So much for my trying to win all 5 games in this weekend's tournament. I suck too badly for that. I'm pretty good at getting decent positions out of the opening, but I don't know what to do with them once I'm there.

Case in point: Here's a position from tonight's game:



I was white. It was my move. I ended up losing this game. I'll post the moves of the game in a couple of days when I get a chance to go over the whole thing and annotate it myself first.

In the mean time, can somebody tell me what I should have done in this position? Black can't move his queen or e7 knight without getting checkmated instantly. Moving the d7 knight loses the queen. Obviously, I had an absolutely dominating position here, yet I managed to blow it because I wasn't sure how to carry out the attack.

I went for an attack on the king side which released the pin on his queen, so he was able to counter attack on the queen side. What should white's plan be here? What specific move should I have played at this point? Suggestions? Comments? Should I just give up and take up golf?

--Fromper

Hallo Fromper,
indeed this position is totally won.Well there is nothing black can do here.In such positions it is very important not to rush to much,black cannot do anything here,so it is the right time to develop all your peaces ,then it will be very easy to win it. E.g. Bc4,then you castle short and double your rooks on the d-file (Rd6&Rfd1),then blacks position will collapse!

Clearly White is better, but I don’t think Black is totally lost. Indeed White needs to develop his B and castle, but after 1. Bc4 a6 2. O-O b5 3. Be2 Bb7 Black seems no worse off than he was in the initial position. So if 1. Bc4 a6 2. a4 (to stop …b4) h6 (sac’ing a P to deflect the Q) 3. Qxh6 Qa5 Black is still hanging in the game. Chessadmirer's advice not to rush is right because, despite appearances, there is no immediate, crushing win for White.

Well,ok my variation was of course not the best,because I tried to show the idea of what i am talking about.I think instead of Bc4 ,Nd2! will win very fast!Because this N will be transfered to e4 and the mate is near.But this move is only the best in this position!The most important thing ,which you should learn about this game is not to rush(Black will be worse all the time ,because he cannot castle anymore so you do not have to eliminate him immediately,you just have to put your peaces on their best squares in such types of positions!

Hmm... I let Fritz 7 think about it overnight. In the above position, black had just played c5, giving his e7 knight some place to move without instantly losing (the pawn was on c6, preventing Nc6). At the time, this seemed like a good move to me, but Fritz doesn't like it. It thinks black should have played 14. ... h6 on the previous move, then 15. Qxh6 Qa5.

As for white's move in this position, Fritz recommends 15. Nd2 f6 16. exf6 Nxf6 17. Ne4.

I definitely tried too hard to force an attack here. I've had too many games where I have a temporary positional advantage and failed to use it, so I tried to take advantage of my superiority in this position as quickly as possible, and it backfired.

--Fromper

Well, let's follow the line given - which is sub-optimal for both sides - for a moment.

1.Bc4 (white needs to finish his development before he attacks) a6 2.0-0 b5 Be2 3.Rd2 Nc6 4.Rfe1

Black is completely busted. White is threatening to win a queen and N for two rooks. Black can try to defend by exchanging:

4. ... Qxg6 5.Nxg6! 0-0-0

is black out of the woods? No!

6.Nxh7 Rh8 7.Bxd8 - white's won an exchange, with more coming (he'll play Ng5 and Nf7, removing the defender of d7, and on Nxe5, f4 resumes the threat).

So black's queenside expansion plan doesn't work. What else does he have?

1. Bc4 Nc6 2.Qxd8 Nxd8 3.Ng5 h6 (plausible, but loses. No better is Rh8 4.Ne4 Nc6 5.Nd6+ Kf8 6.Nxc8 & Rxd7) 4.Nh7 Rh8 5.Nf6 with a rout on.

1.Bc4 h6 can't possible be a good move for black. He weakens his position, gives up a pawn, and ... well, let's see.

1.Bc4 h6 2.Qxh6 Qa5 3.Qd2 Nd5 4.0-0 (you must finish your development before you attack) N7b6 5.Qg5! and black has no good defense against the combined threats on d8 and e7. (The sacrifice Rxd5, followed by Qe7#, hangs in the air).

In that line, my computer offers 4. ... Qa4 instead, but that doesn't look much better. 5.Qd8 Nc6 6.0-0 (must get your own king to safety - this also allows your second rook to get involved) a6 (with dreams of b5) 7.Bxe6! fe 8.Qxg6+ (this is a very thematic sacrifice) Rf7 9.Qxe6+ (three pawns for the pieces ... and not done yet) Ne7 (Kf7 10.Qh6+ and e6 wins back the piece) 10.Bxe7 Rxe7 11.Qg6+ and e6.

1. Be2 and 2.0-0 seems like a reasonable start.

Golf is expensive.

Crash

Yeah, that's what I didn't play. Golf has never interested me, though. Maybe bowling...

Thanks for the recommendations, all. I'll give a more thorough description of the whole tournament in my improvement thread, and probably post some games here for analysis.

--Fromper

I probably would have played it too fast as well.

My immediate thoughts are 1. Bb5 a6 2. Bxd7 Bxd7 3. O-O Rc8 and then Rd2 and Rfd1.

I looked at Bb5, but then a6 forces the bishop trade which helps him untangle his position a little and develop his own bishop, which I didn't want. It probably would have been better than what I played, though (Qh6, shooting for Ng5, with dreams of winning his king's rook).

--Fromper