Curtains vs PoG

[David Steele]

What else can he do? 21.Qxd5 Nxd5 and now he has even fewer options for this bishop.

21.Ba3 (where is this going?)

Yeah thats why I was even looking at Bf4 but now I don't see any good moves for him, Rc2 must be the best, unless someone can come up with a move for him.

D.

[StregaChess]

[ QUOTE ]

20...Rc2 21.Bf4 and we can just go Qxd4 and hold it (22.Qxb7 Ne4).

What else can he do? 21.Qxd5 Nxd5 and now he has even fewer options for this bishop.

21.Ba3 (where is this going?) Ree2 or Ne4 or Qxd4 are all possible.

[/ QUOTE ]

You know.... I'd like to play Rc3 just because we can! LOL, the sign of a fish....

20... Rc2
21. Qxd5 Nxd5
22.Kf3

[TimM]

[ QUOTE ]

20... Rc2
21. Qxd5 Nxd5
22.Kf3

[/ QUOTE ]

Then we can probe his interest in playing for a win with 22...Rc3+ 23.Kg2 Rc2.

It seems that he can pitch his d-pawn to equalize anyway, so maybe our activity isn't all that great.

[esad]

20...Ne4

Leads him to

21. Be3

Then we can play

21... Rc2

Might lead to exchange of rooks, but we'll have better position from this line.

[xorbie]

Re4 is better imo.

[TimM]

[ QUOTE ]
Re4 is better imo.

[/ QUOTE ]

What's your answer to Be3?

[xorbie]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Re4 is better imo.

[/ QUOTE ]

What's your answer to Be3?

[/ QUOTE ]

i'm torn between g5 and Ng4. Ng4 leads to either h3 or Rh1.

if h3:

... Nxe3!
fxe3 Rc2!
Rf2 Rxf2!
Kxf2

then we push h5 and g5 and take it from there.

Rh1 leads to loss of queen because he has no defense to ...Rc2!

if he plays neither h3 or Rh1, then i think against any move we play:

... Nxh2
Kxh2 Rh4!
Kg2 Rh2!
Kxh2 Qxf3

and we win queen + pawn for rook + knight which is quite equitable.

i'm having more difficulty analyzing g5 because i'm not sure how he would respond. h3 doesn't work so well because:

...g4
hxg4 Nxg4

and now he has the same problem, but with no way to even force out the knight, so we can even play Rc2 first and threaten the bishop further.

[David Steele]

[ QUOTE ]
'm having more difficulty analyzing g5 because i'm not sure how he would respond.


[/ QUOTE ]
Can't he just play Kg1 and the black g pawn is just out of place?

I dont really get the idea in the first part either
[ QUOTE ]
then we push h5 and g5 and take it from there.

[/ QUOTE ]
What does pushing those pawns do at that wide open point?

[Stephen H]

What about a queen trade now? Do we want to be drawing his king forward? 20...Qxf3+ 21. Kxf3 Rc3+ 22. Be3 (If 22. Kg2 then Re2, and 22. Kf4?? leads to mate)
Is this better for us? I'm not sure that we have enough going here to make up for the pawn we gave up to get here.
I have no good ideas how to proceed after 22. Be3, though.

[TimM]

If you want to do good chess analysis, you have to consider good moves by the opponent, not just the moves that play into our hands.

After 20...Re4 21.Be3 g5, White does indeed have 22.Kg1, stepping out of all the tactics based on the pinned queen and discovered checks. The knight is hanging and we've exposed our own king.

After 20...Re4 21.Be3 Ng4, there is 22.Rac1 which threatens mate. Once Black deals with this he can go into the h3 line without allowing Rc2+. Of course there may be even better moves than h3 depending on what Black does, but this just shows that you've ignored possible ways that White can counter your plan.