Move 37: The Conditional Move

[after 36...Rcxb6]

  37.Bxa6 d5! 38.exd5 e4!
    39.Re3 Bd4!
      40.cxd4 Rxb4
      40.Rxb6 Rxb6 41.Qc4 Qxc4 42.Bxc4 Bxe3 43.fxe3 Rxb2
    39.Rf5 Qd6!
      40.Rxb6 Rxb6
      40.Bb5 (Elroch's line) Be7!
    39.Rxf6!? (may be best reply to 37...d5 line) 39...gxf6 (39...Rxb4 not good)
      40.Rxb6 Rxb6 41.Qc4 Qxc4 42.Bxc4 Rxb2
      40.Qc4 Qxc4 41.Bxc4 Rxb4 42.cxb4 Rxb4 43.b3
      40.Bc4 Rxb4 41.cxb4 e3!! (42.fxe3 Qg3+)
      40.Be2 e3! 41.Rxb6 Rxb6 42.Qc2 exf2+ 43.Kg2 Qb7!
      40.Bf1 e3!
        41.fxe3 Qg3+ draw
        41.Qc4 exf2+ 42.Kg2 Qe5 (threatening f5) (42.Kxf2 Qh2+)
        41.Kg2 exf2 42.Qc4 Qe5
      40.Kg2 (white's best) f5 (41.gxf5 Rxb4 42.cxb4 Kh7! 43.Be2 Rg8+)

  37.Rxb6 Rxb6
    38.Qa2
      38...Qb7 39.b4 Kf8 40.Bd5 Qd7
      38...Kf8?! 39.h4 Rxb2 (forced) 40.Qxb2 Qxc4
      38...a5? 39.Qxa5
    38.Qa4 Qc6!
    38.Bxf7+? Kf8! (Kh7/Kh8 loses) (39.Q-move Qxf7)

  37.h4
    37...Rxb4 38.cxb4 Rf8!
      39.Bxa6 Bxh4 40.b5 Qd7
        41.b6 Qxg4+ 42.Kf1 Bd8 43.b7 Bc7
      39.h5 Qc6
    37...a5?! 38.Rxb6 Rxb6 39.Qa2 not good

  37.Bd5 Rxb4 38.cxb4

        38...a5?! 39.b5! Qa7 40.Qc4 Qd7         
            41.Rb3 Bd8 42.Kg2 Qc7          
            41.Kg2! (41...Qxb4 42.Bxf7+ not good)
        38...Kh7!? 39.Bxf7 Qb7! 40.Be6!
           40...Qxb4? 41.Bf5+ Kh8 42.Qf7
           40...Kh8 41.Bf5 a5!? 42.Qe6 axb4
              43.h4 Qe7
              43.Rd3 Qe7 44.Rxd6 Qxe6 45.Rxe6
        38...Kh8?! 39.Bxf7 Qb7 40.Bg6! Qxb4 41.Qf7!
        38...Rf8?! 39.Rc3 Qa7 40.Rc6
        38...Qa7 39.h4 Rf8
        38...Qd7 (prevents h4)

 
  37.other?! (just for records) Rxb4 38.cxb4 Qb7

37.Bd5 line is not yet complete, and might require further tweaking

The only way I see to stop the plan described by Estragon would be 41. ... Qe7 42. h4 g5, followed by Kg7 to free the queen. We will lose the a-pawn after Qa4, but it is not clear we are lost. This does seem the most difficult line to deal with, and hence the most probable. I don't see what he described as a zugwang, as g5 would win by force even if we could pass.

40. ... Be7 does indeed look a playable alternative to my suggested divergence from your earlier line, dsarkar. We need to find which line is the more secure draw, in the event that we approach this variation.

That was a nice find with Bxa6, but I agree with Estragon on the most plausible play for the next few moves.  Just a slow exploitation of white's advantage.  She is certainly good of not letting black get back in

37:Bxa6 , d5  38: Qxd5  I'm mentioning it because I've looked and did not see it mentioned in your lines. It does not look all that bad to me. Again I am not the greatest player in the world.

a3teck,

Qxd5? Rxa6 loses the bishop

nice job.

well we have reached till our b Rook capture rook and we know that her next move will be Qa2. I have posted a diagram before to show what are my future votes.

Knowing how tough the 37. ... Rxb6 line is here, I'm driven to reconsider giving white a pawn with 37. ... Qxb6, with the hope of exchanging queens, getting the pawn back, or good chances of a draw in an ending a pawn down. Does anyone know which line was used to reject this choice earlier (or was it "loses a pawn so ignore it"?). At first look it does not look obviously unplayable.

And I have noticed that my post on Move 36: The Conditional Move has been deleted. How is that?

I have posted this diagram before on 36 but since its my favour too, to play like this i post here as move 37.

Elroch by the move you are suggesting, the f7 pawn will be left alone. then after 37...Qxb6, 38.Bxf7  Qxb3, 39.Bxb3 and we have lost a pawn.

alenkanh, your h7 pawn is already on h6. so practically your puzzle is not current.

therefore there will be no need for her to play Qa4, instead she will play Qa2.

MostWanted147, your response to my post repeats part of what I said. The line is a pawn sacrifice to get the queens off and head for a drawish ending.

I agree we should look at 39. ... Qxe4 as in MostWanted147's line rather than passive defense. The exchange of our f-pawn for white's e-pawn looks a good one unless it is tactically flawed.

yes Elroch, it is considerable. I see the pawn exchange you mentioned could be of help.

But right now something devastating came to my attention when i was roaming the VC comments.

I had a discussion with vigormonk there who suggested pretty intereting response of Natalia and I tried to make it a possible continuation. the move he suggets was Qe6.

Not a lot of pieces on the board in the next few moves.  It's important we try and get the pieces off the board, and make the extra pawn(s) worthless by controlling a diagonal where they will move to.  In other words white can be up a pawn or two pawns, but if the pawns can't move it doesn't matter.  If you trade off the pawns the bishop can't mate with just the king, and the black king can get directly behind the enemy pawn to draw.  Getting the Queen off the board is pretty important since it may help us force that type of scenario.

So if there is just bishops and pawns, we kill the extra pawn with the bishop and black should be able to draw (maybe by just moving the bishop back and forth).  I know this is an oversimplification, but these are some of the ideas black has here.  It looks like we will have pawns on the kingside as well, so there may be some critical squares we need to keep control of so white can't just eat the pawns on the kingside.

Like the above says, after h4 black is going to lose a pawn, because our bishop is bad, and hers is attacking two weaknesses.  That's my summary of the position from what I gather here anyways.  We are doing the right thing though, it just seems like we may have some cracks when it comes to steering the game into the right endgame situation if the paticular variations we have discussed don't show up.

I'm not so sure, savyma. I  am not sure white's pieces co-ordinate adequately after Bxf7, and we get active counterplay, quite unlike the game we have been playing.

In MostWanted147's sideline in the last diagram, 44. ... Qf4!? with the idea of Rf8 looks worthy of investigation. In the line given, the queen seems to get misplaced for no reason - it should both attack and defend.

continued to this thread:

http://www.chess.com/groups/forumview/move-38-the-conditional-move