Computer chess. Was 34. Rxe4 necessary?

Sort:
xinaiplacot

This is a game played by GNU Chess against himself. Anyway, I was shocked to see white sacrificing a rook in 34. Rxe4, even if white captures the black bishop in the next move. Any possible reason I might be missing or was it probably because of the limitations of the software, meaning that it considered not so bad exchanging a rook for a pawn+bishop? The game continued a few moves after 65...d4 and black won by checkmate.

 

Jitesh

Mephisto,thanks for an excellent analysis.

xinaiplacot

Mephisto saw it very well, 34. Rxe4 was the best line.

xinaiplacot
Mastafade wrote:

Next time, you could maybe put all the variations into a single game window, as to not drag on your post, just a thought. 


Thanks, I'll do that next time, I hadn't thought of it.

xinaiplacot
smocard wrote:

Ne1 Rxf2 Rxf2!

Okay so Nd4 was bad. But still...what's wrong with Rxf2!?


Rxf2 captures the black rook but then the white queen is gone:

34. Ne1 Rxf2

35. Rxf2 Be3+

36. Rd2 Qxb5