Mini 686 - Chess Mafia (Done)

[Mastin]

Do NOT do Pawn to b5--

How their move would work:

Bishop captures our pawn--

Queen's in danger, bishop's protected by the queen.
We are forced to move our knight to take the bishop,
We lose the rook that the knight is currently blocking their other bishop from attacking.

Leave it be, and the worse they can do is capture our pawn (temporarily endangering our queen), and we'll just return the favor. No piece is left vulnerable, no piece at a disadvantage.

All of our important pieces are fairly, well, cornered, so I suggest either we move a pawn (a3, c3, and h4 are all viable options), or we remove the risk to our rook and free our knight again. This move seems to be the most advantageous to me.

Move: Rook to G-1

.

[Mastin]

(Oh, and alternatively, their rook could theoretically capture our knight for free, endangering our Queen, and as the rook's guarded by the bishop...yea.)

We're kinda pinned at the moment. This looks to be rather the defensive game. The wrong move would be disastrous. And we shouldn't rush it--I have learned that's the greatest mistake, even more than overconfidence. (One person I played continually checked my king with his queen in order to get free pawns. He eventually blundered and gave me his queen when he allowed me to capture his queen with mine. That's overconfidence. I've lost even more, however, to rushing a game.)

---
If we want to move a pawn, I would suggest C3. We trade, move the rook to cover the pawn, and push our unchallenged pawn forward to force them on the defensive. Moving that pawn forward allows for us to put their pawn in danger, and force a trade, which in turn frees our bishop up to capture another pawn.

(Moves:
Pawn C-3, Pawn C-3, Check,
King to C-3, Some other black move,
Pawn to B-3, some other black move,
Pawn to A-4, Pawn to A-4,
Pawn to A-4, some other black move,
If black's rook has moved, bishop to A-6. If not, well, some other move.)

I don't think that'd be the best strategy in the world, for it leaves plenty of Black counters.
I advocate that we stay on the defensive and make them make a mistake.

Alternatively, as another possible move,
Pawn to H-4, Pawn to H-4,
Pawn to H-4, Black can't use their Bishop to capture our Pawn, because it sacrifices their Bishop to our Rook.

It puts us ahead a pawn.

We could also do Bishop to D-3, but that only forces a trade. It frees our Queen, but also exposes her.

[Mastin]

Pawns--1,
Bishops--4
Knights--4
Rooks--5
Queens--8
Kings--i. (Infinite)

Pawns--7
Bishops--1
Knights--1
Rooks--2
Queens--1

Our forces.
Total: 33

Pawns--6
Bishops--2
Knights--0
Rooks--2
Queens--1

Black's forces.
Total: 32.

When ahead in piece value, it is acceptable to trade. I much prefer, though, trades where you end up ahead.
I stick by the rook move, because upon further review, the bishop would STILL capture the pawn, due to having the queen behind it, we can't capture it, our rook is put in danger.

The pawn moves again are aggressive and could backfire.

We want to stay on the defensive.

We're in a situation where we have a good defense, and they have a good offense. If we try to go on the offensive (pretty much any pawn move), we potentially leave ourselves with a hole in our defenses.

Stay on the defensive, we force their hand.
Our defense is solid. We force them to make an offensive move, which might leave a whole in their defense and let us strike again.

I currently advocate,

Rook G1, Let Black make a move.
If they trade, capture their Bishop with the Queen, allow us to go on the offensive.
If they don't,
Bishop D3, force what for them is at best a trade, leaving many options available.

[Mastin]

Mini 686 - Chess Mafia Day 20 DL = June 21

POST POST POST

Bolded is my emphasis. I have been watching since day seventeen, give or take; I don't want the game to die. <_<

[Mastin]

What about Ne5

And then they use their rook to get a free pawn, their rook guarded by their pawn.

Bd3

A trade. We're ahead material, and want to trade, but it kinda leaves our queen out in the open, exposed.

Bg2

Defends our knight and rook. We still won't be able to move the knight, because then they capture our bishop for free.

