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< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 2 OF 2 ·
Later Kibitzing > |
| Dec-20-04 |
| Cyphelium: <euripides> I agree. BTW, 28.- Bxh6+ 29. Rxh6 Nxh6 30. Nf6+ Kf7 31. Qh4 might be simpler, though it doesn't matter much. |
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| Dec-20-04 |
| karlzen: Some possible improvements:
The simple 7...Bd7 could be considered to avoid the wreckening of the pawn structure. Play could follow 8.Qd2 a6 9.Be2 0-0 and black should have no more than small problems. Play continues and moves 7-19 are very natural. I do not think of black's 11...0-0 as a mistake of some sort, he doesn't have much of an alternative anyway. On move 19 I would consider starting a counterattack as black (he must do so at some point before it's too late!) with 19...a4! 20.Nxa4 Nc4! 21.bxc4 Rxa4 22.h6 Be7! (I love this plan) 23.Bxg7 Bh4! 24.Rdh1 Rxc4 25.g3 Bf6 and any white advantage is very questionable. Later on, 25...d4?? seems to me a big mistake and surely the simple 25...Qe7 is not that bad for black? In the case of 26.Re1 just play 26...d4 since now 27.c3 is met by Nd3+ winning the exchange. After 25...d4 it is probably over but 26...Bd6 at least forces white to think things over: 27.Nxd6 Qxd6 28.cxd4 cxd4 29.f4 Qc5+ 30.Kb1 Nf7 31.Rxd4 Re2 32.Rc4! could be the continuation. I must say I'm quite surprised white didn't spot 28.Rxd4! Qe7 29.Rd7!. 28.Bxd4 should be winning too but 28...Re6! and white still has a few moves to go before it's all clear: 29.Bb2 Qb6 30.Nf6+ Rxf6 31.Bxf6 Bxh6+ 32.f4 a4 33.Kb1 c5 34.Bb2 Qb4 35.Qf3! should do it. |
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| Dec-20-04 |
| Granite: So I saw the queen sac and the pawn check but I didn't realize it was mate and kept telling myself making a new queen wouldn't work because the knight protected the square. Doh! |
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| Dec-20-04 |
| Rama: I though 13 ... Nd7 was weak. It seemed to me to be time to initiate a sacrificial attack with. 13 ... a4, 14 Nxa4 Rxa4, (14 bxa4 Bc6) 15 bxa4 Qa8 or Qd7. |
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Dec-20-04
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| kevin86: I would call this one "The Swinging Gate Mate". The forced capture of the queen opens up the square for a mate-by a lowly peasant pawn no less. Usually this theme allows for a rook or queen to enter at h8-in this case white didn't have to go through the opening-just to stop at the gate's spot. |
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Dec-20-04
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| beenthere240: <rama> Black made a whole series of strange moves with the king knight. I can't even begin to imagine what 13...Nd7 was about and the last move, 26....Nf7 closes the escape hatch and thereby makes the mate by h7 possible. It's a step away from being a selfmate. |
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Dec-20-04
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| notyetagm: Another <overworked blockader>: 29  xg6+! hxg6 30 h7#. The Black h7-pawn is <overworked>, having to perform the dual defensive duties of blockading the White h6-pawn (stopping it from advancing) and also guarding the g6-square. It can't do both and 29 xg6+! deflects it from its blockading task. |
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Dec-20-04
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| patzer2: <Karlzen> Thanks for the note on the strong defensive possibility 25...Qe7!, which I loverlooked in my quick look at the position. |
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| Dec-20-04 |
| MidnightDuffer: Black faltered here but I think the sloppy play was because he was Plomp tuckered out. |
