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Subject: Re: Positional/Real Sacrifice

Author: Ricardo Gibert

Date: 12:29:10 11/30/99

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On November 29, 1999 at 00:32:17, Peter McKenzie wrote:

>The following position is from a blitz game between Hossa and Beadle (LambChop)
>on ICC:
>
>r3q1k1/ppp1rpp1/2n1b2p/8/2P2B2/3B4/PPPQ1RPP/5RK1 w - -
>
>Hossa played Bxh6 and wiped Beadle out.  This position is an interesting test of
>king safety evaluation, as there is no short range mate or win of material after
>the sac although I'm pretty confident the sac is correct.
>
>I tried this position with LambChop, and it too liked Bxh6 giving it a score of
>about +0.5 pawns from depths 4 thru 8.  On depths 9-10 it switched to Qc3 with a
>similar score of around +0.5, then at depth 11 it switched back to Bxh6 and the
>score jumps to +1.4.  Depth 12 is still Bxh6 at +1.6.
>
>We discussed this position a bit on ICC, Bob ran it on Crafty which didn't want
>to play Bxh6.  Peter Kappler ran it on Hiarcs which liked Bxh6 straight away
>with a +1 score!  Diep also liked Bxh6 from early on, and had an even higher
>score.  I wonder what Hiarcs and Diep are doing in eval that Crafty isn't... or
>vice-versa.
>
>How about other programs?
>What do the human chess experts think?
>
>If that position is too hard, it might be productive to play down the main line
>of accepting the sacrifice.  So after 1.Bxh6 gxh6 2.Qxh6 we have:
>
>r3q1k1/ppp1rp2/2n1b2Q/8/2P5/3B4/PPP2RPP/5RK1 b - -
>
>Here LambChop gets a score jump from -0.2 at ply 7 to -1.7 at ply 8.  Not quite
>sure why :-)
>
>cheers,
>Peter



1.Bxh6 gxh6 2.Qxh6 f5 3.Bxf5
  Three pawns for the piece, the passive a8 rook and
  the exposed Black K attest to the soundness of Bxh6.
3...Nd4
  Not taking on f5 is tantamount to resignation, but
  on 3...Bxf5 4.Rxf5 Rg7(4...Re5 5.R5f3) 5.Rh5+- Rxg2+
  6.Kxg2 Qe2+ 7.Kg3 Qxf1 8.Rg5+ Kf7 9.Rg7+ Ke8 10.Qe6+
4.Bg6
  Also simple is 4.Bd3 Rg7 5.c3 (5.Rf4) 5...Nc6 6.Re2
  or 6.Rf8+ winning
4...Qd8 5.Bd3
  Workable, but more complex is 5.c3 Bxc4 (5...Nc6
  6.Rf7 Rxf7 7.Rxf7 Qd1+ 8.Rf1) and now 6.cxd4? Qxd4
  is unclear(6...Bxf1? 7.Rf4 wins), but 6.Rf6!+- Ne2+
  (6...Bxf1 7.Bf7+; 6...Rg7 7.b3)7.Kh1 Rg7 8.b3.  Not
  workable is 5.Rf7? losing to Ne2+ (But not
  5...Rxf7? 6.Rxf7 Ne2+ 7.Kf2 Qd4+ 8.Ke1 Qg1+ 9.Rf1)
  6.Kh1 (6.Kf2 Rxf7+ 7.Bxf7+ Bxf7 8.Kxe2 Bxc4+)
  6...Rxf7 7.Bxf7+ Bxf7
5...Rg7 6.c3 or 6.Rf4 win.





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