Some strategic questions about my latest game

In my latest game there were some things I didn't quite understand in the analysis, so maybe someone can help me out here.

First, after 3 ...e5, it was a no-brainer for me to exchange pawns and the queens, since this makes his king stuck in the middle. The engine eval is 0.0, shouldn't this be an advantage for me?

And second, I'm starting to develop normally after the trade, but from move 6 to 13 my position seems to deteriorate steadily, and I don't quite get why. In the game I thought I had the upper hand until my position got a little cramped after around move 13.
With 7. Bxe6+ I figured giving him doubled pawns would be another advantage for me.
I understand why 11. Bd3 was an inaccuracy (gives me doubled pawns).
There are no obvious tactical blows, the material is equal, so i guess there have to be some strategic things here, that I don't understand yet?

Hello @xxonx,
I had the same question about a *very* similar position (maybe even the very same as I've been playing d4 c4 as white since I learned openings). Anyways, from what I've learned by listening to players stronger than myself I think I somewhat understand why exchanging on e5 and d8 after 3. ... e5 does not give white an advantage.

Firstly, why is preventing your opponent from castling normally useful? Because in the center of the board the king is more susceptible to attack. The issue is that by trading queens in order to prevent castling you simultaneously give up your most powerful attacking piece.

In the position resulting in the game after 5. ... Kxd8, black is able to conveniently hide their king with c6 and Kc7 (which would avoid the potential d-file danger from the second most powerful piece type - rooks). Another point that goes along here is that in a great many situations in the endgame you want your king to come to the center. Therefore, a king on c7 might be more beneficial than one on g8 in some distant future.

About 6. Bg5 and 7. Bxf6+ I think the engine's reasoning behind marking the plan as dubious is because it wants white to attempt to put maximum pressure on white's stuck king (even if, according to the near 0.0 eval, it's not possible to force an advantage). Looking at the master's opening database here on lichess, I was surprised to see that the position after 5. ... Kxd8 had been reached a non-insignificant number of times. I quite like the choice of Nf3 where black can run afoul of some tricky knights jumping to g5/b5 and threatening f7/c7 respectively. Looks uncomfortable for black at least.

Sorry if I rambled, I hope that something in there was helpful to you. Cheers friend

@elipw said in #2:
> Hello @xxonx,
> I had the same question about a *very* similar position (maybe even the very same as I've been playing d4 c4 as white since I learned openings). Anyways, from what I've learned by listening to players stronger than myself I think I somewhat understand why exchanging on e5 and d8 after 3. ... e5 does not give white an advantage.
>
> Firstly, why is preventing your opponent from castling normally useful? Because in the center of the board the king is more susceptible to attack. The issue is that by trading queens in order to prevent castling you simultaneously give up your most powerful attacking piece.
>
> In the position resulting in the game after 5. ... Kxd8, black is able to conveniently hide their king with c6 and Kc7 (which would avoid the potential d-file danger from the second most powerful piece type - rooks). Another point that goes along here is that in a great many situations in the endgame you want your king to come to the center. Therefore, a king on c7 might be more beneficial than one on g8 in some distant future.
>
> About 6. Bg5 and 7. Bxf6+ I think the engine's reasoning behind marking the plan as dubious is because it wants white to attempt to put maximum pressure on white's stuck king (even if, according to the near 0.0 eval, it's not possible to force an advantage). Looking at the master's opening database here on lichess, I was surprised to see that the position after 5. ... Kxd8 had been reached a non-insignificant number of times. I quite like the choice of Nf3 where black can run afoul of some tricky knights jumping to g5/b5 and threatening f7/c7 respectively. Looks uncomfortable for black at least.
>
> Sorry if I rambled, I hope that something in there was helpful to you. Cheers friend

This is a good explanation.

I am by no means a strong player, so I am also learning each day how to analyze / interprets why engines flag some moves. The first response (@elipw) has covered plenty of helpful stuff for myself as well. If I was analyzing this without any assistance, as an average player that I am I would conclude

After 3.) ... e5
The resulting queen exchange, while it prevents black from castling, it leaves them with a piece in the four center squares ( e4, d4, e5, d5 ) while you have no pieces in there. Leaving black attacking the d4 and f4 squares on your side of the board albeit with an unprotected e5 pawn.

After 6.) ... Bg5
I suppose then the engine was expecting you put pressure on the unprotected pawn with ... Nf3, but then having the exchange at 7.) Bxf6 gxf6, you have kind of helped black protect their weak e5 pawn. Yes there's a double pawn, but I think its countered by the fact that you exchanged / lost an active bishop (that's more mobile in the later stages of the game). I was taught to not give away my bishops that easily in the early stages back when I learnt chess. So not a huge advantage for white at that stage.

With 11.) Bd3
What sticks out for me there, is the engine is probably seeing the risk of black getting reinforcements on the e5 square anticipating e5 -> e4 and forking your Bishop and f3 Knight, after chasing away your c3 Knight of course. So it doesn't like that risk I guess? As you can see, it didn't like your 12.) O-O move as the potential risk of the e4 pawn fork still remains.

I hope I am not way off the mark with this.

Hello,
I think exchange on e5 followed by exchange on d8 gives White a very small advantage which would be very hard to convert to a win. My suggestion would be to push to d5 on move 4 which would transpose to King's Indian type of pawn structure.
Move 7. Bxf6+ doesn't amount anything for White because Black has compensation in form of 2 Bishops.

As white, you have the initiative, you do want to initiate an attack. Or get any kind of advantage at least.

After the exchange of queens, you do not pose any kind of treat, so the king is safe in the middle, you dont pose any development problem. You have no positional advantage. You have nothing going on for you. You have no attack because your only developed pieces get exchanged.

For instance 6. Bg5 and then 7- Bxf6....
You used 2 tempos to get rid of a knight. With the queens out of the board and files starting to open, the bishop gets stronger than the knights over time, and you had no real reason to do the exchange. Sure, if the bishop gets kick out, might as well, but its not pressured yet. And you wont have either a black square bishop nor a queen to exploit the weak pawn, which is the main reason you provoke double pawns, to eventually attack them and win them.

It doesnt matter you won the game. Tactically you didnt do a thing.
There is nothing wrong to exchange all pieces to get the superior endgame. But you do need to create the conditions for a superior endgame first, having them cramped, with center advantage, exchange/material advantage. Anything. It was an iffy position. Probably playable for both parts, but no one could buy that you had any kind of advantage. You shouldnt rely on blunders from the opponent to win, you have to create the conditions by force.

Thank you so much @elipw, @Vladstheawesome, @shailpapi and @Alientcp, you make a lot of good points!
I've been mostly working on tactics lately, but I think it's time to also further deepen my strategic understanding now and your remarks are very helpful for that :)