Intersting evaluation from Rybka

Rybka evaluates this as almost even... I think I would prefer White myself. (This is NOT a game in progress!).

White to move.

Thoughts?

If material was even I'd say black was better. White just doesn't have any developed pieces.

Well, in terms of just material, it seems that having a piece and pawn for a rook is considered a deficit of less than a pawn. Then, when you factor in that white is behind in development, equal seems like a reasonable assessment.

Edit: Can white even hold onto the extra pawn, or will e6 eventually fall to things like Qc8 and Nc7?

where is the extra pawn (9 th) ?

I think the e6-pawn will fall most likely, at the cost of a few tempi. Nevertheless, black has enough development advantage to compensate for the exchange vs. pawn material disadvantage.

at first glance c4 looks like white's best chance to me
Edit: f3 looks ok too

Originally posted by Crushing Day
[fen]q4k1r/p3p1bp/n2pPnp1/1pp2p2/8/6P1/PPP1PP1P/RNBQ1RK1 w - - 5 12[/fen]

Rybka evaluates this as almost even... I think I would prefer White myself. (This is NOT a game in progress!).

White to move.

Thoughts?

How long time did Rybka analyse this position? Actualy in some positions Rybka is overating good piece play.

Black can win the e6 pawn if he likes, there are no open lines for the extra rook so actually right now the knight is better then the rook. Black also has better development.

I'm playing a game in progress right now, where I lost the exchange early where I have rook for knight. I have survived now for quite a lot of moves and there where a lot more open files in that game to start with, so this should defenitly be possible to play for black I think.

The game is soon finnished for me I think. I can post it here if someone would like to have a look at it.

Not very scientific but I did a shootout using Rybka and Fruit: +2 -3 =1

Black is 1-0 up in my shootout.

Stupid Fritz 9.

Comet B50 is soooo slow.

Originally posted by Korch
How long time did Rybka analyse this position? Actualy in some positions Rybka is overating good piece play.

Good point, Korch.

I went back and ran it for 30 minutes on Rybka and got the following evals:

depth=20

Nd2 -- .48

f3 -- .52

c3 -- .55

Then, I ran it for 30 mins. on Gandalf 6; a different conclusion was reached:

depth = 18

a4 -- .92

G6 also looked at e4 for a long time.

Originally posted by Crushing Day
[fen]q4k1r/p3p1bp/n2pPnp1/1pp2p2/8/6P1/PPP1PP1P/RNBQ1RK1 w - - 5 12[/fen]

Rybka evaluates this as almost even... I think I would prefer White myself. (This is NOT a game in progress!).

White to move.

Thoughts?

Blacks equality is temporary. The e6 pawn falls so in straight material math we are +1. Black has more space and development with no weaknesses. I think Rybka may be over evaluating White's light square weakness around the king. With no QB Black will have a hard time exploiting this.

I say .2-.5. If black finds an effective plan (h4? kingside attack) then maybe equality. If black plays lamely and white opens a file or two on the queenside then the heavy pieces may make the difference.

Opps - not sure how I gave black an extra pawn in that position. 🙂 So I guess it's better to say that black will have a pawn for the exchange, plus beter piece play, perhaps, which is probably how Rybka gets to equality.

Ok heres a game with rook against knight that was a drawGame 3153362

The problem with engine evaluations is that even though White may be .92 or 1.14 he still has to win the game. Against a bad player I would rather have the extra pawn than the rook.

Originally posted by giantrobot
The problem with engine evaluations is that even though White may be .92 or 1.14 he still has to win the game. Against a bad player I would rather have the extra pawn than the rook.

It is misleading to let computers decide, they play very differently.

Against a human, I would rather be black. I like knights and clear position objectives.

Computers play a lot better against knights than humans, so I would expect more tactical opportunities.

Rooks need open files and with all the pawns, black will need to try to deny these.

White will have much more difficulty to deny black strong outposts on the kingside. The imminent death of his d pawn will mean outposts in the center may appear if he advances his c and e pawns.

Having a full set of pawns against a black squared bishop means that it may be "biting granite" for much of the game.

White is in danger of having serious white square weaknesses on the kingside.