Unlock Your Genius 10 June 2008 (Problems)

by dlwyatt, Ohio, Friday, September 26, 2008, 17:51 (6046 days ago) @ Mahout

Heh, I had a big reply typed up, and when I clicked Submit, I got a webpage error and all the text is gone. This will be the really brief version:

Current situation: White's up the creek. Worse minor piece, worse pawn structure, and b3 / f2 will become targets for black very quickly. His one current plus is the active position of his rook, pinning black's bishop.

My suggestion is to ignore the defense of the b3 pawn (black's most immediate "threat" is to play Rb2 and Rxb3), and instead play 1. h4 Rb2 2. h5. If black immediately gobbles the b pawn, white plays h6 and h7+, winning the bishop, allowing him to easily draw (or possibly win). If black captures on h5, white recaptures with the knight and then sets up checks between f6 and h5, until black decides to move his king away from the g7-g8 squares, at which point white captures on f8 and has succeeded in exchanging off the minor pieces and one of his weak pawns (though it may cost him a pawn to do so, leaving us with a rook endgame where white can get his rook behind the B pawn and possibly force a draw).

What's still unclear to me is what white can do if black is smart enough to immediately break the pin on his bishop, trying to keep the minor pieces on the board. Say for instance, 1. h4 Kg7 2. h5 Bc5 3. Ne4 followed by hxg6 will at least get the weak h pawn off the board, but black keeps his bishop against white's knight, and the b3 / f2 pawns are still definitely targets. His drawing chances are much better than in the original position, though, and it may be that we're simply trying to give black chances to walk into a swindle, rather than being able to force a draw against his best moves.

Either way, h4 and h5 definitely seems to be the right plan to start with, though I'm a little fuzzy farther on in the calculations. Exact play in the endgame is still a weak spot for me. :)