WIM Mariia Manko (SUI, 2285) vs WIM Jasmin-Denise Schloffer (AUT, 2236) · 0-1
Board 2, Switzerland vs Austria, women’s event · Caro-Kann Defence, Exchange Variation (B13) · 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 ten of the women’s event in Samarkand, Switzerland against Austria. WIM Mariia Manko sat on board two with White against WIM Jasmin-Denise Schloffer and opened . The Exchange Variation of the Caro-Kann gave her quiet ground and she settled in without hurry: Bd3, short castling, then b3 and Bb2 on the long diagonal, and c4 on move twelve. By move 21 an advantage of well over a pawn had built up.
Twice the central break d4-d5 was there afterwards, twice it did not come, and from move 35 the clock decided. For the Swiss side it is the second consecutive loss after round 9 against Maksimovic; there too the game was once in her hands.
After thirteen minutes: 22.Neg5?!
After Manko had ordered the position in White’s direction move by move: the knight stood on e4 with an eye on d6 and f6, the b2 bishop lay along the long diagonal, and the h5 pawn pinned the black king down. An advantage of around a pawn and a half asked for the d4-d5 break. also held the game clearly in White’s hand: , and the pieces stay where they belong.
?! came after thirteen minutes twenty-three seconds, the second longest think of the game. The knight goes to a square where the f4 bishop collects it: dissolves the tension in the centre, and the white advantage shrinks to a remnant. Best was , and after White stays clearly in front. The break asks for calculation with knights hanging in the air, the knight sortie does not, and the clock chose the easier line.
The lesson holds for every clearly better position: the move that brings the advantage home is often the one that gets calculated in the think and not the one that gets played after it. A break that the opponent has prepared with ...Nd6 on his own is too forcing to leave sitting.
WIM Jasmin-Denise Schloffer (AUT, 2236)
WIM Mariia Manko (SUI, 2285)
The break was there a second time: 23.Qd3??
? was Schloffer’s own error, the retreat of the knight from d6 to a square next to the second knight. Instead of , which would have eased the tension, the knight now blocks its own rooks, and the d6 square is left without a guard. The count was back at around a pawn and a half in White’s favour, and the d4-d5 break was on the notepad again.
would have decided the game objectively: , and the passed d5 pawn sits with the white pieces right behind it, while the knight on g5 aims at f7. The move asks for an honest calculation, but the calculation ends for White.
?? is the human choice, and it is at the same time a tactical error in plain words. The queen move brings no new threat into the game and lets the break drop. Schloffer answered with the one move that dissolves the tension: , and the white advantage was gone. Most players at this rating would probably reach for a queen move here as well; the practical excuse takes nothing away from the objective loss. The game was once in White’s hand and stopped being so the moment the queen went to d3.
WIM Jasmin-Denise Schloffer (AUT, 2236)
WIM Mariia Manko (SUI, 2285)
The only move that holds: 25.Nh3
After the white advantage was gone, and the knight on g5 with a black queen in front of it was more in the way than on the attack. Manko spent thirteen minutes thirty-eight seconds on the next move, the longest think of the game. She found the only move that holds.
looks like a retreat and is a defensive move. The knight leaves g5, gives up the h5 pawn, but covers the f4 square and puts itself in the black queen’s way. Every alternative drops off sharply: loses half a pawn, ?! Kxf7 gives the piece away. The move deserves credit without qualification, because it was found in a position that had been a winning game two minutes earlier.
The next moves kept the balance. After every piece stood where it belonged, and both clocks were ticking. Around move 33 Schloffer had 6:04 left and Manko 5:15; the time trouble was mutual, but the harder task sat with the defence.
WIM Jasmin-Denise Schloffer (AUT, 2236)
WIM Mariia Manko (SUI, 2285)
The move that loses the game: 35.Be5??
From move 35 Manko was under five minutes, from move 39 under one minute, and exactly in this stretch came the move that lost the game. The evaluation after was around half to three-quarters of a pawn in Black’s favour; the position was still defensible.
?? with 3:43 on the clock is the move that loses it. The bishop leaves the second rank and attacks the queen, but the queen steps aside with a single , and after it the knight on f4 stands without cover. There followed ?! Nxg3+ , and the knight was gone.
The move that holds was , offering the rook for the queen and keeping the pieces around the king: . White stands worse, but the defence is together. The lesson is the one for every defence in time trouble: the own king asks for cover first, and a bishop that walks to the other side of the board without a concrete follow-up takes a defender with it. An attack that does not have a calculation behind it costs the game.
WIM Jasmin-Denise Schloffer (AUT, 2236)
WIM Mariia Manko (SUI, 2285)
Verdict
Objectively the game sat in Manko’s hand between moves 21 and 23: first ?! gave back half of the advantage, then ?? let the second attempt at the d4-d5 break drop. Practically the last move that still held the game was , and she found it in a position that had been a winning one two minutes earlier. The clock decided the rest, and the last real move was the wrong one: the bishop that left its own king behind. For Manko it is the second consecutive loss, and the comparison with round 9 is honest, because that game too had been winning once. For the Swiss side it was a half point on board 2 that was there for the taking, and a full one that was on the board. Credit to Schloffer, who found the one right move at the decisive moment and held the time trouble patiently. The learning sits in both moments: with a clearly better position, play the break the position asks for, and in a defence under five minutes, keep the pieces close to the king.
Moves
0-1
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