Lets play a game of Chess

[tifozi]

Stumbled upon this on reddit/r/chess. Got hooked by the question if black should go ...Bb7 or ...Be6, found this amazing thread and eventually registered.

What about people who dont know much about bitcoin (wouldnt mind learning, though) but like to play chess? In case those guys are welcome id like to throw in a move from time to time. There may be a chance to save this game.

For my taste people went ...Bb7 way too easily one move earlier. In worse endgames we want to defend actively whenever possible instead of just passively protect our weaknesses. ...Be6 looks like the move we at least should have wanted to play, but no one here tried to make it work by coming up with some lines?! However, ...Bb7 while ugly may in fact be the better move.

Now this is about holding a draw. We need to improve our king's position, i'd like to bring it to the center and suggest ...Kf8.

Welcome to the club. Be6 would have lost the game as suggested in Post 1428

Kf8 : 3 votes (tschukki, Morecoin Freeman,tifozi)
Be4 : 1 vote (carlison)

[marcus1986]

My next move also Kf8

Kf8 : 4 votes (tschukki, Morecoin Freeman, tifozi, marcus1986)
Be4 : 1 vote (carlison)

[boolberry]

My next move also Kf8

Kf8 : 4 votes (tschukki, Morecoin Freeman, tifozi, marcus1986)
Be4 : 1 vote (carlison)

Kf8 : 5 votes (tschukki, Morecoin Freeman, tifozi, marcus1986, boolberry)
Be4 : 1 vote (carlison)

[boolberry]

Stumbled upon this on reddit/r/chess. Got hooked by the question if black should go ...Bb7 or ...Be6, found this amazing thread and eventually registered.

What about people who dont know much about bitcoin (wouldnt mind learning, though) but like to play chess? In case those guys are welcome id like to throw in a move from time to time. There may be a chance to save this game.

For my taste people went ...Bb7 way too easily one move earlier. In worse endgames we want to defend actively whenever possible instead of just passively protect our weaknesses. ...Be6 looks like the move we at least should have wanted to play, but no one here tried to make it work by coming up with some lines?! However, ...Bb7 while ugly may in fact be the better move.

Now this is about holding a draw. We need to improve our king's position, i'd like to bring it to the center and suggest ...Kf8.

Welcome to bitcointalk and our first chess thread! letsplayagame has stated one of his objectives is to introduce more chess players to bitcoin but you won't find any hard sales pitches in this thread.  Most of us although knowledgeable about bitcoin are here (in this thread) to play chess.

Ask questions about bitcoin and make your own decisions. Trust nobody but yourself. Unfortunately there are a lot of scammers who target newcomers in attempt to steal from them. I recommend you do not consider buying any bitcoin until you have spent some time studying blockchain technology and understand the basics regarding private key security.

I think most people will appreciate having more chess players here. Please contribute as time permits and help educate the bitcoin users who are new to chess. There are some good players here and some complete beginners who struggle with algebraic notation.

[tifozi]

We are definitely fortunate to have @letsplayagame bringing crypto awareness to the elite Chess world for sure. It could be very well in a nascent stage for now. For me this is just surreal to be able to play a-game-of-chess against an elite GM. My father runs a large Chess facebook group (Vishy Anand fan and will remain anonymous) and I have been playing chess since I was 6 and have also met Gary Kasparov in person when he came to our school (radical political views !!). But this experience is magical in itself.

[tschukki]

Welcome to the club. Be6 would have lost the game as suggested in Post 1428

Kf8 : 3 votes (tschukki, Morecoin Freeman,tifozi)
Be4 : 1 vote (carlison)

Thank you. ...Be6 seems to be losing, but your post is far from proving that it does. The position had me calculating for minutes and finally made me come to this forum via OPs Twitter account. Things are not that easy. Instead of your 45...Bc2 running into 47.Bd3+- at least two alternatives should be checked to make sure. 45...Be6 was my main move (to stop the a pawn via ...Bd5 once we have the white knight forced to a4), 45...Ne4+ looks interesting as well, there is some counterplay for us in this line. Both moves may lose in the end (im not entirely sure), but they pose more problems to black than just allowing 47.Bd3 and game over.

