Martin0 vs the world - Event Chess Game #2

I resign

16...Bf5 17.Qxf5 Nh6 does not work because I have to play 17...Bxc3

Playing for a trap like 16...Nh6 17.Bxf8 Bf5 is a bit too obvious and the move 17.Bxd6 will be played.

16...Bxc3 does not only lose to 17.Bxf8 Bxa1 18.Bxd6, but even if white "falls for the trap" 17.Qxc3 Na4 18.Bxf8 Nxc3 19.Bxd6 Nxe2+ 20.Kh1 I have a losing endgame.

16...Re8 17.Bxd6 just looks hopeless without counterplay.

16...Be5 is the move I want to play to sacrifice an exchange, but keep some dynamics. However

16...Be5 17.Bxf8 Bxh2+ 18.Kh1 Kxf8 19.Re1 Nxf2+ 20.Kxh2 wins another piece for white.

16...Be5 17.Bxf8 Kxf8 18.h3 Nf6 19.f4 also wins a piece for white.

16...Be5 17.Bxf8 Kxf8 18.h3 Nh6 19.Qh7 Bxc3 20.Qxh6+ also leads to me losing more material.

16...Be5 17.Bxf8 Nxh2 18.Bh6 is not just a questionable sacrifice, but I would be mated quickly once a queen comes to the g-file.

We won? Yay

Martin, the world was feeling very comfortable this whole week.  We had some very sharp players performing deep analysis the week before, and they really cut through the nuances of the Events.

I started to relax when I read, "YOU DARE OPPOSE OUR CALCULATIONS MORTAL?"

The score is now 1 - 1.  (I feel so much better than I did almost a year ago.)

Thank you for the variant game and the challenge you presented.

Bob

I understood that you guys had an idea with the Bg5 move and of course I saw my pinned knight was a weakness, but I didn't see the g4 move at all, so I was very confused. That was the whole point with Bg5.

I was considering something like this:

It also felt really bad that I was unable to play 15...Rxd8

Yes, I was lost after c6.

Wow, this happened.

Does a rematch on August 17 sound good? I need a little break.

I think this opening was really hard to play as black with the pawn grabber event. Hard to attack the center while also avoiding these required capture tactics.

At this point, I'm even considering lines like this:

I have a piece against 3 pawns, which should be fine I guess.

Martin, how about a rematch in September?

It's the dog days of August here in the States.

September 7 sound better?

How about September 8?  Then the Labor Day long-weekend would be over.

It would be a Tuesday, the first moves are always perfunctory, for the most part, and everyone could settle in easily.

I actually think you might have been lost already after you played 9...g5. Even if you had seen the g4 threat I don't there was a good way to defend against it. With the best defense I could find for black you would end up in an endgame with equal material, but where we can build 2 queens and you can only build 1 queen. This would of course be nowhere near resignable for you. We would have to fight for the victory in that case, but I think the advantage would be big enough for us to win with perfect play from both sides.

The best line I could find for you after playing 9...g5 is probably 10. Nxg5 hxg5 11. Bxg5 exd4 12. Qxd4 Ne4 13. Qxg7+ Kxg7 14. Bxd8 Nxc3 15. Bxc7 Nxe2+ 16. Kh1 and the second best line I found for you after you played 9...g5 is probably 10. Nxg5 hxg5 11.Bxg5 exd4 12. Qxd4 Nh7 13. Bxd8 Bxd4 14. Bxc7 Re8 15. Bxd6 Bxc3 16. bxc3 Rxe2 17. Rfb1

But you had some good options before playing 9...g5. You could have for example played 9...h5 (after having already played 8...h6) to shut down any g4 ideas.

Another option that looks interesting would be for you to play 9...exd4 10. Qxd4 Qe8. Playing ...Qe8 in almost any other situation would lose for you. For example 9...Qe8 loses to 10. Nb5, 9...g5 10. Nxg5 hxg5 11. Bxg5 Qe8 loses to 12. Qa4 exd4 13. Nb5 Qxe2 14. Nxc7 Qxb2 15. Nxa8 and 9...g5 10. Nxg5 hxg5 11. Bxg5 exd4 12. Qxd4 Qe8 loses to e.g. 13. Bxf6 Bxf6 14. Qg4+ Bg7 15. Nd5 Qd8 16. Qe4 Bxb2 17. Ne7+ Kg7 18. Qg4+ Kh6 19. Qh4+ Kg7 20. Qg5+ Kh7 21. Be4+ f5 22. Bxf5+.

