TL Chess Match 4 - Page 134

Can't move our knight, 29. Nb1 Bxa3 loses a pawn. 29. Nc4 ... is same problem.
29. Rc6 ... could be interesting, but idk what to do if ... Bb5. 29. ... Bc8 could also have some interesting follow ups. 29. ... Bb7 wins but he probably won't do this lol.
29. Rc3 insta loses.

So yeah... idk.

The idea is to strengthen our control of d2 so that our pieces, currently tied to the defense of that square have more flexibility to move. Moves like Rc7+ or Rc6 or Ne4 or Nc4 all ought to be more effective if our pieces don't have to run home at a moment's notice to defend against Black's Queening threat.

Something to note in general is that moving the King off the a7-g1 diagonal has not freed us of Black's various threats involving that diagonal yet. For example, if we played 29. Rc7+ Kd8 30. Rh7?, Black could play 30...Ra1+ to force us back onto the diagonal and then 31...Bc5+ to win the Rook.

Moving that Rook, it shows black intention of wanting to do take that pawn with the bishop and attacking the rook there to solidify black position in that area to promote. Since he moved his rook, we can do Nc4 and pressure him with our next move, Nv6+

Even if he take the Knight with the bishop, our rook will still be in good shape because it will be protecting the a5 pawn. Since our last move was Kf1, which I originally protested because by doing that move, we basically gave up those 2 pawns on the left. It will be really hard to defend them now.

Long story short, since we are probably going to lose our 2 a-pawns, we must be aggressive and gain something in return.

d2+?

The Knight is defended. It's true that the Knight is immobilized, but it's doing important work where it is: it's blocking the d-pawn from advancing and the Rook from making threats along the second rank. Also, for Black to maintain the pin, he has to limit the mobility of his own Bishop, so gains at most a small edge in mobility from the pin: in exchange for entirely immobilizing a defensive piece which has good reason to sit where it is anyway, he partly immobilizes an offensive piece which has less reason to be tied down.

Meanwhile, if we don't play Ke1, the Knight is stuck anyway (the threat of ...d2 again), not to mention that in some ways the threat of ...Bxa3, ...Bb4 is actually stronger with the King on f1, because Black is actually threatening to capture the Knight, which is only defended by our Bishop so far. I mean, defending the Knight with the King is (as far as I see) the entire purpose of, not only 29. Ke1, but the previous 28. Kf1. If we don't play the former, then what was the point of the latter? (Granted, you weren't involved in the last vote, so you may think it was just a thrown-away move.) Also, how do you plan to respond to that very same Black plan of ...Bxa3, ...Bb4? As far as I see, you're going to have to play Ke1 anyway--only you'll be doing it on Black's terms. In general, when there's a move you know that you're going to have to play down the line, the most flexible thing to do is usually to play it immediately.

I grant you that 29. Ke1 will probably leave the Knight immobilized for a while. As I see it, that's a cost of the position--and one that we'll probably have to pay in any case. By defending the Knight, though, 29. Ke1 gives our other pieces more freedom--particularly our Rook. I actually think that almost all of us on the team agree about our main plan for activity: we want to activate our Rook, with Rc6 and/or Rc7+. The only question is how to go about it.

Then again, it's very possible that our lines overlap, as we can follow up 29. Ke1 with 30. Rc6/Rc7+, and we can follow up 29. Rc7+ with 30. Ke1. I'll have to look into the position to see what the practical differences are between the two move orders, if there is any

edit: OK, here's a small one at least: after 29. Ke1 Bxa3, 30. Rc6 becomes stronger because it forks Black's a6 Bishop and f6 pawn. The same does not hold for 29. Rc6, with a Black Bishop still defending f6.

29. Rc6 Bb5 27. Rb6? Ra1+ 28. Kf2 Bc5+ and Black wins the exchange.

Good that you mentioned Kf1 was played recently - I missed that. Anyway, the more I look at the position, the less I like 29. Rc7+. ATM, I think the c1 rook is needed to cover first rank and, as you pointed out, Rc6 will, in certain positions, lead to a fork on a6 and f6. Meanwhile, 29. Ke1 Bxa3 gives also opportunity to play 30. Kd1, getting out of the pin immediately (or later, depending on circumstances).

So I think we gotta examine the line 29. Ke1 Bb5 instead of 29...Bxa3, since a-pawns will most probably fall anyway and therefore, Black doesn't have to hurry taking them. My general idea would be to play g3, h4 get out of pin with our King ( like I said, maybe Kd1 at some point) and then move away the Knight, when there won't be any Pawn targets behind him to be captured by black Rook. Of course this all works in positions where Black keeps his Rook where it is, but since it's Ng5's best piece, I think it will stay there for a while.

The problem is: where does our Knight belong? It will be very situational: the idea of Nf3-d4-f5 comes to mind, or maybe just Nf3 and sit there if we're gonna be forced to have super-tight control over d2 square. That being said, even worse problem is a placement of our Rook; it's so much weaker than a2 Rook. We would love to exchange those two, but we can't, so this is the reason I wanted to go for Rc7+, which, unfortunately, lacks a viable follow-up.

Sorry for this chaotic response. In general, I agree that 29. Ke1 is a way to go.

P.S. Actually, I just realised that any exchange would improve our position here - if only we could get to them...

29. Rc6 Bb5 27. Rc7+ Kd8 28. Rb7 avoids losing the exchange you mentioned but again exposes the Rook under light-squared's Bishop fire, so I dunno if it's good

29. Ke1 Bd8! precluding us from playing 30...Rc7.

it exposes the Rook to the light-squared Bishop's fire again, after which we just lose a tempo moving the Rook again. (In the similar line from a couple of pages ago that I linked to, the situation was different because with the Rook on b2, Rb7 pinned the Bishop.)