bigstuffedcat

the continuously transgendering hy libre!

@bigstuffedcat

  • she/her, they/them, sie/sie/ir, ask

dyke, poetess, games writer, &cet.

wow! this lesbian can pierce space and time!

log inask
if you can see this,
you have permission to message me on discord
bigstuffedcat
@bigstuffedcat
bigstuffedcat
@bigstuffedcat
bigstuffedcat
@bigstuffedcat

positional puzzle: black to move, who do you think is winning in this position

from a game i just played. (i ended up winning the game, including TWO(!) "oh no my rook" sacrifices, and finishing with the second Qxg6# I've played today)

bigstuffedcat
@bigstuffedcat
Spoilers for above I thought this was a decisive advantage for white, but Stockfish evaluates this position as 0.0; the only move it characterizes as holding the draw for black is the very principled Rd2. After Rd2 Bxe6 Rxe6 it characterizes black as having a small, sharp advantage; after Bxc4 (the move I played) it ends up giving +2.2, but only after oscillating rapidly between crushing for white and drawish. my opponent blundered their advantage by trying to double rooks and bash in my c-pawn one tempo too late.

I won the game by trading off one of the rooks on d1, then promoting the c-pawn (using an "oh no my rook" to ward off a skewer, and a second "oh no my rook" to get the king into a position where my queen could fork the white king and his seventh-rank pawn). i learned a lot from this game, and am in the process of learning more.

Cause goddamn, my pawns are bad.

You must log in to comment.

in reply to @bigstuffedcat's post:

folly
@folly

I feel like one move earlier, I would've had no problem defending this position as White, and a hard time converting it with Black. I don't like this bishop move personally; it offers a trade on equal territory which technically favors white in the sense of white has more pure points of material, but it doesn't feel like it's doing enough. Maybe by engine it's the best way to defend a2, but I just don't like it. Still, I think I'd probably rather have White here than Black.

I haven't spent enough time to say this is a good continuation but if white was focused on the a file, instead of Bc4 trying something like Bb5 Re7 Ra1 I feel like there's something interesting to play with? But maybe you need the pressure on C, who could say.

login to reply
bigstuffedcat
@bigstuffedcat

Good points!

The main reason my opponent played the bishop here is that they were winning a pawn that was on c4. With that pawn there, Stockfish characterizes Bxc4 as the slightly-best move, but it's indecisive and I don't trust it as an objective analysis, much less as an accurate representation of the likelihood a human would beat another human.

If the pawn weren't present, I think you're right, white would have a large advantage. But it could evaporate at any time-- you can't let black's rook on the seventh, but you're too slow to stop it, so you have to toss your rook at your opponent and moves that seem fine to me visually end up being refutable and it's kind of the wild west

login to reply
Pinned Tags