![\"\"](\"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/one-thousand.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nPosition after 29. \u2026 fxe6. White to move.<\/em><\/p>\n FEN: 4r1k1\/2q4p\/2p1p1p1\/1pbr1PN1\/4Q1P1\/pPB4P\/P1P5\/2K2R2 w – – 0 30<\/p>\n This was a very exciting game, played at a time control of 10 minutes for 40 moves. First Shredder sacrificed a pawn, then I sacrificed back an exchange for a very menacing attack. Now it’s White’s move. I’ll give you a hint: White’s best move is with the f5-pawn. What do you do, and why? You only have a few seconds to decide.<\/p>\n First, here’s what I played:<\/p>\n 30. fg? \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n I simply thought I was winning. So I really didn’t bother to analyze anything else.<\/p>\n 30. \u2026 Rxg5 31. Rf7! \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n How can this not be winning, right? Unfortunately, Shredder has a response that I didn’t see.<\/p>\n 31. \u2026 Qg3!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Out of nowhere, Black suddenly has back-rank threats. If I play 32. Rxh7, threatening mate in one, Black wins with 32. \u2026 Qg1+. This either forces the bishop to retreat, with 33. Be1, after which the queen trade 33. \u2026 Qe3+ wins easily for Black, or else the queen retreats with 33. Qe1, after which the queen trade is again good, or else White plays 33. Kd2 and walks into a mating net with 33. \u2026 Rd8+ 34. Ke2 Qd1 mate!<\/p>\n A great example of the computer’s unbelievable resourcefulness.<\/p>\n Fortunately, I do have a way out: I can play for a perpetual check.<\/p>\n 32. Rg7+ Kf8 33. Rf7+ Kg8 \u00a0\u00bd-\u00bd<\/strong><\/p>\n This was all right — playing against Shredder at 2206, I typically score way less than 50 percent — but nevertheless it was a bit deflating. Perhaps my attack wasn’t as strong as I thought? But then I saw, to my surprise, that Shredder’s own evaluation of the initial position was +1.81 pawns for White. Do you see what I missed?<\/p>\n The answer is 30. f6!<\/span> This move also leaves the knight en prise<\/em>, but this time Black doesn’t get any time for tactics of his own. After 30. \u2026 Rxg5 31. f7+<\/span> forces him to give up his queen, with 31. \u2026 Qxf7 32. Rxf7 Kxf7<\/span>, and now comes the proverbial “scorpion’s sting,” 33. Qf4+<\/span> picking up the wayward rook. Although Black emerges with a rook and two pawns for the queen (which may account for Shredder’s initial +1.81 evaluation) in fact the endgame will be easily won for White because Black’s pawns are so weak.<\/p>\n Alternatively, if 30. f6+ Rf8 31. f7+ Rxf7 32. Nxf7<\/span>, the threat of Nh6 mate forces Black to give up additional material: 32. \u2026 Qxf7 33. Rxf7 Kxf7<\/span> with another endgame similar to the one in the previous variation, only even worse for Black.<\/p>\n This is a pretty cool quiz, I think, because the winning line and the non-winning line both have a little bit more to them than meets the eye.<\/p>\n For me, the lesson is a familiar one: make sure you look at all the variations. Even if you see a move that you think is winning, look at the options because you might find one where the win is even clearer. Of course, this is very hard to do in a speed game with not very much time remaining, and against an all-seeing silicon opponent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today my blog reaches a milestone — its one thousandth post! I started “dana blogs chess” a little over ten years ago, in October 2007, so that means I have averaged slightly less than a hundred posts per year. I wondered whether I should compose something special for the occasion, as I did when I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,16,171],"tags":[298,1231,428,1098,254,530,4097,1245,4096,2561],"class_list":["post-5349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chess-lecture","category-positions","category-ruminations","tag-back-rank","tag-berserker-pawn","tag-computer","tag-exchange-sac","tag-mating-net","tag-perpetual-check","tag-resourcefulness","tag-shredder","tag-silicon","tag-unexpected"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5349"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5351,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5349\/revisions\/5351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}