BtM 28A: All over again

April 1989, Position F

White to play

Wilder - W. Schmidt, Naestved 1988

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.

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In today’s position it’s White, Michael Wilder (see Chess in the 80s 11 from a couple of days ago), to move.

"This was identical to the game Yusupov - Smejkal, Munich 1988, before the last moves 23 Qb4-d6 Bg7-e5. Yusupov played 23 Qb3 bxc4, 24 Qxc4 Rc8 and the players agreed a draw. The only way I can think of to justify the extravagant 23 Qd6 is 24 Qxd7 Qxd7 Bxb5 with a tremendous initiative ...."

- GM James Plaskett

It’s a position from deep in the middlegame that could be considered an opening puzzle (like BtM 8: From the opening into the endgame).

As we have seen, it’s an example of the incredible amount of chess knowledge that the top players have (like BtM 14: On the importance of knowing stuff).

The central question is whether or not to sacrifice your queen (like BtM3: Calculation < Understanding and BtM14: Thunderclap Newman).

I eventually went for 1 Qxd7 more because I couldn’t see any other move that was satisfactory than because I particularly liked this one. As has happened before - BtM 3; BtM 14; BtM 12: The first one; BtM 20: My Cat Keeps Purring Quietly - I was really not up to assessing the resulting material imbalance. Rook and knight against queen and possibly a pawn in this case.

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POINTS

10: Qxd7

7:  Nxb5

6:  Qb6

3:  Qc5, Qa3

MASTERS

Qxd7: Flear, Davies, Levitt, P. Littlewood, Plaskett, Martin, Pein, Botterill

Nxb5: Suba, S. Arkell

Qb6: Norwood

SOURCE

Qb6 Wilder - W. Schmidt, Naestved 1988