Greetings players and fellow patzers 🙂
Recently finished another game with user
@Shaun12 which once again contained valuable lessons,
the main one being the difficult task of pawn move calculations.
The first critical moment was reached here, Black to move:
Black played 26...d6-d5
Naturally White can play Bxe5 and would be able to hold onto the pawn after BxN,
however Black can sac a piece to get a far advanced pawn.
The length of calculation required to work this out,
to determine whether the sac was sound and ultimately who is winning
is unfortunately beyond my current level 🙁
It turns out my opponent had also miscalculated!
Here's the full game with notes
[Event "Challenge"] [Site "http://www.redhotpawn.com"] [Date "2017.02.13"] [EndDate "2017.04.08"] [Round "?"] [White "64squaresofpain"] [Black "Shaun12"] [WhiteRating "1852"] [BlackRating "1802"] [WhiteElo "1852"] [BlackElo "1802"] [Result "1-0"] [GameId "12088400"] 1. e4 e5 2. Ng1f3 Nb8c6 3. Bf1c4 Bf8e7 4. O-O d6 5. c3 Bc8g4 6. d3 Nc6a5 7. Bc4b5 c6 {This Bishop is going to be tucked away, with Black gaining a lot of space} 8. Bb5a4 b5 {However in many situations such pawn advances can be considered weakening in the long term} 9. Ba4c2 c5 10. b4 {My Bishop wants to go back on b3} 10... Na5c6 11. h3 {Perhaps bad timing, now after trades Black could win a pawn on b4 if he wanted} 11... Bg4xf3 12. Qd1xf3 cxb4 13. cxb4 Nc6d4 {Black instead uses the more strategic option, placing a Knight on a strong central square} 14. Qf3d1 Ra8c8 15. Nb1a3 Qd8c7 {? Here Bb2 can be played, as Nxc2 would then be met with Rc1} 16. Bc2b3 {Missed} 16... Nd4xb3 {Black gives up the Knight and helps White's development of the Queen, developing with Nf6 was better} 17. Qd1xb3 Qc7c3 18. Ra1b1 {? Nxb5 was actually playable, as Qxa1 would simply be met with Bb2} 18... a6 19. Bc1e3 Qc3xb3 20. Rb1xb3 Ng8f6 21. Rf1c1 {Contesting the open file... after trades, the position is maybe slightly better for Black} 21... Rc8xc1 22. Be3xc1 Ke8d7 23. Bc1d2 Rh8c8 24. Rb3c3 Rc8xc3 25. Bd2xc3 Kd7c6 26. Na3c2 d5 {? Here, both sides calculated the same line but with different results... as it turns out, we were both wrong!} 27. Bc3xe5 {The idea was the pawn would eat its way to c2 and both Kings would be bound to that spot, resulting in a "who gets Zugzwanged" battle} 27... dxe4 28. Be5xf6 exd3 29. Bf6xe7 dxc2 30. Be7g5 Kc6d5 {Both sides had calculated Black King to b1 and White King to d2, leaving just the pawns to play} 31. Bg5c1 {However Kf1 first here, then Bd2 instead of c1 was considered better} 31... Kd5c4 32. a3 Kc4b3 33. Kg1f1 Kb3a2 34. Kf1e2 Ka2b1 35. Ke2d2 {So now the critical position... we both wanted this, but who is better?} 35... h6 {? What surprised me was that g7-g5 here for Black was actually the winning move, as Fritz evaluated the position at -5.07} 36. g3 {Black is still winning however, with move h6-h5 this time} 36... g6 {? Incredible, this swings the evaluation completely the other way, now White is winning} 37. h4 {(I really wish I was at a level where I could calculate these sort of lines with accuracy)} 37... h5 38. f3 f6 39. g4 {There are multiple ways this could go, all lead to Black's zugzwang and eventual mate in the corner} 39... f5 40. gxh5 gxh5 41. f4 {Black resigned} 1-0
I did see one neat little mate, see next post 🙂
Rather tricky pawn/Zugzwang calculation
09 Apr '17 12:44
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