Hi Tyson et al,
Due to a mail corruption, thank you Microsoft! I’ve come into this discussion
at the point of the analysis from move 25 on. Extremely interesting and
instructive! I have one perplexity, though. You give the position showing the
queen on e7, then your 26th move is Qe7. Given the discussion regarding
reversing the queen and bishop, I’m guessing that perhaps the queen is on c7?
Thanks,
Jim T
Sent from Mail for Windows 10
From: mordue andrew
Sent: Friday, June 8, 2018 4:09 PM
To: usbca_chess
Subject: [usbca_chess] One Idea Further - the Solution
Hello everyone.
I intended to post over the weekend but Chris's excellent analysis has got us
there earlier. Well done Chris and anyone else who worked all this out
independently.
First of all a reminder of the initial position:
White: King h1, Queen a6, Rooks b1 and d1, Pawns on a4, b2, c3, f4, g2 and h2.
Black: King g8, Queen e7, Rook e8, Bishop d6, Knight c6, Pawns a5, f7, g7 and
h7.
The main line of my analysis goes:
25. Rd5 Bxf4
26. Rc5? Qe7!
27. Rxc6 Qh4
28. g3 Bxg3
29. Qe2! Kf8!
30. Qg2 Bxh2!
31. Qf3 Bb8+!
32. Kg1 or g2 Qh2+
33. Kf1 Ba7
34. Qg2 Qf4+
35. Qf2 or f3 QxQ mate
Let's tidy up some loose ends.
We've already agreed that White's best 27th move was Rh5 but that Black obtains
a clear advantage due to his superior piece play. 27 Rxc6 forces Black to prove
his point. Objectively White has won the battle on the Queenside, but he loses
the war on the Kingside because his King will perish.
At move 28 if White plays 28 Kg1 then 28... Bxh2+ 29 Kf1 simply 29... Qf4 is
mate. If White chooses 28 h3 instead then Black wins the White Queen with
28...Re1+. White must interpose with 29 Qf1 or get mated. However, Black can
also play 28...Qg3 threatening 29...Qh2 mate. The only defence is 29 Kg1 and
after 29...Qh2+ White has a choice between 30 Kf1 and 30 Kf2.
After 30 Kf1 the simplest move is 30...Qh1+ followed by 31...Qxb1 leaving Black
a piece up with an attack. There are other complicated winning lines. Instead
after 30 Kf2 Black plays 30...Be3+. Now if 31 Kf3 Qf4+ 32 Ke2 Bc1+! 33 Kd3 Qe4
is mate.Alternatively 30 Kf2 Be3+ 31 Ke2 Qxg2+ 32 Kd3 (best) Qe4+! 33 Ke2 Qc2+
34 Kf3 Qf2+ 35 Kg4 Qg2+ and all of 36 Kf5, 36 Kh5 and 36 Kh4 are answered by
36...Qg5 mate. I give these lines to prove exactly how strong the attack is
against an unco-ordinated defence.
An interesting false trail is 28 h3 Qg3 29 Kg1 Re1+ 30 Rxe1 Qxe1+ 31 Qf1 and
now 31...Be3+ or 31...Bh2+ win the White Queen. Unfortunately after 32 Kh2 Qxf1
33 Rc8 is mate!
In the main line 29 Qe2! Kf8! is a fine pair of finesses. Upon choosing between
30 Qc2 and 30 Qg2 the only difference is that White can keep some sort of vague
shelter for the King with the latter and 31 Qf3. However, the outflanking
retreat 31...Bb8+ - the only way to get around the White major pieces - renders
this try insufficient.
There is also the alternative at move 31 of Qxh2. The reply is clearly
31...Qe4+ 32 Qg2 Qxb1+ - that loose Rook again - 33 Kh2 and now 33...Qf5!
introduces the threat 34...Qh5+ 35 Kg1 Re1+ 36 Kf2 Re2+ winning the Queen.
Black is a Pawn up here but the exposure of the White King to a rampaging Black
Queen and Rook coupled with the loose Rook on c6 means White has an impossible
defensive job. I knew this at the time of the game. However, today I asked Deep
Rybka to evaluate the position. After 33...Qf5 it said Black was better by a
massive +9.67. That's the equivalent of an extra Queen! Judgement confirmed.
The fact that some of these lines are over ten moves deep is not too important.
This was a correspondence game and I had plenty of time to check my analysis.
What's more most of the sequence is/are forcing moves - checks, captures, mate
threats - which demands precision but reduces the number of candidate moves
considerably. I'd like to point out that this game was played in 1983-84 which
was before the age of strong computer chess-playing programs so this is all my
own work, but it is useful to have a silicon monster confirm the details.
The point of this discussion was to illustrate how important it is to look one
idea further, not merely one move. An idea will always be longer than one move
but it is not possible to state a limit. Indeed in the above main line we could
define 29 Qe2 as an idea and although it is based on a short four move line
(29...Rxe2?? 30 Rc8+ Qd8 31 Rxd8+ Re8 32 Rxe8 mate) compared to Black's
ten-move plus lines it is not to be discounted. Indeed it makes this position
much richer in detail and, to a chess purist, more enjoyable.
You may ask how did I come up with the idea of 26...Qe7? This was based on the
twin ideas of mates on the back rank and the switch of the Black Queen and
Bishop to mate on h2. Also the remoteness of the White pieces from the defence
of the White King is an attractive factor for an attacking player. Finally,
there was the irony of the game continuation where White actually left the c5
Rook en prise, having placed it there only a move before with the idea of
winning the pinned Knight. The biter bitten. Nevertheless, there was a lot of
analysis to do and, together with judging a position, this will always be the
key to playing chess well.
Thank you for reading these notes. I hope you found them beneficial.
Best wishes,
Tyson
