Online Chess Exercises - Position 3

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How Do You Assess The Position? Dead Equal? Better For White? Does Black Have The Upper Hand? Also, Which Move Should You Avoid Like Plague?

Stop Right There!

ANSWER

If you think White is better, then Kudos to you! Thanks to the bad and inactive light squared Bishop on c6 coupled with the dominant and well placed Knights on the center of the board, there is no doubt about White's edge.

With that in mind, the move that you should avoid like plague is 1.Nxc6. And I think the reason should be obvious. This move gives away White's edge - it exchanges a dominant and central Knight on d4 for that "tall pawn" on c6.

Sadly, the White player failed to appreciate his position's pluses and played the said howler. After 1…Kxc6 2.Nc2 Kd7!, Black has leveled the position...and he even managed to win the game!

Instead, White should've gone for 1.Kc3 h5 (1...Bb7 2.Ng4 Nxg4 3.hxg4 Rxe1 (3...Rxg4 4.c6+!)4.Rxe1 Rxg4 5.f6 Rf4 6.Re7+ Kc8 7.Rxf7 +-) 2.Re2 Re7 3.Rge1 Rge8 (3...h4? 4.Ng4! Rxe2 5.Nxf6+ +-) 4.h4 Re5 5.Nf1 - enabling him to play for a win.

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