From the other question: Is there a "perfect" game? , an interesting game came up:
[fen ""]
[title "Hamppe-Meitner, Vienna"]
1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Bc5 3.Na4 Bxf2+ 4.Kxf2 Qh4+ 5.Ke3 Qf4+ 6.Kd3 d5 7.Kc3 Qxe4
8.Kb3 Na6 9.a3 Qxa4+ 10.Kxa4 Nc5+ 11.Kb4 a5+ 12.Kxc5 Ne7 13.Bb5+ Kd8 14.
Bc6 b6+ 15.Kb5 Nxc6 16.Kxc6 Bb7+ 17.Kb5 Ba6+ 18.Kc6 Bb7+ 1/2-1/2
My question is, why is 8...Na6
considered the best move? References to GM analysis would be great.
Stockfish says 8...Nc6
is better--in fact, 8...Na6
is not even on the top 10 recommended moves. And I can see even in the short term that the knight on c6 instead of a6 might be nice: consider ...Na5+
.
9. ... Qxa4+
(at least with a good reason) or who would play out the rest of the game as it went (on either side).