Tuesday, November 20, 2012

White to play: what's the best plan?

White to play 
Ask your computer, and you will get a list of candidate moves with more-or-less meaningless evaluations.  (There are no immediate tactics in this position, and White is somewhat better, but nothing serious.)

I am by no means certain that the player of the White pieces (to be identified later today) came up with the best plan, but it was a very impressive plan!

2 comments:

Ch1cag0Rob said...

1. f4 with the plan of ratcheting up pressure on the kingside (if 1.exf4 then BxN, and if 1.Bf6, f5!).

Bill Brock said...

I think you're right that 1...Bf6 2.f5! is strong. But 1.f4 exf4 2.Bxf4 Bf6 puts the bishop on a strong diagonal. White has to take time out to protect, say with 3.Qc2. Then 3...Bd4+ 4.Kh1 Qe7 shows the dark side of playing f4: the e4 square is feeling a little pressure.

But this is reasonable for White, too, IMO.