White to move. How should White proceed?
8/r3k1q1/p1Q1P1r1/8/P7/4R2P/1P3PP1/6K1 w – – 0 33
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White to move. How should White proceed?
8/r3k1q1/p1Q1P1r1/8/P7/4R2P/1P3PP1/6K1 w – – 0 33
From the Carlsen vs. Nakamura rapid from yesterday. The hard part in spotting this is that Qc5 is hard to resist, too hard even for Carlsen, at least for a move or two, but Nakamura gave Carlsen two bites at the apple, and Magnus didn’t miss it the second time. However, I can’t be 100% sure that Nakamura has a way to avoid the final outcome, and Carlsen may have been playing waiting moves to build a little extra time on his clock before continuing with the crushing move we see at move 3 below:
1. Qc5?! Ke8
On Kd8 or Kf6, white checks from either d3 or f3 with the rook and catches the black king in a mating net: [1. …Kd8 2.Rd3 Ke8 3.Qc8 Ke7 4.Qd8 Ke6 5.Qd5 Ke7 6.Re3 Kf8 7.Qd8 Kf7 8.Qe8 Kf6 9.Qe6 Kg5 10.Qg4 with mate on the next move]; or [1. ….Kf6 2.Rf3 Ke6 3.Qc6 Ke7 (3. …Ke5 4.Re3 and see above) 4.Re3 Kf7 (everything else is shorter mate but sacrificing the queen and the g6 rook) 5.Qe8 Kf6 and we have already seen this line before]. Continuing:
2. Qc6
I really don’t know what is best here for white- Qc6 is what Carlsen played. The computer analysis of the game on Chessbomb suggested g4 here, but I actually like Rb3 best, but Qc6 is ok in my opinion:
2. …..Ke7?
Best here was probably Kf8 and make Carlsen work it out more. However, Nakamura returned the king to e7, and then Carlsen found the right move the second time around:
3. Qb6! Rg2
A scary looking attack, but besides the attack on the a7 rook, Qb6 does one other useful thing- it protects b2 and allows the white king to find a hiding place at e2, if needed. There is really nothing better than Rg2 here- the game was already lost for black:
4. Kf1 Rg1
5. Ke2
And now black is out of checks since g4 is unavailable to the black queen, and b2 is protected by the white queen. The rook at a7 has only one place to go:
5. …..Ra8
No better is moving the black king to the 8th rank as Qb8 forces him back to the 7th, and white will capture at a7 with check, and can exchange queens if he wishes as all the extra pawns leads to an easily won rook ending. On Kf6, e7 with discovered check is crushing:
6. Qb7 Kd6
On Kf6, white just takes at a8 since b2 is no longer attacked because black has blocked his queen’s line to the pawn. Continuing:
7. Rd3 Ke6
8. Qc6!
And Nakamura resigned in light of the coming mating net that even a patzer like me could play out over the board. The game could have continued:
8. …..Kf5 (Ke7/f7 9.Rd7+-)
9. Rd5 Kf4 (or give up the queen)
10.Qc4 with mate on the next move.
I.d move 1.Qc5+ and keep attcking with the queen and rook.
Qg6 Wham, Bam, Sam
White should resign so my buddy Mr. Nakamura can win!
1.Qb6!
I could see that black is left with the most logical move of 1…..Rxg2+
2.Kf1 Rg1+
3.Ke2 and black is in a hopeless position to save the rook in the A- file and eventual mate in the next moves.
It seems to me that
1. Qb7
should win a rook, e.g:
Ra8 Qb7+ or
Ke8 Qb8+ or
Kf6 e7+
Black can only delay this with:
1. Qb7 Rxg2+
2. Kf1 Rg1+
3. Ke2
and nothing more to do for black, since b2 and g4 are nicely protected.
Up with 4 pawns white must win, though a bit complicated battle still may follow.
This is Carlsen-Nakamura Amber 2011 after 34. Ke7, last saturday.
35. Qb6 is the key, after which the rook has to give up the 7th rank, as there are no more checks after 35. .. Rxg2+ 36. Kf1 Rg1+ 37. Ke2.
37. .. Ra8 38. Qa7+ and white wins easily.
Qb6
(vide: Carlsen-Nakamura rapid game from Amber 2011)
i don´t see anything better than perpetual check from c5 and c8. 🙁 on other king moves than to e7 and e8, i think white can win a rook or give mate. greets, jan
I’m quite happy that I found the same as Carlsen found against Nakamura, without knowing it 🙂
When I wrote 1.Qb7, I certainly ment Qb6!
When I said “a bit complicated battle still may follow”, I thougt about the tempo loss white might suffer at taking rook, and counter checks from black might occur.
Havn’t really analyzed that, my intuition is that this ought to be an easy win anyhow.