[languagehasmeaning]

Welcome to the club. Be6 would have lost the game as suggested in Post 1428

Kf8 : 3 votes (tschukki, Morecoin Freeman,tifozi)
Be4 : 1 vote (carlison)

Thank you. ...Be6 seems to be losing, but your post is far from proving that it does. The position had me calculating for minutes and finally made me come to this forum via OPs Twitter account. Things are not that easy. Instead of your 45...Bc2 running into 47.Bd3+- at least two alternatives should be checked to make sure. 45...Be6 was my main move (to stop the a pawn via ...Bd5 once we have the white knight forced to a4), 45...Ne4+ looks interesting as well, there is some counterplay for us in this line. Both moves may lose in the end (im not entirely sure), but they pose more problems to black than just allowing 47.Bd3 and game over.

You both are likely correct. Be6 probably would have lost but there are more lines that looked interesting. I calculated some but not all of them to a conclusive result.

For example I also thought 43.Nb6 Be6 44.a5 Bxb3 45.Bxa6 Ne4+ looked promising because after 46.Kg2 Bd1 seems sufficient to hold the draw (I could list a few variations but they became irrelevant when I found 46.Ke3 instead). White wins easily instead with 46.Ke3 Nxg3 47.Bc8 Bd1 48.a6 b3 49.Na4 (with the deadly threat of Bb7, a7, a8) Be2 (inducing a7 to prevent Bb7 next move) 50.a7 Bf3 51.Bxg4 and black will lose a piece in order to prevent white from queening.

I also looked at 45.Bxa6 Bd1 and believe that to be winning for white after the straightforward 46.Bb7 b3
47.Na4 Ne8 48.a6 Nc7 49.a7 Bf3 50.Bxf3 gxf3 51.Kxf3

I did not spend much time with 45.Bxa6 Be6

[languagehasmeaning]

My next move also Kf8

Kf8 : 4 votes (tschukki, Morecoin Freeman, tifozi, marcus1986)
Be4 : 1 vote (carlison)

Kf8 : 5 votes (tschukki, Morecoin Freeman, tifozi, marcus1986, boolberry)
Be4 : 1 vote (carlison)

Kf8 : 6 votes (tschukki, Morecoin Freeman, tifozi, marcus1986, boolberry, languagehasmeaning)
Be4 : 1 vote (carlison)

[deepocean]

Be4

[newb4now]

Be4

Can you please explain why you like Be4? It seems to me it just loses the pawn on a6 for no reason.

Kf8 : 7 votes (tschukki, Morecoin Freeman, tifozi, marcus1986, boolberry, languagehasmeaning, newb4now)
Be4 : 2 votes (carlison, deepocean)

[jjacob]

I will go for Kf8 as well

Kf8 : 8 votes (tschukki, Morecoin Freeman, tifozi, marcus1986, boolberry, languagehasmeaning, newb4now, jjacob)
Be4 : 2 votes (carlison, deepocean)

[XMRpromotions]

Kf8 : 9 votes (tschukki, Morecoin Freeman, tifozi, marcus1986, boolberry, languagehasmeaning, newb4now, jjacob, XMRpromotions)
Be4 : 2 votes (carlison, deepocean)

[letsplayagame]

Your move bitcointalk. You have the black pieces

The current position is updated below

Game 2 (letsplayagame vs bitcointalk):
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 O-O 8.c3 d5 9.exd5 Nxd5 10.Nxe5 Nxe5 11.Rxe5 c6 12.d4 Bd6 13.Re1 Qh4 14.g3 Qh3 15.Re4 g5 16.Qf1 Qh5 17.f3 Bf5 18.a4 b4 19.c4 Nf6 20.Re1 Rfe8 21.Be3 c5 22.Nd2 Rxe3 23.Rxe3 cxd4 24.Ree1 d3 25.c5 Bxc5+ 26.Kh1 Rd8 27.Re5 Bh3 28.Qe1 Bd6 29.Rc1 Bxe5 30.Qxe5 Qg6 31.Rc6 Rc8 32.Rxc8+ Bxc8 33.Bc4 Bd7 34.Qd4 g4 35.Bxd3 Qg5 36.f4 Qd5+ 37.Qxd5 Nxd5 38.b3 Bc8 39.Kg1 h5 40.Kf2 h4 41.Nc4 hxg3+ 42.hxg3 Nf6 43.Nb6 Bb7 44.a5 Kf8 45.Na4

