Pretty much everything is said so I continue without spoiler tags:
Quote:
Originally Posted by smilingbill
Very messy position. Some thoughts
1.-Qxd4 2.Qxf4 Qxf4 3.Rxf4 Rxf4 4.Nxg4 Rxg4 5.Rd7 Ba5 6.Rxb7 looks pretty miserable for black
1.-Bxe5 2.dxe5 and then what? can't see better than Bxd1 or taking on f1 twice but then Qd1 Qf4 doesn't work
1.-Rxf1+ 2.Rxf1 Rxf1+ 3.Bxf1 Qxd4 4.Nf7+ Kg8 5.Qxc7 Qf2 is the best i found in a few minutes. Feels like a draw though so i failed I guess
Yes, those are basically all the lines. Line 3 with the exchanges on f1 is probably best. Black then will be a pawn up in the (probably drawn) endgame, but he still has the advantage and can torture White a little. [Actually, when I calculated this I missed 5...Qf2 and thus dismissed the whole line.]
In the game Black played Qxd4 and thought he was winning. White immediately played Qxf4 Qxf4 Nxg4. According to my friend who watched the players Black still was convinced to be winning before Nxg4 was played, but in fact Qxd4 is just a blunder. White had seen all that before he played Ne5, quite impressive with 3 minutes for 11 moves.
I just liked the position because of its symmetry. Black thinks he is exploiting the White back rank, but actually his own back rank is even weaker.