Wednesday 6 November 2013

Bluff or Brilliancy

The following position occurred during a game at Belconnen Chess Club on Tuesday night. White had come up with a provocative plan of Qg4-Qg7 which Black had met by trying to trap the queen with Ne5-g6. At this crucial moment White decided to ignore the threat of Bf8 by playing 11. O-O-O. The game ended quickly with 11. ... a6 12.Nxd6+ Bxd6 13.e5 fxe5 14.Ne4 Ke7 15.Qf6+ 1-0
After the game discussion quickly turned to making 11. ... Bf8 work. Superficially the line is the same, with 12.Nxd6+ Bxd6 being met the same way (and the omission of a6 even helping White as Bb5+ is now an extra option). But it turns out both players missed something here. What do you think it was?

2 comments:

Ian Rout said...

Is it that Black can take the N with the Q rather than B, as Qg7 is hanging, and the intermediate Qxf8+ is met by Qxf8?

Anonymous said...

Best is
11........Bf8!
12. Nxd6+ Qxd6!!
13. Qf6! Be7
14. Qf3 Qc5
and Black has an advantage