Lessons From Crete III: Choosing The Right Recapture

THE following instructive position arose in my round-three game at the Amateur Chess Organization's 50+ 'world championships' at Fodele Beach, Crete.

Black has just captured on d5

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REASONS FOR 26.exd5

1. A pawn on d5 gives White more space in the centre.

2. A pawn on d5 takes away the e6 square from Black's pieces, particularly the queen.

3. The e4 square is freed for a white piece, particularly the knight.

REASONS FOR 26.Rxd5

1. The d6 pawn is left backward on a half-open file.

2. A rook on d5 has pressure down the d file and is more dangerous to the black king than it is on d1.

3. The e pawn is left controlling the f5 square, which is denied to Black's pieces, particularly the queen, and might become an outpost for a white piece, particularly the knight.

I played 26.exd5, which is not even in the top two choices of Stockfish17 and Dragon1. They slightly prefer 26.f4 and much prefer 26.Rxd5.

After 26.Rxd5, the threat of f4 is hard to meet, eg 26...Ne7 (the engines' first choice) 27.f4 Qg6 (27...Nxd5 loses material to 28.fxe5 followed by exd5)28.Qxg6 N5xg6, and then 29.Rd2 leaves pressure, which cannot be evaded by 29...d5 as 30.f5 Nf4 (more-or-less forced as White threatens 31.f6+) 31.Nxf4 gxf4 32.Bxf4 wins a sound pawn as 32...dxe4 fails to 33.f6+ Kxf6 34.Bc7+.

Having played through this line, the engines come to prefer meeting 26.Rxd5 with 26...Qe6, but then 27.Rfd1 threatens 28.Bxe5+ Nxe5 29.Ng3 with Nf5(+) to come.

In the game, 26.exd5 was met by 26...Qf5, when the engines reckon Black has equalised.

The continuation 27.f4 Qg4 forced queens off and so alleviated the danger Black's king faced.

LESSON: concrete analysis in the diagrammed position shows which recapture is better, and concrete analysis is almost invariably better than positional feeling, unless a position is so complicated that reliable conclusions cannot be drawn from analysis.