Unlock your genius discussion No 2 Moderator Tony GM (General)

by tapestry , Hampshire, Sunday, September 30, 2007, 15:42 (6410 days ago) @ malcolm

Like the previous posts, I would prefer to be white in the given position. White has the open file for the queen, and the pawn structure favours white's bishop.

My first reaction is that I wouldn't want to swap queens yet as 1. Qe5 compromises white's control over c5 and e5 and, as pointed out, gives black a passed d pawn. However, if the situation arose that black offers the exchange of queens I would strongly consider it. I think that white's king would be better off on the queenside where it would be able to attack black's pawns if the queens were swapped off.

As for black's plans, I am not sure what black can try and do other than try and exchange bishops and wait and see what white will do. I suppose ...a5 is a possibility for black, but Qe1 or Qd2 defends for white.

My plan would therefore be to move the white king to the queenside, exchange queens and then attack black's queenside pawns.

More concretely, I would be thinking of playing 1. f4 (1. Kf1 allows 1...Qh2. I would be happy as black to exchange queens on e5 if 2. Qe5+ from here.) 1... f6 (if 1...a5 2. Qe5). 2. Kf2 a5 3. Qd2 (defending b4 and f4) Qe7. This gives the following position, but I'm not sure how white can make progress and cross the e-file with his king.