Posted by Charles Gelman on November 09, 1997 at 00:08:07:
In Reply to: Re: comment on game 17 posted by Mihnea on November 08, 1997 at 03:59:24:
My tendency would be to say the sacrifice is unsound.
Your pawns are not far enough advanced to do give you
a presence in the center that makes blacks pieces have
trouble moving. Additionally the pieces that you do
have are knights and instead of providing nice
maneuvering capabilities it seems like they keep
getting in the way of your pawns, blocking them from
moving forward. Having three pawns in the center will
most likely be only temporary as you will have trouble
keeping all three pawns next to each other and as soon
as you move on you will have weaknesses. What's more
your king position is weak and you will have to waste a
move on shifting the king. Let's move on to the
analysis now.
What you must do is very quickly form a plan that
involves restricting the motion of black's pieces. Take
advantage of the open f-file to try and start a king side
attack. Most importantly you have to advance your pawns
and make their presence felt. To this end, I recommend
instead of Rb1, playing 1.e4. The problem with this is
that your opponent as Ba6 and can threaten to lock your
knights into place while allowing him to eventually get
the b file. Perhaps in this respect 1.Rb1 is better.
Then, after 1...Nfd5 play 2.Qd2 instead of Rb3. With your
queen on d2, you are threatening to play e4, while still
covering the key f4 square with your queen. Additionally,
you get your queen off the a6-f1 diagonal which could be
problematic if black plays Ba6.
Later on, your position still offered some chances for you.
With black's queen on g4, it is out of the main part of the
game on the queen side. It is now your chance to shift
forces over. Instead of 1. h3? You could play 1.Rfb1
threatening 2.Nxd7 Rxb3 3.Nxf6+ gxf6 4.Rxb3, when you get
a pawn back and weaken black's king.
Even after 1.h3? Qg3, don't you have 2.Nxd7 Rxb3 3.Nxf6+
gxf6 4.Nxb3 when you've gotten another pawn and weakened
black's king?
You are still doing okay later on after 1.Rxf6 Ng6. Playing
2.Nxa5 was an error, but 2.Rf3 would have been okay when you
are just barely holding onto your pieces and your pawns are
looking good while all black's pieces are misplaced.
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