3

Here is the position:

[FEN ""]    
1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qe6 4. Be2 Nf6 5. Nf3 Ne4 6. Nd4 Qd5 7. nxd5

I have two knights here. One knight is being attacked by the knight at e4. My other knight is at c3. I moved my knight to d4 to attack his queen. The reason I did that is because he has to move either his queen or knight. If he move his knight, I take his queen; if he moves his queen, I take his knight. Surprisingly enough, he moved his queen to d5. So, I took his queen. Also, Stockfish wants me to castle. This unorthodox move puts my knight into a very dangerous spot. If he were to take my knight at c3, I would have to take his knight either with the pawn at b2 or the pawn at d2. His queen could also become a threat to my king if he pair his queen with a bishop.

I do not see why castling can be beneficial in this position. So, what is the advantages of castling here? And, why is 6. Nd4 an inaccuracy?

The game is also here: https://lichess.org/FF4CHOWP/white#12

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1
  • His queen is on a bad square getting in the way of both his bishops and the e pawn. So why do you want to move your perfectly well placed knight to force it to a better square? Castle, and if your opponent takes on c3 take back with a pawn opening a line to get your remaining bishop out. You are miles ahead in development on an open board - it should be enough to win.
    – Ian Bush
    Dec 23, 2021 at 13:51

1 Answer 1

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3

The reason is because in the situation if Qb6 is played then you could lose the knight. But if you move the knight you will lose the game because Qf2# is checkmate. white moves Nb5 then black will play a6 receiving a knight or the game.

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  • 4
    6...Qb6 7. Nxe4 preserves material balance, though.
    – Allure
    Dec 23, 2021 at 8:52
  • @Allure I agree but in this time white only has the knight and bishop as developed pieces. But black has a queen and c8 bishop. Counting the points black has 12 points developed but white has just 6 points developed. Also having a queen in the center is very useful because of forks. The queen can easily win free pieces if white is not careful.
    – Varun W.
    Dec 23, 2021 at 17:42
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    It seems more complicated than that however. 6...Qb6 7. Nxe4 Qxd4 (forced) 8. d3 leaves White with three developed pieces to Black's one, and White has moves like Be3 to develop with tempo further. That's superficially not much worse than 6. O-O. One does not usually count points for development either (it's why developing the queen early is not ideal; opponents can gain time attacking the queen). I think the OP is a pretty deep question, certainly not a simple missed tactic or forced material win.
    – Allure
    Dec 24, 2021 at 3:28
  • 1
    I agree with Allure. The accepted answer is extremely shallow.
    – Philip Roe
    Dec 30, 2021 at 20:58

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