Morash vs Savoie: The Queen Sacrifice Behind "Ouch!"
Three choices from a sharp Caro-Kann lesson: complete development, answer a central fork, and find a queen sacrifice that forces mate.
Reproducible analysis run complete
6 saved models on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 · Stockfish 18 · 250,000 nodes per checked line.
Why this game?
A public thank-you to David Hayes and Logical Chess
David Hayes welcomed this original Position Review after Spider Chess explained how the Logical Chess lesson would be credited and linked. This page thanks David by naming John Morash and Bill Savoie, pointing readers to the complete "Ouch!" lesson, and turning its final queen sacrifice into an interactive study.
- White
- John Morash
- Black
- Bill Savoie
- Event
- Huntsville Quads G30
- Result
- 1-0
Interactive comparison
Choice one: finish development before expanding
White to move after 10...O-O-O. All six models exchange on g6, while Stockfish prefers 11.Bg3 and the game continues with 11.a4.
2kr1b1r/pp1npp1p/2p2pb1/q7/3P1B1P/2PB1N2/PP3PP1/R2QK2R w KQ - 1 11Model candidates
Choose a viewpoint
V6 Active: Bxg6
Measured GPU choice. The exchange is within the 100 cp safety threshold, but it is less accurate than keeping the bishop with 11.Bg3.
Model top three: Bxg6 · Bc4 · Bf1
Stockfish 18 safety gate
CompleteStockfish gives White about +0.52 after 11.Bg3. The unanimous model move 11.Bxg6 is 94 cp behind and still accepted, while the played 11.a4 is 118 cp behind.
- Engine move
- Bg3
- Depth
- 14
- Node budget
- 250,523
- Evaluation
- +0.52
Verification line
11.Bg3 Rg8 12.O-O Bxd3 13.Qxd3 Qh5 14.a4 e6 15.b4 Qg6
Position lesson
White has not castled and Black is ready to open the centre. The calm retreat 11.Bg3 keeps both bishops and prepares king safety. The played pawn move gives Black time for the strong central break 11...e5.
Interactive comparison
Choice two: remove the bishop before the fork
White to move after 11...e5. Every model and Stockfish choose 12.Bxg6. The played 12.Bg3 allows 12...e4 to fork the bishop and knight.
2kr1b1r/pp1n1p1p/2p2pb1/q3p3/P2P1B1P/2PB1N2/1P3PP1/R2QK2R w KQ - 0 12Model candidates
Choose a viewpoint
V6 Active: Bxg6
Measured GPU choice. The move matches the engine and avoids the coming pawn fork.
Model top three: Bxg6 · Nxe5 · dxe5
Stockfish 18 safety gate
CompleteStockfish gives Black about 0.75 after 12.Bxg6. The models agree with the engine. The played 12.Bg3 is 162 cp behind and lets 12...e4 win a piece after the fork.
- Engine move
- Bxg6
- Depth
- 16
- Node budget
- 250,571
- Evaluation
- -0.75
Verification line
12.Bxg6 hxg6 13.Be3 exd4 14.Bxd4 Qf5 15.Qe2 Bh6 16.O-O g5 17.Rfe1 c5 18.Qc4
Position lesson
The centre is opening while White still has an uncastled king. Exchanging on g6 removes one attacked bishop before Black gains a tempo with ...e4. Retreating the other bishop leaves two pieces exposed to one pawn push.
Interactive comparison
Choice three: sacrifice the queen for mate
White to move after 16...Qf5. All six models capture the bishop with 17.Qxf5. The game move 17.Qxc6+ forces 17...bxc6 18.Ba6#.
2kr1b1r/pp1n1p1p/2p1bp2/5q1P/P2P4/2P2QB1/1P2BPP1/R3K2R w KQ - 3 17Model candidates
Choose a viewpoint
V6 Active: Qxf5
Measured GPU choice. Winning the bishop misses the forced mate and leaves White clearly worse.
Model top three: Qxf5 · Qxc6+ · Bc4
Stockfish 18 safety gate
CompleteStockfish verifies mate in two with 17.Qxc6+. The unanimous 17.Qxf5 choice is rejected at 100,285 cp behind under the documented mate comparison value.
- Engine move
- Qxc6+
- Depth
- 245
- Node budget
- 31,240
- Mate
- M2
Verification line
17.Qxc6+ bxc6 18.Ba6#
Position lesson
Material no longer matters when the king has no safe squares. The queen check on c6 forces the b-pawn away from b7. That opens the a6-c8 diagonal, where the bishop delivers mate on a6.
Published finish
The forcing line
The published score ends with 17.Qxc6+ and Black resigning. The lesson explains the forced continuation 17...bxc6 18.Ba6#, and Stockfish verifies mate in two.
Review method
Source, models, then verification
Start with the Logical Chess lesson
Every position comes from the complete Morash versus Savoie score published by David Hayes.
Measure six saved evaluators
Each saved checkpoint ranks every legal move on the NVIDIA GPU with the same 30% hybrid positional weight.
Apply the Stockfish safety gate
Stockfish checks the engine best move, every distinct model choice, and the move played in the game at a fixed node budget.
What this review can and cannot show
Clear boundaries keep a useful experiment from becoming a bigger claim than the evidence supports.
- This review uses original teaching prose. It does not reproduce the source lesson's annotations.
- The public score ends after 17.Qxc6+. The forced continuation 17...bxc6 18.Ba6# is stated in the source lesson and independently verified in the analysis artifact.
- The six neural checkpoints are scalar evaluators, not move-policy, search, or explanation models.
- Their inputs encode piece placement only; move history, repetition, clocks, castling rights, and en-passant state are not model inputs.
- Profile labels describe intended training behavior, not proven human-like personalities or internal reasoning.
- Stockfish used 250,000 nodes per checked line, two threads, and 256 MB hash. Forced mates can finish before the full node budget.
- Two-thread search can produce small score, depth, node-count, and principal-variation differences on another run.
- The prose describes visible board features and measured move consequences. It does not claim to reveal a model's internal reasoning.
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