In the above position it's black to move, i made Bd6 and i lost later. After the game i analyzed it with stockfish engine and engine says a5 is better move with - 0.12 value which is in black's favor. Is it a better decision to open up the position by a5 when your position is bad, defensive, and opponent rooks will be more powerful when a,b,c files opened, even opponent bishop can get a tempi by Be5. What your decision would be? as i said isn't opening lines in this case breaks some chess principles?
Decision making in chess
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I agree that a5 should naturally give a human pause for the reason you mentioned. However, one can see that it makes white's queenside pawn(s) very weak and I'd therefore submit that an intermediate player should realize it is worth a look. TAlso, after bxb qxb, qg3 black doesn't really have activity. If black plays qxq in that position, he may never get any (following up with nxp is clearly problematic because it allows white's rook in on c7). So even though the position is fine(ish) I'd certainly want to look at the more active a5.
That said, we aren't 3400 strength computers, and I wouldn't feel bad for selecting a more natural looking move, from a human perspective.
I would play Be7, followed by Bf6 to attack white center..
This goes with the general principle that "when you are behind in material you should exchange only the pawns"
Sep 19, 2018
0
#6
Bd6 is bad for lots of reasons. I feel like it should hardly even be a candidate move.
So it's probably worth hearing your reasoning about it.
Basically the evolution of a good piece is something like:
-1) Blocking friendly pieces
1) On the back rank / passive
2) Centralized / influences many squares
3) Infiltration / in an outpost
4) In contact with important offensive / defense squares (usually pawn targets or squares near the enemy king)
White's bishop is level 2, it's just hitting a lot of air (c7 is neutralized by the knight). It's even slightly blocking the queen.
Your bishop is level 4 (touching enemy pawns, guarding the c5 infiltration point), plus positionally it shores up all the dark square weaknesses left by your pawn moves.
@e ahmed opponent would not let you attack via Bf6 by Be5. He has many options to defend and you wasted 2 tempi which he can use.
If he stop Bf6, there is Bg5.
Um...just p
Bishop is your inactive piece. You have to use him as fast as possible. Actually Kf7 is better than Be7. Next you can move your bishop on h6 or g7 depending your opponent.
chess_pagol wrote:
In the above position it's black to move, i made Bd6 and i lost later. After the game i analyzed it with stockfish engine and engine says a5 is better move with - 0.12 value which is in black's favor. Is it a better decision to open up the position by a5 when your position is bad, defensive, and opponent rooks will be more powerful when a,b,c files opened, even opponent bishop can get a tempi by Be5. What your decision would be? as i said isn't opening lines in this case breaks some chess principles?
At what depth SF see a5 as a good move?, my branfish disagreed! How many million nodes you analysed? Which SF version? Do you have 6 men TB in SF?
180913 version of brainsfish with 6 men Tablebase .( 2 billion nodes searched or 6 mins of analysis, ) and Leela agreed these plans.
1. Qa6 plan is to attck white weakness of e3 via Qd3
2. Be7 , then Bg5 to attack white's weak pawn on e3.
@e ahomad if you put Kf7 then king is exposed to the attacks of rooks via 2nd or 1st ranks
Btw, Leela seemed to be the best positonal evaluation engine and also try with her evaluations!
chess_pagol wrote:
@e ahomad if you put Kf7 then king is exposed to the attacks of rooks via 2nd or 1st ranks
Lololol..
And you will do what you usually do.
@drmrboss stockfish 6 i am using, i did not change any default engine settings and simply it shows 3 variations per move and a5 was there along with Qa6. How come you did not see a5 as engine suggested move?!
@deirdeskye wow exactly that is what i meant. and my intention of Bd6 was same as you mentioned but after that i had one plan in mind is to make fortress so i disqualified a5 and if white tries to break my fortress then i will try to hold as much as possible considering the fact that Knight vs rook can be a draw at least.
chess_pagol wrote:
@drmrboss stockfish 6 i am using, i did not change any default engine settings and simply it shows 3 variations per move and a5 was there along with Qa6. How come you did not see a5 as engine suggested move?!
Omg, why you use 3 years old engine. Also dont use Multi PV like (3 variation for analysis. Single PV is better in deep analysis. ) . Your SF 6 is about 200 elo weaker than my latest SF Dev now. Practically your analysis is about 10% efficient search than mine in case we are using the same hardware.
( +50 elo means doubling efficient search )
https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/celebrating-stockfishs-500-elo-achievements-how-fishtest-turned-little-fish-turned-into-mons
Try to get the latest stockfish! It is free
The really interesting thing about this position is how many people of what rating guessed that the central untouchable knight more than made up for the material deficit? Although maybe it doesn't, unless your a cool as a cucumber engine willing to play a5.
Sep 20, 2018
0
#19
?
To me a5 is an extremely natural and human move. Not engine-like at all. First of all it pretty much wins a pawn by force, but also this sort of formation happens in all sorts of openings (only key players shown below) and a5 is a key move for black
(b5 pawn is not necessary, only that the white pawn on b4 can't escape the pawn break by advancing)
The argument against a5 is that you're opening more files for the rooks (which white has 2 of and you only have 1 of).
But since there's no play anywhere else for black, this argument also asserts you have a fortress which is always really risky to go for in the middlegame. If in doubt, I'd go with a5.
Yes the centralized knight is worth pointing out. It's the star minor piece for sure. Also worth pointing out IMO is how ineffective white's bishop is, just hitting air.
Sep 21, 2018
0
#20
Like ArtNJ I find it funny how many people are certain of the evaluation of the position, advantage for black, based on a number from software, In fact it doesn't seem a very stable position, and with most reasonable moves, the software evaluation changes when walk down the line becoming roughly equal, Black can prevent be7-g5 with h4, and Bf4 followed by g4 is a resource in many lines. In human chess, a slight tactical inaccuracy from black can lead to a big white advantage, so in a least practical terms white has the advantage.
When first look at the postion not very attracted to Bd6 exchanging good bishop, but not very sure what I had played.