6. Qb3! Rybka agrees with every move we've played so far, and after this move white is nearly winning. +0.98@16
7. Be2? We miss a good chance with 7.h3 Bh5 8.e5 Nfd7 9.Nge2 e6 10.Nf4which scores 1.51@14 despite material equality. Our move is still a big advantage white though, scoring +0.97@13. The other move considered this turn (Bc4) scores very similarly to Be2.
8. Nf3?! Better is Nb5! where Rybka gives Qe5 f4 Qxe4 Nxc7+ as the best line. We have slipped from winning to mere "advantage white", scoring +0.68@14.
9.Bxf3. Rybka likes elindauer's Be3! delaying the decision of how to recapture, with lines like Be3 Qd7 Rd1 Qc8 Bxf3 and Qe5 gxf3! flashing through the game tree exactly as discussed in the comments. We were a little too quick to make the obvious recapture here.
10.Be3. Rybka gives O-O as best, delaying a decision about where to put the bishop until later. Our advantage continues to slip, we are now at +0.48@14.
11.O-O. Rybka prefers Rd1, but our move scores well too. Black has played inaccurately and we are now at +0.84@12.
12.Be2! Exclam because this move is so hard to find, especially given the obvious play of putting a rook on the d file. elindauer was on fire this move, nailing several important points in this position:
a) Rfd1? Qe6! is nothing special for white. rybka scores it +0.29@15
b) after Rfd1 Qe6! Qxe6 fxe6 the doubled pawns are not a big weakness for black. Rybka agrees and suggests that white play Qa4 instead of Qxe6.
c) the best plan is to improve the light square bishop again and get the pawns rolling. Be2!
After Be2, black cannot play Qe6 any more (Bc4), so White maintains a healthy advantage, +0.45@16.
13.f4? Rybka bounces around a lot on this move, looking for a while at Gary's idea of Rfd1, before settling on Rac1 as best, scoring +0.37@13. f4 is too aggressive, and rybka is harsh, scoring it as advantage black now -0.23@14. Ouch. I guess the idea of Be2 is not to move the f pawn, it's to restrict the black queen and keep her passive on c7 instead of the more active Qe6. Rac1 makes sense if we are anticipating the black queen showing up on c7 soon.
14.g4?! Rybka looks at much more passive moves like a3 and Kh1 in this position, fearing for king safety and feeling that black has the advantage. It rates g4 as -0.43@13, while a3 is -0.21@12. It's a recurring theme that we don't make the best moves when we overestimate the strength of our position. We never even considered a3 here.
15.Qc2. Best.
16.Rad1?! Black has played passively and rybka suddenly feels white has full compensation for the pawn and should attack with g5! We didn't even consider this move, looking only at fxe5? (...Nfd7: -0.43@13) and Rad1 (...h5! -0.26@13). The main line is g5! Nfd7 f5, following up later with Rad1.
17.f5?! Rybka agrees that it is better to maintain the tension between the rooks on the open d file, but feels that g5! is better, tempoing the knight before playing f5 with some advantage for white (as seen in the game f5 h6! stops our expansion). The game is now equal.
18.b4?! another slight inaccuracy. Rxd8 leaves us in complete equality, while b4 Ncd7 gives black a small edge (-0.18@14).
19.Nb5. Black finally blunders and we pounce, playing Nb5 with a big advantage. +1.08@14.
20.Qxc6+. best. Jimvger was right to believe that it was close between Qxc6+ and Rxd8 though.
21.Rxd8+. best. Much better then the sacrifice starting with Nxa7, although this also gives white an advantage (+0.38@14). We correctly identified the best defense for black: Nxa7? Qxa7 Bxb6 Qb8 Bxd8 Nxd8 left white without a knockout blow (Qc4 next is best). Some last minute voting saved the day on this one.
22.Qc4. best. We continued to discuss Nxa7 from the last move and concluded that we made the right decision with Rxd8+. :)
23.Nc7! best. Our string of great play continues. This is much stronger then the retreat Nc3.
24.Nxa6. best again. We are solidly winning now +2.38@10.
25.Rd1. Just as good as rybka's Qd3.
26.Bf3?! Missing the beautiful active play from rybka Nc7! where Qxe4 Qxe4 Nxe4 Nd5! will win the b pawn and leave our pieces more active then in our main line. elindauer's Qc7 was also a strong choice, with Qxc7 Nxc7 Nxe4 Nd5 transposing to rybka's main line.
