The first official GoA Tournament has begun! There are 3 groups this time, 6 players in Group A, 6 in Group B, and 8 in Group C. The bottom 2 players in each group will be relegated and the top 2 players in each group will be promoted. Depending on demand the number of groups may expand or contract in the future.
So Iām minding my own business, playing the Benko Gambit against Mayan, and then Mayan is all like āyou call that a gambit? THIS is a gambit!ā and we are 5 moves in to some weird counter gambit I have no idea whatās going on.
Benko Gambit is a neat opening, one of my favorites. Played as black and it occurs during a d4 opening from white and the circumstances for the gambit to be played happen a decent amount. I find some opponents as white arenāt fully prepared for it, and as black you are mostly striving for a structure for your pieces rather than memorizing a million lines/variations so itās not so hard to play.
Here Tospeke just sacked his knight for my pawn on f2, Iām going to take with my queen, then heās going to push e3. What are my next two moves that keep me from losing on the spot?
We eventually went into an endgame with me a pawn down. What is the only move in this position that would allow white to maintain the draw? (I did not find it)
Looking at the end game position, a rook trade ends up losing, so any king move or if the rook stays on the g-file loses because then itāll be easy for black to trade rooks. So the rook must move and stay on the 3rd rank, but Rh3 loses and Re3 loses. So there are 3 candidate movesā¦ Rc3, Rd3, and Rf3. Iām going to guess Rf3 keeps the draw because it allows you to still move up the the 6th-8th ranks if needed. Thatās my instinct.
And of course Iām wrong. LOL picked the same move as Mayanā¦ Who can figure out why I was wrong? Itās so clear looking at it nowā¦geez
Qxf5 is the correct move, but then black takes the knight. I canāt take the pinned rook because of Re1+ followed by Qxh4. You are here and need one move to keep it -1 instead of -6 or worse
