BMEWS
 

Chess Problem #298

 
 


Posted by Christopher    United States   on 03/18/2012 at 08:53 AM   
 
  1. With Black already up a pawn and with so many pieces on the attack I don’t see a need for a knight fork.  I would just play:

    1. Qc6xc2 ???  and let the situation develop.  Black will either mate soon or come out of this with a lot more material.

    Chris, you asked a while ago who my favorite GM was.  Can’t say I have one but for interesting moves, his own named defense, and wild attacksm Alexander Alekhine is hard to beat.

    Posted by Wes    United States   03/18/2012  at  11:42 AM  

  2. Not sure what a knight fork is, but taking out both white knights could fork things up pretty well.

    Wes’ opening is good. Sac the bishop and perhaps the d8 rook to kill the knights, and perhaps get the e1 rook as well ... white is doomed anyway.
    1 ... Bxb3
    2 Pc2Xb3, Rxd1

    and so on. I don’t see a spot where the black knight will check the king and pin another piece safely at the same time, and I think that’s what a fork is, right? But you could go
    1 ..., Bxg2+
    2 Kg1, Qxc2

    and see what happens.

    Posted by Drew458    United States   03/18/2012  at  12:11 PM  

  3. I like both of your moves as well Drew,.  They seem to win as far as I can tell.  And to get the notation right for my first move it should read:

    1. ... Qc6xc2 and black wins material or the game.  Something like --
    2. Rxg4 PxR and Black wins.

    Posted by Wes    United States   03/18/2012  at  01:02 PM  

  4. Got to agree with you Wes, Alekhine was good. The World Champ who beat Capablanca. And yes, he does have an opening named for him: Alkehine’s Defense. A defense which I’ve always sucked at conducting. I usually try to avoid it.

    Again, I like Frank Marshall, Aaron Nimzovitch, and Viktor Koichnoi.

    Posted by Christopher    United States   03/18/2012  at  03:31 PM  

  5. BTW, Wes and Drew, you’re both wrong. The correct first move doesn’t involve White’s Queenside. It’s all aimed at White’s King.

    Posted by Christopher    United States   03/18/2012  at  08:24 PM  

  6. Yes Chris, I think we’ve figured that one out, as this is a teaching exercise. But you’ve got us trained to go for the kill in the boldest and shortest manner, so it’s hard - and perhaps unnecessary - to overlook that. Especially since you’ve reminded us that, in tournament level play, it’s often worth it to knock off the lesser pieces for points, and White is ripe for plucking in this example. 2 Knights, 3 pawns and a Rook for perhaps the cost of a Rook or a Bishop looks like a good deal and leaves White nearly naked.

    The layout of the board makes it pretty obvious that with just a couple moves Black can bring a double diagonal threat down on White’s cornered King, which also opens a path to drop the rooks down to the back row to scatter White’s pieces and attack from the left. Dinking about with the Knight is like a cat playing with a mouse; cruel fun, playing with your food instead of just eating. Black can also go in Kingside, Qf6, but I don’t see White having only forced moves at that point, and a non-deterministic, arbitrary solution is no better than crossing your fingers and hoping White does something silly. It can work, but it’s a weak prayer.

    The point of a knight fork is to besiege the King and another piece which can’t strike back at the same time. The only possible fork I see on this board involves the White Knight, and he can and will strike back.

    Posted by Drew458    United States   03/19/2012  at  09:42 AM  

  7. What? Drew kitty? Don’t like playing with your food? Don’t wanna be cruel? Sometimes you really disappoint me.

    I’ll leave it for a few more hours. Maybe Wes will find the right move.

    Posted by Christopher    United States   03/19/2012  at  10:40 AM  

  8. This is probably the book move, and Drew called it 1 ..., Bxg2+ that game would go:

    1. ... Bxg2+ I bet the book wants this line --
    2. QxB RxN
    3. RxR N-f2+ the fork
    4. K-g1 QxQ+ the king move was forced and black is simplifying.
    5. KxQ NxR and black wins.

    But if instead white plays a better move at step 2.

    2. K-g1 Q-b6+ Black still wins but the game is much less clear and no fork.

    When I looked at the problem it didn’t take long to find my favorite move 1. ...  Q-c2. And that move is still my favorite.  There are a lot of good moves for black. Drew’s 1 ... Bxb3 or 1. ... Q-f6 or 1. ... Q-d6.  That last one is recommended by the chess program Arena but I think it a matter of style.

    The reason the book likes the fork is because it is teaching forks.  So yeah if you need to use a fork then Bxg2 is your man provided white cooperates.  But there are a lot of good moves here and I need convincing to say that one is much better than the rest.

    If the book has something else, better than any of the above, then I am going to be surprised!

    Posted by Wes    United States   03/19/2012  at  11:58 AM  

  9. Thanks Wes. So I was pretty much right in comment #2, and came around to seeing the lateral moves for the Black Queen (either to b2 or f6) in comment #6. I’ve still got some “unwillingness” burn scars to heal with the queens, so I didn’t take the obvious Bishop Attacks, Queen Kills approach on purpose in my first comment. And the whole game looked like a cascading train wreck waiting to happen, as you describe in comment #8. Sure, you can get a fork out of it eventually, but that kind of play seems intuitively juvenile to me, not being an actual player. And any one of the 2 or 3 queenside approaches results in more lost pieces for white and less lost ones for black, plus white keeps the queen a bit longer. So you could argue that its better, even from White’s perspective, holding on to that 9-pointer a few more turns.

    So let’s see the magical almighty book solution already Mr. Postman, and it had better be both elegant AND kick-ass.

    Posted by Drew458    United States   03/19/2012  at  01:59 PM  

  10. ’Cascading train wreck’? I like that. Drew, sometimes you can really turn a phrase.

    Don’t forget, it’s been almost a year since I’ve been ‘Mr. Postman.’ It’ll be a full year on April 15, which, by coincidence, is my birthday. I’ll be 52 then.

    BTW, please define ‘elegant’ and ‘kick-ass’. From what I’ve seen, I think you and Wes got it right. Which means it’s neither ‘elegant’ or ‘kick-ass.’

    Posted by Christopher    United States   03/19/2012  at  02:26 PM  

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