This is a challenging position from my game at playchess with an 1800 player . White is targeting the d-file and has it's eye on d7. The knight is a tempo away from a check and additional pieces on d7. I have discussed this position with a fellow player from playchess.com and he challenged to come up with a workable defense.
I'm still thinking about this . It's very tricky. (here is the start)
Step One: Describe the position.
Material is even. The only thing off the board are the d-pawns. White: White is castled queenside and prepared to attack in the center and when available Kingside. Has a rook-queen battery starring down the d-file. His d5 knight can't be kicked by a pawns and can delivered a check on two squares. The f3 pawn is unprotected but not directly attacked and the e2 knight
is only protected only by the queen. White LS bishop is in a strong unblocked diagonal while the DS bishop is currently in a Queen Bishop battery and would benefit from more activity. His rooks are connected and desire open files.
White's Plans dependent on Blacks Move.
If white can't win get ahead in material with a combination in the center >attacking Nd7,Qd8. then f4 is in the air : looking to move the e3 pawn and opening up the f4 square for a piece and the attack. There will be a fight for the d7 knight which black needs to adjust for so he doesn't end up hurt in a combination.
Black Position and Plan.
White has an attacking position and black has plenty of work to do to cobble together a plan to defend and perhaps threaten to counterattack. What ever move black selects, it must effectively combat the following 4 follow-up moves by white bxd7, Nf6+, f4, Nc3 .
Black desires better coordination as of the back rank,Keeping black rooks from getting open files on the king-side, more active bishops, and exchanging off some of the white pieces and most importantly not losing material which is on the way if he doesn't play precisely.
Candidate Moves for Black:
I'm considering Ba6, Bb7,Nb8,Kh8, f6,f5, (more to follow plus editing)
I can eliminate Nb8. 1...Nb8?! 2. Bxc8 qxc8? 3. Ne7+ takes the queen
I can eliminate Ba6 1...Ba6 2. Nc3 and black has no escape route or defense for the knight on d7 :it loses a piece
I can eliminate Bb7 see Ba6
After looking at all the lines I could not find anything that didn't lose material. So I ran it through Fritz and that is the case . This position is plus 3 regardless of blacks move.
What an interesting position.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure there's much Black can do. It looks like White has what Fischer called a "winning bind".
Some clues are that most of black's pieces are severly restricted.
The Knight's, King Bishop and worst of all Queen have virtually no moves available, and as you analyzed moving the Queen Bishop just makes things worse.
I've looked at a few bind's on my blog that look somewhat similar.
If I was Black I might try to get in ... Re8, ...Nf8 and exchange the white squared Bishops but the problem is being cramped it takes a lot of time which gives White a chance to do some damage.