White: W. Goedhart - ICCF thematic tournament, 1998
So the queen was unable to compete successfully with three minor pieces in the previous game. How about two rooks and three pawns? That's virtually a +4 point count in the latter's favour. This situation arises in a main line of the Jaenisch Gambit and is duly assessed as winning for the +4.
In The Ruy Lopez Revisited (New in Chess 2009), GM Ivan Sokolov writes: “Black is too much material behind, without serious chances to create an attack. While White still has to round off the technical part, it is obvious that Black is better advised not to repeat this opening preparation.”
White's mass of material should indeed be sufficient to win. Nevertheless, there are still some practical difficulties to overcome: (i) the rooks are not yet in play; (ii) the white knight is currently a slight liability; and (iii) there are some light square weaknesses for Black to try and exploit.
These factors were all demonstrated in the game below: (ii) Black's 23rd move threatened ...Qg5, forking the knight and g2-pawn; (iii) White's response (24 g3?) made the light squares even more vulnerable; and (i) the rooks never really got into the game at all.
In fact White went wrong straight away. 24 0-0-0 is to be preferred, after which Sokolov concludes: “White had a winning advantage in Todorov-Boudre, Cannes 1997.”
Well, yes, probably. All the same, I think 7...Qd5 is worth an occasional punt over the board. The critical line (up to 18 Ba3!) is a lot for White to remember, supposing they've even looked at it before. From half a dozen games with 7...Qd5 over the years, only one of my opponents has ever got this far, and I won that game too.
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