Mini 686 - Chess Mafia (Done)

[Lawrencelot]

move: d4

vote: Gorrad

Lynching someone let's scum make a nightkill. Don't vote.

[sirdanilot]

Maybe this is a ridiculous suggestion, but wouldn't d3 do more to free the bishop? Also, it takes one more center square to control. But maybe that's just me looking only at the short term?

I'm not seeing where Nd4 would go afterward, and it doesn't do anything to control the center. d4 is obviously a worthy alternative but it would block the knight and somewhat stop the bishop's movement I think.

A big downside of d3 may be that it blocks the queen, but weren't we planning to move her ahead anyway. In fact, did anyone even consider Qe3 for this turn?

Also, no voting please. If you want to note your suspicion of a certain player for the mafia phase of the game, a mere FoS is enough.

[Pesco47]

*chess tag removed*
1. e4 c5
2. Nc3 Nc6
3. f4 e6
4. Nf3 f5
5. exf5 exf5
6. Qe2 Be7
7. Nd5 Nb4
8. Nxb4 cxb4
9. d4
*/chess tag removed*

*chess tag removed*
1. e4 c5
2. Nc3 Nc6
3. f4 e6
4. Nf3 f5
5. exf5 exf5
6. Qe2 Be7
7. Nd5 Nb4
8. Nxb4 cxb4
9. Nd4
*/chess tag removed*

Here's the 2 candidate moves. I'm actually rather underwhelmed by the original d4. It does stuff, but doesn't force black to play on our terms. Nd4 gives black a even more slack since we still can't move our king too well in the moves following and leaves us open to a check from h4 (once the pin is removed).

*chess tag removed*
1. e4 c5
2. Nc3 Nc6
3. f4 e6
4. Nf3 f5
5. exf5 exf5
6. Qe2 Be7
7. Nd5 Nb4
8. Nxb4 cxb4
9. b3
*/chess tag removed*

I took a look at b3, and the potential there is quite attractive. It opens up our bishop which we've been aching to free up. The bishop will be attacking from it's first move out too. Locking the pawns on the b-file will close the game stage to the center, where we are holding dominance.

Umove, Move b3

[sirdanilot]

Ah yes, b3 is a very good idea too, but what does it do that d3 doesn't? d3 gives us more control of the center and opens up our bishop just as well.
*chess tag removed*
1. e4 c5
2. Nc3 Nc6
3. f4 e6
4. Nf3 f5
5. exf5 exf5
6. Qe2 Be7
7. Nd5 Nb4
8. Nxb4 cxb4
9. d3
*/chess tag removed*...

Ah. I see it now. Bd2 would be no good, it would only threaten a double pawn. So yeah, d3 is no good, sorry for suggesting it. Let's try Qe3.

*chess tag removed*
1. e4 c5
2. Nc3 Nc6
3. f4 e6
4. Nf3 f5
5. exf5 exf5
6. Qe2 Be7
7. Nd5 Nb4
8. Nxb4 cxb4
9. Qe3
*/chess tag removed*

The queen will take total command of the center, but she is a bit vulnerable there. I am thinking b3 is the best move for now, but we should start looking at letting our queen advance Qe3 in the near future. I'm not sure if O-O-O (or however the move that makes the king go to b1 and the rook to c1 is noted) will help us a lot, but it's an option as well.

[Pesco47]

Forget b3 for now. d4 was hammered a while ago.

[Gorrad]

...Gods I'm stupid. We don't even need to move the pawn! I was doing an unneeded setup to

Unmove, Move: Qe5

. I don't know why I wanted the pawn there. It made sense at the time.

[Awesome Pants]

The end of day nine votecount.

Moves

d4 (5) - Pesco47, Lawrencelot, Goatrevolt, SensFan, The Central Scrutinizer
h4 (1) - Gorrad
Nd4 (1) - Indigo Heron

Not voting (9) - sirdanilot, Doomsday,

Players

Gorrad (1) - The Central Scrutinizer

Not voting (8) - SensFan, Goatrevolt, Lawrencelot, sirdanilot, Indigo Heron, Gorrad, Doomsday, Pesco47

*chess tag removed*
1. e4 c5
2. Nc3 Nc6
3. f4 e6
4. Nf3 f5
5. exf5 exf5
6. Qe2 Be7
7. Nd5 Nb4
8. Nxb4 cxb4
9. d4
*/chess tag removed*

[Awesome Pants]

The black knight gallops his way to f6.

