Author: John Merlino
Date: 14:48:33 02/23/04
I have been in an e-mail thread with GM Larry Evans for the past couple of days,
talking about the game with the position that Michael Byrne originally posted
here:
http://www.talkchess.com/forums/1/message.html?350488
We have been discussing some other positions that might have arisen from the
game. Here's how the game originally went:
[Event "New York"]
[Site "New York"]
[Date "1947.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Evans, L."]
[Black "Pilnick, C."]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C13"]
[PlyCount "57"]
[EventDate "1947.??.??"]
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. Bxf6 Bxf6 6. e5 Be7 7. Qg4 O-O 8.
O-O-O c5 9. h4 cxd4 10. Nce2 Nc6 11. f4 Qa5 12. Kb1 d3 13. cxd3 Bd7 14. Rh3
Rac8 15. Rg3 g6 16. d4 b5 17. h5 Nb4 18. a3 Nc6 19. hxg6 fxg6 20. Nc3 b4 21.
Bd3 Be8 22. Nf3 bxa3 23. Qxe6+ Bf7 24. Bxg6 axb2 25. Bxh7+ Kh8 26. Qh6 Qa1+ 27.
Kc2 b1=Q+ 28. Rxb1 Nb4+ 29. Kd1 1-0
It's a marvelous game to play through and play around with.
22.Nf3 is a stunner, and I'm pretty sure that no engine will find it in a
reasonable amount of time. Can somebody show otherwise? Here's the position:
[D]2r1brk1/p3b2p/2n1p1p1/q2pP3/1p1P1PQ1/P1NB2R1/1P4P1/1K1R2N1 w - - 0 22
Secondly, in Evans' own commentary on the game, he states that after 22.Nf3,
22...Rf5 does not work as a defense because of 23.Bxf5 exf5 24.Qxf5. However, I
think that I have found a way that 22...Rf5 DOES work. 23.Bxf5 bxc3! 24.Bxe6+
Kh8 25.Bxc8 Qb5!
Could somebody check that line out with some other engines to tell me if this is
truly a way for Black to hold a draw (or even win), or is there a refutation?
Here's the position at the end of the line:
[D]2B1b2k/p3b2p/2n3p1/1q1pP3/3P1PQ1/P1p2NR1/1P4P1/1K1R4 w - - 0 26
Finally, after 22.Nf3, most engines will play 22...bxc3, which certainly seems
reasonable enough for a patzer like me. It appears that White can go on with his
plan with 23.Qxe6+ Bf7 24.Bxg6 Qb6! {a possible refutation that Evans found with
Fritz} 25.b4 Bxe6 26.Bxh7+ Kh8 27.Rh1 Bh4! {a move that CM9000_SKR found}, which
results in this position:
[D]2r2r1k/p3b2B/1qn1b3/3pP3/1P1P1P2/P1p2NR1/6P1/1K5R b - - 0 27
At this point, it looks like White had better play pretty carefully. CM's eval
is about +1.5 for White, but the eval drops with each new depth. Is this
position really won for White?
Many thanks from myself and GM Evans to all of you who will spend a few CPU
cycles on these positions. Larry is going to mention this game and this message
board in an upcoming Chess Life Q&A column, so here's a chance for some of you
to maybe be famous. :-)
jm
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