Here is a position from the last weekend tournament game. I spent about 10 min. contemplating Nxe6 and decided against it and after thinking a lot played f3.
What do you think, is Nxe6 playable in the current position ?
Is Nxe6 possible ?
Here is a position from the last weekend tournament game. I spent about 10 min. contemplating Nxe6 and decided against it and after thinking a lot played f3.
What do you think, is Nxe6 playable in the current position ?
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I think not. Obviously Black can't take fxN as Bh7+ wins the Queen. Nor can he move any other piece except the Queen due to the same threat. But Qc6 in reply threatens mate at g2. Retreating the Knight to f4 to protect g2 doesn't work as Black can play g5 threatening the Knight. Lose the Knight or be mated. Nice choice! f3 looks good to me. What am I missing?
ReplyDeleteJust by looking at the position it seems that Qc6 would be a good defence. So I would be hesitant to sacrifice the Knight.
ReplyDeleteI calculated precicely the same line and I rejected Nxe6. But the truth of the position requires seeing a little further (i only saw it post mortem when i was moving the pices while analyzing the game -- confirmed later by the machine). I am not saying Nxe6 is winning, but it is the best move for white here.
ReplyDeleteContinuing on: 23.Nxe6 Qc6! 24.Nf4 g5, now consider 25.Nd5 Nxd5 26.Be4---!? Black is pinned multiple times over, and White has a Pawn plus the K-side gash ...g5 to boot. But is that enough? Staring at a computer terminal, I'm not in the frame of mind to work it out. White can intensify with the push c3-c4, but Black has a counter-pin on the c-file, and it's tough to calculate concretely to an end. Anyone here able to do so, without swiching on a machine? :-) In speed chess, however, I'd have little hesitation: it "looks good"!
ReplyDeleteA small change of move order of IM Regan's suggestion does it. Nxe6 Qc6 Nf4 g5 Be4 (first) forcing Nxe4 and now Nd5 threatening both the black night on e4 as well as the deadly fork on e7. Best black can do here is to give the queen as in Qxd5 Rxd5 Bxd5 and have a rook, bishop and knight for the queen and pawn. But with the king a little open as pointed by Regan, the queen I think will have the edge, or atleast I will prefer to be on the side with the queen.
ReplyDeleteYou are right that Black has some co-ordination problems, and White might be able to open Black's K-side and attack with Q+R before Black's superior force gets its act together.
ReplyDeleteBut at the board that's no trivial thing to judge. Continuing in the spirit of "fair play", I haven't put a chess computer on it yet. Anyone else have opinions?