Author: martin fierz
Date: 20:00:24 02/08/02
Go up one level in this thread
On February 07, 2002 at 12:49:32, Uri Blass wrote:
>[D]4rnk1/pp1q1ppp/2p4r/3p4/3P4/4P1NP/PPQ2PP1/R3R1K1 w - - 0 1
>
>
>I read that in this position Fritz7 could find b4 only without futility pruning.
>
>I have 3 questions:
>
>1)Is 1.b4 the only best move for white?
>
>I believe that humans do not understand much about chess and the fact that
>humans said that b4 is the best move is not enough to convince me.
but if fritz says b4 is good that is enough to convince you???
i wonder what exactly you read - this is just a classic minority attack. this
type of position has been played thousands (or more...) of times in games
between strong players, and there are actually 3 different plans i know of for
white with this particular pawn structure that are popular, the other two being
the 1) trying to use white's majority in the center with f3-e4, and 2) castling
queenside and going for an all-out attack against the black king. obviously,
plan 2) is out since white has already castled kingside. plan 1 is not viable in
this particular instance, as too many pieces have been traded. on the other
hand, the minority attack gets stronger once more pieces have been traded, and
gets close to winning once the queens are off - the reason for both of these
statements is that black's counterplay is based on an attack against the white
king. this is about what (weak) humans like me know about this position.
you may choose to believe whatever you want on this position, like fritz,
instead of humans - that is your choice. a bad one, if you ask me :-)
to get back to your question: is b4 the only best move? the answer comes from
the game that robert posted:
>>{here we are, at the diagram. Flohr played b4 and won.}
>>20. b4 Ne6 21. Rab1 Nc7 22. a4 a6 23. Nf1 Re7 24. Nh2 Rhe6 25. Nf3 f6 26.
>>Nd2 Re8 27. Nb3 R6e7 28. Nc5 Qc8 29. Rec1 Rd8 30. Nd3 Qb8 31. Nf4 Ne6 32.
>>Nxe6 Rxe6 33. b5 axb5
white is just playing out his minority attack with b4, Rab1, a4, and then he
still has time to move his knight to c5, and back to f4, and to exchange it,
before he goes on to actually push 33. b5. there seems to be no reason at all to
start with b4! in particular - you could choose Rab1 or a4 first. as long as
your computer sees that the minority attack is the right plan, it doesn't matter
which of these moves it starts with.
>I will be more convinced if I find that Fritz can win a game against itself
>after 1.b4 and cannot win a game against itself after a different move that it
>prefers.
so what do you do if it wins after playing 1.b3 and 2. b4? :-)
the point is that the minority attack is the only form to create winning chances
for white if black does absolutely nothing. you can also play it later, after a
different first move. your test doesn't sound like a good idea to me.
aloha
martin
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