4. The queen is also in possible danger on the e-file. 9.Qe2 e5 10.e4 ed would be tough for White.

12.Qxe7 is winning for White. Black can't copy forever:

12...Qxe7 13.Rxe7 Bxe7 14.dc and because White has the move Black will lose material. 14...dc (14...bc 15.Nxd4 is better.) 15.cd cd 18.dc=Q+ and Black can't copy this move. 

12...Bxe7 13.dc dc (13...bc 14.Nxd4) 14.cd cd 15.de=Q+ another move Black can't copy. Nxe8 16.Bxd2 (16.Rxe7 d1=Q+ 17.Re1)

[ninja edit]