27.Qb5?! b5 was stronger, although we are still winning (+2.51@14)
28.Qxb6. best. +3.24@11
29.Rc1?! Our first instinct was correct: b5! Nb7 Qc7 Re8 a4 and white's pawns are crushing. Push those passed pawns!
30.Qb5?! darkharvest gets the star, suggesting the best move Qa7! forcing off the queens and letting the passed pawns roll.
31.Qxe5?! rybka eschews the win of material and focuses on what's important... pushing those connected passed pawns. a4! scores a full point higher then our move. Still a crushing win for white though +3.02@14.
32.Qb5. best.
33.Qb6? They say "the good is the enemy of the great". hsbgowd points out that Qb6 wins easily by forcing off the queens and he's totally right, but we missed Gary's great move Qe2! where e5 will win a piece next move. Black's pieces are too loose and the bishops are raking the diagonals.
34.Qc6. best.
35.Rxc6. best.
36.Nc5. best. We had a big discussion about the best plan between this and pushing the passed pawn with b5. As often happens, they both score nearly identically. :)
37.Bxc5. surprisingly rybka plays bxc5, but our move scores just as well.
38.Bd6. Best. Gary's Rc7 and hsbgowd's Be2 were both convincing wins as well.
39.e5. Best again. rybka doesn't even bother to save the f6 knight any more it's so hopeless. +6.38@14
40.Bc5. Best. A dominating position. +7.98@15
41.e6. Best.
42.e7. Best. Our other move Bxd6 is just as crushing for white.
43.Rxd6. Best.
44.Rd8. Best. We play really well with an advantage... +11.65@15. Re6 is also crushing.
45.Kf2. Best.
46.a4. Rybka plays Bc6 forcing the win of a piece (Nc7 Bd6). We were content to let that piece sit there while we queened our pawn. Just as good.
47.Bd6. Best. Black drops a piece in a hopeless position. +18.71@15.
48.Bxc7. Best.
49.Rxd8. Best. Rybka declares that it will queen the a pawn and mate in 10. black resigns.
We played this game pretty well I think. As we've seen in the past, we were overly optimistic about our chances at times, and this led to inaccurate play. When we did have an advantage though, we played excellent chess to put the game away. It was neat to see how often the lines we settled on during the analysis ended up coming out of rybka as the best play for both sides.
Here is a post-mortem / computer analysis of this game: http://www.chess.com/votechess/game.html?id=17103
6. Qb3! Rybka agrees with every move we've played so far, and after this move white is nearly winning. +0.98@16
7. Be2? We miss a good chance with 7.h3 Bh5 8.e5 Nfd7 9.Nge2 e6 10.Nf4which scores 1.51@14 despite material equality. Our move is still a big advantage white though, scoring +0.97@13. The other move considered this turn (Bc4) scores very similarly to Be2.
8. Nf3?! Better is Nb5! where Rybka gives Qe5 f4 Qxe4 Nxc7+ as the best line. We have slipped from winning to mere "advantage white", scoring +0.68@14.
9.Bxf3. Rybka likes elindauer's Be3! delaying the decision of how to recapture, with lines like Be3 Qd7 Rd1 Qc8 Bxf3 and Qe5 gxf3! flashing through the game tree exactly as discussed in the comments. We were a little too quick to make the obvious recapture here.
10.Be3. Rybka gives O-O as best, delaying a decision about where to put the bishop until later. Our advantage continues to slip, we are now at +0.48@14.
11.O-O. Rybka prefers Rd1, but our move scores well too. Black has played inaccurately and we are now at +0.84@12.
12.Be2! Exclam because this move is so hard to find, especially given the obvious play of putting a rook on the d file. elindauer was on fire this move, nailing several important points in this position:
a) Rfd1? Qe6! is nothing special for white. rybka scores it +0.29@15
b) after Rfd1 Qe6! Qxe6 fxe6 the doubled pawns are not a big weakness for black. Rybka agrees and suggests that white play Qa4 instead of Qxe6.
c) the best plan is to improve the light square bishop again and get the pawns rolling. Be2!
After Be2, black cannot play Qe6 any more (Bc4), so White maintains a healthy advantage, +0.45@16.
13.f4? Rybka bounces around a lot on this move, looking for a while at Gary's idea of Rfd1, before settling on Rac1 as best, scoring +0.37@13. f4 is too aggressive, and rybka is harsh, scoring it as advantage black now -0.23@14. Ouch. I guess the idea of Be2 is not to move the f pawn, it's to restrict the black queen and keep her passive on c7 instead of the more active Qe6. Rac1 makes sense if we are anticipating the black queen showing up on c7 soon.
