Our f5-pawn is threatened, and black may be preparing for landing the rook on d3.
At a glance, we can defend the pawn via 43.g4 (to which we might expect 43...Rd3, attacking the h-pawn), or we can try to give the f-pawn away for some compensation, if we find such.
Thoughts?
Ra1 was the other possibility leading to black Rxf5, Rb1+ and then the rook can move into black's side of the board
OM63 and others: And what if 43.Ra1 Rxf5 44.Rb1+ Kc4 -- our other f-pawn is now threatened.
Would we then have time to plunge into black's back?
valentin, you are right, but it would seem that any move but g4 would lead to that outcome. It seems as if g4 is somewhat forced unless I am missing something.
Indeed, here's a couple of very reasonably-looking proposals that have been offered recently:
Jay's proposal (43.g4 Rd3 44.Ra1 Rh3 45.Rb1+ Kc4 46.Rb7, etc.): http://www.chess.com/emboard.html?id=624134
razorblade12's proposal (43.Kb1 Rxf5 44.Re2): http://www.chess.com/emboard.html?id=623957
Let's briefly discuss the merits of each, and compare.
Do people see downsides for us or stronger play for black in the shorter line that razorblade12 offered (see above)?
Same question regarding Jay's proposal?...
Agreed that razorblade12's idea loses as shown by urvang.
So we're now analyzing Jay's idea only, unless teammates can spot some as-yet-undiscovered resource.
I also agree with urvang's improvement for black in Jay's line:
43.g4 Rd3 44.Ra1 Rxh3 45.Rb1+ Kc4 46.Rb7 Rf3! 47.Rxg7?! (do we have anything else to try instead here?) Rxf2+ 48.Kb1 (or 48.Kc1 a2 49.Ra7 Rf1+ 50.Kb2 a1Q+ 51.Rxa1 Rxa1 52.Kxa1 e3 53.f6 e2 54.f7 e1Q+ -+) e3 49.Kc1 (if 49.Re7 e2 -+) Rf1+ 50.Kc2 e2, and black wins.
We're now seeking defensive improvements for white...
I was thinking of perhaps checking the black king, starting with move 47 (above), instead of 47.Rxg7, until the black king gets farther away from the action, and only then capturing on g7.
Thoughts?
To honor the (roughly) 2-day-long voting period, we will need to gather our collective votes in the next 18 hours or so, and then let Jorg know.
I'll try to put together a diagram for my lastest post. I admit that diagrams are much more time consuming for me to create than the straight lines in text -- but the important point is for you all to be able to understand, so I'll do it.
1) as to our next move: I'am unable to find any else than 43.g4, the problem IMO being whether there is a way out from what appears a win for Black. I have been fancing along the following line that transposes my above question 10 moves forward and presents itself many possible internal variants:
43.g4Rd3
44.Ra1Rxh3
45.Rb1+Kc4
46.Rb7Rf3
47.Rc7+Kd4
48.Rd7+Kc5
49.Rc7+Kd6
50.Rxg7Rxf2+
51.Kb1a2+
52.Ka1
2) I do not see how we should put on valentin's shoulders the systematic job of preparing diagrams for pleasing our laziness. I think that from
http://www.chess.com/votechess/game.html?id=18070
anyone can get the analysis board including moves up to 42 and then update it with the proposal of Team members. Of course if chess.com could endow our forum with a board authomatically updated to the last played move (as it happens in any ordinary vote chess game) it would be even better.
Like the_whitebeard, I am not seeing an alternative to 43.g4 either.
We will have to look for ways to save the game after the present move, considering what he and I have presented so far (the two are complementary lines, fitting well together).
We 'make a move' by writing our preferred move in a message and then one of us communicates the majority decision to Jorg.
In this case, I submitted g4 to him early this morning (before the last three 'votes' were in), because apparently those of you who voted today didn't realize that we still need to vote within 2 days and more than 3 days had passed since.
Please look at my message from Apr 4th, where I noted that we have ~18 hours to vote. Apparently, this message I wrote was missed/unnoticed by many teammates.
This is why the forum is not an optimal place for running a vote chess game, but we have to do it for a few moves in this endgame. I am not an appropriate person to do clock reminders, since I only log in once every 24 hours. If someone else would be willing to do it, we can do it -- any takers?
It's also okay be a little lax on the 2-day deadline because of this issue (as I said, I submitted our move to Jorg move than 3 days later) -- after all, we are not unfavorably gaining the edge over the machine by playing, say, every 2.5 days, but we need to keep moving and not end up in a situation where we wait a week for each move...
Black's (engine's) latest move was 42...e4.
Let's discuss our options here, and come up with a move in the next 2 days.