Author: Jon Dart
Date: 19:20:01 03/31/99
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I don't deny that Black is in bad shape after move 21. Probably White does not need to toss the knight in order to win. But it is a forceful continuation that appears to be quite sound, and I find it interesting that several strong programs do not easily find it and do not see a big White advantage once it has been played. I'm pretty sure White gave up the knight deliberately (it was not a blunder) and made a really quick judgement that the attack was worth it. There's no forced win, so you're right, it was done on positional grounds. And the humans still seem to be ahead of the programs, some of the time, anyway, when it comes to this kind of positional judgement. --Jon On March 31, 1999 at 19:14:13, Laurence Chen wrote: >Is this a trick question? What's the best move? The way I see this position is >White has a positional won game on move 26, and Arasan completely mis-evaluated >the position on move 21. Bc2 and played the ugly bad move Kg8?? Fritz 5.32 >prefers 21. ... Qe7 which leads to an equal chances game although I prefer >Black's position after 21. ... Qe7. The human master played a very strong move >27. Re1! This move has a lot of sting and it was played on positional grounds. >Although IMO at this point the game has already been decided and White has a >positional won game, and there's no defense for Black. There are many other >alternatives moves which will lead to a won game for White. Whether these >alternatives are better than the actual move played remains to be open for >discussion. Note the position before white's move 27. Re1, Black has 5 pieces >sitting in the Queenside, and the only piece left to defend the kingside is a >lonely Queen. White has two Bishops pointing their gun to the kingside, and a >knight which was sacrificed in order to open lines, the open e-file for the >rooks, and diagonals for the bishops. So in another words White has all his >pieces attacking the kingside, and Black's king is not able to run to the >Queenside for shelter where all his army lies. Black is outnumbered in the >kingside and therefore the sad defeat because he is unable to bring his army >sitting in the Queenside to help on the defense of his poor king. :) >Laurence
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