Horton-Portero, Casino Jaque v Marcos Frechin, Aragón League 2009. Position after Black's 30th move.
White has sacrificed a pawn to catch Black's king in the centre with queen and rook available to try and deliver mate: Black's rook is undeveloped but the queen has some capacity to do damage to an unprotected White king. With eight minutes on his clock, plus thirty seconds a move, White begins with the obvious (and correct) 31.Qd3+ as indicated in the diagram. If 31...Kxe5 32.Qg3+ ends the game so Black must (and did) try 31...Ke6.
In truth, Black is lost - but what's the best way to win? No computers, if you would, and I'd like to see variations, please, not just White's next move.
[You may take it that White, although he won in the end, didn't find the best line. Or the second best. Or the third.]
OK here goes: after 1. Qd3+ Ke6: my blunderama unassisted conclusion is:
ReplyDelete2. Qg6+ when:
(a) 2. ... Ke5:
3. Re3+ Kd5
4. Qd3+ Kc5
5. Re4 or
(b) 2. ... Kd5
3. Rd3+ Kc5
4. Qe4
when White must be doing all right in either case - although whether this is "quick" (or "accurate") enough is quite another point.
(c) king retreats to the second rank lose a queen or rook or king.
seani
I reckon that's the "third best": White is, probably, doing all right, though whether he's actually winning there I wouldn't swear to.
ReplyDeleteOK here goes again, with the sort of analysis that usually loses all my league games on time:
ReplyDelete1. Qd3+ Ke6
and then
2. Rc2 with the idea of taking over the f-file, so:
2. ... Rf8
3. Qg6+ Ke7
(... Kxe5; 4. Qg5+ Kd4; 5. Qc5+)
4. Qg7+ Rf7
5. Qg5+ Ke8
6. Rd2 ...
which may or may not be a bind of sorts – and the idea is now to play Kg2 and e6 if nothing else suggests itself from Black’s pathetic responses.
seani
I think we can do better than that.
ReplyDeleteHow about 2. Qg6+ Kd5 3. b4 - looking for Rc5+? Then 3. ... b6 4. Rd3+ Kc4 5. Rd6.
ReplyDeleteAnd if 3...Qb6+ ?
ReplyDeleteThat falls in with our plan, no?4. Rc5+ Kd4 5. Qd6+ Ke4 6. e6. Kg2 follows to free up the rook, after which it's open season.
ReplyDeleteThat looks like an interesting line, though it's not remotely what I had in mind....
ReplyDelete..and I was interested in 6....Rd8, after which 7.Qe5+ Kd3 and now either 8.Qc3+ Ke4 9.Kg2 Rd5 or 8.Kg2 Rd5 and in either event I can't yet see aforesaid quick win. But 8.Kf2 might be rather stronger?
ReplyDeleteThis is beginning to feel 5th-best. Still, plough on. Insert 8. e7 Re8 before 9. Kf2 g3+ 10. Kf3 and 11. Qe3#, unless Black offloads the queen and/or rook.
ReplyDeleteMate in 11 or win of the queen (or rook) would still be perfectly satisfactory and better than what I played. But there may be something a little more straightforward even if that line's sound (which it may be).
ReplyDelete(On the bus last night, by the way, I realised that after 6...Rd8 there appear to be a winning queen sacrifice with 7.e7.)
ReplyDeleteAnd then, finally resorting again tothe compute, I found that the queen sacrifice does not in fact win. Ho hum.
ReplyDeleteOK, in the event that anybody's still reading this I'll reveal the answer tomorrow morning: for now, I'll say that 3.b4 is indeed a really good move, though I think in order to work properly it needs to deploy the same idea which is the quickest way...
Anyone still there?
ReplyDelete3.Qf5! and the king is in a mating net which only a queen sacrifice can stave off.
I for one read all the comments!
ReplyDelete