Black to move. How should black proceed?
Source: ChessToday.net
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Black to move. How should black proceed?
Source: ChessToday.net
I’m immediately thinking to place more pressure on white with b2–make White go stop that pawn from promoting.
h6 traps queen.
After Rxe7 xe7 the b-pawn is unstopable.
With it taking two moves for for white to cover the b1 square without his rook, I would definitely be interested in whether or not Qxe7 is a winning pseudo-sacrifice:
1. …..Qe7
2. fe7 b2
3. e8(Q)
Definitely not ef8(Q) as black has time to capture at f8 with the rook and queen the pawn. Now, I am pretty sure black is toast:
3. …..b1(Q)
4. Qe3 Qc2
5. Kh3 Rb7
6. Qg2 and I don’t want to go deeper here- white is clearly well ahead.
Of course, black has another capture option at e7, but, while better, still is not going to win for black in my opinion:
1. ……Re7
2. fe7 b2
3. ef8(Q)Kf8
4. Qf6 Qf7
5. Qb2 Qd5
6. Kg3 Qd3
7. Kf2
And, I think black will likely do best to just go for the draw as I don’t think his extra pawns really compensate for the bishop enough for a win. If I were playing black here, I would probably just exchange the queens at d4. Black can push the d-pawn to drive the white king back to the second rank, play h6 himself followed by Kf7/Ke6 and the game is a dead draw.
So, let’s reconsider the starting position again. I still think a sacrifice the right idea, but black need not do a capture to offer it- can black just push the pawn immediately would be my next idea?
1. …..b2
2. Re1
It is either this, or Rd7, and on Rd7, black just recaptures with the knight, and the pawn still can’t be stopped, netting black a full rook. Continuing:
2. …..Qb5
Plays itself- threatens b1Q. Only blocking the pawn can prevent b1(Q), but that loses anyway:
3. Rb1 Qe2
4. Kg1
On Kg3 or Kh3, Qd3 wins the rook. On Bf2 or Kh1, Qe4 wins the rook. Continuing:
4. …..Qc2 and there is no defense- the rook must be lost.
b2
h5 will not trap the queen. Qxh6, then what?
‘Dynamically’ speaking
white qeen is a pawn while black pawn is a qeen:
1.b2! …
a) 1… RxQd7 2.NxRd7 /+-
b) 1… RxRf7 2.QxRf7 /+-
c) 1… Re1 2.Qb5 Rb1 3.Qe2+ Kg1 4.Qe3+ Bf2 5.Qc1+ /+-
1…b2 2, R:d7 N:d7 and white can’t stop the pawn
The best move is to advance the black pawn to b2 right away instead of black taking the rook at e7. If white rook takes the black queen, black can simply recapture with the knight and white cannot stop the black pawn from queening.