Position of the day-1.10

Hi guys!

The following position is taken from a game of one of my students, and as always, provide full evaluation (threats, positional, tactical) and analyze the resulting requirements of the position to find plans and suggested moves, eventually choosing the best one (either the one who distinguishly answers more requirements then the rest, or if it's tied use the concept of urgency in chess- which moves we want to play can be prevented by our opponent unless we play them right away).

As always, share your findings with me and the group.

Ok, immediate threats:

Black has no checks. 

Black has no captures.

Black has  no moves that immediately force a significant concession of material. 

Positional evaluation:

Space: 

Black controls 3 squares in white's territory with pawns.

white controls 2 squares in black's territory with pawns. 

White's rook controls significatn squares in black's camp.

Advantage White.

Development:

Black's rook is at least 'under developed' in that it is sitting on a starting square without apparent purpose. 

White is fully developed. 

Advantage White

Piece Quality:

Black's rook is on the back rank in an almost purely position compared to white's rook on the 7th AND the only open file.

Black's bishop is blocked by the e pawn, and the queen side pawns are on dark squares as well compared to white's knight which is on a passive square but which has no positional blockers and d5 is a potential outpost square. 

Advantage White

Material: 

Material is even. Black has a 'bad' bishop versus a knight in a position with pawns on both sides of the board. 

Equal 

possible moves:

1) a4 to try to begin fixing the queen side pawns on dark squares

2) c4 to try to begin fixing the queen side pawns on dark squares

3) Nc3 aiming for d5

4) g4 to try to prevent any ideas of an f5 break move

5) Kf1 to start activating the king for the end game

6) h4 with the idea of forcing h5 and thus creating a semi-outpost square on g5?

Analysis:

         1 & 2 :on either a4 or c4 black can play the corresponding c4 or a4. when it's not clear what the continuation is for white.

          3 : 1. Nc3 c4 (to try and get lines for the bishop) 2. Nd5 cxb 3. cxb  seems very good for white who has increased his piece quality advantage with no negatives 

          4 : 1. g4 c4 (the idea of creating lines for the bishop still looks good 2. Nc3 cab 3. cxb Rc8 4. Nb5 looks like a weaker version of 3 because black has already played Rc8 and can activate his rook by playing Rc2, whereas in 3 Rc8 is not available due to the knight fork on e7

          5  :  1. Kf1 c4 or a4 looks again like a bad version of 3

6 :  1. h4 a4 (trying to activate the rook without moving it) Nc3 and again it's a bad version of variation 3. 

Based on the above, the move I'd play is Nc3 with a plan of Nd5. This stops black's ability to generate any queen side counter play and keeps the rook passive. It increases white's space and piece quality advantages. The knight is on a good outpost square that can not be attacked by pawns, making it nearly invulnerable in the given position. From d5 the knight can help attack either side of the board. 

Great response. I agree but could never set it out as well. I agree with N c3

Hi David,

your threats evaluation is very lacking, check my comments on the position of the day 25.9 about it.

regarding the positional evaluation-

space: white controls only 1 square with a pawn, f5 is only contested. regardless, remember that as pieces come off the board, the weight we give space advantage decreases, as the goal of controling space is to occupy it with  pieces or prevent the opponent from doing so. but as there are less pieces, it's less relevant, and also you don't need as much space to maneuver your own pieces in your camp, as here for example, only 2 pieces remained. this is why the space advantege is a dinamic one, and same conditions on the board are regarded differently depending on how many pieces there are.

development- had you checked for threats properly, you wouldn't have insulted black's rook claiming it has so apparent purpose. regarding the purpose- it's more part of the quality of pieces section. rooks can be developed without moving, in contrast to bishops, who can't, regardless of whether they're already active from the original square or not- it's piece quality.

piece quality- note that here global piece quality (how the pawn structure on the board suits a certain pieces nature, like here as you said almost all his pawns are on dark squares blocking the bishop's diagonals. It's global quality, and local quality (number of effective squares a piece controls or contests) is directly affected by it) plays a huge role in this position, which is not always the case. the bishop suffers with low global quality, while the knight is unaffected by it, due to it's neture of not depending on open diagonals. whenever we can try an affect the global quality of pieces in the game in our favor, usually we would like to do so, as it's the most important criterea. it controls the whole game.

global quality of both rooks here for example is equal, the difference is in the local quality between them, as you mentioned.

most important note to your analysis- be more constructive about the threats analysis, it will help you find more potential threats, that might turn to be indeed real.

I'm sensing a theme in my approach to these problems -- apperantly my threat analysis is generally lacking! I guess it's good to know that but I honestly am not sure what I'm missing in this position. 

you only looked for checks and captures. proceed to what moves can the opponent make to create pressure and/or tension!

btw, you didn't finish your evaluation, still must do a tactical evaluation. it also consists of moves you can make that create checks, captures, pressure and tension.

the difference is that in the threats section- it's enough to find one solution (like forced variation) for you to discard a potential threat. in tactical evaluation you must check all the possible variations that can arise, looking for responses of your opponent to the threat you are going to create.

hello ;)

acording to me in this position white is beter but must manage with the N to win pown(s) on the queen side

the first move can be Nc3 and black can't play a4

the aim is to win b6 pown

see you :)

I would skip the analysis and play Rb7 in a fraction of a second :-)

Good luck with that