TL Chess match II - Page 29

First of all, responses.



Read my analysis for why Ba6 is a bad idea for black. Its actually particularly bad after d6.

If 17. ... Ba6, then 18. c5, and if 18. ... dxc5, 19. Na5 Qb7, forced, 20. Nxc5 and black loses his bishop. If black instead plays the immediate 18. ... Qb7, 19. Bxa6 Qxa6 20. cxd6 wins a pawn.



Yes, 17. ... Qe3 is favorable for us, but not after 18. Qxe3, but 18. c5, as I have already mentioned. The knight is good on a4 because it gains a tempo on the queen while preparing c5, which, if you read the rest of the thread, you'll find discussion why it is an important square.

Move + Analysis

17. Na4

a) I have stated this line before but I'll make this short in case anyone didn't read my previous analysis.
17. ... Qe3.
18. c5

Now black has three options, Rd8, Rf6, and Qxd2.

If 18. ... Rd8, 19. Qa5 attacking the rook, 19. ... Bd7 20. cxd6 exd6 (if black takes on d2 white plays Qxe5 with check) 21. Ba6 Be8 protecting d6, but white takes anyway, because after 22. Rxd6 Rxd6 23. Qxe5+, white is winning. So after 22. ... Nf7 23. Rxd8 Rxd8 24. Nc5, white is winning. Black is down a pawn and has a weak pawn structure.

18. ... Rf6 was analyzed in my last post, and in this variation white declines the queen trade and hopes to win material trying to trap black's queen.

18. ... Qxd2 is black's best try, as noted in my last post. White doubles on the d-file and ties black down to the defense of his weak c and d pawns. White has a slight edge.

Verdict: 17. ... Qe3 is bad for black.

b1)
17. ... Qa6.
18. b3 c5 stopping White's own c5,
19. Qb2 <-- an awkward looking move, but...

This pins the knight on e5 and exploits the fact that the only defender is the d5 pawn. 19. Qb2 threatens 20. Nxc5, and black can't take the knight because of Qxe5+.

So black has no option but to defend the pawn with 19. ... Qc6, after which 20. Rd5, again threatens Nxc5. 20. ... Be6 allows us to trade a rook for a knight and two pawns with 21. Rxe5 dxe5 22. Qxe5+ Rf6 23. Qxc5 Qxc5 24. Nxc5, and black has no active plan and must stop White's connected passed pawns. Black must move his bishop, else 25. e5 wins. After black moves, white plays Rd1, taking control of the d file.

The trade of a rook for a knight and two pawns is good for white. The knight was black's best piece, and now it is gone. Two of black's central pawns are gone, which creates a passed c pawn for white, which can potentially become a connected passed pawn island. Although white's bishop is a "bad" bishop and appears to be passive, this is not a problem for white because white's central pawns are mobile, and white can make his bishop active quickly. Furthermore, white's pawn structure is excellent, which allows his minor pieces to find excellent posts to combat the black rooks. There are no open files for black to exploit, so black's rooks are not very potent.

Verdict: 17. ... Qa6 is no problem for white, as white can take advantage of the knight pin on the a1-h8 diagonal to force black into passivity.

c1)
17. ... Qc7
18. c5 Rf6
19. g3

Taking advantage of the overloaded rook.

Below are some inferior responses by black, which I analyzed while trying to find a good response for black, added for the sake of completeness, but unnecessary to read.

+ Show Spoiler +

Black's best response to 19. g3 is 19. ... fxg3, leaving black with the initiative. After 20. cxd6 exd6 21. f4 Bh3 22. hxg3 Bxf1 23. fxe5 dxe5 24. Bxf1 where white has won two minor pieces for a rook and pawn. Both black and white have weak pawn structures, and it looks as if white's weak king will immediately be a target. White's minor pieces are out of position and cannot work together to defend the king. The game is also open enough that black's rooks will dominate.

