Careful which piece you decide to take with! (in-depth review) - Chess Forums

TheTrueQinG

Dec 11, 2020

0

#1

So earlier I played a very interesting match against my opponent. (An Italian vs Anti Fried Liver). Upon further analysis I noticed a moment in which I decided to trade and completely threw my advantage by the order in which I decided to do so. We had reached this position in which I knew it was time to strike/trade on f7:

However, after some deliberation I decided to take with the c4 bishop first rather than the rook on f1. resulting in this position:

This allowed for my opponent to take control of the squares on his terms rather than mine, resulting in this position:

and the analysis managed to go from a potential +5.68 to an actual -4.11 when I was sitting at a +3.5 the previous turn. A whole 9.79 points!!! of evaluation by one single seemingly unimportant decision (or atleast what I thought at the time), even though it was only a play that was -2 material wise. I completely threw away my advantage realizing i had made a mistake and decided to not recapture on f7. I was left fighting my way back positionally to an eventual checkmate off of a hard to find single missed move by my opponent (though props to them for the well played match).

I was initially attracted to the move because it came with check forcing my opponent to act on what I saw as a perceived threat. However, after further review I see that (as it so often is) it was much better to slow roll the attack and capture with the rook which would have resulted in this position:

Which would have resulted in a much more favorable forcing position as it wins the pawn on that square as well as attacks the queen and has to be taken with the queen instead of the rook in order to avoid the fork by the e file pawn push to e5 if rook takes. Side note: Black definitely wants to take in that position instead of moving the queen back and defending his rook or else succumb to some nasty discoveries from the c4 bishop. This leads to the black queen to practically being forced to take the rook on f7 pinning itself by the c4 bishop (which obviously takes) and thus is a queen and pawn (10 pts) for a rook and bishop (8 pts) as well as gaining the tempo to play exd6 take followed by blacks cxd6 and Qxd6 retake to gain an additional pawn leaving white at +4.88 with best play after just a few turns, ultimately resulting in a gain of 3 material points and the following such position, which is clearly winning for white:

My analysis has led me to some great insights into the nature of an attack. Play preserving tempo (in this case by attacking the queen) and to keep an eye out for pawn pushes that will force forks (in this case, one supported by a rook). That and perhaps it is best to set-up potential discoveries as well since those are generally devastating. I'm glad that I felt that it was the proper time to attack as that means my game sense was on point, it's just that my execution was sloppy; hopefully my review here will allow me to better recognize such key moments and correctly identify the proper order of execution.

If you'd like to review the whole game here is that in analysis form and gif form, it's nothing crazy special, but a solid performance despite our two critical blunders:

If anyone has any similar vital moments in which the order was drastically important please let me know and feel free to share the examples. I'd love to learn from similar "oopsies." Cheers all.

Pusser41

Dec 12, 2020

0

#2

Hope this is not a dumb question but wHy not play pawn to E6. It threatens the queen. If the pawn captures bxpe6 attacks the queen and checks. It seems to get messy for black then.

TheTrueQinG

Dec 12, 2020

0

#3

Pusser41 wrote:

Hope this is not a dumb question but wHy not play pawn to E6. It threatens the queen. If the pawn captures bxpe6 attacks the queen and checks. It seems to get messy for black then.

I analyzed a bit and it looks like black can force a mass trade on his terms on the e6 square. The sequence goes fxe6, Bxe6+, Qxe6, Rxe6, Bxe6 and gives this position:

So after all is said and done you've traded a pawn, a bishop, and a rook for a queen and a pawn i.e. giving up 9 points for 10 and the evaluation is at +2.85 for white (again lower than the +3.5 advantage of the previous turn). Sometimes 3 pieces for a queen is a very fair trade. Sure white is slightly better here, but you've also given up all your attacking chances for what seems like no compensation. You also allow black to develop his dark squared bishop and opened the f file for him to potentially occupy with his rook. A nice question though! Thanks for the comment

Pusser41

Dec 12, 2020

0

#4

Thank you for taking the time to answer. I guess in this position white exchanges rooks to break up the pair and baring stuff ups should win. Obviously from my question, stuff ups are far from unlikely.