Improving Your Chess: Analysis, Calculation, and Evaluation.
Hi there! This is going to be a series focused on improving the analytical abilities of players. First of all, I have a layout of how the post's will work, and what your job is.
1. Each post will consist of one position with a question. You need to analyse and evaluate the question to reach your answer.
2. After you have done the task (please calculate in your head) there will be a complete answer, outlining the evaluation, analysis, and calculation techniques in full.
3. You will be awarded points for your performance. Add them up to see how you did. There will also be an answer list at the end of the analysis.
4. Have fun and learn! The series will help you improve, or at the very least, just provide some entertaining material. The positions I use will not be from top game play. These will be from studies and games I have played, or from some interesting games I have seen at the 2300-1400 rating levels.
Lets get to it. I hope you enjoy!
1200-1500
Your task: Analyse and evaluate whites capture 1. gxf4. To make this easier for you have positioned you from the black side. Tip: Calculate this all in your head, but to help remember your analysis you can write it down. Also remember to evaluate the position after 1.gxf4 and the positions at the end of your calculation.
Okay lets get to it. Only continue on if you have completed the exercise above. First of all lets evaluate the position after 1. gxf4. To make that easier lets bring the position up in the diagram below.
Evaluation: The first thing you should notice is that black is down a piece (a bishop for a pawn). The next thing that jumps out is the fact that black is better developed, and that whites king is in the center, exposed to attack. Black will be worse if he continues to passively develop (Nc6 for example) but the fact whites king is so open means that black should have great attacking prospects. Remember: In the hierarchy of advantages king safety is often worth more then material. This information leads to following conclusion: Black should be much better, as he seems to be promised something greater in return for the bishop. (If you reached the same conclusion for the same reasons award yourself 5 points. If you only got it partly correct award yourself 2 points. If you noted none of the above award yourself 0 points...)
Now that we believe black to be better we must start analyzing the forcing variations, and find the best variation through process of elimination. I recommend getting a board and setting the position up, in order to follow through the analysis I provide. Well reviewing my analysis you should compare it to yours to see where we differ. Lets do it!
The moves we will analyse first are the most forcing moves: Checks, Mate threats, captures, and non-mate threats. (Award yourself 3 points if you calculated forcing moves first) The first line to be calculated is the tempting 1...Qh4+. There are some tricky lines that follow. The first is 1...Qh4+ 2. Ke2 Qf2+ 3. Kd3 Bf5+ 4. Kc3 Qc5+ 5. Kb3. (If you calculated this line award yourself 2 points) Now the f1 bishop saves white from Qc4#. This line seems complicated, and well black should be winning, it becomes apparent we must have something better. We get this from the fact we were winning easily in the starting position, and now white has escaped mate and we need to calculate some crazy lines to prove we are winning. If we see the reason that white escaped was because the king ran to the queenside, we may spot 3...Qc5 (2 points for spotting this move in the line) with a threat of Bf5+ leading to mate in 2. White can only stop mate with 4. Qxg4 Bxg4 where black has proven an advantage from the starting position. If we calculate that we can at least win the queen, we have a plan in case we can't find anything better. But when we examine the position further, we spot that we can improve upon our line with 2...Bf5!! (Spotting this move and seeing that it is good is 3 points). The king now has nowhere to run. It is not difficult to see that white only has two moves to avoid mate in one. 3. Qe1 and 3.Nh3. If we look at Qe1 we see that black has 3...Re8+ with an easy win. This means we must calculate 3.Nh3. The line that is presented is long and forcing, but is an analysis that can be easily understood and followed. 3. Nh3 Re8+ 4. Kf3 Be4+ 5. Ke2 Bg2+!! 6. Kd3 Qxh3+ 7. Qf3 (or 7.Kd4 Re4+ 8. Kxd5 Rxf4+ 9. Bxg2 Qh5#) Qxf3+ 8. Kd4 Re4+ 9.Kxd5 Rxf4+ 10. Kc5 b6#, and if 9. Kc5 then b6+followed by Rxf4# (3 points for spotting 3... Re8+ and 4...Be4+ but not seeing 5...Bg2+ was the best continuation. 5 points for calculating that 5...Bg2+ is the best 5th move in this line. 5 bonus points for calculating till mate). This line is long but forcing, so it is not impossible to calculate. What makes this forced mate so difficult to calculate is the fact that there are many other forcing lines to examine. (
Once we have examined that Qh4+ leads to mate we can stop our analysis. However, it is unlikely anyone will have calculated that far. The following is a list of "answers" to the question posed at the beginning. There are other lines that are technically winning as well, but these lines win with the most clear cut wins.
#1. 1...Qh4+ 2. Ke2 Re8+ followed with Qf6 or Nf2+ (1 point)
#2. 1...Qh4+ 2. Ke2 Qf2+ followed by Qc5. (points already covered)
#3. 1...Re8+ 2. Qe2 Qh4+ 3. Kd1 Rxe2. Also 2. Rxe2 and 2.Bd7 work, but are not as strong. (1 point)
#4. 1...Qh4+ 2. Ke2 Bf5!! leading to mate. (points already covered)
Scoring out of 22:
0-4: rated below 1199
5-8: rated 1200-1499
9-14: rated 1500-1799
15-18: rated 1800-2050
19+: rated above 2050
The scoring is based of a few people so it will not be entirely accurate. remember though that the scoring will only show how you perform in analytical positions. As it is from one example, your actual strength for overall play may be completely different.
Thanks for reading! I hope you had fun, learned something, or both.
