A complicated tactical/strategical position where I don't know what should both sides do

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New_Lancer_Evo_IX

Mar 5, 2018

Hello fellow chess lovers, recently I played a game in Tournament Mode in Chessmaster (yep I know it's an old program, but I'm just playing for fun) against a 1600+ rated personality. My opponent had black pieces, I played white, and after a "wrong" choice of opening (why did I choose a tactical line against computer, I don't know) I arrived at middlegame where material was roughly equal (see the position after last move below). I felt that White had the initiative yet I struggled to find the correct continuation.

Long story short, I lost after I chose to simplify then played a bad move (I was tired calculating the correct move): 24. Rxe7 Qxe7 25. Qxh5 Bg5 26. Ba3? Rd8 27. Rxd8 Qxd8 28. f4 Bxf4 29. Qe2 Qh4 30. h3? I resigned immediately. But I felt that position after move 23 is still playable, had I not choose the simplification. So I analyzed the game immediately, yet Chessmaster seems to struggle to find good continuation for both sides after 24. Rd3 Bf2 25. Rdd7 Bh4 26. h3 a5.

My question is, what should White do here? And let's say you play Black, what's the general idea for Black to get out from this situation? Thank you for suggestions.

jphillips

Mar 5, 2018

Oh fun, the Goring Gambit! Actually tried it out for a while myself. Very aggressive and fun.

My initial reaction to the position though is Rdd7, just trying to add more pressure to the knight. The computer seems to have found a draw though after Bxf3.... Not sure if a human would find that or not. If not Bxf3, white should be winning.

I definitely think white is better here after Rd3 though since it's not really a good idea to gamble in chess. After Rd3, I used stockfish to analyze the resulting positions, and white does seem to be winning.

Hope this is helpful!