But after 9...exd4 10. Qxd4 Qe8 it's not so obvious how we should take advantage of 10...Qe8. It feels like there could be a tactic for white, but I haven't found any that works.

After 11...exd4 12. Qxd4 Ne8 13. Qh4 (we did not plan on playing this move during the game) Bf6 I think we can just play 14 Be4 and you can't stop the checkmate threat on h7 (you can only prolong it).

After 11...exd4 12. Qxd4 Ne8 13. Qh4 Ndf6 it looks like this position might be very good for us, but I'm not sure. Maybe we could continue 14. Be4, with the threat of 15. Bh7+ Kh8 16. Bc2+ Kg8 17. Ne4 followed by taking on f6 and checkmating on h7.

After 11...exd4 12. Qxd4 Ne8 13. Qh4 Ndf6 14. Be4 Qd7 we can play 15. Nd5, and after 15...Nxe4 we can play 16. Ne7+ and win your queen.

After 11...exd4 12. Qxd4 Ne8 13. Qh4 Ndf6 14. Be4 Qe7 15. Bh7+ Kh8 16. Bb1+ Kg8 17. Nd5 Qxe2 18. Bxf6 Nxf6 19. Nxf6+ Bxf6 we checkmate with 20. Qh7++.

After 11...exd4 12. Qxd4 Ne8 13. Qh4 Nef6 I think 14. Nd5 is good. The threat is to play 15. Bh3 followed by 16. Bxd7 and winning a piece on f6. If 14...c6 then we can play 15. Bh3 anyway, since 15...cxd5 16. cxd5 Nxd5 17. Bxd8 wins your queen.

After 11...exd4 12. Qxd4 Ne8 13. Qh4 f6 I think 14. Bd5+ looks strong for us.

Unfortunately you can't get out of the pin so easily with 11...exd4 12. Qxd4 c6 13. Qxd6 Qa5, since we have 14. Nd5 (we didn't find this move during the game). The point is to attack the f6 knight and "defend" the g5 bishop. If 14...cxd5 then we have 15. b4 and we win your queen, since you have to make a capturing move (the c4 pawn is hanging).

If 14...Nxd5 then we have 15. Be4 Bxb2 16. Rad1 Qxa2 17. Qh6 Qxc4 18. Qh7++.

If 14...Ne8 then we have 15. Ne7+ Kh8 16. Qf4 Bxb2 17. Qh4+ Kg7 18. Qh6++.

If 14...Ne8 15. Ne7+ Kh7 then we have 16. Be4+ f5 17. Qg5+ Kh8 18. Qh5+ Bh6 19. Qxh6++.

I think Black can prolong the checkmate after 11...exd4 12. Qxd4 Ne8 13. Qh4 Bf6 14. Be4 by 1 move (since he doesn't have to make a capturing move) by sacrificing either the b7 pawn with 14...b5 15. Nxb5 Bxb2 16. Qh7++ or the d6 pawn with 14...d5 15. Nxd5 Bxb2 16. Qh7++.

It's kinda tough to reply to analysis when there are a lot of lines. I was going to reply sooner, but I kept on prolonging it and now I have forgotten some things I were thinking during the game.

From a theoretical standpoint, I would not be surprised if white is winning after the pawn grabber event started. White controls the center and the center is really hard to attack when the pawn grabber event constantly punishes you from attacking pawns. Of course a lot can happen though, my main point is that I think whites advantage from the opening is bigger than usual and the position is really hard to play for black.

My first instinct about 8.Bg5 was that it was not a good move. Even after seeing the g4 trick I thought of it as just a temporal trick and still did not believe in Bg5.

