Middlegame positional impasse

This was a thematic English Defense game where my positional poverty, especially the inability to make plans in the middlegame, came to the surface once again.

I'd like to know how better players assess Black's position and what plan would have been right. I think that up to 27. f5 White was clearly winning.

I think you should prepare to meet e4 with fxe4 and e5.

12...c5 is the first move I don't like. 12...Qh5 looks better.

You are right that it's hard to find an active plan for black but the white position doesn't play itself either. White may have the initiative but I don't see an advantage.

I'm not sure but I thought the idea of Bxc3 was to play Nc6-a5 and Ba6 to attack the c-pawn.

Actually, I'm pretty happy with the black pieces in your diagram starting position.

The pawn structure looks like a Nimzo-Indian : doubled pawns against pair of bishop. But White's c1 bishop is locked in for some time.

The classic Nimzo plan is : after White has doubled pawns, you play ...c5 (to block c4 from advancing), ...Nb8-c6-a5 and ...Ba6 with pressure on c4.

But here the knight on d2 makes it rather useless.

So my second thought would be ...d6, ...c5, ...e5 if possible - place pawns on the dark squares to blockade the bishops, another Nimzo theme.

For example 13...Nh5 and I prefer Black (if 14.e4 ? f4 : let him find a way to open the center after this, ...e5 is coming) : ...f4 and ...e5 maybe are coming, the Bb2 is a dead piece, and White is under the threat of a kingside attack.

16...Nxe4 (?) doesn't look quite right to me. But as d6 is attacked, ..Bxe4 looks like the only move, followed by ...Rae8 and eventually ...e5 will kick in, but Black has lost a good piece (the bishop) compared to what it was a few moves before.

18...Rae8 was close to forced, but after 18...Rae8 19.Qb7 Re7 20.Qxa7 is not extremely fun to play.

13...Nh5?! 14.e4 f4? 15.e5 is almost winning, 14.g4 Qg6 15.Re2 (or Rf2) should also favour white.

Perhaps black should exchange knights:

Ooops. Indeed.

Nf6-e4 is very common in the English. I didnt consider it because I didnt want to delay development of my queen's Knight and after 11. f3, the e4-square's no longer available. Plus the Queen in c2, of course...

Do you think e6-e5 is still viable? Because d4-d5 locks out the b7 bishop.

if white plays d5 you get a perfect square for your knight on c5, your bishop can go to d7

The real problem (in the position of #7 for example) is that you can't push ...e5 easily because it would hang f5. If the f5 pawn was on f7 I would love to play Black after ...e5.

Locking the center massively favors Black in that kind of Nimzo structures.

I always play f7-f5 and then Nf6 because it reminds me of the Dutch, but I agree that keeping the pawn on f7 would make things easier. Nevertheless, it seems to me the f7-f5 thrust puts some spice in the English defense. The hanging f5-pawn remains a problem, of course

That's assuming Black hasnt played c5. I guess f7-f5 and c7-c5 are mutually exclusive in this position?

The problem is that ...f5 isn't played in that Nimzo-Indian in which you more or less transposed, structurally speaking. It is sometimes played in the Saemisch after White's f4, with the idea to fight for space in the center and prevent White to play himself f5.

After looking again, I think a better plan than the game would be 10...d6, ...c5 followed by ...Nc6 and then Black has on the one hand the ...Na5 and ...Ba6 setup and on the other the possibility of ...Bc8 to defend f5 and push e5.

But it's not clear of course than having two plans in positions where neither works as good as usual is better than having no choice but a better plan... Again, f5 needs defense before pushing ...e5 and that's not obvious to find, and c4 is already defended.

I tend to think that the f5-e6-d6-c5 setup is not so good because it weakens the center pawns. In my game d6 became a liability later on. Luckily enough I was an exchange up so it didnt really matter, but in an even position it's a major disturbance for Black.