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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