TL Chess Match 4 - Page 70

12. Qc2 just feels super defensive for only taking a pawn. Imagine you're in a gunfight with someone, you shoot at them once and it nicks them in the upper arm. Then they lob a grenade at you. That's what's happening in this game right now.

The best move in this position, I don't see a better move. The only thing I like about this series of moves if we gets to speed up the game, lol

If we Qxc6+, we are doing so with the intention of trading after, correct? What about Qxa7, what would be the negatives of taking a different pawn and applying pressure to his rook?

Lot of trading coming up...

If we keep the Bishop on c1 to protect the b2 pawn and instead recapture on d2 with first our Knight and then our King, Black still probably gets the pawn back (and a generally dominating position) with ...Qg5+.

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

Rb8 was a solid response. After Qxc6, he will 99% likely play Qd7. At that point I suggest we trade queens, giving us a slightly advantageous game.

If he plays Bd7, we get another pawn+attack his knight.

If he moves his king, we messed up his castle. Either way, we have a little advantage.

11. Qxa7 (threatens the Rook, so Black can't just play the whole sequence he wants to without first defending it). 11...Rb7 (the move I originally counted on: Black defends the Rook with tempo). 12. Qa8 (the move I hadn't paid attention to: White takes the Queen out of danger while pinning down a bunch of Black's pieces: in particular, the Queen has to stay home to defend the Bishop. This buys an extra move for us, as 12...Qg5+ is no longer a good option for Black. Furthermore, it pins Black's Rook to his c6 pawn, so that if we play 12. Bxd2 Rxb2, we can respond with 13. Qxc6+ and stay a pawn ahead. hp.Shell actually alluded to this in his original post, but I misunderstood what he meant.)

In particular, it may allow us to keep the pawn and still castle, which I'm don't think we can do in the 11. Qxc6+ line. Castling is a very useful move here if we can play it: it takes a lot of the pressure off us.

11. Qxa7 Bxd2+ 12. Bxd2 Nxd2 13. Nxd2 Rxb2

This loses our one-pawn advantage we gain with Qxc6+ and also opens up the opportunity for 14. ...Qg5 putting lots of pressure on us and threatening 15 ...Qxd2# (well, it might as well be # in that case.)

Or maybe
11. Qxa7 Bxd2+ 12. Bxd2 R

11. Qxa7 Bxd2+ 12. Nxd2 (not 12. Bxd2). Now we're back to the old situation: if Black plays 12...Nxd2 then we can take his rook.

11. Qxa7 Nxd2! If 12. QxR, then 12...NxN++! (double check, not checkmate) seems to create grave problems for us.