BtM 32A: Welcome back my friends

July 1989, Position B

Black to play to play

Bareyev - Plachetka, Trnava 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.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

  

Today’s position was the first Beat the Masters I looked at after about a month away. I hadn’t planned it like that, but I wanted to make a good start with Yusupov.

As it turned out, it was very much a case of Welcome Back to a show that never seems to end. The Masters’ feedback article has six different moves that scored points. I considered every one of them before settling on a seventh option which scores nothing.

Let’s start with the game move, 1 … Bxb2. It would have got me 7 points.

I’d considered the move quite early on but rejected because after 1 … Bxb2, 2 Kxb2 Qb4+, 3 Ka1 Qc3+ I didn’t see anything better than taking the draw. I thought - correctly - that White might well be able to try for something better. I didn’t even look, though, because I thought - incorrectly it seems - that Black could aspire to something more than immediately splitting the point.

The very first move I looked at was 1 … Nxh6 (2 points). I didn’t spend much time on it. Obviously Black has to do something about the bishop being threatened, but moving the knight away from the centre just didn’t look right.

Even less appealing was 1 … Bxh6 (5 points). Sticking the bishop behind the g5 pawn just looked to weird for me. I also became concerned about opening up the h-file by removing the pawn. I’d underestimated the risk of leaving White’s h-pawn hanging right by my king but that’s another story. I was surprised to see taking with the bishop got 5 points and one recommendation from a Master.

1 … Ng3 (2 points) was the first move I looked at for any decent length of time. It makes sense to try it when you realise that you’re threatening to win an exchange and 2 hxg7 doesn’t work in reply because you can just go … Nxe2 when 3 gxf8=Q+ is not scary.

I eventually rejected 1 … Ng3 because of 2 Qd3 Nxh1, 3 hxg7 Kxg7, 4 Rxh1 with an attack along the h-file and I haven’t even won any material.

1 … Rfe8 (2 points) I’d noticed as a possibility very early on. Hitting the queen is a natural idea, but I didn’t spend much time on it. I didn’t see what Black had gained after something like Qd2.

That leaves 1 … Bf6 (10 points). Despite thinking about it frequently off throughout the 30 minutes or so that I looked at the position, I didn’t spend any time at all looking at concrete lines. I just kept thinking, "Well I could do that … but why?"

I didn’t see what putting the bishop on f6 did that was better than retreating it to the corner of the board. 1 … Bh8 was the move I wanted to play. It didn’t force anything but it prepared 2 … Ng3 and I thought I might be able to chop the d6 pawn and be happy about what was coming.

But no. 1 … Bh8 doesn’t get any points from the panel. The feedback article doesn’t mention the idea even once.

Ah well. That’s chess for you.

Right before your eyes

We'll pull laughter from the skies

And he laughs until he cries

Then he dies, then he dies

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

POINTS

10: … Bf6

7:  … Bxb2

5:  … Bxh6

2:  … Rfe8, … Nxh6, … Ng3

MASTERS

… Bf6  Suba, Adams, Plaskett, P. Littlewood, Pein, , Fidelity Mach 3

… Bxb2 Norwood, Levitt, Davies, Lane, Botterill

… Bxh6 Horner

SOURCE

Bareyev - Plachetka, Trnava 1989 21 … Bxb2