Yeah I'll whip out rybka in the morning...

Great analysis ... I like the idea of Rh4... if nothing else it keeps white honest. 

I've been told rybka gives black an advantage after h5... but that's all I know so far and  I can't see an advantage for black :P

Thanks again, great blogs!

@ih8sens

I would say that in the 16. f5 variation, black threatens to come in with 19... hxg4 20. hxg4 Rh4 which already looks very strong. Black attacks g4 which is weak, and if, say 21. Nf2, then maybe just 21... Bc6 with a bit of a tied up position for white.

And at the end of the 16. Be3 variation, I agree that black does not really have much play. But if you look at the position from white's point of view, you see white can't do anything either. For example:

• Moving the c3-knight leaves the e4-knight hanging
• Moving the e4-knight leaves the h1-rook hanging
• Moving f4-f5 leaves e5 hanging
• Moving g4-g5 leaves a big gap on f5

White's best is maybe to exchange a set of rooks, but then it's still hard to see what white should do. If he then goes for a long-term plan like moving the e4-knight and slowly preparing f4-f5, then black should get counterplay with something like b6-b5-b4 and c5-c4.

Of course you won't find simple plans for black that get an advantage in these positions. The positions are just equal, which in this case means that both sides have some vague plans but both sides also have to be careful not to allow too much counterplay. The white kingside pawns may look scary at first, but if you look closely you see that in both variations they don't have such sharp teeth :)

But I am not good enough to tell you exactly what white and black should play in these positions, so maybe you should just take out Fritz or Rybka and see what it has to say about the variations. Just play the moves you think are strong for white, and see how he refutes it ;)

I actually have that book and saw that position... I can't figure out what the 'good play' is?

ih8sens: I usually play the Ne7-g6 variations, so I'm not very familiar with that variation. I can quote John Cox from his excellent book The Berlin Wall in the below game fragment. I guess the position looks more threatening than it is for black. Black can get strong counterplay against the strong but also weak white kingside pawns. Of course they restrict black, but they can easily become weaknesses if white advances them too far.

And as always, black's light-squared bishop is unhindered on the light squares. So like in the game fragment, if black can get a bishop on c6 and a knight on d4, then black has good counterplay.

It's mate in 1 at the end... on Rf1

Here's something I'd love to ask you after seeing all your blogs Phobetor...

There's a theoretical position in the Berlin which white almost always seems to avoid (Kasparov was given the option several tiems vs. Kramnik) and yet which seems to give white exactly what he wants...

Here's the position:

nice game n check this out http://blog.chess.com/love_romance13/is-garry-kasparov-cheater

Could White play 27.Rcc7 instead of 27.Nf5? and 26...Rg7 instead of 26...Bg7? Also,54.Rg2! saves the game.

Instead of 50...Rf2, which enables White to defend thanks to mikeyt's idea, Black wins by force with 50...Rh3+ followed by ...Kg3, which prevents the h-pawn's promotion just in time.

Nice game, but can White escape mate and maybe still queen his pawn after 54.Rg2 instead of 54.Kg1? I don't see an immediate mate after 54.Rg2 Rxg2+ (54...Nxg2, 55.h1=Q+ or 54...Ng4+, 55.Kg1), 55.Kh1. It looks like he gets a queen.