AylerKupp: <Sally Simpson> Morra! Morra! Morra! (part 2 of 2) For comparison, Komodo 10 initially (until d=27) evaluated 11...Qxc4 substantially higher than 11...Bxh2+ (about [-1.00] to [-0.60]) but starting at d=28 it did an about face and began to evaluate 11...Bxh2+ slightly higher. Here are Komodo's top 2 lines at d=32 although prior to this search play it evaluated 11...Bxh2+ much higher than 11...Qxc4, about [-0.50] better:: 1. [-0.14]: 11...Bxh2+ 12.Kh1 Qxc4 13.g3 Nf6 14.Nb6 Qc6 15.Qxc6 bxc6 16.Nxa8 Nd5 17.Re3 Nxe3 18.Bxe3 Bxg3 19.fxg3 d6 (only here does Komodo deviate from Stockfish) 20.Nb6 Ke7 21.Kg2 e5 22.Rc1 Bd7 23.Nxd7 Kxd7 24.Rc4 c5 25.Ra4 Rb8 26.b3 Ra8 27.Rg4 g6 28.Ra4 Kc6 29.Bg5 h5 30.Kf3 f5 31.Be3 Ra7 32.Ra5 Kd5
 click for larger viewBlack has 4 pawns for the bishop and the more active king, although his rook is more passive and it's hard to see how it can make much progress on the k-side with White's dark square bind. 2. [-0.11]: 11...Qxc4 12.Nb6 Qc6 13.Qxc6 bxc6 (Komodo prefers to capture towards the center instead of Stockfish's 13...dxc6) 14.Nxa8 Bb7 15.Nb6 Nf6 16.Nc4 Bc7 17.Bd2 d5 18.Na5 Ba8 19.Nb3 Ke7 20.Nc5 Nd7 21.Nxa6 Bd6 22.b4 Bb7 23.Nc5 Nxc5 24.bxc5 Bxc5 25.Rec1 Bd6 26.Rab1 Ba8 27.Bg5+ f6 28.Be3 e5 29.Bc5 Bxc5 30.Rxc5 Ke6 31.Ra5 d4 32.Kf1 Rd8 33.Ra7 c5 34.Rxg7
 click for larger viewBlack has B+P vs. R but that central pawn phalanx looks difficult to stop, so I concur with Komodo's evaluation that Black has no worse than an equal game. And, restarting the analysis from this position, Komodo favors Black more strongly, evaluating the resulting position at [-1.32], d=28, after 34...c4 35.Rxh7 Rd6 ... And Komodo, like Stockfish, went back and forth between 11...Qc6 and 11...Qb6 as to which one was Black's 3rd best move. So, given the difficulty and the time that it took both Stockfish and Komodo to determine what Black's best response was to 11.Qxf3 and Santiago's almost 250 rating point advantage over Kahn, it's not surprising that the latter decided to play it safe and not risk either 11...Qxc4 or (if he considered it) 11...Bxh2+. And the move Kahn selected, 11...Qc6 was a reasonable one under the circumstances. But Santiago might also have been considering his almost 250 rating point advantage over Kahn when he played 10.Nd5. And this analysis, which seems to indicate that Black could have survived after 11.Qf3, should in no way affect our enjoyment of this game. It certainly didn't to me. You and others that like this game may also enjoy http://www.chesspositiontrainer.com.... As far as your question about how many clichés did you manage to squeeze in there, the obvious answer is "One too many." :-) BTW, in case you or anyone else didn't make a connection, my Morra! Morra! Morra! Was intended to be a take on the 1970 Japanese – American movie Tora! Tora! Tora! About the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. |