*chess tag removed*1. e4 c5
2. Nc3 Nc6
3. f4 e6
4. Nf3 f5
5. exf5 exf5
6. Qe2 Be7
7. Nd5 Nb4
8. Nxb4 cxb4
9. d4 Nf6*/chess tag removed*

[Lawrencelot]

Move: Ng5

. Maybe too risky, but I don't feel like playing Nd2 and blocking the bishop again. For the record, this is to prevent black from playing Ne4 and unpinning.

[Gorrad]

I was thinking the same thing.

Move: Ng5

[Indigo Heron]

I disagree with the both of you. I vote

move: Qc4

because Black is more than likely to play O-O instead of Ne4. It unpins the King and gives it a very secure location which would be hard to penetrate. Qc4 blocks the castling move, and our Queen can run riot on the enemy's queenside.

[SensFan]

QFT with the above.

move: Qc4

[The Central Scrutinizer]

I have problems with both of these plans, but I have even more of a problem with Qc4 than with Ng5. Playing Qc4 is essentially either throwing our queen away or wasting multiple moves.

I will post more extensively on this later. I want to put a lot of thought into this move, so I think I should post in my other games first.

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Okay, I'm a moron. I think Qc4 is a good move. Let me map out some more sequences before I move.

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Ok, I'm a moron again. That move sucks.

[Pesco47]

Qc4 and Ng5 are good moves, but not the one to play right now.

[Gorrad]

We should CERTAINLY not move our queen from the current spot. By moving the queen, we garuntee the unpin you claim to be trying to avoid. Not to mention that a castle would be far from impenetrable at this point and that our queen would be undefended if we allow it to, as you say, "run riot".

[SensFan]

Does anyone else see that

move: g3

looks very strong.

[Gorrad]

I think h3 followed by g4 would be better.

[SensFan]

That's absolutely terrible. g3 liberates the Bishop tremendously, while h3, g4, hampers it.

[Gorrad]

Liberates it to do what? Take a pawn with no follow-up? I prefer threatening the knight.

[Indigo Heron]

We should CERTAINLY not move our queen from the current spot. By moving the queen, we garuntee the unpin you claim to be trying to avoid. Not to mention that a castle would be far from impenetrable at this point and that our queen would be undefended if we allow it to, as you say, "run riot".

Apparently, our playing styles are very different.

[SensFan]

Liberates it to do what? Take a pawn with no follow-up? I prefer threatening the knight.

I assume you strongly undervalue how much of a boost it is to win a pawn...

[Lawrencelot]

I still think Ng5 is best, although admittedly I did not think about castling. But if they castle there's a good follow-up. Here's what Ng5 does, I probably miss some moves black could do:

*chess tag removed*1. e4 c5
2. Nc3 Nc6
3. f4 e6
4. Nf3 f5
5. exf5 exf5
6. Qe2 Be7
7. Nd5 Nb4
8. Nxb4 cxb4
9. d4 Nf6
10. Ng5 Ne4*/chess tag removed*
We hit their knight, and if they hit our knight back we hit the pawn and there's still a pin.

*chess tag removed*1. e4 c5
2. Nc3 Nc6
3. f4 e6
4. Nf3 f5
5. exf5 exf5
6. Qe2 Be7
7. Nd5 Nb4
8. Nxb4 cxb4
9. d4 Nf6
10. Ng5 O-O*/chess tag removed*
We can play Qc4+ here, and our bishop is free to move and we can attack whatever we want, like the f5 pawn or their queen/rook with our horse. Or set up an attack on h7.

Wait, they can just move h6 as well. Hm, anyone got a solution to that?

[Indigo Heron]

The problem with Qc4+ is that Black plays d5, which puts us in a bind. This is why I suggest playing Qc4 now instead of later. We can still take a pawn from Qc4, and Black will be distracted.