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Problem of the Week
200
9.07.05








White to move and win

Need a hint?


Solution


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This one's going to take some work, so I recommend that you get out your own board and set up the following position before playing through any of the variations below.








The last move-pair appears to have been e4-e5 and Nf6-e4, with the idea (for Black) of ganging up on the pinned piece, normally a good idea.

Here though, Black has committed the sin of bringing out his queen too early in the game, and her position is insecure, to say the least.

White takes advantage, and defends his knight via counter-attack, also frequently a good idea!

1.a3








Challenging the queen, who can't capture first on d2 because of White's other knight, and if the queen leaves the a5-e1 diagonal, unpinning the white knight, the black knight at e4 will be lost.

What to do?

First Black tries to maintain the pin long enough to transfer the queen to d5, protecting the e4-knight.

1...Qa5 2.b4









Analysis Diagram: after 2.b4

Here we will look in turn at A) 2...Nxb4, B) 2...Qd5, and C) 2...Nxf2.

A.  2...Nxb4

Black realizes now that 2...Qd5 loses as shown in note C below, so instead tries the text.

3.axb4 Qxb4 +- 2.16









Analysis Diagram: after 3...Qxb4

The best of these alternate lines for Black, though hardly encouraging.
 

Alternatives at move two for Black include:

B. 2...Qd5 3.Bc4 Nc3 4.Qc1 (Also very effective here is 4.Bxd5 Nxd1 5.Kxd1 Ne7 6.Be4 +- 4.37) 4...Nxe5 5.dxe5 (Not as good is 5.Bxd5 Nd3+ 6.Kf1 Nxc1 and now 7.Bc4! +- 2.06, but not 7.Rxc1? Nxd5 -0.91) 5...Qc6 6.Qxc3 b5 7.Bxf7+ +- 4.25









Analysis Diagram: after 7.Bxf7+


C.  Or Black can try the desperado technique, wherein a doomed piece sacrifices (sic) itself for whatever it can get, as in the following line:









Analysis Diagram: after 2.b4


2...Nxf2 3.Kxf2 (good, but not as good, is 3.bxa5 Nxd1 4.Rxd1 d6 5.a6 dxe5 6.dxe5 b6 7.Bd3 +- 2.22) 3...Qb6 4.Nc4 Qa6 5.Ne3 b5









Analysis Diagram: after 5...b5

Here Herr Fritz asserts that there are many paths to glory, but the one he likes best is 6.Nd5 Qb7 7.Qd3 a5 8.Ng5 g6 9.Nf6+ +- 4.19









Analysis Diagram: after 9.Nf6+


Back to the original first-move alternative for Black, from the following position, Black tries the aforementioned desperado technique:








1...Nxf2 2.axb4 Nxd1 3.Rxd1 Nxb4 4.Rc1 +- 2.16









Analysis Diagram: after 4.Rc1


No, the best Black has is to simply bite the bullet, so to speak, and get what he can for his lost piece.  Back to the main line, again, after 1.a3:








1...Qxb2 2.Nxe4 +- 1.53








The result leaves Black in a slightly better position compared to any of the other alternatives discussed above.  The numeric values are according to Fritz at 13-ply.


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