Friday, July 13, 2012

Don't ask me what's going on....

As someone who gave up on the King's Indian more than twenty years ago, I always root for the queenside attack. So FM Eric Rosen (who usually doesn't throw pieces to the wind) makes me happy in the following game.  A piece gets sacked on 28, then an Exchange a few moves later...so I guess that's a deferred rook sacrifice.

Black sacs back to reach a not-quite-tenable rook ending, and Eric gets to display his typical outstanding technique.

The talented loser of this game, IM Daniel Naroditsky, is the author of the second third book I've ever read that was written by a teenager (I'm not sure that I finished Une Saison en Enfer, post pedantically amended to include Radiguet's Le Diable au Corps: oh you Frenchies). Naroditsky's Mastering Positional Chess is strongly recommended.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

32......Rd b8 Blcak better?

Frederick Rhine said...

I had the same thought. I considered the absurd 33.Qxb8+??!, with ideas like 33...Rxb8 34.a6 Bd4?! 35.b6 Bxb6? (or 35...Rxb6? 36.a7) 36.Rxb6 Rxb6 37.a7, but instead 34...f3 wins, e.g. 35.gxf3 Be5; 35.g3 Qd2; 35.a7 fxg2+ 36.Kxg2 Qh3+).

If White retreats his queen instead with 33.Qf2 or 33.Qg1, 33...Rxa5 is winning. I think White would have to play 33.Qc7, when Black can pretty much force a draw with 33...Rc8 34.Qb6 Rcb8 if he wants. But Black could play 33...Be5, similar to the game, when White no longer has Qg1 as a defense. I guess White can try 34.Rf3!? Bxf3 35.gxf3 Qh3 36.Be2, but then Black is a rook up, and with White's pawns only on the fifth rank, surely Black must be winning. This analysis is off the top of my engine-less head, so I may be all wet.