After I posted The Wrong Strategy and The First Wrong Turn, Alan Griffiths commented
"I think you should consider white exchanging on b4 instead of allowing you to capture on b3. E.g. 17.cxb4"
I’d pretty much ignored this line because I thought white would just be letting black into his position. However, when I actually looked I realised it isn’t so easy. I’ve commented previously that white has neglected development, but here it turns out black is also guilty of neglecting development - the queen’s side pieces are getting in each others’ way!
Let’s look at the move Alan cites: 17.cxb4 - see the first diagram.
The more I look at this position, the more I realise there is a lot to look at! This will take, I think, a couple more articles at least. This time around, I’ll just look at what can happen if black gets over confident.
Black now naturally plays 17…axb4. In this article I’m just looking at what happens after white continues 18.axb4. It looks like 18…Qxb4+ is strong for black, but it’s easy to get carried away: 19.Kf1 Qxb2 20.Kg2 Nc3 (this looks strong at a first glance, but actually black is just getting carried away) 21.Qd2 Nf6 (black needs to get developed, but there isn’t time - remember what I said above about black’s pieces getting in each others’ way?) 22.Rhb1 - see second diagram.
White must give up the queen for two rooks: 22…Nxb1 23.Rxb1 Qxb1 24.Bxb1 Rxb1 - see third diagram.
OK, after all the remarks about black getting carried away, I think you have to say black stands better - having two rooks for the queen and a passed c-pawn. However, white has chances to get active because black still has to find a square for the light squared bishop and get the other rook into the game. All in all, I think black should be able to do better out of the queen’s side pawn advance - something I’ll come back to in later articles.
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White has a poor position - but has better moves than you give him. Instead of 18 axb4? both 18 Rg1 and 18 Nh5 leave Black to do his own work on the Queen’s side. E.g. 18 Rg1 bxa3 19 bxa3 rb2 20 Nh5
I’m not sure the moves you suggest are any better. I think after the example line you suggest black just plays 20…Rf7, with a transposition into a position I looked at in my “The Wrong Strategy and The First Wrong Turn” article.
Having said that, white can (almost certainly) do better and this is something I plan to pick up in future articles.
- Mark.
Actually (sorry) I don’t think it’s quite a transposition, but the resulting position is very similar.
- Mark.