14.g4?! Rybka looks at much more passive moves like a3 and Kh1 in this position, fearing for king safety and feeling that black has the advantage. It rates g4 as -0.43@13, while a3 is -0.21@12. It's a recurring theme that we don't make the best moves when we overestimate the strength of our position. We never even considered a3 here.
15.Qc2. Best.
16.Rad1?! Black has played passively and rybka suddenly feels white has full compensation for the pawn and should attack with g5! We didn't even consider this move, looking only at fxe5? (...Nfd7: -0.43@13) and Rad1 (...h5! -0.26@13). The main line is g5! Nfd7 f5, following up later with Rad1.
17.f5?! Rybka agrees that it is better to maintain the tension between the rooks on the open d file, but feels that g5! is better, tempoing the knight before playing f5 with some advantage for white (as seen in the game f5 h6! stops our expansion). The game is now equal.
18.b4?! another slight inaccuracy. Rxd8 leaves us in complete equality, while b4 Ncd7 gives black a small edge (-0.18@14).
19.Nb5. Black finally blunders and we pounce, playing Nb5 with a big advantage. +1.08@14.
20.Qxc6+. best. Jimvger was right to believe that it was close between Qxc6+ and Rxd8 though.
21.Rxd8+. best. Much better then the sacrifice starting with Nxa7, although this also gives white an advantage (+0.38@14). We correctly identified the best defense for black: Nxa7? Qxa7 Bxb6 Qb8 Bxd8 Nxd8 left white without a knockout blow (Qc4 next is best). Some last minute voting saved the day on this one.
22.Qc4. best. We continued to discuss Nxa7 from the last move and concluded that we made the right decision with Rxd8+. :)
23.Nc7! best. Our string of great play continues. This is much stronger then the retreat Nc3.
24.Nxa6. best again. We are solidly winning now +2.38@10.
25.Rd1. Just as good as rybka's Qd3.
26.Bf3?! Missing the beautiful active play from rybka Nc7! where Qxe4 Qxe4 Nxe4 Nd5! will win the b pawn and leave our pieces more active then in our main line. elindauer's Qc7 was also a strong choice, with Qxc7 Nxc7 Nxe4 Nd5 transposing to rybka's main line.
27.Qb5?! b5 was stronger, although we are still winning (+2.51@14)
28.Qxb6. best. +3.24@11
29.Rc1?! Our first instinct was correct: b5! Nb7 Qc7 Re8 a4 and white's pawns are crushing. Push those passed pawns!
30.Qb5?! darkharvest gets the star, suggesting the best move Qa7! forcing off the queens and letting the passed pawns roll.
31.Qxe5?! rybka eschews the win of material and focuses on what's important... pushing those connected passed pawns. a4! scores a full point higher then our move. Still a crushing win for white though +3.02@14.
32.Qb5. best.
33.Qb6? They say "the good is the enemy of the great". hsbgowd points out that Qb6 wins easily by forcing off the queens and he's totally right, but we missed Gary's great move Qe2! where e5 will win a piece next move. Black's pieces are too loose and the bishops are raking the diagonals.
34.Qc6. best.
35.Rxc6. best.
36.Nc5. best. We had a big discussion about the best plan between this and pushing the passed pawn with b5. As often happens, they both score nearly identically. :)
37.Bxc5. surprisingly rybka plays bxc5, but our move scores just as well.
38.Bd6. Best. Gary's Rc7 and hsbgowd's Be2 were both convincing wins as well.
39.e5. Best again. rybka doesn't even bother to save the f6 knight any more it's so hopeless. +6.38@14
40.Bc5. Best. A dominating position. +7.98@15
41.e6. Best.
42.e7. Best. Our other move Bxd6 is just as crushing for white.
43.Rxd6. Best.
44.Rd8. Best. We play really well with an advantage... +11.65@15. Re6 is also crushing.
45.Kf2. Best.
46.a4. Rybka plays Bc6 forcing the win of a piece (Nc7 Bd6). We were content to let that piece sit there while we queened our pawn. Just as good.
47.Bd6. Best. Black drops a piece in a hopeless position. +18.71@15.
48.Bxc7. Best.
49.Rxd8. Best. Rybka declares that it will queen the a pawn and mate in 10. black resigns.
We played this game pretty well I think. As we've seen in the past, we were overly optimistic about our chances at times, and this led to inaccurate play. When we did have an advantage though, we played excellent chess to put the game away. It was neat to see how often the lines we settled on during the analysis ended up coming out of rybka as the best play for both sides.
Well done team!