next move after Bc6

[science_man_88]

Bf5 was my first thought but I'm thinking about others.

[WMHalsdorf]

I'm considering Rd3 considering that it could be followed up with Bf5.

[science_man_88]

[QUOTE=WMHalsdorf;339964]I'm considering Rd3 considering that it could be followed up with Bf5.[/QUOTE]
Thank you for the heads up about what you're thinking about. The one negative I see for my first move suggestion is that the queen can escape it with Qf2, barring that reply the queen (and anything that comes to save it in case of a bishop block) is doomed to be captured. for example Bf5 if the bishop blocked gets to Bxe4+ a royal fork, with no escape or capture by the queen is possible without a queen sac ( since e4 is protected by our last rook move and any other queen move is illegally keeping the king in check), if the bishop captures that rook when we move Bf5 we can capture the queen and make them four points down in pieces.

[LaurV]

As discussed on the former topic, this position is a black win. I already analyzed it. They can't do nothing here to avoid losing the game, except the case where I missed some less obvious trap.

The right answer is [B][COLOR=Red]27...Re5![/COLOR][/B]. Black win.

[B]TL;DR version:[/B] OTOH, I hope Rd3 was a typo. That is a totally wrong move, as we lose the rook in e8 (for FREE!) and therefore we lose the game.

That white bishop in c6 is now threatening [B]both [/B]the rock in e8 and the pawn in b5. We need to defend them both, or to give a stronger attack, so none of them could be taken without a bigger risk for white.

This is why we need either to [B](1)attack the king[/B] (with a check, which is impossible without making a stupid move like f3, Bh3, Rd2, Re2, all resulting in losing material for us), [B](2)attack the queen[/B] (so he can't take the rock, neither the pawn in b5), [B](3)block that bishop[/B] (by our bishop Bd7, we may fulfill both goals, protecting the pawn too, and scaring their bishop away), or [B](4)move away the freaking rook[/B] in a place where we either defend the pawn or attack a white piece more valuable than that pawn, to forbid the whites to take the pawn without suffering a larger loss. Only then, we can say that we "made a move" to protect both the rook and the pawn.

On the "(2)attack the queen" variant, SM88's [B]Bf5[/B] is a good move, the best one. The question is only if (2) is the best variant to follow. Bf5 is heavily hitting their queen, which has no place to go except Qc1 or Qf2. So, if we play 27...Bf5, it will be easier for us to evaluate the future path of the game (assuming we don't know it already, it will be not very "branchy" - is this an English word? it is underlined with red, but I think it like it has not many branches :razz:, i think the right English term is bushy).

So:
(2a): 28.Qf2 is clear win for us after 28...Re3 the white can't avoid the "heat" on the king anymore. For example he can't take any of the pawns:

(2a1): 29.Bxb5,Be4 check. King down is mate fast, queen is front is lost for free (because the check in the back with Rd2, probably mate after some more moves), horse in front still lose the queen for a rock after Rxf3 (if he does not take it, there a checkmate coming with double-check Rg3, if he moves the king we take the queen for free).

(2a2): 29.Qxf4,Rd2 he gets really close to a checkmate. To avoid it, he give the queen by 30.Qf2, there is no other way.

This means, they only have a single possible answer, a forced:
(2b): 28.Qc1... but well, unfortunately, we still have this version of possible response, which we can not win so easy. It is still "winable", but after a lot of headache. we need to defend the most advanced pawn, and in the same time put heat on his king, so 28...Re3 29.Bxb5,Be4 check, he can't block by Nf3 (bad, lose horse for free, lose the queen too, because otherwise is probable mate after we take the horse), so either

(2b1): 30.Kf1 or (2b2): 30.Kf2 he is cornered but still not easy to mate him, we are in, for a long game, which we will win eventually, as he can't do much harm either... Kf2 seems the best, as we don't have the bishop attach with Bf3 (arguably this attach is not something we need to do, it is blocking the rook, but we stay very good in this position anyhow!). So, 30.Kf2,Bd5 and we are very well protected, waiting for him to move. But he has again a free pawn on the queen's side, which can rapidly come toward our bottom line. Another variant here is with Bd3 and then we give two rooks for the queen and knight in e2, after some effort to bring the rook from d to e column (can't directly to e8, because the white bishop). One more variant is to develop the black bishop, Bf8/Bc5, double check, exchange rook+bishop for a queen. We will play rook(+bishop) against knight(+bishop), still winable, but headache.

