Thursday, January 31, 2008

White To Play

In this position, it is Streatham & Brixton Chess Club's first-teamer Adam Fysh-Foskett to play as white, against Ilford's Russell P White, from a recent London League clash.

"White is currently attacking two (!) pieces and has an extra Marshall pawn," writes Adam, "but his king is under pressure and he is behind in development. How should he proceed?

"The game went: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. 0-0 b5 6. Bb3 Be7 7. Re1 0-0 8. h3 (possible, as 8. … Na5 leaves the e5 pawn hanging) 8. … d5?! (the disadvantage of playing a Marshall after 8. h3 is that White still has c3 free for his knight, 8. … d6 9. c3 transposes back to the main Spanish line) 9. exd5 Nxd5 10. Nxe5 Nxe5 11. Rxe5 Nf6 12. d3 Bd6 13. Re1 Ng4?! 14. Qf3 Qh4 reaching the diagrammed position, after which White won."

Thanks to Adam for sending this miniature & puzzle in to the blog, for our readers to test their chess with!

8 comments:

ejh said...

Blimey. When I play the Spanish we're usually still in theory at move 14...

ejh said...

Anyway....without turning on Rybka, does 15.Bg5 pick up the a8-rook?

Tom Chivers said...

It does, but after 15... Qxg5 16. Qxa8 Qf4, Crafty has no doubt that black has a winning attack.

ejh said...

Me neither. And 15.Bf4 looks like it fails against 15...Nxf2.

ejh said...

Oooh, I think I've got it.

I never play moves like that.

Anonymous said...

A long R move looks good.

Richard

gorckat said...

Wow. I haven't practiced with PCT in over a month and I think I spotted it in a few seconds.

Maybe I'm not as dull as I thought :P

ejh said...

Perhaps people should practice with ECT. At the very least it'd provide an incentive.