WGM Ghazal Hakimifard (SUI, 2243) vs FM Fiorella Contreras Huaman (PER, 2168) · ½-½
Board 3, Switzerland vs Peru, women’s event · Caro-Kann Defence, Tartakower Variation (B15) · 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 eleven of the women’s event, Switzerland against Peru, board three. WGM Ghazal Hakimifard held White against FM Fiorella Contreras Huaman, seventy-five rating points and one title higher. GM Alexandra Kosteniuk had won on board one, WIM Camille De Seroux had lost on board two, and the match hung on boards three and four.
The half point came, and it did not come from White’s play. ?? threw away the winning position, the time trouble from move 37 gave the rest away, and on move 57 Contreras Huaman played ??, the move that put the game back to level. As in round ten, the half point came in from the other end of the board.
The move 12...Be6?! asked for: 13.Nf4
The Caro-Kann Tartakower reached the board with , the structure with doubled f pawns and the open e file, against which White castles long and pushes the kingside. After the setup looked coherent: queen on f3, bishop on d3, knight on e2, and the attack was meant to run with h4 and h5.
?! was an inaccuracy, because it put the bishop inside the range of a single knight move. The move that collects the inaccuracy was . From f4 the knight attacks the bishop on e6 and the g6 pawn at the same time, and the main line leaves White nearly a pawn better: Black’s light-squared bishop has left the board, White’s dark-squared bishop stays.
? was played in twenty-four seconds, the queen move the setup had prepared. Black answered at once, the bishop took the diagonal White could just have traded off, and the small opening plus was gone.
The rule: when the opponent misplaces a piece, look for the move that takes the piece off the board, not the move your plan had ready. The plan of the game is a guess until the opponent’s last move; every reply the opponent makes changes the question, and the answer has to be sought again.
FM Fiorella Contreras Huaman (PER, 2168)
WGM Ghazal Hakimifard (SUI, 2243)
The one move: 35.Qd5 instead of 35.Qb5
From move 21 to move 33 the assessment stood still: both sides manoeuvred, exchanged the rook on e7 and the bishop on d5, and took a pawn Black could not have held anyway. Inside that frame the game was a clean draw.
?? stepped outside the frame. The black queen went to a square that no defender was covering, and left the centre to the white pieces. The one move that collects the chance was . From d5 the queen defends the knight on d3, holds the h1 diagonal and threatens Nf4 and a break on the kingside herself: , and White stands about two pawns better.
?? was played with four minutes and forty-two seconds on the clock. The move stays at the edge, attacks no piece and defends none of its own. After the knight on d3 hung, and walked it towards the square the black queen reaches in one move. The winning position was gone after a single move.
That is a tactical error, not a question of move order. The rule: central queens defend and threaten at the same time; queens at the edge often do neither. Before any queen move, ask what two jobs the queen does on her next move. If you cannot name two, the move is probably not the best.
FM Fiorella Contreras Huaman (PER, 2168)
WGM Ghazal Hakimifard (SUI, 2243)
The clock takes over: 41.Nb4?? instead of 41.a5
After ?? the game was objectively no longer winnable, but not lost either; White still had the light squares around b3 and a knight with a way home over b4 or e1. ?? with one minute and forty-one seconds on the clock chose the move that gives up both. would have stepped the king out of every check and left the knight on d3; after the knight has to look for a way home and does not find one.
On the way to the time control the opponent replied in kind: ?? handed the account back, and after White had reached the time control with two and a half minutes and an assessment of level.
The addition put twenty-five minutes back on the clock. Move 41 was still on the pulse of time trouble, though, and ?? came without the calculation it needed. was the move: the passed pawn walks on, Black has to deal with it, and the game holds together for a while. After the pawn stays where it is, and the knight sits on b4, where any black queen move reaches it.
The rule: the four moves after the time control need the same care as the four before. The clock shows twenty-five minutes more, but the memory of time trouble stays for one more move. Play move 41 the way you play move 21.
FM Fiorella Contreras Huaman (PER, 2168)
WGM Ghazal Hakimifard (SUI, 2243)
The half point comes back: 57...Kf3??
From move 44 on Black was clearly better, and in the queen endgame after Black had queen and h pawn against queen and two connected passed pawns. The black king stood between f3 and g2 in front of the first real task of the endgame: bring the own queen and the h pawn together without walking into a perpetual.
The winning move was , the king going behind its own h pawn and finding shelter there while Black collects the white pawns and runs the h pawn home.
?? was played after about half a minute, and it opened the diagonals for White. , and from move 61 on the white queen has f6, e6, b3, a3 and a2 available in turn to answer every legal black king move. Ten checks later the half point was safe.
The rule: a lone king takes shelter behind its own pawn, not in the open diagonal of an enemy queen. The side that attacks has to bring the own king out of the wind before it tries to mate the other one.
FM Fiorella Contreras Huaman (PER, 2168)
WGM Ghazal Hakimifard (SUI, 2243)
Verdict
Objectively the game was lost from ??, practically already from ??. The half point did not arrive as a piece of defence; it arrived through the mistake by Contreras Huaman on move 57, and the opponent had held the game in her hand from move 34 on and let go of it at the edge of the endgame.
The half point still counts for the team, and how it came stands in the game. For Ghazal Hakimifard it is the second time in this tournament that a half point comes in from the other end of the board, after the game against Deak-Sala in round ten.
The learning is twofold. A queen move without a concrete job is rarely the strongest one; that decided ??. And the four moves after the time control are as demanding as the four before; that decided ??. Anyone who asks those two questions twice in the next tournament wins the game that this time was drawn.
Moves
½-½
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