White to move. What is the best continuation for White?
4q3/1b5p/4p2k/1p2N3/3QP3/2P1nPP1/p4N2/2b3K1 w – – 0 1
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Find the right continuation
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1. N5g4+ , Nxg4 ( if Kg6 or Kg5 2. Qf5+ , Kh5 3. Qh5# ; if Kh5 2. Nf6+ and Queen is kaput )
2. Nxg4+ winning…
Greetings from Spain
I see two knight moves, but the one clearing the a1/h8 diagonal just seems to be the more likely one (I don’t want the king escaping through g7):
1. Neg4 Ng4 (Kh5, Kg6, Kg5 below)
2. Ng4 Kg6 (Kh5, Kg5 below)
3. Qf6
This is the only continuation I see, Ne5 allows Kg7 with an easy win in my opinion. Continuing:
3. …..Kh5
And here, I wanted to clear g4 for the pawn, but I don’t think any of the moves actually work now that I am looking at them, since I had overlooked the key defensive move at the beginning:
4. Nh6 Bg5!!
5. g4 Kh4 and it is over for white. Other knight moves don’t work either as black can always play Bg5 with a clear win.
At move 4, other attempts, at least, look like draws to me:
4. Qh4 Kg6 and now what? The king either escapes or white takes the perpetual with 5.Qf6. Or
4. Qg7 Qg6 (Qd8? 5.Qh7 Kg5 6.Qh6#)
5. Nf6 Kg5 (Qf6? 6.Qf6 Bg5 7.Qf7!)
6. Nh7
(6.f4?? Bf4! 7.Nh7 Kh5 8.Nf6 Qf6!)
6. …..Kh5
7. Nf6 Kg5= Or
4. Qe5 Kg6
5. Qf6=
I will analyze the other knight move in my next comment
The other knight move was
1. Nfg4 Kg7 (the move I feared)
2. Nd7 e5
3. Nge5 Nc2! (attacks the queen)
4. Qd6 Be3
5. Kg2 a1(Q)(simplest)
6. Qf6 Kg8 And, white is all out of checks with mate coming for his king. Alternatives really don’t seem any better after white’s first move.
So, my conclusion is that this drawn, at least it is drawn with the obvious beginning knight moves. In my next comment, I will look at the pawn moves and the queen moves.
In my previous comment, I had established that 1.Neg4 led to a draw with accurate play, while 1.Nfg4 led to a loss for white. Lets try something else.
1. f4 Qg8 (prevents Nf/e to g4)
2. g4
What else? Continuing:
2. ….a1(Q)
3. g5 Kh5 and it is over, there are no more checks to be found for white, and he is toast. I see no viable alternatives in this line, either, that are any better.
At move 1
1. g4 threatens nothing that I can see. Black simply can reply
1. ….a1(Q)
2. g4 Kh5 and this is quite similar to the hopeless position above.
At move 1, c4 seems to be the best of the pawn moves:
1. c4 Kh5 (Kg7 looks worse to me)
And white can try to attack with Ned3, or go for the a-pawn and the bishop with Qa1. Both look to lose to me:
2. Ned3 e5 (Kg6 looks a bit worse)
3. Qa1
Here, Ne5 loses to Nc2. Continuing:
3. ….Bd2 (Qa8? 4.Qe5 is scary)
4. Qa2 Nc4
5. Qa7 Qc8 and I am damned if I see anything in this for white but a loss.
Unless I am missing something pretty silly, I think white has a forced drawing line and nothing more, that starts with 1.Neg4.
Neg4+
1. Neg4+ and whether or not black exchanges knights, the queen and knight end up mating black’s king on h5 via a series of checks ending with Qh6#
1)Ng5, NXN, 2)NXN+,Kg6, 3)Qf6+, Kh5, 4)Qh4+, Kg6, Qf6+
1-1
Black pieces are not guarding the critical squares f6 and g7 close to the Black king, and the White queen is attacking them (if the White knight on e5 moves), so:
1. Neg4+
Possible moves by Black here are:
1…. Kg6, Kg5, Kh5, and Nxg4
All of these moves except Nxg4 are
terrible blunders, and lose the
game for Black. But after 1…. Nxg4,the best White can do is get a
perpetual check. So with best
play by both sides, the game is a draw.
