Continuing on from yesterday’s Chess Analysis and Missing the Obvious post - a saga that begain with the post Comedy of Errors but an Eventful Draw - I have just got to the point in the game where I managed to convert the win of a piece into the loss of the exchange.
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 c5 3.Bf4 e6 4.e3 b6 5.Bd3 Bb7 6.Nbd2 Be7 7.h3 0-0 8.c3 d5 9.Qe2 Ne4 10.0-0-0 Nd7 11.h4 Qc8 12.Kb1 a5 13.Ng5 cxd4 14.cxd4 Ndf6 15.Rc1 Qd7 16.Rc7 Qd8 17.Rxb7 Bd6 18.Bxd6 Nxd6
In my previous post (above) I presented the analysis of ways I could have avoided loss of material. However, in the game I played
19.e4!?
Which having looked at it for a while, I think is actually a reasonable alternative - it looks like white’s attack may well afford quite sufficient compensation for the exchange!
(See first diagram).
The game went 19…Nxb7 20.e5 but I think we need to have a quick look at what happens if black doesn’t grab the rook immediately and tries taking on e4 (to stop white playing e4-e5). After 19…de 20.Ndxe4, if black now takes the rook, after the exchange on f6 and black takes back with the queen, white lands on h7: 19…dxe4 20.Ndxe4 Nxb7 21.Nxf6+ Qxf6 22.Bxh7+ Kh8 23.Be4 Nd6 (23…Rfb8 24.Qh5+ Qh6 25.Nxf7+ and black looses the queen) 24.Bxa8 Rxa8 25.Qh5+ Kg8 26.Qh7+ Kf8 27.Qh8+ Ke7 28.Qxa8. Note that after 19…de 20.Ndxe4 black can’t exchange on e4 - white takes back with the bishop and the rook on b7 is protected.
Back to the game.
The game went 19.e4 Nxb7 20.e5 g6 21.exf6 - black felt the need to concede approximate material equality rather than allow white a landing on h7. This is where we get to the main point of this post. In the game I grabbed the knight without giving it much thought - I was happy just not to be material down - but I’m now convinced this was the wrong way to go, because 25.h5! looks VERY strong (see second diagram).
Black seems to be stuck between a rock and a hard place! I’m running a bit short of time at the moment, so I can’t do all the analysis I’d like to right now (sorry), but it looks like black can’t allow the h-file to be opened, and at the same time the knight is still en-pris. I’ll have to come back to this and take a deeper look in a future post. I still need to look at black’s possibilities for hanging on after the opening of the h-file, but I think you’d gave to agree white can be optimistic! For the time being, well, black can’t take the pawn with the knight: 21…Nxh5 22.Rxh5 gxh5 23.Qxh5 (see third diagram).
Game over! Mate follows in a few moves.
After 21.h5, 21…Ne4 looks like a plausible attempt to hang on, but 22.Nxh7 Kxh7 23.hxg6+ Kg7 24.Rh7+ Kg8 25.Qh5 (see forth diagram) follows
and once again the it’s game over!
To conclude, I don’t think I have any excuse for just grabbing back the material (when I took the knight on f6). White’s attacking position was so well developed I really have no excuse for missing 21.h5!
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You say “black can’t take the pawn with the knight: 21…Nxh5 22.Rxh5 gxh5 23.Qxh5″ - but actually that line demonstrates that black can’t take the rook. Try the effect of 22…Rc8 or 22…Qe7 - while White is still ahead these are not the disaster that 22…gxh5 is.
Yes of course you’re right. I’d completely missed that black can take white’s knight (on g5) after white plays Rxh7. I’ve looked at this and found black can defend in this line. However it seems that black is still lost after (say) 22…Qe7 (I don’t think other moves makes any difference) because white can actually play 23.Nxh7(!) when the threat of 24.Nf6+ forces black to play 23…f5. Anyway, I’ll leave it at that for this comment, and look at it in an article. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.