Martin vs the world analysis thread #4

I still think h3 is a move we need to play at some point, but we might be able to wait until he plays h5.

Nf3 Ng4 Bd2 Nxf2 Kxf2 f5... this looks dangerous. Not sure if he has sufficient compensation for the piece but it's got potential.

I think I like h3 more than Nf3 though. h3 just nips any Ng4 ideas in the bud.

....and allows Nh5 ideas

i just dislike not having a board on the current page, so...

I don't think Nh5 will be too bad. I vote for h3

There's e5 too. I think it's probably a little ambitious considering our king is still in the centre, but once he plays Nd7 we no longer have e5, and the pawn on e4 will be weak. He has Bh7 and g5 to put pressure on that pawn.

This looks better...

Nf3 Ng4 Bg3 (teleportation) … and Black's foray falls flat with an eventual loss of tempo during his Knight's retreat since there is no bringing of our King onto the f file, in line with Black's f8 Rook.

We develop our Knight gracefully to its best square, our pawn structure remains unadulterated, and the board continues tight as a drum.

Kf1 might not be bad. Let me look at that tomorrow. I mean, it's with ideas of h3 g4 and f4, so we can always play h3 first to keep options open, but Kf1 will need to happen before f4 due to Bh4+.

So perhaps h3 Kf1 f4 g4 Nf3, and it kinda looks like we have a fearsome pawn storm which, given it's 5-check, could work for us. Definitely worth looking at.

Bg3 is good actually, I overlooked that one.

After h3, aren't we concerned about ...b5? At all?

Who’s voted for what

I didn't really look too much into b5, since we attack the b5 square three times. But it could be problematic if we try to win a pawn, Qa5 is strong. 

If we play Kf1, then b5 isn't really a problem because Qa5 doesn't hit the king, so I think we'd be ok to just grab the pawn.

Kf1 means no castling though, so it's not a move we should make in haste. 

Qc2 might be ok, it adds a defender to e4, meaning the knight pin isn't so problematic. But I feel like it's a bit too passive, our focus suddenly becomes defending e4. 

I'd like to play e5 to get rid of that weak pawn, but after dxe5 Bxc5, again Qa5 is a problem. Well, we have Bd2 actually, that might resolve it.

It's gone 2am, I'll take a proper look tomorrow.

Ry, we're still in discussion mode.  For clarity, we are 1 day into our 4 day allocation, at which point Martin can give us a time warning, and we then have 24 hours to make our move.

Since both Events are in play, and we're at a crux in the game, I don't mind us examining our options to exhaustion right now.  In the next couple of days, a lot of clarity will come to us concerning the threats we face, and the threats we can enact.

Because the Bishops can teleport, binds in this game are virtually nonexistent, and I see easy pathways for Martin to get his pieces closer to our King i.e. his faraway Knight is two moves away from the action.

I would love to sucker his Queen over to the a file, and then have us make an all out salvo of sacrifice after sacrifice that would result in multiple obscure checking of his King… for a win.

Not by checkmate, but by the five checks Event rule.

With this in mind, we may not want to castle, and storming the open space in front of our right flank may be the way to go.  Pawn marches, our dual Bishops, our Rook on the h file, our command of territory in the center…  it just has to be put together by behind-the-scene testing of moves, and analyzing the brute force potential we can quickly usher in.

Just playing with the position, running the pieces here and there to gain familiarity of the possibilities, and what I'm finding is the game will be won by checking the King 5 times.

Situations that normally would never be furthered before suddenly become completely viable.  

Get the King out into the open, sac everything running him around, and it's Game Over, Man… Game Over. (Maybe we can build a fire… sing a couple of songs, huh?  Why don't we try that?!  We better get back 'cause it'll be dark soon and they mostly come at night… mostly.)

I haven't looked at the position very much, but I'd be a bit concerned about our king if we play Kf1. For example 9. h3 Ne8 10. Kf1 f5 and I'm not sure who's attacking who. It feels risky to pawn storm on the same side our king is.

Of course we don't have to play 10. Kf1 after 9. h3, so 9. h3 is not necessarily bad. But we can't play h4 anymore (without wasting a tempo) after 9. h3. But maybe we can play 9. h3 followed by Qd2, 0-0-0 and f4 (I haven't looked into this).

I feel like ideally we would like to pawn storm with moves like f3, g4 h4 and h5. But 9. f3 runs into 9...Bh4+ (teleportation), gaining a free check for black.

This is why I'm considering 9. Qd2 here (I don't know if it's good or not), with the idea of castling queenside before playing f3, to avoid any checks on h4.

But this does allow 9...Ng4, for example 9. Qd2 Ng4 10. Bg3 (teleportation) 10...Kh7 (this is just a random move for black; 10...Bd4 11. Qxh6 looks ok for us, since f2 is protected by our bishop on g3, but I haven't analyzed this properly) 11. f3 Nf6 12. Bf2 (to protect the d4-square, preventing ...Bd4 (teleportation)). It does feel a bit awkward to play 10. Bg3 in this line, blocking the g-pawn, when we want to do a pawn storm. But at the same time black moved his knight from f6 to g4, and then back to f6 (wasting 2 tempos), while we also wasted 2 tempos with our bishop (teleporting to g3 and then moving to f2). But f2 might be a slightly worse square than e3 for our bishop.

I bet there are better moves for white than what I suggested in this line. I only looked at this briefly.

9. Nf3 looks like a very solid move and I can't see anything wrong with it, except that it makes it a bit more difficult for us to do a pawn storm. But it might not be absolutely necessary for us to do a pawn storm (but it would be fun).

I don't think Qd2 is sound, Bb4 looks like it causes too many problems for us. 

And I don't like our king in the a-corner with his bishop dominating that diagonal. I think f1 is a better square. But you're probably right that it's too risky, idk yet I haven't had time to have a decent look. 

The problem with Nf3 is Ng4. Perhaps Bg3 is enough to handle that though, again I've not looked into it enough to say for sure either way.

Oh and if 9. Nf3, then what if 9... b5? Our king is still on e1 and that's a problem with Qa5. Do we ignore b5 and just play 0-0?

Qd2 is a move I really liked, with some analysis put into it.  Our King can eventually 0-0-0, so it prepares for it, it prevents an initial check coming from Nxe4, Nxe4 Qa5+, too.  It sets up an attack on the pawn on h6 that he has to address.

9. Qd2 Bb4, he now attacks the e4 pawn and we must react. a3 is too slow, Nxe4 hits the queen on d2. Bxh7 isn't great since we're only getting a pawn here, we're not actually going to trade bishop for rook, so after Nxe4 he gets the pawn back and hits the queen and pinned knight. There's Qa5 to come too, his attack is too much. We'd need to play Bd3 and Qc2 to hold the e4 pawn, and if the queen is having to come to c2, then Qd2 was a wasted tempo. 

Or we play f3 and let him have the freebie with Bh4+, but if we're allowing that then just play Kf1 now and avoid the check. 

e4 is a weakness we can't ignore. Kf1 changes everything, the knight on c3 becomes our rock instead of our Achilles heel.

There's e5 too, which either dislodges his knight, or trades for the c5 pawn, doubling his pawns on the e-fil in the process.

Nf3 and h3 might be a problem because of b5. If we ignore it and play 0-0, then b4 dislodges the knight and e4 is hanging. cxb5 is bad, after axc5 Bxc5 there's Qa5 and again he's putting pressure on e4. 

Kf1 just deals with all of this. But I understand why it's not appealing.