However, if white indeed is winning after 9...g5, then Bg5 is probably a very good move. If I can't break the pin with g5, then it surely is a very annoying pin and whites bishop is well placed there.

I am disappointed in myself for not finding the g4 trick during the game. However, no matter how long I would analyse, I probably couldn't resist playing 9...g5. The reason being the position after 10.Nxg5 hxg5 11. Bxg5 exd4 12. Qxd4 c6 13. Qxd6 Qa5

Nd5 is a beautiful move! I rarely give double exclam, but this move deserves it. I'm not going to go into the lines, since @Chess_Pro2 already did, but they seem solid and black is just lost.

I would probably need to see this Nd5 move before deciding against 9...g5 and let's just say that ain't happening. I probably wouldn't even feel upset losing to that tactic, but rather be impressed by it.

I have other options after 9...g5, but when the line I considered the most solid option did not work it is a bad sign. That was the line I would want to rely on if no other option seemed favorable.

Well spotted @Chess_Pro2.

Thank you @Martin0 . It took me a long time to find 14. Nd5 and it certainly wasn't the first move I looked at in that position. I only found it after the game after you mentioned the position.

During the game (before we played 8. Bg5), I did consider the position after 8...h6 9. Bh4 g5 10. Nxg5 hxg5 11. Bxg5 exd4 12. Qxd4 c6 13. Qxd6 (and maybe even 13...Qa5, I can't remember exactly), but only briefly. I looked at the position and thought to myself "White has 3 pawns for a knight and black has the weaker king, looks good enough for me" and then I focused my attention on other more critical lines where black tries to hold on to the material instead of giving up a pawn.

I am also slightly disappointed in myself for missing a lot of stuff during the game. One very embarrassing thing that I missed was that after sacrificing the knight on g5 with 10. Nxg5 hxg5 11. Bxg5, white is no longer threatening to play g4 directly now that the white knight is no longer on f3 defending d4. For example after 11...c6 (which you did play) white can't play 12. g4 immediately, since then black plays 12...exd4 and white is pretty much forced to play 13. Qxd4 and now the g4-pawn is protected, which ruins the tactic for white.

It was only after we played 11. Bxg5, while waiting for you to make a move that I noticed that we're not actually threatening to play 12. g4 immediately, but that after 11...c6 we can instead play 12. Qc2 exd4 13. g4. It almost felt a bit lucky that we happened to have this tactic.

15...Nc5 was a really nice move from you @Martin0 that I completely overlooked (I only considered 15...Rxd8 and 15...Bxc3). I think it's the best defense for black.

It feels like 16. Be7 was a risky move from us that happened to be good. I analyzed both 16...Bxc3 and 16...Re8 very deeply during the game, and I even looked a bit at 16...b6 and 16...b5, but I forgot to consider all reasonable replies from black.

I somehow forgot to consider moves like 16...Bf5 and 16...Be5 after 16. Be7, even though I double checked several times to make sure I had not missed any forcing moves black could play after 16. Be7. It just happened to turn out that the replies I didn't consider for black after 16. Be7 were not good for black.

In the pawn grabber event it's very risky to attack an unprotected pawn (like our 16. Be7 move), since pretty much every reply from the opponent is a forcing move (since the player attacking the pawn will have to make a capturing move on the next move almost no matter what). It's very easy to overlook a tactic for the opponent in that case, since there's so much to calculate. If you attack an unprotected pawn, then it's very important to look at all the replies for your opponent, or at least all the "really forcing moves" (checks, captures and threats), which I thought I did after 16. Be7, but I somehow missed a couple of moves.

Looks like it is time for a rematch.

@rychessmaster1, you want to submit moves for the world team again?

I'll play.

Just got my replacement battery for my 2011 MacBook Pro installed.  The old, original battery had started to swell and raised the trackpad left-edge corners above the raised-surrounding of the MacBook Pro case.

I had been advised to not use the MacBook Pro until the new battery was installed, and that was a week ago, the time it took for a new battery to come in.

So, I'm back again… new life on chess dot com.  What a relief.  Computer works like new!

Bob

Sorry for the delay. The rematch is here:

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-variants/martin0-vs-the-world-event-chess-game-3