Friday 20 November 2015

The hack that never was

Play through the game below, up until move 19 (which is where I've stopped the game). Up until this point most of White's moves have been either natural or thematic, although the sacrifice on b5 (and the counter sac on f2) are not the most accurate. Now White would love to sac the queen on h7 but obviously at this stage it does not work. On top of that the rook on d1 is under attack, leaving White with a bit of a choice. But it is exactly the fact that the rook is threatened that should provide White with a clue about what to do. Can you find the crusher for White here?
(NB This position comes from a recent game of mine and I missed the best move. I limped in with 20.b3 and after my attack ran out of grunt eventually won an ending with k+2p v k+p!)


Press, Shaun - Cunningham, Cam
ANU Summer Rapid, 19.11.2015


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rd7 looks pretty nasty. AO

Shaun Press said...

Turns out that the positions was so good that Rd7, suggested by a number of people, and Rd6 were both crushing. If I had to choose between the two, Rd6 is slightly ahead on purely aesthetic grounds.
Also, it turns out I misremembered the game and in fact played 19.b3 (instead of 19.Ng5) when the real game continued 19 ... Bg4 20.Ng5 Bxd1 21.Bc4+ Kh8 22.Ne6 Qe7 23.Nxf8 Rxf8 24.Rxd1 Nxe4 when now 25.Rd7!! wins, but instead played 25.Kb2 as I mistakenly thought 25. ... Qa3+ was strong, when in fact 26.Kd1 is winning for me.