The wooden Bishop of Troy

As a beginner I set out on the quest to improve my game. I decided on firstly some theoretical knowledge and secondly gaining practical knowledge from playing a lot of games. That is to say if I learn anything from the games. This is the lesson, did I learn?

I was very pleased with myself in one of my earlier games when I won a Bishop by simply trapping it with a pawn. I learnt something and archive this snippet to memory. In the game GO! this would be a typical move where the imprisonment of your opponents stones (pieces) is a main feature of the game.

In my most recent loss, the same oppurtunity presents it self. I allready hit a brick wall with my chess I had nothing but a streak of bloody losses, crippling my ego and casting doubt over my chess future as master. I thought I would have to forsake chess and forever be to playing GO! on some obscure Japanese site the laughing stock of the samurai warriors as they imprison all my stones. The subtilities of their martial art forever beyond the grasp of a western pretender.

Here I thought I will turn the tide when this time white played Bxa7 and I immediately respond b6, thinking I trapped the Bishop. Well the Bishop turned out to be the wooden horse(bishop ;)) of Troy that let in the enemy army that once again punched me on the nose and took my King's head.

Above is as the game was played.  I was over protective of my Queen and did not see the potential mate.

On analysis of the game , yes  4...Qd1 and even 4...Qxb5 would prevented the immidiate mate.  But from any of those moves it is only down hill  for black from there. If I look at it mainly because the Black King get forced out from his protection as he makes his escape.

It looks to me as if the game will come to en end that is in White's favor relatively quickly no matter what black does. The queen is under threat, so we must do one of three things:

1. Move the queen
2. Respond with a counterthreat
3. Capture the offedning piece

There doesn't appear to be an appreciable counterthreat in this position, so option 2 is immediately dead. Let's consider option 1. We see that the only squares the queen can go to are d6, e7, and e8.

1. ... Qe8 2. Bc6 and Black is in a hopeless bind. He cannot avoid capture of the Knight in a few moves, to which he will be forced to respond with bxc6. His pawn structure is destroyed and teh pressure white can bring on the weak a7 and c6 pawns will crush black.

1. ... Qe7 2. Nxc6 bxc6 3. Qa5 gives white a crushing advantage.

1. ... Qd6 2. Nxf7 leads to further material loss for black.

So, option 1 is out. That leaves the only move you played, 1. ... Nxe5. After 2. dxe5, you must move the queen. Trading on d1 only further clarifies the position as being in White's favor. Obviously there are two options: 2. ... Qe7 and 2. ... Qe8. 2. ... Qe8 simply loses time since 3. Qa4 basically forces either the exchange of queens or Qe7, so we will only consider 2. ... Qe7. Then

3. Qa4 a6 4. Bxa6 bxa6 5. Qxa6+ Kd7 6. Rfd1+ Ke8 7. Qc6+ Rd7 8. Bg5!

and it is clear that there is little hope for black. Now, I wouldn't say that all of these moves are absolutely the best, but I don't think there is a way for black to ward off further material loss and prevent mate simultaneously.

4...Qxd1 does nothing but trade down, Black's still lost.

 Actually 4 Ba6#!!, 4 Bb5?? misses the immediate mate!

4. Bb5 ... c6!      Threatens white's bishop and gives the king an escape square.

Then

5.  Ba6+ ... Kc7

 Black will win back material.