BtM 20A: My Cat Keeps Purring Quietly

May 1989, Position B

Black to play

Ripley - Ivell, British Club Championship 1989

Contributions to the comments box are welcome. I’ll reply with what the Masters have to say about their choice to anybody who suggests a move.

Scroll down to see some commentary from me and the Masters’ feedback.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

My Cat Keeps Purring Quietly.

I learned this phrase watching a Chess Pit video just before I looked at today’s position. It’s a prompt for what to consider when evaluating a position:-

M - Material

C - Centre

K - King position/safety

P - Pawn structure

Q - Quality of Minor Pieces

I thought I’d give it a go. 

I always make a note of as many of the different characteristics of a position before I start analysing it. I had/have a bad habit of plunging into an in-depth analysis of the first move that occurs to me and can end up spending a lot of time looking at something that’s total rubbish. And when I realise that and look for an alternative it’s not at all unusual for me to immediately see an obviously promising alternative.

I guess what I’m trying to do is come up with candidate moves.

Here’s what I came up with using the My Cat … system.

Material

Levelish. I have the two bishops with an unopposed light squared bishop. This could prove to be a long term advantage.

Any edge that’s going here is with Black.

Centre

I have a pawn in the centre, White has none. My pawn is defended by another pawn.  White has a well placed knight on d4 and an outpost on c5.

Black has good control of e4 and c4. If White tries to cover them with pawns it will create weaknesses so they can be considered pseudo-outposts. It helps that I have a light-squared bishop and White doesn’t.

I might have the opportunity to push White’s pieces back in the future by …c6-c5 (and maybe -c4) and …d5-d4.

In the long-term I have more central control because of the pawns, but White has good pieces at the moment.

King Safety

My king is very safe. There’s no realistic prospect of a direct attack by White (g2-g4-g5 just looks far too slow).

White’s king should be safe but the pawn on a3 gives Black attacking chances. Either with a rook sacrifice on b2 or a bishop sac on a3. There might be a chance to chase away the defending knight on c3 by pushing a pawn to d4.

Again, any edge here is to Black’s advantage.

Pawn Structure

Definitely in White’s favour. White has two pawn islands, Black has three. Black has hanging pawns and an isolated pawn. 

My pawn structure has created weak dark squares on d4, c5, b6 and a5.

Quality of Minor Pieces

Again in White’s favour. The bishop-three knights are more or less equivalent. My dark-square looks passive at first glance but it defends the kingside, defends some key central squares and can potentially take part in a queenside attack. White probably wants to trade these bishops which shows that the bishop might be on f8 but it’s very much in the game.

The real difference is the bishop on d7 against the knight on d4. My bishop is doing nothing but defend a pawn and has limited scope for improvement at the moment. Long-term the bishop pair could be a real advantage, but right now - and especially if White can trade the Be3 for the Bf8 - my minor pieces are worse.

So there you go. You probably don’t want to me doing this sort of thing in a game with the clock ticking. As a training exercise, though, I think it’s really useful to help develop intuition.

When I started looking at this position my first impression was that things weren’t at all clear. After considering MCKPQ I thought that Black should be better and what’s more a direct attack on the king was the way to go.

So I started by looking at … Rxb2. That as it turned out, is the 10 point move. I should confess that I eventually talked myself out of playing it, but that’s another story.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

POINTS

10: … Rxb2

6:  … Bxa3, … Bc5, … Qc7, … c5

3:  … Ne4, … g6

MASTERS

… Rxb2: Suba, Flear, Levitt, Davies, Norwood, Martin, Lane, Botterill, S. Arkell

… Bxa3: Kosten

… Qc7:  Adams

… c5:   Plaskett, Pein

… Bc5:  Mephisto Academy

SOURCE

1 … Rxb2, Ripley - Ivell, British Club Championship 1989