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| Green lake |
Spanish Exchange
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.Nc3!?
This trails 5.d4 and especially 5.0-0 in popularity in ChessBase's 2026 Mega database.
5...f6 6.d4 exd4 7.Nxd4!?
7.Qxd4 would likely transpose to 5.d4 lines.
7...c5 8.Nde2 Qxd1+ 9.Nxd1 Bd7 10.Bf4 0-0-0
Stockfish18 and Dragon1 much dislike 10...Bd6!?, claiming 11.Bxd6 cxd6 leaves White with the upper hand.
11.Ne3 Ne7 12.0-0-0
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| Now both sides have castled, how would you assess the position? |
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Black's bishop-pair and White's superior pawn-structure balance each other out, leaving the game completely equal, according to the engines.
12...g5!?
This is narrowly more popular than 12...Re8!? and 12...Ng6 in Mega26.
13.Bg3 h5 14.h4 Bh6?
New and active, but bad. Known moves are 14...g4 and 14...Bg7.
15.hxg5 Bxg5
Or 15...fxg5 16.Rxh5.
16.f4 Bh6 17.Rxh5 b6 18.Rdh1 Bg7 19.Rxh8 Rxh8 20.Rxh8+ Bxh8
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| How large is White's advantage in this minor-piece ending? |
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White is 'only' a pawn up, but Black's 4-3 queenside majority cannot create a passer by itself, while White's 3-1 kingside majority should have little trouble doing exactly that. Black still has the bishop-pair, but the engines reckon White's advantage is the equivalent of being more than a piece up.
21.Kd2
The engines suggest 21.f5!?
21...f5!?
This is also the engines' top choice, but after ...
22.e5
... the position is hardly opening for the bishops.
22...Be6 23.a3 Kd7 24.Bh4 Nd5 25.Bg5 b5 26.Ng3 Nxe3 27.Kxe3 Ke8 28.Nf1 Bg7 29.Kf2 c4 30.c3
The engines prefer 30.g4!?
30...c5?
This is a serious positional error. On c5 the pawn hampers the future scope of Black's dark-square bishop, and becomes a target for the white pieces.
31.Ne3 Kf7 32.g4!? Kg6!?
32...fxg4 33.f5 Bc8 keeps alive Black's faint hope of bringing about an ending of opposite-colour bishops.
However, after ...
33.gxf5+ Bxf5 34.Nxf5 Kxf5
... Black can still hope for a draw by exchanging off as many pawns as possible, and then somehow sacrificing the black bishop to leave White with rook's pawn and wrong-colour bishop.
35.Kf3 Bf8
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| White to play and win |
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36.e6!
Sacrificing White's extra pawn seems the only way to make progress.
36...Kxe6 37.Ke4
Thanks to Black's stifled 4-3 majority, White is effectively still a pawn to the good. The only fly in the ointment, from a White perspective, is that all the white queenside pawns are on the same-colour squares as Black's bishop, and therefore potentially vulnerable.
37...b4 38.f5+ Kf7
Or 38...Kd6 39.Bf4+ etc.
39.Kd5 Bg7!?
This is Stockfish18's top choice, but the position is hopeless for Black. Dragon1 prefers 39...a5.
The game finished:
40.Kxc4 bxa3 41.bxa3 a5 42.a4 Be5 43.Kd3 Bg3 44.Bd8 Be5 45.Bxa5 Kf6 46.Ke4 c4 47.Bd8+ 1-0
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