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By Tommaso Dorigo | June 1st 2009 11:22 AM | 3 comments | Print | E-mail | Track Comments
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About Tommaso Dorigo

I am an experimental particle physicist working with the CMS experiment at CERN and the CDF experiment at Fermilab. In my spare time I play chess, abuse the piano, and aim my dobson telescope at... Full Bio

The following position arose from a blitz chess game played on the Internet Chess Club this afternoon. I am white, and black is to move.


As you can see, material is even; white has all his pieces but the Rd1 trained against the enemy kings' shelter, a strong knight on f6, and is threatening to win an exchange with Nxe8 -however good or bad that move may be, given the strength of the knight in the game position.

Black is in control of the c file, and is apparently controlling his king's position well enough; in particular, the h7 square, attacked by Nf6 and Qh3, is defended by Nf8, Qe7, and indirectly by the Rc7. So black chooses to counterattack, playing 32...., Rec8. That move, incidentally, is arguably the best in the position.

How would you continue the game as white after 32....Rec8? Would 33.Bxg6 be playable, given that black might answer it with 33....Rc1 threatening mate in one ?

I will provide the remaining moves played in the game tomorrow, with a commentary of what would be the "best" continuation. For now, you are invited to give your own assessment of the position and suggest the most likely continuation. In particular, is 33.Bxg6 good or bad ?


Comments

My modest assessment: Black is toast. Didn't engine-check it, but after 32...Rec8 33.Bxg6 Rc1(?) 34.Bc2!! looks smashing, as it prevents mate and at the same time is threating Rg8. After 34...Rxc1+ 35.Bxc1 I cannot find any escape for Black. Alternatively (after 33.Bxg6) 33...Nxg6 34.Rxg6 is equally devastating.

A good example of how not play your French Defence.

Fritz likes you guys' plays 32... Rec8 and 33.Bxg6. After that, he likes NxG6 with a slight advantage -0.38 for black. Black's second best is Rc1 with advantage white, 3.09.

Meanwhile, I've been looking at the fascinating Chinese total solar eclipse measurements of gravity from 1999. See for that anomaly and various others. They had observed a slight decrease just at the beginning and end of the eclipse. The problem, of course, is that there is no such thing as a "gravimeter", the best we can do is measure the acceleration at the earth's crust. But it does seem to give some evidence for something odd happening during eclipses.

dorigo's picture
Hi,

you are both right, and the combination of your comments pictures it best.

First of all, how did the game continue ? after 32....Rec8; I (white) had exactly 35 seconds to finish all my moves, against black's two minutes -so I am sure I would have lost on time if black had survived the following few moves. I played 33.Bxg6 instantly, and black replied 33....Rc1; just as fast. At that point I stopped to think for a few seconds, and then played indeed 34.Bc2!!, the only move in the position, and a very strong one. Black thought for a few seconds, and played the blundering 34....R8xc2?? to which I replied 35.Rg8 mate. I was pleased because I had only about 20 seconds left at that point...

So how should the position be played after 32....Rc8 ? 33.Bxg6 is indeed best, and after 33....Nxg6 34.Rxg6 Be2! 35.Nxh7+ Qxh7 36.Rh6 Bxd1 material is roughly even -black will end up with two rooks and a bishop for queen and three pawns; white's pawns are dangerous and if he can prevent black from coordinating his rooks, he has some good prospects. However, in practical blitz play it is much harder to play with the queen, and I think I would have been doomed by my lack of time.

Cheers,
T.

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