Here are some positions that I've recently either played or come across. See what you can make of them. I'll post complete games (for the games that are mine) soon, but in the meantime feel free to suggest answers here.
These aren't traditional "White to move and win" problems, but have more of the messiness and uncertainty of the situations in which we actually make most of our decisions over the board.
1)
Black is doing the Nimzovich "restrain and blockade" thing on the queenside, and he steps up the pressure with
16...Nd7 17.f4 Nc5 18.Be2 Re8, giving us this position:
How should White respond to the pressure on the e-file?
2)
Black has just played the moves 7...e5xf4 8.Be3xf4 Qa5-b6, forking White's pawns at b2 and d4. How should White respond?
3)
After this game was over, one of the other players told me "You could have won on move 12! Just play e5 and sac the bishop on h7!" Was he correct? Does 12.e5 Nd5 13.Bxh7+ win?
4)
Later in the game, I did manage to play Ng5 and Bxh7+ (without saccing anything) but in the meantime Black managed to get the queens off and find annoying outposts for his knights:
Find a win for White. There are actually two ways of implementing the same idea.
5)
Black to move. His next two moves are going to be 47...Kc3 and 48...Kxb3. What should White's next two moves be?
6)
Black has just played 11...Be7 here. What's the idea behind this move? What issues does it raise?
A few moves later, this position arose. White has been building up for some time now, has a lead in development and greater center control, and has been looking for a knockout. What should he play?
7)
My opponent made a "known error" in the opening and is about to lose one of his knights. After 17...Nxd4 he got happy again and played 18.Nb5. I think he was hoping the pin on the d-file would allow him to regain the piece but 18...Bg4 corrected that. Now after 19.Re1
I can maintain my extra piece plus get the queens off with Nxb5. However, my opponent is ten years old and won't resign unless he's faced with something like mate or loss of his queen. Make him resign.
8)
A fun one for the end:
White has just played 18.h3. What is Black's best line here? And after 18...Nxd3+ 19.cxd3 Bc8 20.g4 f6 (which is not Black's best line):
How should White win?
Bonus points: spot the thematic similarity between this situation and the one in the previous question.
Let me know what you think!
I like these positions.
ReplyDeleteIn the first one, white is faced with losing a pawn (...Re4) so there is no room for keeping the status quo. It seems like the main thing in white's favor is that it could be hard for black to develop his king rook, so I would lean towards Rae1 with the idea of trading black's active pieces and bottling black's king.
After 1 Rae1 Ne4 2 Bc1 Nxc3 3 Bd3 white's all of a sudden have open lines, e.g. 3...Ne4 4 Bb2 Nf6 5 g4. Not sure how to answer 1...Re4 or even 1...Ke7.
In the second position, white's lead in development I think let's him get away with a pawn sack so he could play 1 Rb1 Bxf3 2 gxf3 Qxd4? 3 Nb5, or even 1 O-O Bxf3 2 Qxf3 Qxd4+ 3 Kh1 with ideas of Rad1, e5, Qg3, etc.. Not sure if 1 e5 is sound, or if it is is it may be premature since white's dark squares look weak after ...Qxb2. I think 1 Na4 Qa5+ 2 c3 b5 is too ambitious for white.
In the third position I like Bxh7+ since mate seems inevitable even though he has a Nf6 defence against the immediate mate.
After 12.e5 Nd5 White can just play 13.Nc4 with a huge advantage, so 12.e5 is clearly best. After any capture on e5 followed by Nd5, Bxh7+ is winning, but 13.Bxh7+ is inaccurate: after 13...Kxh7 14.Ng5+ Kg8 15.Qh5 and a knight comes to f6, Black seems okay for now. However 12.e5 is close to winning if not completely winning.
ReplyDelete@ Anonymous, position #3: Chris, is that you again? ;-)
ReplyDeleteIf 12.e5 Nd5 13.Nc4 is +- and this is Black's best, what makes this better than just 12.Nc4 ? Otherwise, that's just one more Black piece that might come to c3.
@ Todd:
Your general thinking on this matches mine. What I thought best for White at the time was 19.Kf2, which Fritz hates because of 19...Ne4+ 20.Ke1 Nxc3 21.Bxc3 Rxe3. Which, like you, I don't think is so bad because it's starting to open lines for White's bishops.
In the game, White played 19.Rf3, which is also Fritz's first choice (presumably to avoid lines like the one above). But now Black has a better way to increase his advantage than just 19...Re4 and grabbing the c-pawn. Find it, readers! :-)
Position #2 is not simple, and I'd like to get more feedback, and actually look at it a bit more myself in light of your remarks.
In position 1, I don't like 1 Kf2 Ne4+ 2 Ke1 since this essentially uncastles white, and leaves his king on the open e-file. This makes the pawn sack less powerful (2...Nxc3) but that line also involves trading the knight. Also black is not really compelled to take the pawn but can try to bring the h-rook into play when white is left with the task of finding a place for his king again.
ReplyDeleteNot that 1 Rae1 is all joy for white, but all the pieces stay on and black's only play is against the queenside pawns. Once they are gone, white can hope that his piece activity compensates since black would have no targets (such as the king).
In position 2, my main reservation about 1 e5 is the line 1...dxe5 2 dxe5 Qxb2 3 exf6 Qxc3+ 4 Bd2 Qxf6 when black has snapped two pawns while trading off the c3-knight. Not an improvement is 4 Kf2 Bc5+ 5 Kg3 Bxf3 6 Qxf3 Qxf6, but maybe white has something else along the way. But it seems like white is not in a rush to force the issue with an unclear line, though I have no idea what his best move 1 is.
In position 3, I missed that black has a solid defence once he's played ...Bf5, and I had wishful thoughts that white could get in Rh3. But even more so, black's ...Bc3 is a strong possibility, which also answers the ideas of 1 Nc4 and 1 e5 Nd5 2 Nc4, as well as highlighting the issues with white's position. If black manages to defend the kingside, then white's weaknesses on the queenside will let black develop an initiative.
In position 4, this semiforcing line seems to simplify into a fairly clear advantage: 1 Nxe6 Rxe6 2 Bc1 f5 3 Bd3 f4 4 Bxe3 fxe3 5 Bc4 Rd8 and it seems like white will win a second pawn. Either trading the bishop for knight when white is ready, or if the bishop stays on then black's king is still in trouble. Immediately taking the second pawn with 3 Bxf5 leaves white with the dark bishop, it may be hard to make progress. White might improve at move 4, maybe 4 g3 g5 5 Bxe3 leaves black's position even shakier though white needs to reckon with 4...fxg3 5 Bxe3 gxh2+ (maybe not a big problem for white but the fewer healthy pawns for white the close black is to a draw).
ReplyDelete