Some people become desilusioned when things don't turn out the way they wanted and resign in dismay, I agree Black's position after NXB; RE1 is NOT yet lost and if white makes a gross mistake he may even win, against exact play black should loose his Queen pawn and most likely eventually loose the game!
Why did black resign?
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Thank you very much for the feedback. Yes, I should have mentioned the specific threat is R to e1 if the exchanges on e4 are completed. But material is even as it stands, so black can simply castle to protect the b7 pawn and end the pin threat(?) (does not need to play NxB)
My first thought too was that it was a "psychological" resignation, based on the relative speed/surprise of the turnaround, but wondered if I was missing something else...
Thank you again for looking at this!
ChibaPhil wrote:
Thank you very much for the feedback. Yes, I should have mentioned the specific threat is R to e1 if the exchanges on e4 are completed. But material is even as it stands, so black can simply castle to protect the b7 pawn and end the pin threat(?) (does not need to play NxB)
My first thought too was that it was a "psychological" resignation, based on the relative speed/surprise of the turnaround, but wondered if I was missing something else...
Thank you again for looking at this!
Personally I would take the bishop, to take away the bishop pair from white; then castle long; inferior yes, lost NOT YET!
It was a purely psychological resignation - after plugging it into my engine, Black actually has a .1-.2 pawn advantage (Crafty, 25 ply). After 13. Nxe4 14. Re1, 14...f5 protects the knight. Continuation was as follows:
15. f3 c5 16. fxe4 O-O-O 17. exf5 cxb4 18. d3 bxa3 19. Re4 Kc7.
This was done with Crafty on a five minute time control for the rest of the moves (after move 13), with the evaluation reading about equal.
So I disagree with mauricilopezsr - the position is by no means lost through exact play. In fact, Crafty (against itself) agreed to draw after 84 moves (including the 13 played in the game). 5 minutes per 40 moves.
Here's the PGN, in case you were interested:
Apparently, I royally screwed up this PGN. I've taken it down. Anyway, Crafty drew, that's what my point was.
definitely some complications with saving the b and the d pawns, but it would have been interesting to try it. Maybe he could not come up with an alternative to NxB at that moment.
Thank's all for the feedback and confirmation! I should mention this was 5-day/turn online game, so there were no immediate time pressures. I think black must not have had the heart for a potentially long and tedious pawn battle after being on the verge of overwhelming me early on.
maybe he gave up because he thought he'd lost it anyway and did not want to waste his or your time with it. In this position, I would have played on for a bit longer, but given up once I get the impression you found the right moves to kill me off and me not having counterplay. It is a good idea to fight on until you really think you are done for.
Given the symmetry of the position, he resigned to avoid what
he felt would be a long boring drawn game.
But when you're not done for, resigning is generally a bad idea. The position is pretty much equal, and Crafty couldn't find a way to force a win as white, despite both sides giving it a slight advantage (and eventually reaching almost 1.5 pawns) through 66 more moves, before deciding it was a drawn position and agreeing to a draw.
Always strikes me as very unambitions to trade queens with no gain so early in the game.
1. His/her dinner was ready
2. He/she was at work and had to go
3. Something more important happened requiring his/her attention
4. The phone may have rung
5. The dog may have spewed on the carpet
etc, etc.
The position looks even enough not to think it is lost.
Message your opponent and ask him/her!
Blackfang, the opponent is no computer nor plays at a master level, and probably didn't see the same moves.
Black shouldn't have resigned though. I'm sure experience can be gained from this by playing through the end game, even if it is lost.
Certainly. But that doesn't mean that the position is any different. Certainly he, even if he didn't find the best continuation, that after the pawn takes on e4, material is still pretty much balanced. It's 1750 play, not 1000 play.
Material is balanced, but white looks slightly better. Still not a good reason to resign. If it was 1000 play, then definitely not a reason to resign.
taking the b. gets re1(pinning the n.)pf5 will get pf3 winning the n.
I have played on in a couple of lost positions here where I would have felt I was insulting my opponent not to resign in an otb game. I am not sure why it feels OK to do so. Perhaps because I am playing on line games with a long time control so my opponents can fit in the moves that tidy things up as and when they like.
Anyway I certainly got something out of one of those games. I was trying to find defensive resource with a rook against queen in an open position and found myself understanding much better what is said in an article I read recently which discussed the queen for two rooks trade, when it is favourable and when not.
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Can anyone give me hints why black resigned so early in this game?
He'd won a pawn and the initiative in the opening, but I regained the pawn on move 12 thanks to the emerging pin on the king which he probably didn't see. But that left us more or less even; white has better development(?) now and black's d5 pawn looks like easy pickings, but that hardly seems enough. Is there something perilous in black's position that I don't see? (My assumption would be 13. ... 0-0-0)