WFM Chiara Polterauer (AUT, 2083) vs WIM Sofiia Hryzlova (SUI, 2254) · 0-1
Board 2, Switzerland vs Austria, women’s event · Sicilian Defence, Najdorf Variation, Adams Attack (B90) · 90 minutes for 40 moves, then 30 minutes, plus 30 seconds per move
By Bogner AI Coach AI Coach . This analysis was written by a Bogner Chess AI coach.
Round 10 of the women’s event, Switzerland against Austria: WIM Sofiia Hryzlova sat with Black on board two against WFM Chiara Polterauer. The rating list has Black about one hundred and seventy points ahead, but a team match settles points, not predictions. A full point on board two gives the team the floor from which the games on one, three and four can still be played.
For the second time in this Olympiad the Najdorf with Black, this time the Adams Attack with instead of the English Attack of round four. What follows is a game in three chapters: an opening in which White shifted the order once and Black used it right away, a long think in the centre that handed the small initiative back, and a tactical error by White on move thirty-two that turned the game on a single knight jump.
Twenty minutes for 19...e4
After Sofiia Hryzlova had already grabbed the initiative in the opening race with ahead of a4 and Nd5; the order in the opening had been the deciding detail in round four as well, and here it repeated itself with a different white setup. The rest of the opening ran clean: , , clarified the structure, finished development, and after a small edge sat on the black side. The pawn on d5 was isolated, the bishop on e7 was looking towards h4 and g5, and both rooks stood on the c and e files.
The objectively strongest move here was , with a small structural edge and no risk. Sofiia Hryzlova thought for twenty minutes and fifty seconds and chose . The move opens the long diagonal to a1 for the bishop and wants to disturb the queen. It also releases the tension in the centre before it has produced anything: after the queen comes to the middle with tempo, the d6 pawn hangs, and the position stands at zero.
It is not a catastrophe, it is an inaccuracy worth about a third of a pawn. Practically, though, it is the most expensive move of the game so far: the clock lost twenty minutes, and the small edge the opening had produced was gone. Central tension is released when a concrete reward is standing ready; otherwise the quiet piece move that carries the edge forward is the stronger move. Twenty minutes for a simplification is a calculation that rarely balances.
WFM Chiara Polterauer (AUT, 2083)
WIM Sofiia Hryzlova (SUI, 2254)
The pawn on b2: 22...Bxb2 and the only move 24...Bc3
After the question was where the bishop on f6 was going to work. hit the queen and won a tempo for the next step: , and Black had collected a clean pawn. It is a good move in the sense that a good move means: the right order to make it work. First the queen tempo with h5, then the capture on b2, with the bishop now defended by the b4 pawn.
After , attacking the bishop, came with tempo on the queen on h5, and White had to play . And now is the only move that keeps both the pawn and the coordination: falls a good pawn and a half behind Bc3, and gives up the exchange after the recapture with nothing to show for it. The bishop on c3 is defended by the b4 pawn and cannot be driven off. That is class in a forced sequence, not luck.
Practically it was a recovery. Objectively Black was not clearly better after the sequence than before , but the pawn on b2 was a real trophy, and the white pieces had to want it back. A forced sequence shows itself at the last capture, not at the first: stop at and you see a pawn grab; count on to and you see the idea that keeps it.
WFM Chiara Polterauer (AUT, 2083)
WIM Sofiia Hryzlova (SUI, 2254)
The move that turned the game: 32.f4
Between move twenty-five and move thirty-one the position had wobbled several times: , and were each small inaccuracies by Black, but White answered with and inaccurately as well, and after the position stood at a shade of an edge for Black again. On the clock Chiara Polterauer had eight minutes and thirty seconds left, Sofiia Hryzlova ten minutes and thirty-four. The objectively best move for White was , which keeps the position in balance without threatening anything.
White thought for one minute and forty-nine seconds and chose . Objectively it is a tactical error, because after the bishop on g5 and the rook on d2 stand attacked at the same time, and no white move saves both. The practical reason for is understandable: the pawn attacks the bishop on e5 and wants central squares back. It just takes the only guard of e4 away from the knight on f6, and it opens the a7 g1 diagonal against the king in the same breath.
Sofiia Hryzlova needed one minute and twenty-one seconds for the reply and played . After the position was laid bare, and even gives up the exchange. What came was , the bishop stayed on g5, and after it was gone. From here Black was a whole piece up and the game was decided. Before every pawn move that opens a diagonal towards your own king, the question is: what stands at the end of that diagonal, and who is left in between as a guard?
WFM Chiara Polterauer (AUT, 2083)
WIM Sofiia Hryzlova (SUI, 2254)
Cleanly collected: 39...Rxc2 to 42...Nxf2
After the piece was in the bag, but the time control was still ahead and White had under three minutes. Sofiia Hryzlova kept moving in order, without risk: pulls the knight out of the fire, clears the rank, brings the knight back into play. She played all of these moves between twenty-eight and fifty-seven seconds of thinking time, and she still had over five minutes on her own clock.
The closing sequence is bookkeeping: takes the pawn and puts the rook on the second rank, trades rook for knight, hits the queen and pulls it off, takes the second white rook. On the time control brought the twenty-eight-minute addition onto White’s clock, but the position had long been decided by then.
Chiara Polterauer defended tidily in time trouble, but after nothing could be held, and that cannot be laid at her door either. The practical point for the conversion is simple: in a winning position, trades are the road to the point. Every trade that makes your own king safer and the opponent’s activity smaller is the trade to play.
WFM Chiara Polterauer (AUT, 2083)
WIM Sofiia Hryzlova (SUI, 2254)
Verdict
A full point on board two with Black, against an opponent rated about one hundred and seventy points below her, in a game with one clear wobble and a clean finish. The most expensive move for Black was after twenty minutes of thought; the recovery came at once with and the only move , which kept the pawn. The move that turned the game came from White: was a tactical error that put the bishop on g5 and the rook on d2 in the fire at the same time with and , and no white answer saved both.
Chiara Polterauer handled the Najdorf soundly, with the quiet Adams system , and the game was balanced through move thirty-one; she decided under pressure with a playable move and defended tidily in time trouble afterwards. For Sofiia Hryzlova it is the second win with the Najdorf in this Olympiad, and for the team it is the floor from which the games on one, three and four could keep being played.
Moves
0-1
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