Games from the Clubhouse: Endgame Edition

A few months back Paul and I played a game that became a topic of lengthy debate afterwards, with Garry also contributing. At some point, the following position was reached, though I have no idea how we got here from the game.

Paul - Todd (analysis)

 

Black to move

We spent a lot of time looking at this particular position. I didn't try to recreate the analysis the night I put this in my database several months back, and I'm certainly not going to try to do so now. We eventually settled on 1 ... Qg5 as the best opening salvo for Black.

But then Paul ran it through Komodo 8 and "the cloud" for an entire night. The best move according to those worthies is 1 ... Qg7. White's problems are that Black's h-pawn is too fast, and if White removes the c5 pawn his own King becomes too exposed - and maybe even if White doesn't take the pawn. Evals ran from -1.50 to -1.80.

It seems like these kinds of very tricky/trappy complex endgames come up more often now in the games I see at my level than in the past. Perhaps it's merely a function of where & who I'm playing (and see play) these days, or maybe I'm just better at finding this stuff now. Still, I don't remember seeing so many complicated endgames in the past.

(Am I the only one that thinks of Aristophanes every time "the cloud" gets mentioned? Yes? Nevermind then.)