Verdict: 19. g3 is bad for white here. The problem is the black bishop, which has the strong option of Bh3 after the g pawn moves to g3. Another problem for white is his misplaced knight, which plays no role in the defense after the trade of rook and pawn for bishop and knight. White wants to find a way to bring his knight into the game.

c2)

17. ... Qc7
18. c5 Rf6
19. b3

This is accomplished by the move 19. b3, which strengthens the queenside, allows the knight to come to c4 via b2, dislodging black's powerful e5 knight, and waits to see where black will move his bishop. The rook move Rb8 looks silly now that there is a pawn on b3. So looking at black's viable options, they are 19. ... Bb7, and 19. ... Bd7.

After 19. ... Bb7, black has lost the option of Bh3. So now 20. g3 fxg3 21. hxg3 followed by 21. f4 gives white a strong kingside pawn structure and kicks out black's powerful e5 knight. White is good here. So black's only other option is 20. ... g5, after which white is better as in my previous line with g3 g5. (Black's bishop on b7 does little to change white's strategy in this line, which involves moving the knight to c5 and d3 to trade with black's e5 knight.)

After 19. ... Bd7, white continues his plan of trading off black's good knight with Nb2. If black attempts to take the pawn at c5 thinking it is good now that the knight is gone, white paradoxically moves back to a4. After 20. Nb2 dxc5 21. Na4!, black can't defend the pawn. 21. ... Qd6 loses to 22. Qa5. So black's other hope is to push the c pawn and hope to disrupt white's pawn structure. But 21. ... c4 22. Nc5 attacks the bishop on d7.

If 22. ... Rd8, black loses either because white's queen is lined up with black's king, or because the queen gets overloaded by 23. Qc3!, and black can't avoid losing a piece. 23. ... Bc8 loses to 24. Rxd8 Qxd8 25. Qxe5. The knight move 23. ... Nd3 loses to 24. Bxd3 cxd3 25. e5!, and after the black rook moves, e6+ wins the bishop. Any other move loses to Na6, after which black can't defend his e5 knight. So black cannot play 22. ... Rd8.

If 22. ... Be6, then a similar thing happens after 23. Qc3. White threatens to win a piece with Na6, so the only defense is 23. ... a5. White now has two options, both of which are good. Either 24. Nxe6 Rxe6 25. Bc4 Rf6 26. Be2 with a solid pawn structure and control of the d-file, or 24. g3, and white now has better chances than the immediate 19. g3. Now 19. ... fxg3 20. Nxe6! Rxe6 21. f4 wins the pinned piece. So white is good after 19. ... Bd7.

Verdict: White is good after 17. ... Qc7, but only after 19. b3. 19. g3 would be a mistake because of 19. ... Bh3, giving black the initiative.

Positionally it should be nearly a pawn better than b3 since it denies black's queen of a5 to trade queens when our queen will be much more active.

Mainly because black threw away the initiative through 3 semi pointless queen moves without completing development. Now after the queen retreats, white is in a good position to continue the queenside attack.

What's the downside of this move again?

his Queen is trapped

This is stronger than c5 for my money. Incognito's previous analysis of the 18. c5, Rf6 contained a mistake I think:



Actually, black could just 21... Qxc4 at that point and be ahead a bishop.

I think the correct line if 18. c5 is 18... Rf6. Them we could:

19. Re1, but black will play Qf2, escaping on the king side. I think this is our strongest move but would leave us weaker than 18. Qxe3.
19. Qc2, as suggested by Incognito, followed by 19... Rf8 20. Bd3, Qd4 21. cxd5, exd6. We are still up slightly, but the black queen is far from "trapped" and the position is a bit more even in my view.

18. Qxe3 forces 20... fxe3, so we can 21. Rc1, c5. 22. b3 and we are essentially up pawn (the e3 one is not defensible by black). It is perhaps not very exciting immediately, but does give us a clear edge and is very solid.