Bh3

It works. Kinda pointless, though.

Rg1.

This is the move I currently support.

It breaks the pin and places our rook on the g-file, which may soon become open.

Thereby freeing our knight to capture their pawn, mind you.

Actually, as I look back at the board, I'm seeing some potentially troublesome moves for black if we don't deal with some of our weaknesses on this move.

Our greatest weakness right now is the rook's pin.

Although Rg1 breaks the pin, it does not add any protection to any of our weak squares.

None of our moves really do.

I favor Bd3.

Traps their bishop, forcing a trade (which is alright). They can,
1: Take our Bishop,
2: Take our Knight,
3: Retreat to the square before the pawn, defending itself,
4: Leave it where it is, lose the bishop, take our bishop with their pawn, lose their pawn to our queen,
5: Retreat to an unprotected square, give us their bishop.

Assume a retreat.

BD3, BG6,
BG6, Pawn to G6.

Assume a trade--
BD3, BD3,
QD3, black moves,
or
King D3, black moves.

BD3, BF3,
QD3, black moves.

The white space Bishop is very important when considering possible ways to get to checkmate; I'd rather not trade for it so soon.

Not to mention, we leave both our rook, and our queen vulnerable to them if they capture either in the trade.

It's acceptable, as we come out ahead, but like I said, it's risky, so I favor the rook moving.

[Mastin]

And then we just do BD3 then.

[Mastin]

No.

20. Rg1 Qc7
21. Bd3 Qc2. Check.
22. Bc2. They give us their queen.

We don't lose anything by waiting a turn.

[Mastin]

Also, if they do

20. Rg1 Qc7
21. Bd3 Qc3. Check.
We respond by simply capturing their queen with our pawn.

Simple, really. They can't harm us.

[Mastin]

Qc7, attacks both our c2 pawn and our f4 pawn.

We can guard the c2 pawn with our bishop once Qc7 is done, the f4 pawn is protected by a pawn AND our queen. So if they captured the f4 pawn, we'd capture their f-4 pawn, nothing to take our pawn's position. If they use their queen, guess what? We capture it with our queen.

So, no, nothing wrong with waiting.

[Mastin]

Ah, right. My bad.

Unmove,
Move: Bishop to D3

.

[Mastin]

We need to use the pawn to capture--
It's not guarding anything.

The Queen, however, is, and using her to capture it would leave her exposed.
Not going to hammer it, yet.

[Mastin]

Has NOBODY noticed the fact that if we move the queen, she's captured by the rook?

Queen to f-4, rook to f-4.

We need to use the pawn.

[Mastin]

What we need to do:

Pawn captures. (Pawn to f-4) They move the Bishop to d6.
Queen retreats (Queen to E-2). They capture our pawn (Bishop to f-4). Check.

But if we DON'T, then we lose our queen to their rook.
(Queen to f-4, rook to f-4, Pawn to f-4, they lose their rook and a pawn, but we lose our queen; NOT worth it.)

[Mastin]

Oh, wait. Misread Queen to E-2 as Queen to F-4.

Move: Queen to E-2

.

[Mastin]

Move: Queen to D3

.

[Mastin]

Rook to E-6, Queen to D7, we waste a move retreating to save the rook.

Move: Pawn to G4

.

[Mastin]

NG5-Pawn H6?

Or
NG5-RE6
NE6-Q Somethingoranother.

I see short-term, seeing that the first puts the knight in danger and achieves nothing. Show me how this is not true, please.

[Mastin]

If you say so. I'm still not seeing anything that makes the move that worth it.

[Mastin]

I am not opposed to NG5. I simply do not see how it benefits us. Nor did I see how moving our rook was an advantage. Like I said. Short-term, I'm a good chess player. But I don't think four moves in advance.

[Mastin]

Rook E1 forces a trade. We're ahead; I say we take the trade.

[Mastin]

How are we ahead?

Piece-wise, we're one point (pawn) ahead, last I checked.