The Chess Board

[MorningLightMountain]

winning the endgame by losing the exchange

in chess, it's well known that a rook is worth more than a bishop (typically, the rook is considered to be worth 5 pawns, the bishop 3)......however, in this game I had triple connected passed pawns, and decided to "lose the exchange" of rook for bishop in order to get some of my opponent's power off the board as the endgame commenced.....

computer analysis later showed this as not the optimal move, in its "opinion"....the computer looks for the BEST move to maximize score, and doesn't lose the exchange unless the result is tactical...people are sometimes better at strategy, and seeing the "big picture"....often it makes more sense when playing a human to get 'er done by simplifying.....

triple passes pawns can be very powerful, and they more than made up for the exchange of a rook for bishop.... this enabled the pawns to march up the board with less resistance....also, I had these valuable pawns remaining due to outplaying my opponent a bit in the middlegame, and plinking off a few here and there, creating the imbalance....

the outcome was inevitable, so my opponent resigned when it was mate in 1.....

MLM playing White


1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Be7 4.Bc4 Nf6 5.d3 O-O 6.O-O d6 7.h3 Na5 8.Bb3 Nxb3 9.axb3 Bd7 10.Be3 Bc6
11.Re1 h6 12.Qd2 a6 13.Ne2 Bd7 14.Ng3 Nh7 15.Qc3 f5 16.exf5 Bxf5 17.Nxf5 Rxf5 18.Qc4+ d5 19.Qg4 Qf8 20.Bxh6 e4
21.Bxg7 Qxg7 22.Qxf5 exf3 23.Qxd5+ Kh8 24.Qxf3 c6 25.c3 Rg8 26.Ra4 Rf8 27.Rf4 Bd6 28.Rxf8+ Qxf8 29.Qh5 Qf4 30.g3 Qg5
31.Re8+ Kg7 32.Qxg5+ Nxg5 33.h4 Nf7 34.f4 Nh6 35.Kg2 Kf7 36.Rd8 Ke7 37.Rh8 Nf7 38.Rh7 Ke8 39.Kf3 Nd8 40.f5 Be7
41.Rxe7+ Kxe7 42.g4 Kf6 43.Kf4 c5 44.g5+ Kf7 45.h5 Nc6 46.h6 Na5 47.g6+ Kf6 48.h7 Kg7 49.f6+ Kh8 50.Kg5 Nc6
51.Kh6 1-0