Friday, March 06, 2009

A Good Move



Black to play



Having spent a post or two on a bad move of mine, today we'll end the week looking at a much better effort from somebody else.

So ...?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Perhaps ... f4 followed by ... Bc8-f5-e4 when Black is activating his pieces and readying for a kingside attack.

Angus

ejh said...

That was my inclination too although I'm not sure I completely believe it after 1...f4 2.exf4 Bf5 3.Qc3.

dfan said...

I am usually guilty of jumping the gun in these kinds of positions so I'm wondering whether there is really a rush to play ...f4. It's not like White is going to blockade it on his next move.

I guess if the answer were simply ...Bd7 (connecting the rooks and preparing Rae8 to contest the e-file after f4) this wouldn't be posted as a problem. I was a little concerned about Qb3 (hitting the b-pawn) but the trade of b7 for c5 must be good for Black.

I agree that f4 jumps out as the move to look at when the position is presented as a problem to solve.

Tom Chivers said...

The unglamorous 1...a4 seems to fix black's queenside.

Jonathan B said...

Hi guys,

I'm at work so am unable to look at your suggestions and how good they might be ... but I can say that nobody has yet touched on the move played (I've seen the game annotated in a couple of places and it seems to usually get a "!")

Anonymous said...

...Nh8 looks ridiculous but it prepares ...g5 and then ...f4 which doesn't lose a pawn... Get the Dutch kingside attack going!!

Campion said...

not knowing anything about the dutch (and being pretty primitive on any positional aspect of chess), my original guess was an ...f4 idea - not because I can see how to make it work, but because once White plays Nd4 I fear for Black's light-squared bishop.

That said, having seen the suggestion of ... Nh8, it has the ring of "correct answer to a chess puzzle"

Jonathan B said...

Indeed Psycho-Cowboy has it ... although he perhaps had a bit of an easier ride on this one than the rest of us.

More of this on Monday.