Find The Plan - Complete Domination

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Avatar of Olympiad

Hey everyone! Welcome to the next (first in the Forums!) edition of Find The Plan! Every Tuesday of the week, a new position will be posted here for players of all skill levels to discuss together. It is a fun social activity with no necessarily right or wrong answers. It is not a competition and there are no prizes to be won! Engine use is heavily discouraged!

The idea, as the name suggests, is to find a plan for the given position! What would you play? And why? You are encouraged to expand on your reasoning when commenting or reacting to the suggested plans of other players.

Find The Plan - Complete Domination

Avatar of SoupSailor
That’s a tough position.
Avatar of coolest333

I think Rxd8 might be a good move because there could be Qxc6 ideas and potentially bringing in the knight with Nb5. That is my thought though I may be totally wrong.

Avatar of Stuckfish

Ne6 hitting the bishop. If they exchange your knight for their bishop, your rook infiltration gains a lot more mobility. They can't bring any defenders so if they don't want to exchange, they have to move the bishop to e7 and boom, your rook infiltration gains mobility anyway.

Avatar of OldPatzerMike

I like the exchange sac, 1. Rxd8 Qxd8 2. Qxc6. The White R has little future deep in Black's position because it can't be supported by other pieces. After the sac, Black's pieces are left uncoordinated: the N is pinned because of the threat of Qxg6#, and the Q has to defend the N. Meanwhile, White has gotten a protected passed pawn on the 5th rank and his Ns are pressuring the d5 pawn, which is no longer defended by another pawn.

The attempt to sort Black's position out by 2...Rc7 fails to 3. Qb6. Black must either give up the a pawn (a really bad idea) or allow the exchange of Qs. So, 3...Rd7 4. Qxd8 Rxd8 and now White has 5. Na4 followed by 6. Nb6. This keeps Black's R from ever penetrating and leaves White with all the winning chances.