Weakness of the diagonal from h5 to the king is a very common motif, it is like a neon sign for me in this position. It's the first thing I see when I look at the position and I am immediately looking for ways to further weaken the K-side and/or to move the knight with advantage so the queen can get in.
I look briefly at a few candidate moves like Nh4 and Ng5. Ng5 may seem like a ridiculous move to consider but it frees the queen and attacks f7, so I look at it. After looking at exf6 gxf6, it's not hard to see Ne5 because that's such a perfect move for what I want to accomplish. I can see that after 1. exf6 gxf6 2. Ne5 fxe5 3. Qh5+ Ng6 4. Qxg6+ I have dxe5 coming next which means Black loses castling rights and I at least win a pawn. After a quick check to see that Black has no alternative to 2...fxe5 (he doesn't) I'd just play it there in a blitz game. In a longer game I'd analyze a couple moves deeper and see that I'm winning at least a rook.
I am 2000 rapid but I think this is not too difficult if you recognize the pattern. Basically anytime the f-pawn has been moved in the opening, you should bear in mind that there might be some tactic like this. Here the fact that the h-pawn has also moved makes the diagonal look very weak. I think these pattern recognition skills come with time and with analyzing your games.
Hi everyone,
I've encountered a position in a game where the engine suggests that the best move for white is exf6, giving an evaluation of about +6.
1.How difficult is it to see that after white plays exf6, black cannot respond with gxf6?
2.How challenging is it to understand that white has a significant advantage of around +6 in this position?
3.As a player rated around 1100, I find it hard to grasp the answers to the above questions. Should I focus on specific areas of training to better understand such positions, or should I aim to reach a rating of 1500 first before diving into this kind of analysis?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!