Move 46
 

We can feel gratified that we foiled what they were trying to do with their Kh3 move a few moves back. Now I think that they are either:
(a) intending to start advancing their kingside pawns immediately, or
(b) bringing their king into play via e2, d3 and then further.

If it's (a), I think we wait around until they finally play g5, then exchange pawns so that we have just one white kingside pawn to deal with, not two connected ones: fair chance of a blockade for us then, I hope, trying to be optimistic.

If it's (b) we might hope to let our bishop and knight combination keep their king from advancing too far, in a similar manner to the way we just stopped him going to h5. We would need to decide what setup is best to do this, keeping our pawns protected. I'm actually slightly of the opinion at the moment that the knight is best remaining on f6. If we manoeuvre it to d6 (controlling c4) they can still force their way through via d4 to e5 anyway because our bishop won't be able to remain on e3. On f6 the knight is really well placed, I think, to harass kingside pawns or king when it advances.

Please correct anything rubbish I've said above!

At the moment I advocate another waiting move with our bishop.

I concur with you. :smile:

I concur. Anywhere along the c1-h6 diagonal apart from f4 looks good to me.

How about h5 to offer the exchange?

[QUOTE=richs;383428]How about h5 to offer the exchange?[/QUOTE]
On h5 our pawn will be indefensible. For example 46...h5 47.Rg7+ Kd6 48.Rb7 Bd2 49.Rb5 Bc3 50.Bd1.

If you mean sacrificing the pawn by playing ...h5 and ...h4 I don't think that helps our chances. The two doubled white h pawns are less powerful than two connected pawns, it's true, but better than the single pawn against which we'll be fighting if we wait for them to play g5 before exchanging.

Or do you have something in mind which I've missed, Rich?

Are you in Italy now, by the way?

How do we propose to defend the a pawn from:
46...Bd2 46.Kf3 Bc1 47.Ke2 Bg5 48.Rg7+ Kd6 49.Ra7

Perhaps we should play 46...Bd2 46.Kf3 Nd7 :smile:

Perhaps instead we should play Nd7 immediately. :smile:

[QUOTE=paulunderwood;383530]Perhaps we should play 46...Bd2 46.Kf3 Nd7 :smile:[/QUOTE]
I think this wins for me so far.

[QUOTE=paulunderwood;383530]Perhaps we should play 46...Bd2 46.Kf3 Nd7 :smile:[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=henryzz;383547]I think this wins for me so far.[/QUOTE]
I, too, think this is better than moving the knight at once. Let's let them threaten that line first before moving our well placed knight.

I made it to Italy on Thursday: San Francisco to Frankfurt to Milan, then two trains to Florence.

I had a bit of time to reflect on my h5 suggestion and see that it will not work.

Following 46...Bd2 46.Kf3 Nd7,

47. Re6+ Kf8
48. Rd6 Ne5+
49. Ke4 Bc3
and we lose the h pawn?