Thursday 23 June 2016

Always nice to have a choice of wins

The shown position was from a game played last night at the ANU chess club. For most of the game the battle was more of a positional nature, with both players looking for outposts (c4 and c5) and fighting for control of the a file (which black eventually won). But this is a pathway to victory, not victory itself, and Black still had to find the winning move.
It turns out that there isn't just one winning move, but a couple. Having watched the game this isn't that surprising, and confirms the adage "positional advantages lead to tactical opportunities". In the position Black played 1. ... Qe4+ which takes advantage of the placement of the white king and queen, as well as the fact that the bishop on g2 is attacked. After 2.Nxe4 dxe4+ 3.Kg4 (3.Qxe4 Bxe4 4.Kxe4 Rxg2) 3. ...  Bd7+ 4.f5 exd3 White resigned. As for the other choice, 1. ... Bxd5 was the move I was looking at, with 2.Bxd5 (and not 2. Qxd5 Qe2#) 2. ... Rd2 causing White all sorts of problems. But Black sensibly chose the clearest way to finish the game.

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