The position above was reached at the Dorset Centenary Chess Congress between Keith Gregory (2023) and Jacob Boswell (2331).
Jacob had just played 13…Rfd8!? We presume he had foreseen the consequences of this move in which case it was a very interesting and brave choice as he had plenty of safe options.
Keith naturally enough realised he could win material with 14.Ne5 since if the queen moves the knight on c6 is hanging. Instead Jacob replied 14…Nd4 saccing his queen.
After the obvious (and best) sequence of moves 15.Bxd5 Nxe2+ 16.Kg2 Rxd5 the following position was reached.
Now White has a difficult choice.
One option is
17.f3 Nxc3 18.bxc3 Bxe5
Black has the bishop pair and a pawn for the queen and has good piece activity. How would you evaluate this position?
The other option is
17.Nc4 Bxc3 18.bxc3 Nxc3 19.Qb3 Nxb1 20.Qxb1 Rxd3+
Black has a rook and three pawns for the queen and a potentially dangerous passed c-pawn. How would you evaluate this position?
Which option would you pick?
You can see what the engines think, a human view, and the rest of the game here.
