lichess.org
Donate

Illusory protection

Had a game I thought was quite instructive in this regard. 20 ... Bb7 threatens white's bishop as the pawn is pinned to the queen. But at the same there is a little bait: by breaking the connection between the queen and rook, blacks own pawn becomes pinned so that white is tempted to capture on b5. White does get a dangerous passed pawn out of it though so he is still in the game.

But then then comes the second punch, Qc6 (Qg6 is a bit more precise). The mate threat glues whites queen to the g2 pawn with tempo and the rook falls. Staying off the first rank would have been a bit more resilient and kept the queen on the board, with the queen on f1 it can not escape capture by the rook.

This topic has been archived and can no longer be replied to.