Kinda disagree with the logic for this particular case. In general it's good advice to simplify! For this problem, my human way would be like this:
1) I want to take the rook, but there's some annoying ...Qf3+ threat... can I distract first somehow?
2) Qd6+ !
2a) If King to a-file, take rook with check
2b) Kc8 then Rc1+ and game over...
2c) if Qc7 then distraction success! Queen misplaced and I can Qxa3 now *at the least* . Here just turn brain off and think to myself "it's enough", even if there are other checks after
So it's still shortcutting while going for a relatively big prize. Not the fancy engine M7 but still something big (another rook)
I played the position against Stockfish starting with Qf8+ and after some moves I took his queen without sacrifice mine and then exchange his rook for mine. I agree in general but the example chosen misses the point in my opinion. It would have been better to choose a game where the attack is only apparently simple but could introduce complications if not played with 100% accuracy (which should be hard) while the exchange is the slow, easy win.
Thanks for the nice post. Just one minor remark - Garry Kasparov lost his match against Deep Blue in 1997, not 1995.
nice
jihjnj
Just wanted to say kudos to the author for enabling discussion of his blog posts in these forums. I've seen a number of his posts now, and sometimes they get a lot of criticism (often phrased in an overly harsh and confrontational manner IMHO) here.
Anyway, I appreciate that he has the guts to keep enabling discussion, unlike many other authors who just don't flip that switch. Occasionally people may say stuff that the author doesn't want to hear, but I think it does increase the community.
Actually,I think most of the time we don't have to play best but better than you opponents
I meet a lot of players who make a different mistake: they attack, win some material and then immediately start making some absurd queen moves trying to exchange it. One thing is accepting exchanges when you are material up, and another thing is misplacing your pieces expecting that your opponent will kindly accept your exchanges.
I actually wouldn't play any of the suggested moves. I prefer Rb1, which leaves our rook on a better square after the exchanges (and if black plays Ra7, we then exchange all the pieces and convert the K+R endgame with no problem.)
I totally agree with the post, except for the puzzle. Depending on the level of your tatics, it's easy to see that Qd6+ is winning. But I got his point.
