now that kids an orphan

mirrored knights, each attacking the other's pawn (kingside?)

white develops bishop instead of attacking or defending centre pawn, it's a gambit/bluff. maxwell knows the centre pawns are more important in the long run so he calls the bluff and develops queenside pawn to threaten the bishop. he feels this is a powermove since the pawn is protected by the threat of a strongly developed queen and/or knight

white does a castle, maxwell develops his bishop onto white's forward knight, since it's protected by his own forward knight. he's developing a strong center position centered around the white king's flanks, with all of white's developed pieces threatened in uneven trades

white moves one of the pawns in the king's defensive line to threaten maxwell's bishop. at this point maxwell can read a few moves ahead, and knows he can protect his bishop by posturing it's sacrifice, by moving his rook-pawn to cover it. if white attacks maxwell would retaliate and have threat on white's knight and an open flank for his rook right onto the white king. he has an immense attack developing on that part of the board, essentially.

white buys himself some time by developing white-square bishop forward to attack. maxwell pushes his king one space forward because he realizes it will be very difficult for white to develop an attack on it, since that area isn't well developed for white

white starts developing an attack on the king on that side but maxwell ignores it, assuming it is too weak and undeveloped to succeed. he develops a pawn to threaten the white bishop. as white moves a bishop for another check max realizes he was way more vulnerable there than he realized and has to scramble to defend.

https://nextchessmove.com/?fen=rn1q1b1r%2Fppp1kpp1%2F5n2%2F1B1pp2p%2F2P1P1b1%2F5N1P%2FPP1P1PP1%2FRNBQ1RK1+w+-+-+0+1&flipped=false (White pawn just moved)