How to break this formation?!??

I just played this game where I thought I had good initiative and an attack but then my opponent was able to shut me down completely. The game ended in a draw.

See Black's position after 17...Ng8. With the King on g7 (fianchetto position with no Bishop) and the Knight on g8, his defense was impenetrable. Is there a name for this formation? Where can I learn more about it?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, I've annotated the game below. Thanks!

Hi tigerprowl5, thanks for the comment.

You're right about 17...Bxg4, Black would have won a pawn. It looks like after 17...Bxg4, 18. hxg4  Nxg4 like you said, is good for Black. After those moves Black can always get the Knight back on f6 if he/she wanted to.

But for some reason in the game Ng8 did throw me off.

As for 59. Kb5, I didn't know how to respond to 59...Re5+. If 60. Rc5 and we trade Rooks, it looks like Black can promote the h-pawn.

Thanks again for the comment, I totally missed 17...Bxg4. Not a good sign, I've been overlooking a lot of moves lately!

On move 21 the series of Nh4-f5+ keeps popping up in my head. If ... fxg5, then fxg5 and you still have g4 with an f/g pawnstorm threat supported by an open h-file. Or is this just too aggressive? It's the style I play.

As for 59. Kb5, I didn't know how to respond to 59...Re5+. If 60. Rc5 and we trade Rooks, it looks like Black can promote the h-pawn.

White wins that pawn endgame by a single tempo:

Thanks for all the comments! @cornbeefhashvili, I'm not sure about 21. Nh4 then 22. Nf5+.

If I understand you correctly let's say play continued like this:

It looks like White doesn't have enough firepower after sacrificing the Knight. Black's King can just waltz over to the Queenside and should be ok. Again it looks like Black's Knight on g8 is defending h6 very well. Sorry if I've misunderstood what you meant.

@caveatcanis, wow! thanks for showing me that endgame. This is great motivation for improving my endgame. I remember I had maybe 2 mins left on the clock around move 59 so it would have been hard to calculate accurately under time pressure. More importantly, I don't think I "saw" a win to even start calculating. I definitely need to work on endgames.

Thanks again for the comments!

The way your pieces were arranged in that game, there was no way to break through.

If you ever encounter that opening again, this type of setup might help:

@dareyou2win, thanks for the comment. It's interesting that you suggested putting the Knight on d2 in the opening. That's what I have done in the past, which is when faced against a fianchetto, I'd put a Knight on the 3rd rank and one of the 2nd. I wasn't sure whether that was "correct" though.

For some reason 6. Nc4 is a move I wouldn't have considered. It looks like it's good, thanks for suggesting it. I think I tend to only consider putting my Knight on the 4th rank if it's supported by a pawn -- I have no reason why that is!

Another move I wouldn't have considered is 11. Bb1. I think this is due to my lack of playing experience. I've just never played Bb1 to protect the c2 square. I've seen it before in GM games but those concepts don't seem to sink in until I see them again, like in your post.

Seriously, a lot of the moves you made were ones I wouldn't even have considered, but they're good! Thanks!

You're welcome :) I'm glad playing bullet and blitz chess pays off sometimes lol. I don't remember how I learned/came up with Nc4, but it was weird to me at first, too. I kept wanting to put it back as soon as I moved it, but I learned most players will play b5 soon enough because it's just as annoying to them, haha.

Oh wait. I made a mistake in my diagram. The way I showed blunders the knight on Bb1. If they play Nf6, you're supposed to put the kight back, THEN play Bd3 after:

Nh2 before castling I meant to say in that sideline caption. I'm riddled with errors today, lol

Also, obviously if they try Nb4 to fork your king and rook after you play Knight back to d2, just slide the rook over to the c file to hit the queen, then play a3 to knock the knight back.

Sorry about the mistakes!

What's wrong with 24. f4? The king is in the center - open the flood gates!

It should not be that difficult to break this formation because his dark-squared bishop is traded off. You just have to regroup you pieces to attack his weakness(es); h7, h6, and thereby force him to weaken his structure further. In the position after 19. hxg4, it shoul be difficult for black to defend after 19...h6 20. Qh4, and then g5! If ...h5 then g4! and black is mated along the h-file.

@dareyou2win, thanks again for the analysis. It's interesting that at move 10, White has a pretty good setup, and the fact that the b1-Knight has already moved three times, although move 6 was with tempo attacking the Queen.

To be honest, I've seen the set up where the Knights are on f3 and g3 (in more high-level games eg. in the Ruy) but I never really understood the ideas behind it. Aesthetically I think it looks beautiful, I'm just not familiar with having the Knights on f3 and g3.

The resulting position you gave looks very strong, esp with the Bishop and Queen on the same diagonal, ready to swap Black's fianchetto'd Bishop.

An idea I had on how to proceed in the resulting position is to play something like Kh2, then swing the Rook over with Rh1, then march the h-pawn up with h4, h5. Once White's pawn reaches h5, then if ...gxh5, then Nxh5 (supported by Rook on h1). But then Black can just stop the h-pawn march with ...h5 so maybe my idea is not so good after all.

Thanks again for the analysis, the resulting set up looks very strong for White.

Yeah, I've been forced to do the plan you just said in a few games. Chess is pretty complicated. It's a strong position, but by no means a straightforward win. If black knows how to defend well, even that breakthrough can be hard.

@cornbeefhashvili, wouldn't it work better with 21. Nh4 then 22. f4 to open up the position, instead of playing f4 on move 24?

@GMVillads, Wow! Thanks for your insights. It's funny how you gave a winning follow-up after move 19, precisely when I said "in retrospect, this might have been the key mistake".

I think the problem is I just never saw the move 20. Qh4, and I think the reason is because in my mind I was just thinking I should have Rooks on the h-file, not the Queen. Maybe I thought the Queen needed to be on a more "flexible" square. This is an error in my thinking process.

You're right after 20. Qh4, then I should play g5, if Black plays h5, then I should play g4! This is how to break open the position! Your approach is straightforward and makes sense. If I had seen Qh4 I might have been able to see the subsequent moves, but with the way I thought in the game Qh4 wasn't even considered. Thanks again, appreciate your help.