[tschukki]

For example I also thought 43.Nb6 Be6 44.a5 Bxb3 45.Bxa6 Ne4+ looked promising because after 46.Kg2 Bd1 seems sufficient to hold the draw (I could list a few variations but they became irrelevant when I found 46.Ke3 instead). White wins easily instead with 46.Ke3 Nxg3 47.Bc8 Bd1 48.a6 b3 49.Na4 (with the deadly threat of Bb7, a7, a8) Be2 (inducing a7 to prevent Bb7 next move) 50.a7 Bf3 51.Bxg4 and black will lose a piece in order to prevent white from queening.

I also looked at 45.Bxa6 Bd1 and believe that to be winning for white after the straightforward 46.Bb7 b3
47.Na4 Ne8 48.a6 Nc7 49.a7 Bf3 50.Bxf3 gxf3 51.Kxf3

I did not spend much time with 45.Bxa6 Be6

Yeah, white Bb7 is the killer in some lines like in your 45...Bd1. That is why i stopped checking 45...Ne4 46.Ke3 Nxg3: I thought the a pawn just marches through after 47.Bb7 Nf5+ 48.Kd3 Nd6 49.a6, but had overlooked our knight can still hold it. Now that I have looked at it again i like 47.Bc8 and your line much better than mine. I'm impressed, actually

-------------

However, looks to me like our opponent now dreams of playing Nc5 and collecting our a pawn. In fact, that is what he'll do in case we just continue to centralize our king. So i suggest to first interfere with Na4-c5 before we continue to improve our king.

[LucyLovesCrypto]

For example I also thought 43.Nb6 Be6 44.a5 Bxb3 45.Bxa6 Ne4+ looked promising because after 46.Kg2 Bd1 seems sufficient to hold the draw (I could list a few variations but they became irrelevant when I found 46.Ke3 instead). White wins easily instead with 46.Ke3 Nxg3 47.Bc8 Bd1 48.a6 b3 49.Na4 (with the deadly threat of Bb7, a7, a8) Be2 (inducing a7 to prevent Bb7 next move) 50.a7 Bf3 51.Bxg4 and black will lose a piece in order to prevent white from queening.

I also looked at 45.Bxa6 Bd1 and believe that to be winning for white after the straightforward 46.Bb7 b3
47.Na4 Ne8 48.a6 Nc7 49.a7 Bf3 50.Bxf3 gxf3 51.Kxf3

I did not spend much time with 45.Bxa6 Be6

Yeah, white Bb7 is the killer in some lines like in your 45...Bd1. That is why i stopped checking 45...Ne4 46.Ke3 Nxg3: I thought the a pawn just marches through after 47.Bb7 Nf5+ 48.Kd3 Nd6 49.a6, but had overlooked our knight can still hold it. Now that I have looked at it again i like 47.Bc8 and your line much better than mine. I'm impressed, actually

-------------

However, looks to me like our opponent now dreams of playing Nc5 and collecting our a pawn. In fact, that is what he'll do in case we just continue to centralize our king. So i suggest to first interfere with Na4-c5 before we continue to improve our king.

I agree with you that allowing Nc5 now (with a move like Ke7) appears fatal. I am looking at 2 lines:
45...Nd7 46.Bf5 Nb8 47.Bxg4 (47.Nc5 Bf3) Nc6
45...Nd7 46.Ke3 Ke7 47.Kd4 Kd6 48.Kc4 Nf6 with the idea of winning g3 now that the white king is far away

The Nf6 idea (to attack g3) came from remembering this quote:

h5 with the plan of 40.Kf2 h4 followed by hxg3+ taking advantage of the fact that f4 is only defended by the pawn on g3. Centralizing our king is important but exchanging a potentially weak pawn now should help us. With this plan the g3 pawn should be easier to attack in the future than h2 is now since our knight can potentially attack g3 from more squares.

I am assuming this quote implied a Nd7 vote since I do not see any other way to prevent Nc5.

So i suggest to first interfere with Na4-c5 before we continue to improve our king.