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| Dec-20-04 |
| azaris: At least he took defeat with grace and a Plomp. |
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Dec-20-04
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| midknightblue: Great Monday puzzle. What is the weeks theme? Please reply plomptly! |
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Dec-20-04
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| EXIDE: How do you folks get a cartoon posted with your name? Puzzle was solveable and interesting. |
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Dec-20-04
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| tpstar: <midknightblue> This was an exciting Jadoul to the death, but White (clearly inspired by Michelangelo) broke through the Gordon Knot to prevail with much Plomp and ceremony. Happy Holidays! <EXIDE> Those are avatars and indicate Premium Membership for $22/year. Great gift idea = ChessGames.com Premium Membership |
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| Dec-21-04 |
| Cyphelium: <karlzen> On 19.- a4, isn't 20. f4 a better try than 20. Nxa4? At least 20.- axb3 21. fxe5 bxa2 22. Nxa2 Rxa2 23. e6! looks rather promising. 20.- a3 is better, though 21. Ba1 Ng4!? 22. Nd5 c6 23. Ne3 Nxe3 24. Rxe3 might be good for white. |
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Dec-21-04
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| euripides: <Karlzen> Your analysis shows Black's position to be surprisingly robust, sugesting Black's earlier play made more sense than I thought. Qe7 is also useful agaisnt other ideas e.g. 25...Qe7 26 Nxc5 Qxc5 27 Bxe5 Qe3+ or 23 Rg3 Qe7. After 25 ...Qe7 White can try 26 f4. After 26...fe 27 Bxe5 Black looks positionally worse, unless he can organise an attack on White's king; 27 fe is also worth considering. Black's best seems to be 26 ... Nd7 when Black seems better after 27 Qc3 Qxe4 (...d4 28 Qc4+ looks excellent for White) 28 Qh8+ Kf7 29 Qxh7+ Ke6, but White can proceed more calmly with 27 Ng5 and the problem of the black-squared diagonal has not gone away. Black can then try 27... Nb6, ready to meet 28 Qc3 with ...d4, but White could then try 28 f5; alternatively, Black has 27...d4 when 28 Qd3 looks best and Black still looks very much in the game. If this is right, it's interesting that the delay in Black's flank counterattack may not be too costly in this game, because he gets enough play in the centre. |
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| Dec-21-04 |
| karlzen: You're welcome, <patzer2>! <rama>, <beenthere240> I think the maneouvre Nf6-d7-e5 wasn't as bad as one may think. The knight on e5 can be a great help if black plays a5-a4, furthermore the knight defends the kingside from e5 (covering the a1-h8 diagonal. In the case of 13...a4 14.Nxa4 Rxa4? 15.bxa4 Qd7 white has 16.e4 followed by Nf5 and Qg5 perhaps with a very strong attack. <euripides>, 25...Qe7 26.Nxc5? Qxc5 27.f4 Nd7 28.Qxg6+ is another try for white but black's king will escape to the queenside and he should win. There is nothing wrong with 25...Qe7 26.f4 Nd7 27.Qc3 Qxe4 but if black is a bit afraid then 27...d4 is a good alternative and I don't get your comment "excellent for white", 28.Qc4+ Qe6 29.Qxe6+ Rxe6 30.Ng5 Re2 looks pretty equal to me. :) On 27.Ng5 I think 27...d4 (27...Qd6) is actually quite allright since black answers Qd3 or c3 with the simple Nb6. <Cyphelium>, 19...a4 20.f4 a3? 21.Ba1 Ng4 22.Nd5?! c6 23.Ne3 Nxe3 24.Rxe3 Qh4!? could very well hold but white has the stronger 22.h6! I believe, 22...Nxh6? 23.Rxh6 gxh6 24.Nd5 Bg7 25.f6 and black's position is not happy! 22...Qf6! instead: 23.Rdh1 Nxh6 24.Kb1! (defending a1) 24...Qxf5 25.Rh5 Qe6 26.Rxh6 gxh6 27.Nd5 and again white should win. 20...axb3! looks much better: 21.fxe5 bxa2 22.Nxa2 Rxa2 23.e6 fxe6 24.fxe6 c6! intending Rxe6 and now for example: 25.Re3 Be7 26.Qf2 Rxb2! and black should win. |
