Sunday 15 February 2009

Over to you


This is a position from a recent game; black has just played his 48th move. The time has come, ladies and gentlemen, for you to use the Comments Box to its full potential: evaluate the position, giving analysis as appropriate.
In a later post, I shall be giving the game, its significance, and my own take on what I think of this position. But for now, it's in your hands.

6 comments:

Tom Chivers said...

Black's better imo, more active pieces and the g6 knight is out of play and potentially in danger. I don't know it's enough to be winning though.

Anonymous said...

My Elo is about 1700. I'll give this a try, and you can tell me what I'm doing wrong.

Well, let's start with generalities...bishops are usually better than knights with pawns on both sides of the board; Black seems to have more active rook and king and his pawns are more advanced. Maybe P on g4 could be attacked, e.g. K on g3, N on e3. Overall, Black seems better.

Next, any threats? Nothing immediate from Black, though I cam imagine K on (e1 or g1), R on e2 and B on c3 - that is a long way off, probably preventable. Or what about Bh6-d2-e1, then Rd2. As for White, two things first come to mind - push f2-f3, and Ng6-h4-f5- etc. (to improve the knight).

Okay, on to moves.... I don't see that K or R moves do much at the moment. 1.f3 seems to force a pawn trade, which helps White (to draw). If 1...gxf3+ 2.Kxf3 - is the knight safe? I think so. However I am less comfortable with 1.Nh4 Rd2 2.Nf5 Bf4 3.Ng3 - White is plainly on the defensive.

My choice is f2-f3.

Anonymous said...

Yikes, belatedly I saw that 1.Nh4 Rd2 2.Nf5 Bf4 allows 3.a3, as the b4 pawn is pinned to the B. So instead play 2...Bg5, after which I still prefer Black.

Mark Leonard said...

Can White get a draw by giving up his knight for the b-pawn?

1.Ra5+ Kc5 2.Ne5+ Kc3 3.Rc5+ Kb2 4.Nc6 Rf4 5.Kg3 Re4 6.Rb5 Bd2 7.Nxb4 Bxb4 8.f3 =

Jack Rudd said...

Interesting line, weakspeaker, although I'm not sure it's a safe assumption that black would meet 49.Ra5+ with 49...Kc4.

Anonymous said...

RE the suggestion 1.f3. Here is a drawing line: 1.f3 gxf3+ 2.Kxf3 Rd3+ 3.Ke4 Ra3 4.Rxa3 bxa3 5.Kd3 then Kc2-b1. White doesn't need the knight here.

But black might answer 1...Bc1, since 2.fxg4 just drops the knight. Then 2.Kg3 gxf3 3.Kxf3 Ba3 and now black can win the a-pawn for sure. In return white should try to sac the knight for the b-pawn with a theoretical draw.

Black has a lot of other ideas here. The knight is looking pretty forlorn, ...Bg5 and ...Re4 leaves it in a tight spot.

The white rook is also not pretty, something like ...Rd8, ...Bd4, ...Kb5 and black would be laughing.

All in all, white should be happy to achieve R v R+B with no pawns.