White to move. What is the best move for White in this position?
Click here to see the beautiful solution and the actual game.
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Re6 followed by Qf5 in some lines with threats of discoveries against the B Queen and a K side attack via Ng5. If 1…Nb3 2.ab3 Bd4 3.Qd4 fe6 4.Re6 with threats of discoveries against the King, followed again by Qf5 and Ng5 in some lines.
Sounds wrong, but I like Re6 threatening Rxf6 and Nxg5.
If fxe6, Qg6+ leads to a win for White.
Need to evaluate more, but paucity of time.
Way too difficult.
I couldn’t solve this one, and just clicked the link to the game. I did consider the move listed in the game at one point, but I seriously doubt that black chose the right defense. In any case, I am still not convinced the white move is actually winning, but the lines are too complex for me to have any certainty at all. I will wait to see what other commenters have to say about it before posting my full comment.
What if black simply takes the rook? White appears to break through after 21. …fxe6 22. Qg6+ Kh8, but I don’t see how he could do anything better than give a perpetual (23. Qh6+ Kg8 24. Qg6+ Kh8, etc.)
If Black simply takes the rook…
2. Qg6+ Kh8
3. Nxg5 Bxg5 (else Qh7+ mate)
4. Qh5+ Kg7
5. Qxg5+ Kf8
6. Qh6+ Kf7
7. dxe6+ 1-0
After 21 ply Rybka doesn’t see a win here… it likes moving the knight to e4 via d2, and then interestingly taking the d6 pawn with the bishop. Scores it dead even, though. Adds to the conjecture that Re6 isn’t a forced win.
21 05:23 97,668,854 309,711 0.00 Nf3-d2 Bf6-g7 Nd2-e4 f7-f6 Bg3xd6 f6-f5 Ne4-c5 Qd7xd6 Nc5xb7 Na5xb7 Qd3xf5 Nb7-c5 Re2xe7 Re8xe7
I could never find this a win for white here. With the lead of 1.Re6 provided in the game itself, I still don’t see a win:
1. Re6 Nb3
I will return to this move later, but this is the line that was played in the actual game. Continuing:
2. ca3 Kg7
3. Nd4 fe6
4. Ne6 Kh6
In the game line, this move stuck out as bad to me when I looked at it the first day. White continued with 5.f4 and black really blunders with g4:
5. f4! g4??
6. Kf2! and the threat of Rh1 is decisive. Let’s back up to move 4 and see if black does better with Kh8 instead of Kh6:
4. …..Kh8 (Kg8 5.Qg6+-)
5. Qg6!
I spent a lot of time on this position (more than I am willing to admit), and I find nothing better than the most obvious for white. Continuing:
5. …..Bd5 (anything better?)
6. Ng5
And now a critical juncture, in my opinion, for black. Obviously, white is threatening Qh7#. Black can take the knight, or he can play e5 immediately (e6 looks worse than e5 simply due to the fact that white can play Nf7 and have decisive material). Yesterday, I was convinced 6. …Bg5 should hold for black, but after much time, I think I see why it loses:
6. …..Bg5?
7. Qh5! Kg7
8. Qg5 Kh7 (Kf7 9.Qd5 with check)
White would love to get the rook into the action, and I wasted a lot of time looking at the simple 9.Qxd5 and 9.Re3, but could never find convincing wins. However, white does have a truly brilliant win from here:
9. Re5!! de5?
10.Be5 e6 (no stopping mate)
11.Qh5 Kg8
12.Qh8 Kf7
13.Qg7#
Black can avoid the mate at move 9, but will have to give up the queen:
9. …..Rg8
10.Qh5 Kg7
11.Rg5 Kf8
No better is Kf6: [11. …Kf6 12.Bh4 Rg5 13.Qg5 Kf7 14.Qd5+-]. Continuing:
12.Rd5 and the threats of Be5 and Rf5 will require black to give up the queen at f5.
So, lets back up all the way to move 6 for black. I think black must play e5 to have a chance of holding this:
6. …..e5
7. Qf6 Qg7 (Kg8 8.Rd1)
8. Qd6 Qg5 (what better?)
9. Qd5 and with Be5 basically unstoppable, black is going to end up in a lost rook ending down 2 pawns at a minimum.
Continued in my next comment.
In my previous comment, I discussed the game line that starts
1. Re6 Nb3
2. cb3 Kg7
3. Nd4 fe6
4. Ne6 Kh8 and I think I showed that white is going to win that line, though it is complex enough that I am only about 90-95% sure of this assertion.
Yesterday, my real issue with the problem as stated is that I didn’t see why black has to even take the knight at b3 on the first move. Why not just play Kg7 immediately to threaten a rook move to g8/h8 and find the king a hiding place on f8-e8 etc? However, I am now doubting my belief in that line.
1. Re6 Kg7!? (good or not?)
2. Ng5 Rh8 (any better?)
3. Qf5 Nb3
4. ab3 Raf8
5. Rf6 Qf5
6. Rf5 and white has won a piece. There are a lot of variations possible to this plausible line, but I don’t see any of them better than this for black, but I might well be overlooking something. I feel like I must be overlooking a better defense for black due to Randall’s comment above.
This is one case where I think Susan should offer some comment herself.
Oops, I made a mistake in the previous comment- I truncated the line I had worked out:
1. Re6 Kg7
2. Ng5 Rh8
3. Qf5 Nb3
4. ab3 Raf8
5. Rf6 Qf5
6. Rf5 Kg6!
7. Re7 Kf5
8. Nf7 Bd5 (best move)
9. Nh8 Rh8
10.Bd6
And black regains the piece, but at the cost of two pawns. Not a slam dunk win for white, but only he can win it.