TL Chess Match 4 - Page 74

Yeah, I had analyzed all these lines (sorry for holding back, too much work to type them all out, especially when they likely will never be played anyway) and settled on 12.0-0 as white's best move. However, I think black can simply reply 12...0-0 and he has a great game. I think 13. Nxe4 turns out well for black after 13...dxe4 14. Nd2 Ra8 15. Qb7 Qxd4, so white has to play something like 13. Qa4 and black can play c5, removing his doubled pawns and securing a potentially troublesome passed d pawn (and white's e pawn may be in danger in some lines).

You probably still think white is good here (extra pawn) but I really think that because of the a+b pawns combined with open files for black, the extra pawn does not confer any advantage in the long run.

I'm not at a chessboard but I had a look at this last night. After 11.Qxc6 Qd7 12.Qc2? then black can play 12...Ba6! and we have a whole bunch of problems. One possible continuation could be 13.a3 Qb5! (threatening mate in 1) 14.Qd1 and black has so much pressure against our king that it is probably winning and we are in a position where we have no good moves.

I think that if we play 11.Qxc6 Qd7 then 12.Qxd7 is pretty much forced

As for this move I hate where all 3 considered moves lead. Qxc6 basically surely leads to queen exchange which I don't like. Qxa7 leads to very ugly positions in which I think black is pretty well off and 0-0 similarly. Was 11.a3 considered ? After 11. .. Bxd2 12.Nxd2 Nxd2 13.Qxc6+ we exchange queens and can reasonably safely take the knight using our king thus not having to worry about b2. Basically I find it better than direct Qxc6+ as we force black down a path that we chose and force him to exchange pieces that would cause us problems after the queen trade. Problems I see are that our king is blocking our bishop. Following b5 might slightly help with that but it still slows our development.

I did not look into it too much as I do not have enough time so if someone has some obvious flaws point them out so I can change my vote

I think A3 would lead to us being down another pawn. Bxd2+ 12. Nxd2 Nxd2 13. Bxd2 Rxb2
Is that possible considering the positions on the board? If not please correct me. Still evaluating all possible moves before I can give further opinion.

for 13. Kxd2 but then we lose our chance for 0-0 which I dont' like either.

My 13th move was 13.Qxc6+ not Bxd2 or Kxd2

11. A3 Bxd2+ 12. Nxd2 Nxd2 13. Qc6+ then what if black puts bishops at C8 to D7. Now we no longer have the option for a queen trade and blacks knight at d2 has a prime opening to fork the Ra1 and Bc1. I guess if 13. Qc6+ Bd7 then it all depends on where we put our queen. if 14. Qxd5 then we put ourselves in a situation where our queen is trapped. If anything else then Nb3 and black is set up for a killer fork that I'm not sure how we would get out of unless I'm not seeing something.

14. Qxd5

14...Rb5 or 14...c6

I want to get castled. Simple as that. I don't see it as going halfway with our attack then pulling back because we are scared. We developed our Queen and are still threatening two pawns with her. Time to protect our king and get our knight unpinned.

After Qxc6+, assuming that's what we decide, there are 3 possible responses from Ng5.


1) 11. ... Qb7.

This is probably the best move. Here, we almost certainly have to trade queens. I wanted to keep queens on the board, but we simply can't allow black to play Ba6. For example, 12. Qc2? Ba6, and our king is trapped in the middle, our knight is pinned, and we are in terrible shape. Here black has deadly threats, such as Qb5 and Qg4. We are simply losing here.

11. Qxc6+ Qd7 12. Qc2? Ba6


We have no choice really but to play 12. Qxb7+. Here black also has an interesting option... The simple recapture Bxd7 looks most obvious, which could lead to the example position I described earlier:

11. Qxc6+ Qd7 12. Qxd7+ Bxd7 13. a3


Or, black could even play Kxd7. This would connect the rooks and begins to activate the king now that queens are off the board. Here black would have the intention of playing Ba6. The threat of keeping our king in the center isn't so bad here with queens off the board. Trying to castle right away would lead to 13. O-O Ba6 14. Re1, moving into another pin, because Rd1 could be met with Be2, Re1, Bxf3, and we are in serious trouble.

11. Qxc6+ Qd7 12. Qxd7+ Kxd7 13. O-O Ba6 14. Re1


I think a better move would be 13. a3, which is very similar to the line and image posted above. No matter how black responds now, we will be able to exchange a piece and remove the knight from e4. The more we simplify the position a pawn ahead, the more we can solidify our slight advantage.


2) 11. ... Bd7.

This move looks bad at first glance, because it simply loses a central pawn, but the follow-up seems at least playable to me. Black can win a pawn back with: 12. Qxd5 Nxd2 13. Bxd2 Bxd2+ 14. Nxd2 Rxb2. The resulting position still looks better for white. We are up a pawn, have stronger control of the center, and black's pawn structure is very weak. Perhaps the only advantage black has is the bishop on an open board.




3) 11. ... Kf8?!

This is probably the most interesing move here... With it, black prevents the trade of queen's and goes for a dynamic, attacking game. The black king looks less secure, but the dark-squared bishop is currently defending the diagonal well. By keeping the rook on h8, black is threatening a king-side attack by eventually playing h5 to try and bust open the king-side. By keeping the queen on the c6 square, black is also threatening a rook shift with tempo, for example 12. O-O Rb6 13. Qc2 Rg6. However, he probably has to develop the bishop first because I don't see a good way for him to respond to Qa8, pinning the bishop and holding the black queen in place.

11. Qxc6+ Kf8 12. O-O

0-0 is bad because Bxd2 Nxd2 Nxd2 Bxd2 Rxb2, hitting the Bishop and forcing us to use another move to protect it.

I REALLY just want to get the pawn, and then force queen trade/mess up his castle/win another pawn.

@qrs, in my opinion I don't think our position is bad after the variation 13. a3 into Rb3. We've traded off even more material in this variation, which is a good thing when a pawn up. We simply have to maneuver our rook, Re1, Re3. If black doubles up on the b file, we can simply play Rc3, attacking his backwards pawn.

Everything here is defended. We have a weakness in the bishop being difficult to develop, but since things are pretty locked down, we have plenty of moves to maneuver around. Black's c-pawn isn't going anywhere, and we have a king-side pawn majority that we can slowly develop.