Wednesday, February 3, 2010

a positional exchange sac from Danny Feng!!

from Danny Feng's (1797) annotated game against Brian Hu (2089) at grade nationals. Danny is black.

15...Rxd2! "I decided to sacrifice an exchange in turn for the two bishops and give him isolated e pawns."
16. Rxd2 Bxf4
17. Rdd1 g5!


"I knew I would have to get my counterplay or else I would have no compensation. I wanted to play Ne7-g6, Kc8-c7-b6, g5-g4, and win another pawn. The only open file is the d-file, but he can't really put it to good use. My bishop on e6 is the bad bishop. The pawn on e5 is also limiting the scope of my dark squared bishop, but the pawn shall fall soon."
18. Kf2 g4
19. hg Bg4
20. g3 Bxf3
21. Kxf3 Bxe5


oh my goodness!!! How many kids have the confidence and abstraction to sac the exchange like that and then think/talk about compensation and activating their pieces!? I'm so impressed by Danny.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

very nice.

Anonymous said...

So he went on to lose or win?

honestly the bishop looks real nice but i'm not sure black is better here and i would guess it's around = what happened in the game?

Anonymous said...

what about rh5 hitting the bishop and preparing to double on the h-file hitting h7? bg7 w/ idea h6 looks bad... i'm wondering if black is just lost here

ben daswani said...

anon 12:39, i'm not sure black needs to retain the h-pawn. i've just looked at this briefly but for example:

22.rh5 ng3
23.rh1 b5

if
24.rh7 rh7
25.rh7 b4

looks pretty crushing for black and if
24.ab cb
25.nb5 bg2

looks unclear? black is better though? any strong player care to assess?

Anonymous said...

OK, first of all, look at the final position, whether black is in trouble or not is questionable. But looking at the original position, black is clearly dominating...complete control of the d file, bishop pair, just dominating...therefore this exchange sac is just bad...

Leon Akpalu said...

Well,
first of all, Black is not sacrificing material. He gets a pawn for the exchange, so at worst he's down half a pawn, but the two bishops (which can suddenly actually play after the "sac") are more than enough compensation.

So the whole attitude
"I knew I would have to get my counterplay or else I would have no compensation" is simply wrong. At the second diagram, simply 18...Ng6 19.g3 Bxe5 and Black is actually up material, not down. Then Black either keeps his two bishops or after 20.Nxe4 Nxe5 black's knight has a wonderful outpost and is ready to jump into d3 to help undermine White's queenside pawns.

I have no idea why 18...g4? is supposed to constitute "counterplay" since the only piece it activates is the Rh1.

Anonymous said...

You guys are making strange and unsupportive comments.

@12:37 - who cares if Black is better? He's doing at least fine and the main point is: kudos to Danny.

@12:39 - Rh5 is a fine move. Passively defending the h-pawn probably isn't necessary or good, compared to active play as mentioned by Ben.

@Ben - You mean 22. ... Ng6. Your idea is fine, also Black could try to avoid a rook trade with ... Re8-e7.

@10:42 - Black is not clearly dominating. Making a laundry list of characteristics is not persuasive. White has a nice central pawn mass, Black's two bishops are not fully active, and the d-file is easily contested. More persuasive and valuable would be to offer some variations.

@Leon - Yes, he is sacrificing material, just not a lot - a pawn for the exchange is generally considered a sacrifice. The other elements of compensation are irrelevant to the definition of 'sacrifice'.

Danny's attitude is not wrong, except perhaps the word 'activity' would correct, instead of 'counterplay'.

After 18. ... Ng6 19. g3 Bxe5 20. Nxg5, White remains ahead in material.

In your given variation, you mean 20. Nxe5, not Nxe4.

I don't understand your remark about ... g4, "counterplay", and the rook on h8 - activating a piece can often constitute counterplay. Perhaps you just mean to criticize the quality of the move itself, or the choice of the word "counterplay"?


Cheers,
Your friendly neighborhood pro, a.k.a. Anon 12:19


P.S.: You should all read the New In Chess Q&A with Stuart Conquest... sigh.

Anonymous said...

Fine maybe the exchange sac isnt that bad and black might not be clearly dominating. But i think at least one improvement is rhd8 g4 (if white doesnt ever play g4 then he is definitely worse)and then rxd2...the exchange sac is better if the bishop cant be kicked from f4 by g3...in this variation i think black has some sort of edge-Anon 10:42

Anonymous said...

"If white doesnt ever play g4 then he is definitely worse".

Do you mean that White must play g4 immediately? I assume you're suggesting Rhd8 on move 15? Can White play 16. Be3 in response? Then he could play g4 later. Also this would give him potential for Bxa7, Bc5, Rxd3, Rd2, and maybe even Ne1.

an ordinary chessplayer said...

16 Kxd2! is better. 16...Bxf4+ 17 Kc2 followed by Ne2 and Ned4. No time for ...g6-g5 after Kxd2.

Anonymous said...

i don't get it.

doesn't 18.g3 just win a piece?

Greg Shahade said...

diagram is at wrong time, king is on e2 still....white played 18.kf2

Anonymous said...

oh ok thnx greg, i thought i was like the worst chess player ever for not being able to figure out what was going on

Unknown said...

I always tried things like this and lost nearly every one.It's hard to play with your compensation down the exchange. Not sure you should support this behavior!(90% joke)
Daniel Pomerleano