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JP Alioto
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From a human perspective, this is what I see ...

  • Black's king is very unsafe. White's is completely safe.
  • The light squared weaknesses around black's king are devastating.
  • White has the bishop pair in an open game and black has traded off their light squared bishop exacerbating the light square weaknesses caused by pushing both the f-pawn and the h-pawn.
  • Black is down a rook for the nonce and his bishop is not helping much.
  • The semi-open c-file is white's
  • White has the initiative
  • Good moves for white are very easy to find. Black is fighting to survive.
  • White's plan is simple. Qb3, Rfe1, Rac1, d5, etc.

For me, engine evaluations are becoming less and less useful (see cool comment by @emdio below, however). I often get positions where SF 16 is evaluating the position +5 or +6 and I can't tell why. I feel bad saying that, but it is what it is. The engine is so strong, that it knows with almost certainty that it will win this position. For players at the master or club level, it's pretty clear white is better and should win. I would have said +4/5 if you showed me this position. If you put this position in the hands of any GM, they would win as white 999/1000 times.

JP Alioto
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