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| Dec-21-04 |
| Cyphelium: <karlzen> After (19.- a4 20. f4 axb3 21. fxe5 bxa2 22. Nxa2 Rxa2 23. e6 fxe6 24. fxe6) I agree that 24.- c6! makes the whole 20. fxe5 idea look dubious. Anyway, white is hardly forced to play 20. fxe5. Instead 20. axb3 and it will be rather similar to your 'not happy' variations, I believe. =) |
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| Dec-22-04 |
| karlzen: <Cyphelium>, 19...a4 20.f4 axb3 21.axb3 Nc6! 22.h6 Nd4 (Qf6)(a subtle point: white's b-pawn is now undefended so c2-c3 will be harder to achieve than in the "not happy" line above!). I think black gets an improved line of 20...a3? and I don't see anything clearly better for white but he is at least slightly better. Black's key defence seems to be based on the blockading knight on d4, the queen and Ra1+ tricks but the position is still not that happy! :) Perhaps black played rather accurately up to 25..d4?? (Qc5) after all. It may look a bit strange but I don't see anything very convincing for white. |
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| Dec-22-04 |
| Cyphelium: <karlzen> After 19.- a4 20. f4 axb3 21. axb3 Nc6, why not 22. Nd5? |
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| Dec-22-04 |
| karlzen: <Cyphelium>, I was so into the h6-idea I didn't consider any other moves really. On 22.Nd5 I guess 22...Ra2 23.h6 is bad for black so why not 22...Nd4? After 23.Bxd4 cxd4 24.Qxd4: 24...Re2 25.h6 Ra2 26.Ne3 Qa8 27.Kb1 Raxc2 does not seem to work so black should choose 24...c6 25.Ne3 d5! 26.h6 Qd6 (Qa5) and the weaknesses on the dark-squares will soon tell. |
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| Dec-22-04 |
| Cyphelium: <karlzen> On 22.- Nd4 23. Bxd4 cxd4 24. Qxd4 c6 25. Ne3 d5, 26. Ng4 is interesting. Some late afternoon 'flum' for you:
26.- Qa5 27. Nh6+ Kh8 28. Nxf7+ Kg8 29. Ne5 Bb4!? (29.- Bc5 30. Nxc6 Qa1+ 31. Qxa1 Rxa1+ 32. Kd2 Be3+ 33. Rxe3 Rxd1+ 34. Rxd1 Rxe3 35. b4 and stop that one) 30. Nxc6 and the endgame after 30.- Qa1+ 31. Qxa1 Rxa1+ 32. Kb2 Rxd1 33. Nxb4 looks good for white. 26.- Qd6 27. Rg3 Ra1+ 28. Kd2 Rxd1+ 29. Kxd1 Kh8 30. Ne5 Kg8. Not too bad for white either, I guess. |
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| Dec-22-04 |
| karlzen: <Cyphelium>, 25.Ne3 d5 26.Ng4 Qd6 27.Rg3 Qa3+ looks like a draw to me since: 28.Qb2 Qb4 and black's ideas (Qxf4, Re1, Ra7, Rea8 etc) are too dangerous so white must bail out with Nh6xf7-h6-f7. If instead 26...Qa5...29...Bb4 30.Nxc6?? (you need an improvement!) 30...Bd2+!! 31.Rxd2 Qa3+ 32.Qb2 Re1+ wins. :) |
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Dec-22-04
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| midknightblue: <tpstar> Thanks for the response. Very punny. Happy Holidays to you too my friend. By the way, I plan to play in HB foundation tourney in May - anyone else? Will there be a booth where we can meet? That would be cool. |
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| Dec-23-04 |
| Cyphelium: <karlzen> Oopsie! =) For some reason I only considered (26.- Qa5...29.-Bb4) 30. Nxc6 Qa3+? 31. Qb2 Bd2+ 32. Kb1 etc.
BTW, after 26.- Qa5, I also tried 27. Nf6+, but after 27.- gxf6 (27.- Kh8 28. Nxe8 Rxe8 29. Re3 Ra8 30. h6) 28. Rg3+ Bg7 29. h6 Re4!, black wins again. So white is struggling there too. I now think that the whole concept of giving away the black squares with Bxd4 is bad. I also think you are right about 25.- d4 being the chief blunder. |
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| Dec-24-04 |
| karlzen: <Cyphelium>, I agree! :) Merry Christmas to you and everyone else! |
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< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 2 OF 2 ·
Later Kibitzing > |
sac: 28.Bxd4