On the variant (3), I personally won't put my money on 27...Bd7 either. This move may have the same "strength" like Bf5 discussed above, we still can win the game, but with some headache. They can easily beat it, not their best, but anyhow, just the first response coming to my mind, and still bad for us, as I said, changing wood is not in our interest in this position. After 28.Bxd7,Rxd7 29.Qf2 and we can't defend both pawns, we need to spread the rooks, white stays well on the queen side with a4, even b4 (if we take EP the pawn, he has the check Qxb3, and we lose both pawns for one, he may create a lot of problems for us by advancing those free pawns).

So, here we are for the variant (4): move the rook. We may attach his horse (Re1) or his bishop (Re6) but those are moves without future, we will lose the pawn in b5 anyhow. We may move Re7, but this is too defensive, it protects a7, but is blocking the black-square bishop if we move that bishop to f8 (don't forget, one main reason to move the rook in e8 was to make way to develop the bishop, which is now totally locked by the b3 pawn and we need to move it to f8 before putting it in a wonderful c5 position, where it will directly hit the white king's corner!). We might move the rook back to f8 now, [B]which would not be bad[/B] (if/when he takes b5, we advance f3 with check, he can't take it, because we lock his horse with Bb7). But again, we block the bishop, etc., and what's worse, he can also move the bishop back to e4 and we have no progress at all and risk to get a draw by repeating positions. It is not the best we can do. We would not give them a second chance to repair the gaffe they did, i.e. to repeat Bc6 a second time. They may not repeat it, hehe, first time is a mistake, but second time would be stupidity :smile:

So, obviously, it makes no sense to give the rook for free, by moving it to e4 or e2. This leaves only two possibilities: (4a)[B]Re3[/B] or (4b)[B]Re5[/B]. In fact, Re3 seems not to be a good move, after all, in spite of the pressure we put on their king, we still lose both the pawns on the queen side. We may get their knight for them, but he will still have two free pawns.

And we reach the "last resort": [COLOR=Red][B]Re5[/B][/COLOR]. This is a brilliant move. It takes the rock out of threat. It protects the pawn in b5. It ATTACKS the pawn in g5. It does not get in the way of the g7 bishop (still can be well developed to c5 in two moves). It forces them to defend that pawn, or move the king (not only because the check, but we get freeway for the pawns on the king side, and also possibility to take the bishop out through h6 instead of f8). Better for us, they can't move the queen now, if they do, they lose g5. This means that we still have [B]Bf5[/B] in the cards, and we can play it next, if whites chose to defend the pawn by h4. In fact, their best defense to 27...Re5 would be 28.h4, because the other defense, Nf3 (with attach to the rook), we discussed it in the former topic, and that is bad (black sure win). Nh3 is even worse, we may exchange immediately Bxh3,Kxh3, and he may not be able to avoid the mate on the side after Rxg5/Rd3, as he is blocked by his own pawn.

So, Bf5 might be a very good move, but no reason to play Bf5 yet. We can play it later, as they CANNOT avoid it. They may try to put the king in the center to get out of the link, which would be bad again, we have too many material there, and we can take g5 anyhow and bring the pawns to support f4. They may hide the king in h1, which seems to be a good move for them too, anyhow better then moving the king in the center of the board. But in this case the white bishop can never leave the diagonal, because of a mate threat after Rxg5 and/or black bishop to b7. Translated: in this case (28.Kh1) he is not able to take our b5 pawn, so the only attach on the queen's side pawns has to come from the front, like a4, which is easily handled by a6. There are endless possibilities. For us.

We just won this game now.

Opinions? Did I miss something? 2:00AM here. Wasted 5 hours to write this.

[WMHalsdorf]

Your right Re5 I had Whites bishop on the wrong square.

[LaurV]

[QUOTE=WMHalsdorf;339997]Your right Re5 I had Whites bishop on the wrong square.[/QUOTE]
Hehe, you put the bishop in f3, didn't you? :smile: (for which Rd3 could be a correct move). (Edit: that happened because of Balalov's fault! he did not put the board in the game thread! :razz:)

It happened to me few times, during the game, due to the fact that I am not so used to write notation from the black perspective. Especially those positions which are "symmetric", like now, Bc6 or Bf3 are both good (i.e. valid, they are not good, as we already saw, but they are both valid) moves for white, and if you turn the table, they are "symmetric".

So, if we agree with Re5, let's speed the game and post the move. I don't think Dubslow comes back right now, and SM88 is "minority" with Bf5. Sorry buddy! :smile: Again, Bf5 is a good move, but it is not its time right now. We will play it next, if they defend the g5 pawn with h4 (which I still consider white's best path to chose in this situation).