Author: Robin Smith
Date: 12:27:48 02/12/06
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On February 11, 2006 at 13:17:40, Andre Reffhaug wrote: >This is an interesting position. Horowitz once commented that Nxd4 was the >clearly best move, but after 40 minutes Rybka still feels that Nc3 is the best >move. > >Any opinions? > > >[D]r1b1k1r1/ppp1n1Pp/5p1B/2bq4/2pp4/5N2/PPP2PPP/RN1QR1K1 w q - 0 3 It is not clear to me that 1.Nxd4 is any better than 1.Nc3. After 1.Nxd4 Bxd4 2.Nc3 instead of 2...Qc5? 3.Ne4 Qe5 4.c3 Bb6 5.Ng3, when White has a huge advantage, Black instead can play 2...Bxf2+ 3.Kxf2 Qxd1 4.Raxd1 Kf7, when White "only" has a large advantage. On the other hand after 1.Nc3 Qh5 2.Ne4 Qxh6 3.Nxc5 white again has a large advantage. Personally I would prefer the position after 1.Nc3, since it keeps the queens on the board in a position where Black's king is more exposed than White's, but this is mostly a matter of taste. White's advantage after 1.Nxd4 is safer and might be a better choice in a human vs. human game. Many old chess books have statements like "clearly the best" which with computer analysis turn out not be be true. -Robin
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