Neutralised Queen-side

Below is a position from a game I played recently as white. The way I looked at this position was to say "the queen-side is neutralised so lets go for the king-side". I'm not a very strong player and so my attempt to break open the king-side got me into trouble. Later when I went over this again I found that the queen-side attack was easier to pursue.

My question is, when you see this position, what is your reaction? Do you attack king-side because you see the space, or do you attack where the black pieces are most blocked up.

Apologies, if this is trivial. It's my first post and I'm new at this analysis thing.

I would make haste to attack on the queenside before your opponent attacks on the kingside, because your pawns are already pointing there and you have some good pawn break opportunities. 1.c4 bxc4 2.b5 axb5 3.Rxb5 and I wouldn't want to be in your opponent's shoes. In chess, fortune favors the bold.

1. c4 does look like a good way to open up an attack, but if I were black, I wouldn't respond with ...bxc4, which just invites trouble. Those pinned Ns are what have black totally congested, and Instead of snatching the pawn, which he can't keep anyway, what about ...Bg7. After 2. cxb5 axb5, white's attack sort of fizzles out.  Black prepares for both ...Rxa5 and ...O-O, which will get things unstuck for him. He can bring a knight over to reinforce the K-side and hold the fort. White's B at c6 is both his strength, because of the way it keeps black bottled up, and his weakness, because it's so overworked! Any move or capture by the B will open things up nicely for black.

1.c4 Bg7 2.cxb5 axb5 and "white's attack sort of fizzles out" Black prepares for both ...Rxa5 and ...O-O

 

I think as long as White maintain the initiative... in other words, keeps pressing the queenside attack he wins no problem. 3.Ra1 O-O 4.a6 or 3.Ra1 Rxa5 bxa5 are both heavily in White's favor. If White can't decide where to attack, or plays passively, Black will eventually reorganize and strike back on the kingside.

HotFlow - good point about giving up time to the opponent while building up an attack on the King-side.

likesforests - I take your point about going where the pawns are pointing. It's a nice way to evaluate the position. I suppose that sort of thing will it'll be obvious to me one day - I hope.

i believe i also break in queenside opening. its hard to maneuver pieces in the kingside in that diagram and white must do something to relive the pressure in his queenside pieces.