The Joy of Cooking!

I've been looking at the problems from GM Andy Soltis's Chess to Enjoy column recently. (More on that in another post.) This morning I kinda sorta cooked one of the solutions. The problem was taken from the game Alexander Sellman - Preston Ware, Fifth American Chess Congress, 1880, and appeared in the April 2015 Chess Life. Here's the position:

Sellman - Ware, 1880

30 ... ?

Black to play and win

(Solution below the fold for those that want to work it out themselves.)

I (eventually) found the correct first move, but the solution after that was a bit muddled. When I checked in back, it turned out that the solution provided actually missed a couple of tricks. With help from our trusty friend Stockfish, here's how it goes.

Soltis gives the following solution:

30. ... N4e6! and 31. ... Nd8 catches the rook at b7 (32. Rb6 Bc7). Also winning is 30. ... Ra6 and 31. ... N4e6.

This isn't quite correct, though. His alternate line with 30 ... Ra6 and 31 ... N4e6 does in fact win as advertised, though in that line the trapped white rook manages to exchange itself for the black bishop. Should still be an easy win for Black, but it isn't quite as easy as winning the b7 rook outright.

But 30 ... N4e6 runs into 31 Re2 when 31 ... Nd8 32 Re8! After this Black must simply exchange rooks with 32 ... Nxb7 33 Rxa8.

Position after 33 Rxa8

 (Analysis)

White's rook will escape. Black's three minors should still win the game, but a lot of work remains, especially for us regular players. (The moves 31 Re2 and 32 Re8 were the moves I had found.) Here's an idea of the potential difficulties with this position: Stockfish tells me that far and away the best line for Black (an eval of -5.23 after several minutes of churning) starts with 33 ... Bf4, when play might proceed with 34 Re8 Nd6 35 Re1. That doesn't look so bad, but the second best line by Stockfish, with an eval of -2.44 starts with 33 ... g4. Yikes! The third and fourth best alternatives, 33 ... Kf7 and 33 ... b4, get evals that are much closer to even, at at -1.01 and -0.41 respectively. Not so straightforward!

Actually, after 31 Re2 Black's best option is 31 ... Ra6, when we get back to the alternate line from Soltis, with the b7 rook being traded for the black bishop: 32 Re1 Nd8 33 Rbe7 Bxe7 34 Rxe7, etc. For those concerned with numbers, Stockfish quickly gives evals of the final position approximately around -5.50, but Black has several moves, all reasonable, that return evals in that range. (In fact, the evals crank much more in Black's favor given a little more time.) It is MUCH easier to play the position below that the one in the previous diagram!

Position after 34 Rxe7 

(Analysis)

The lesson? There are two.

First, if you don't understand the solution/analysis given, keep working at it until you do. Even doing so with a decent program can be helpful. (But don't JUST use the computer, of course. That way will get you nowhere, and is less fun. I didn't turn to the silicon monster until I had worked at it a bit, and I'm using the evals above to show how things can get out of hand.)

Second, keep working until the game is done: if you're losing, you might get a chance to turn things around, and if you're winning, you must avoid being careless!

Perhaps someone with all the issues of Chess Life since April can check and see if anyone else spotted this. If not, I may just have a chance to drop a Letter to the Editor!