We’re looking at decision making when confronted with a position. Interestingly enough, most chess decisions are not “to win” or “to mate” or even “to draw.” Most decisions are how to stay in the game or how to create some chances so you can get to a winning position. One of the games I played last week had something to do with that. We arrived at this position. White has just played 9.Qa4 so the bishop wouldn’t have to move because of the loss of a rook. Again, there are several good moves here, but I decided on one, because that’s all you get!

Solution:

The game started out like this: 1.d4 f5 2.Bf4 Nf6 3.e3 e6 4.Nf3 d6 5.h3 Be7 6.c3 0–0 7.Nbd2 Nc6 8.Bb5 a6 9.Qa4 and we have the position diagrammed. There’s no winning combination here, but my concern is now creating winning chances by unbalancing the position. I could play Bd7 to make him retreat the bishop, and that would be fine; however, my opponent’s super-solid safe opening approach led me to believe he might not be up to a wild and woolly game. I played 9…axb5 anyhow! That’s my style. I knew I had compensation. However, my only question for you, the reader, is “Did you have 9…axb5 as a candidate move?” If you did, did you see the possibility of a queen trap or the advantage of having the queen off-side? If you didn’t, it means you need to stop “self-editing” and start looking at more candidate moves. As it turned out, my opponent didn’t appreciate the danger his queen was in: 9… axb5 [other candidate moves were 9...Nd5; 9...Bd7] 10.Qxa8 Nd5 11.Bh2 b4 [also good was 11...Qe8 12.Qa3 b4 13.cxb4 Ncxb4 14.Rc1 Bd7 15.0–0 Bb5 16.Nc4 b6] 12.0–0 [ defendable for White was 12.cxb4 Ncxb4 13.0–0 Qe8, but Black’s active position is worth it.] 12...Nb6 White Resigned.

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