Evaluation of this position

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samuel_ssz

I had a disagreement with a friend on whether this position is acceptable for black. This seems to me to be rather bad for black because white's bishop pair is stronger than black's bishop and knight, combined with the fact that the pawn on a6 weakens black's queenside pawn structure (attacking the b- and c-pawns may force more concessions in the future, potentially allowing white's king to penetrate). Right now black has more pieces able to target white's kingside than white has defenders, but I don't see that leading anywhere for black since trying to push pawns there means that white's bishops are able to target black's king. My friend thinks that both sides have equal chances and that there aren't obvious concrete plans for either side.

What's the actual evaluation of this position? How should both sides play here?

Graywing13

White's down a rook, and black should win. I would resign as white in this position.

Even if white had an extra rook, I would probably still favor black. While in most cases, the bishop pair is stronger than a bishop and knight, the d4 knight is centralized and is quite strong. Black also has more active pieces and more space. White has some back-rank problems and the rook hasn't moved from its starting square.

u12912

My friend missed a rook in this position. There should be a rook on the e1 square. 

samuel_ssz

@Graywing13 edited the position to include the missing rook.

nklristic
Graywing13 wrote:

White's down a rook, and black should win. I would resign as white in this position.

Even if white had an extra rook, I would probably still favor black. While in most cases, the bishop pair is stronger than a bishop and knight, the d4 knight is centralized and is quite strong. Black also has more active pieces and more space. White has some back-rank problems and the rook hasn't moved from its starting square.

That knight can't stay there. Simple c3 and knight has to move.

@OP

This is probably a draw with best play. Of course there is much of the game to be played so who knows what will happen. I would guess that white is better because of the bishop pair, but not by much. Stronger players might give better answer than that. happy.png

Graywing13

@nklristic

Agree. I would still rather play Black, but it should be a drawn game.

JamesColeman

It definitely looks a lot more pleasant for White. If Black had time to play Nc6-b4 he'd be fine, but white can easily prevent this, and white can soon bring his pieces to nice squares. It's also not simple for black to place a rook on e8 in the near future.

That said, safe to say that none of us would be converting this as White vs Magnus.

Nerwal

I agree White is a lot better. There is no favorable positional transformation Black can achieve in the next few moves (c5 doesn't work, f4 doesn't work, Nc6-e5-g4-f6-e4 doesn't work either) and no great post for the knight, White's position stays very compact and with an open center sooner or later the two bishops will start to dominate the board.