The main threat is simply 37...g2# and curiously White cannot defend g2 properly, for example: 37.Rd2 g2+ 38.Rxg2 Qxe1 OR 37.Qf1/e2/d2 g2+ 38.Qxg2 Rxg2

*****

<plumbst> Yes, 34...Bg2+ was very nice and what drove this combination

Only then can we decide that the farmers have won. The farmers always win.

Here's what at first seems to be the main line:

35... Ng3+ 36. Rxg3 fxg3

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Now white has to do something about g2#. He has to put his queen on a square where it can cover g2 - say e2, d2 of f1. It doesn't matter which.

Then we get 37. Qe2 (say) g2+ 38. Qxg2 Rxg2 39. Kxg2 Rg8+ 40. Kf1

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Time to take stock. There is no immediate mate but black has queen for two pieces plus a pawn. Possibly more importantly, black doesn't have an obvious attack and his weakling pawns make it difficult to construct a fortress. This is not a time to start digging ditches around the peasant village.

With that in mind, we could (and probably should) rewind back to 35...Ng3+ to see if we can improve on white's defence.

Fritzie finds the odd-looking 36. Qxg3 fxg3 37. Ne2 Rag8 38. Be3.

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Well, if we are going to be forced to give our queen away, why not do it immediately? This doesn't save white - not by a long way - but it does hold out the possibility of digging a trench and hiding in it.

However, it took me a while because I kept looking at the difficulties of 35...Rxg2?? 36. Kxg2?? . Then finally after a few minutes it dawned on me that 35...Rxg2?? loses outright to 36. Qxh4 .

White cannot give his king more room (37.B~ Qxh2# or 37.h3 Qxh3+ and mate next move), and fleeing is also hopeless: 37.Kg2 gxh2+ 38.Kf1 hxg1Q+ (or 38.Kh1 hxg1Q# with a rare double-check by two queens) 39.Ke2 Rg2+ 40.Kd3 Qhxe1, and White is down tons of material.

White threatens 36.Qxh4.

The obvious 35... Ng3+ 36.Rxg3 fxg3 seems to win:

A) 37.Rd2 g2+ 38.Rxg2 Qxe1, etc.

B) 37.Be3 Qxh2#.

White has a strong grip on the centre with doubled rooks on the d file. Black's main chance lies with a kingside attack to make use of his extra space on that wing.

So the last thing that black wants to do is to allow the queens to be exchanged. And that means that a queen retreat is one of the <best> things he can do in this position.

I could make half a case for 28...Ng3+ if it worked. But here it seems a tad too early. Fritzie confirms that the best move for black is the queen retreat 28...Qg5, with an evaluation of over -3.7. 28...Ng3+ is not bad at -1.9.

Fritz does not score 28...Qe7 so highly, but I think that Nunn is playing a clever game. He is slowly rearranging his forces on the kingside so that the attack, when it comes, is irresistible. The point of Qe7 is that it allows Bf6-Bh4-Qg5. The queen returns to the kingside with a vengeance.

Now this time I have decided to expose this situation as soon as it began, and when I read the Torre quote about Fischer's daughter I flew to write this post.