Nd7: 2 votes (tschukki, LucyLovesCrypto)

[boolberry]

Nd7: 2 votes (tschukki, LucyLovesCrypto)

Nd7: 3 votes (tschukki, LucyLovesCrypto, boolberry)

[marcus1986]

Nd7: 4 votes (tschukki, LucyLovesCrypto, boolberry, marcus1986)

[tschukki]

I agree with you that allowing Nc5 now (with a move like Ke7) appears fatal. I am looking at 2 lines:
45...Nd7 46.Bf5 Nb8 47.Bxg4 (47.Nc5 Bf3) Nc6
45...Nd7 46.Ke3 Ke7 47.Kd4 Kd6 48.Kc4 Nf6 with the idea of winning g3 now that the white king is far away

----------------------

I am assuming this quote implied a Nd7 vote since I do not see any other way to prevent Nc5.

So i suggest to first interfere with Na4-c5 before we continue to improve our king.

Nd7: 2 votes (tschukki, LucyLovesCrypto)

My post didnt imply a vote yet. I had only briefly looked at the position, saw a threat, pointed it out to the beginners here and suggested that we somehow deal with it. This is against a 2700+ GM, right? I wouldnt dare to just take a look and then suggest a move against such opposition. I do vote for 45...Nd7 now, though, since i dont see anything else.

Shortening his pawn chain to make the more attackable g3 its base was well played on our side. Counterplay against g3 may at some point save us, at least it gives us additional options.

In your first line after 47.Nc5 Bf3 the game continues. After 48.Bc8 Nc6 (intending to exchange a6 vs a5) 49.Bb7 may be nasty. Im not sure, this would require another big think.
(Edit: sorry, i think i saw a ghost there. 49.Bb7 Nxa5 and we should be fine.)

The second line i like, 48...Nf6 looks good. Should we manage to exchange b4 vs g3, we are out of the woods, maybe even better. Therefore i am pretty sure that there must be something better for him than 48.Kc4. But we can think about that later since at this time it looks like we dont have a choice anyhow.

[XMRpromotions]

The second line i like, 48...Nf6 looks good. Should we manage to exchange b4 vs g3, we are out of the woods, maybe even better. Therefore i am pretty sure that there must be something better for him than 48.Kc4. But we can think about that later since at this time it looks like we dont have a choice anyhow.

I see two plans besides 48.Kc4

48.Nb2 with the plan of Nc4+ and then Ne3 or Ne5 depending on how we respond. I am not sure if 48.Nb2 Bd5 49.Bxa6 Bxb3 will be enough for us to hold a draw or not. We can decide that down the road like you said since every other move besides Nd7 now seems to lose our a6 pawn almost immediately with no compensation.

48.Be2 Nb8 49.Bxg4 Bd5 looks good for us because I think we will win both the a5 and b3 pawns after Nc6+

I am starting to understand the below comment. Our bishop is not an active piece right now. Maybe we can still use this concept to guide us. If there is a way we can trade all queenside pawns (even at the cost of our g4 pawn like in the 48.Be2 line above) we might be able to defend our remaining 2 vs 1 pawn disadvantage. Defending passively forever is not going to work. At some point we will need to attack g3 or attempt to trade some queenside pawns by attacking a5 or b3.

38.a5 appears strong but after 38.a5 Nc7 39.Ne4 Bb5 40.Bxb5 Nxb5 41.Nf6+ Kf8 42.Nxg4 converting the extra pawn into a win will be difficult.  Blacks defensive task has been simplified by bishop exchange. If all queenside pawns are traded then many resulting endgames with 3 pawns and knight vs 2 pawns and knight on the kingside will be drawn.

I prefer another plan which will keep material on the board while I centralize my king. Piece activity is very important. If possible I would rather win a pawn on the queenside than the pawn on g4. I am not certain that 38.b3 is a better move than 38.a5 but it may give me better practical winning chances.

Nd7: 5 votes (tschukki, LucyLovesCrypto, boolberry, marcus1986, XMRpromotions)

[8XMR]

Nd7: 6 votes (tschukki, LucyLovesCrypto, boolberry, marcus1986, XMRpromotions, 8XMR)

Yi Wei playing Magnus Carlson (for first time) right now. Go China!

http://www.tatasteelchess.com/live

I choose Nd7 in both game right now:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1190988.0