Black to move. How should white proceed?
Source: ChessToday.net
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Black to move. How should white proceed?
Source: ChessToday.net
e4
Hi Susan Polgar,
Nice puzzle.
Along with this puzzle,the question say : “Black to move,How should White proceed ?” .
Well,Black is pretty good towards mating,with “Nf4” initial move,real threat is Black’s 2nd move “d*e” – that should be countered intelligently,if not Black will swallow White, variations exist but still White can handle sensibly and succeed.
Let me give an example till White’s sensible move.
Example
========
1. .. Nf4
2.g*Nf4 d*e
3.Q*e4( Wrong Move ) Qg4+
4.Kh1 Bd5
5.Qe2 N*Nf3+
6.Q*Bf3 Q*Qf3+
7.Kg1 Bc5 [ From here it will child’s play for Black to win thsi game ]
so White’s 3rd move Should be “Ne5”.Rest White can handle.
By
Venky [ India – Chennai ]
1…de ; 2 dc Nf4 !; 3 gf ef and wins
Gabriele
1…de!; 2 dc Nf4!; 3 gf ef and wins
Gabriele
I have great difficulty with this one. First, the odd question about how white should proceed when black is to move is a bit confusing since it is at odds with how most such problems are presented. First things first, (and I now see that some comments have been posted since I sat down to write out mine, so I will borrow some their analysis), like Gabriele, I find nothing better than 1. …de4 for black, though I spent a lot of time trying to make Nf4 work:
1. …..Nf4
2. gf4 de4 (anything else here?)
3. Ne5! and Venky is correct- white is well ahead. Of course, the bishop at c4 is immune at move 3 since white will lose his queen to ef3.
So, lets look at black’s first move alternative:
1. …..de4
2. N3d2
Here is where I depart from Gabriele’s analysis- if white captures at c4, as Gabriele suggested, he is going to lose exactly as Gabriele described: [2.dc4? Nf4! 3.Nh4 (or 3.gf4? ef3-+) 3. …Ne2-+]. Also, I don’t think 2.Ne5 is good for white any longer: [2.Ne5 ed3 3.cd3 Re5! 4.Be5 Bd5! 5.Ne3 (or 5.f3 Bc5 6.d4 Ne5 7.dc5 (or 7.Qe5 Rb2 8.Re2 Bd4 9.Qd4 Re2-+) 7. …Nf3 8.Kf2 Nd4 9.Qe8 Kh7 10.Rab1 Qg2 11.Ke2 Nc2 12.Kd3 Ne1 13.Re1 Rb2-+) 5. …Ne5! 6.Nd5 Ng4! 7.f3 Bc5 8.Kh1 Nf2 9.Kg1 cd5 10.Rac1 Bd4! and black has an overwhelming attack]. Continuing:
2. …..ed3
I looked at everything here, I think, and find nothing that wins convincingly for black, but then I am not even convinced that ed3 wins either, but I would certainly rather be black than white in this line. Continuing:
3. cd3 Bd5
4. Ne3
Here, I think f3 is going to be worse, due to Bc5+, but I didn’t go very deep on that line. I actually did a lot of work after this move for white, but I literally could find nothing that was clearly decisive for black. The moves here that I looked at for black were Bc5, Nf4, f5, Rbe7, Reb8. So, I conclude I am missing something really good here, and I can’t wait to see what it is, so I am going to see if I can find this ancient game at chessgames.com