Move 34
 

Any of the four possibilities 34.Bc6, 34.Ng1, 34.Resigns or 34.a4 get my vote this time, whichever gets us a majority.
It's a nice, easy position in my opinion.:smile:

To prolong the agony, how about:

34. h4 Bg4
35. Nd4 Rg3+
36. Kh2 Rh3+
37. Kg2 f3+
38. Nxf3 Bxf2
39. Kxf2 Bxf3
40. Bxf3

and play continues....

I'm happy to add 34.h4 to my list of acceptable moves.

The "and play continues" part of your posting is a little disturbing to me, though, in the position to which your analysis leads... :unsure:

Perhaps I should come clean and state what I think.

The game, in my opinion, is over. Their win is very easy. Resigning, while not compulsory right now, will be the only reasonable course of action within a few moves. For this reason, I think we should play quickly and let them win as they choose without trying to over-analyse the position.

Rich and David, you may well disagree with me, and if you choose you can continue the play without me if you think that's the right thing to do. Clearly, having someone on the team who thinks so negatively about the position we've reached is not conducive to good teamwork if you are both keen to continue. It's up to you. I'll continue to write my negative opinions here if you want me to, or I'll bow out and let the two of you carry on if that's what you prefer.
:smile:

I think it might be a good idea to post in the main thread and ask the other team what they want us to do. Do they want us to get around to resigning? Do they want to finish the game? This game hasn't just been about winning. It is about enjoyment. If they would prefer us to continue playing then I am fine with that. However, if they are fed up of waiting for us to resign that is fine as well. Currently unless they have a strong opinion I would prefer to continue until the point where there is no possible way for us to escape checkmate.

Back to the game. I am fine with h4 or Bc6. As far as I can tell Ba8 is pretty similar to Bc6 but I think we can ignore that.

It's an interesting, if rather unorthodox, suggestion to ask our opponents what they want us to do. Yes, we could do that.

But aside from what they think, your own opinion, David, is still not clear to me. What do you mean by "no possible way for us to escape checkmate"? Do you mean that you would play on in the position below, which is the position reached after Rich's analyis following 34.h4 Bg4,... just because we cannot immediately see that they have a forced mate in, say, 17 moves?

Maybe I am being a little extreme with how long I am willing to play on for.

Brian and David, we are in very dire straits, that's for sure. But there is no checkmate in "x" number of moves at this point, as far as I can see.

Brian, I ask if you would please continue with the game. I think our continuing the game respects our opponents, and I respect and appreciate your advice and opinions.

By my comment that play continues, I meant that we still have play, even at a great disadvantage, without a clear checkmate in sight.

Rich

Very happy to continue, Rich.:smile:

My opinions, though, will be dull and repetitive from now on until they checkmate us. I will be saying that each legal move is as good as any other, there is nothing to think about, and after a certain point I will be actively advocating resignation out of respect to our opponents (that's if they get a position like the one you reached in your analysis where all they have to do is take a few pawns, then queen one or two of their own, before checkmating in trivial fashion - they might force mate more elegantly earlier than that, in which case it's reasonable to let them mate us i.m.o.).

If they go down the road of taking out our queenside pawns to promote one of theirs, then obviously we have no chance. But as you mentioned, perhaps they can elegantly checkmate us without going to that extreme, and we can give them an opportunity to do that....

All that being said, I suggest we play h4.

34.h4 is fine with me too.