1…. Kg6 (or Kg5) ???
2. Qf6+ Kh5
3. Qh6#
1…. Kh5 ???
2. Qg7!!
(Much stronger than Nf6+, the
threats being 3. Nf6# and 3.Qh6#)
2…. Nxg4
3. fxg4#
or
2…. Qg6
3. Nf6+ Qxf6
and Black can do nothing to
stop the threatened
4. g4+ Nxg4
5. fxg4#
1…. Nxg4
2. Nxg4+ Kg6
3. Qf6+ Kh5
4. Qh4+ Kg6
5. Qf6+ perpetual check
Lucymarie
By the way, in my previous submission, I forgot to mention that after
1. Neg4+ Kh5??
2. Qg7!! Qg6
3. Nf6+
besides playing 3…. Qxf6, Black can also play 3…. Kg5, after which White can mate by either 4. f4# or 4. Nh3#.
What I really missed, however, is that after:
1. Neg4+ Nxg4
2. Nxg4+
Black can play:
2…. Kh5
and White must not play 3. Qf6
(threatening the perpetual check
that I mentioned earlier), since
Black can scuttle this by playing
3…. Bg5.
So White must find something better here.
1. Neg4+ Nxg4
2. Nxg4+ Kh5
3. Nf6+ may be the best that White can do, and I think it will probably lead to a draw with best play by both sides. Even without the perpetual check, a draw
may be the legitimate outcome.
After 3…. Kg6
4. Nxe8 ( White is threatening
5. Qf6+ Kh5 6. g4# or Ng7#,
AND also 5. Qg7+ Kh5 6. Nf6#)
HERE 4…. Bg5 doesn’t appear to be too
good:
4…. Bg5??
5. Qg7+ Kh5
Here I think 6. Nf6+ wins, but 6. Qxh7+ looks really nice:
6. Qxh7+ Bh6
7. Nf6+ Kg5
8. f4+ Kxf6
9. e5# and that’s really pretty.
But what really gets me is that Black has
4…. Be3+
1. Neg4+ Nxg4
2. Nxg4+ Kh5
3. Nf6+ Kg6
4. Nxe8 Be3+!
I think that this is best play by both sides, and that it is a probable draw. It might go:
5. Qxe3 a1=Q+
6. Kg2 Bc6
Can Black trap the knight? No. This
one possibility:
7. Nd6 Qd1
8. Nc8 Qd8
9. Na7 Be8
and I think this is drawish.
If Black doesn’t like this, she can always steer for the perpetual that I mentioned in my previous submission.
Lucymarie
Lucy,
I knew I had forgotten something in my comments. I had worked out those similar lines after 2. …Kh5. I only disagree with your analysis in one respect:
1. Neg4 Ng4
2. Ng4 Kh5
3. Nf6 Kg6
4. Ne8 Be3
5. Qe3 a1(Q)
6. Kg2 Bc6
7. Nc7! seems stronger for white since it threatens to win another pawn. I know it seems to put the knight in a bad spot where he has no squares to move to, but it only seems that way as black doesn’t seem to have time to attack him with the queen. It might continue in two possible lines:
7. ……Qa2
8. Kh3 Qa1 (h5 see below)
9. g4 Bd7
10.f4 and black will be in a struggle to hold this. At move 8 in this line
8. ……h5
9. Qd3 Qc4
10.Qc4 bc4
11.Kh4! Bd7
12.Na8 Bb5
13.Nb6 and black is close to zugzwang as Ba6 allows Nd7 and the black king can’t hold the kingside against the pawns, knight and king. Continuing:
13. ….Ba6
14.Nd7 Kh6 (Bb5 15.Ne5 Kf6 16.f4)
15.Ne5 Bb5
16.f4 Ba6 (or lose c or h-pawn)
17.Nf7 Kg6
18.Nd6! Kh6
19.e5 and now it is the bishop that is trapped by the knight. White has a choice of pleasant and easy ways to win this.
All in all, black is much, much better to allow the perpetual check.