Lessons From Tegernsee VII

THE following position arose in my round-seven game in which I had white against a 2068.

Black has just castled - how would you assess the position?

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It arose from a Veresov, and is fairly typical of that opening in that Black has pressure on the queenside, while White seems well-placed in the centre and on the kingside.

Indeed, I felt I had promising chances against Black's king, not least thanks to Black having played ...h6.

Accordingly, having moved the white king to the corner, I continued 14.Rg1?!, but that is disliked by Stockfish16 and Komodo14.1.

They reckon Black's queenside attack is coming first, and so Stockfish16 suggests 14.Nd1, meeting 14...c5 with 15.c3.

Komodo14.1 is, if anything, even more defensive with its recommendation of 14.Rac1!?

I discussed the position later with someone who gave up the Veresov in favour of the Jobava-Prié (3.Bf4 instead of 3.Bg5).

He reckoned a main reason he gave up the former was because of the type of position I got, he having learnt by bitter experience that such positions tend to favour Black.

CONCLUSION: visually it is still not obvious to me that Black has a slight edge in the diagram, but such is the engines' verdict. Opposite-flank play is rarely easy to judge 100% correctly, but experience seems to show that in the Veresov, at least, Black is often ahead of White in terms of making an attack count.