Help me understand engine analysis on two positions. - Chess Forums

STEVE1232123

Nov 26, 2022

0

#1

Hi - first post, trying to make sure I can post & annotate games correctly. I'm a 1300 player who picked up chess during the pandemic, and would like to try and improve. I take advantage of the free daily chess.com analysis, although I find there's usually a couple of recommended moves that I don't understand. For example, from my latest game:

Note 1 - 11 ...f6 apparently "not the best move, but not bad either". My idea is obviously to block the knight from getting to e5 or g5, which seems reasonable to me. The engine, on the other hand, is pushing for ...e5. If I follow the engine line from this point, it suggests 12. b5 exd4 13. exd4. I don't understand how this trade evens things out for black. If anything, it seems to give white an opportunity to line the queen up behind the bishop and cause all sorts of grief. If any stronger players can help clear this up, please let me know!

Note 2 - Starting around move 15, the engine seems really keen to bring my rook to h5. My idea at 15 ...Qb6 is to threaten the pawn on b2, while starting to gang up on the d pawn + also potentially have my rook ready for a discovered attack on the queen. These all seem like good ideas to me, making Qb6 a solid choice. Getting the rock to h5 and disconnecting it from the back rank doesn't seem to do anything - and if you follow the engine line, it just brings the knight back to g5 which kind of blocks the rook from being useful. Again, if any stronger players can explain why bringing the rook up is a solid plan, please let me know.

Dzindo07

Nov 26, 2022

0

#2

In short if you're ahead in development and your opponents king is still in the center it is advantageous to open the center. There's no point playing f6 as the knight can't go to e5 or g5 anyway and you'll be looking to play f5 in the future.

15... Qb6 is a complete misunderstanding of the position. The b2 pawn is easily defended but that's not the point. You don't want that pawn anyway as you shouldn't open up a file in front of your king. In opposite side castling you play against the opponents castled side. So Rh5 Ng5 to exchange the defender knight without tripling your pawns or the more natural g5 immediately. You have an open h file, doubled g pawns, a knight in the center and white castled short, should be a clear signal where you should play.

tygxc

Nov 27, 2022

0

#3

@1

11...f6 weakens g6 and e6, e.g. after 12 Bd3. It does not develop any piece either. Better seems 11...O-O-O to castle your king to safety and to connect your rooks to activate them.
11...e5 12 Bb5 exd4 13 exd4 a6 is possible too.

15...Qb6 16 Qc2 gets you into more trouble. 15...Qd7 is more cautious.
However, the real fault was 13...dxc4? giving up the center, opening the c-file, and developing his Bc4.

STEVE1232123

Nov 27, 2022

0

#4

Dzindo07 wrote:

In short if you're ahead in development and your opponents king is still in the center it is advantageous to open the center. There's no point playing f6 as the knight can't go to e5 or g5 anyway and you'll be looking to play f5 in the future.

15... Qb6 is a complete misunderstanding of the position. The b2 pawn is easily defended but that's not the point. You don't want that pawn anyway as you shouldn't open up a file in front of your king. In opposite side castling you play against the opponents castled side. So Rh5 Ng5 to exchange the defender knight without tripling your pawns or the more natural g5 immediately. You have an open h file, doubled g pawns, a knight in the center and white castled short, should be a clear signal where you should play.

This is fantastic feedback, thank you for taking the time to respond. I currently don't have any idea when it's advantageous to open the centre or keep it closed, so I'll look into that and learn.

Re: 15... Qb6 - again, thanks for explaining this - I never would have seen the position this way, and it never occurred to me the point of bringing out the rook is to exchange knights. Clearly I need to get better at reading the board. Just understanding that my weaknesses is this game are positional rather than tactical is a huge, huge help, so thank you!

STEVE1232123

Nov 27, 2022

0

#5

tygxc wrote:

@1

11...f6 weakens g6 and e6, e.g. after 12 Bd3. It does not develop any piece either. Better seems 11...O-O-O to castle your king to safety and to connect your rooks to activate them.
11...e5 12 Bb5 exd4 13 exd4 a6 is possible too.

15...Qb6 16 Qc2 gets you into more trouble. 15...Qd7 is more cautious.
However, the real fault was 13...dxc4? giving up the center, opening the c-file, and developing his Bc4.

Thank you for the response! So 13 ...dxc4, I wasn't thrilled about taking the pawn either, but my concern was that if I didn't take the pawn, he would march it up to c5 and i would waste time getting my queen out of trouble, and probably weaken my position. I think I was just outplayed at this point in the game, and was trying to find the least damaging move. Per the previous commenter's points, I think if I develop my positional understanding of the game I can improve. Thanks again for the comment!

magipi

Nov 27, 2022

0

#6

Both positions are flat and non-tactical, where the difference between the best move and the fifth vest move is tiny. The engine's recommendation changes constantly as the depth of the analysis slowly increases. I would not take the engine's top choice too seriously here.