From move 14, it looks like black already has a slight edge with white opening up their king. Also, taking with the pawn and closing the file on move 16 killed off a lot of play for them, in my opinion. White made black's plans very easy, and killed off their chances in the position.
Looks Can be Deceiving
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1 day ago
0
#3
Sensei-T wrote:
From move 14, it looks like black already has a slight edge with white opening up their king. Also, taking with the pawn and closing the file on move 16 killed off a lot of play for them, in my opinion. White made black's plans very easy, and killed off their chances in the position.
The biggest danger for Black is not the e-file, but a move like 17.e6 makes it really hard for Black to develop his queenside pieces, all of which have yet to move. That's part of what the title is implying. It looks so bad for Black, but yet, White might truly have nothing, though I was a little nervous about 17.e6, opening up the diagonal to the king and having that fae advanced passer. That's what makes the position so harsh to assess. Yes, Black has the safer king, but he lacks development and that passer for white is a pain if it can get to e6 and not be corralled.
1 day ago
0
#4
wrote:
Sensei-T wrote:
From move 14, it looks like black already has a slight edge with white opening up their king. Also, taking with the pawn and closing the file on move 16 killed off a lot of play for them, in my opinion. White made black's plans very easy, and killed off their chances in the position.
The biggest danger for Black is not the e-file, but a move like 17.e6 makes it really hard for Black to develop his queenside pieces, all of which have yet to move. That's part of what the title is implying. It looks so bad for Black, but yet, White might truly have nothing, though I was a little nervous about 17.e6, opening up the diagonal to the king and having that fae advanced passer. That's what makes the position so harsh to assess. Yes, Black has the safer king, but he lacks development and that passer for white is a pain if it can get to e6 and not be corralled.
Looks truly can be deceiving. Maybe if I had dug deeper and looked at ALL the positives and negatives, then I would've spotted those ideas.
Round 4 of this past weekend's tournament in Charlotte proves looks can be deceiving. In no way do I claim Black was better. With his queenside undeveloped, he looks significantly worse to the point that White should have time to centralize his pieces. However, an innocent looking 18th move by White leads to rapid deterioration. Yes, White could probably handle moves 19-onward better, but Black is completely Winning shortly after, and White resigns after only 22 moves!