WCM Dema Alaa (EGY, 2010) vs WGM Ghazal Hakimifard (SUI, 2243) · 0-1
Board 3, Switzerland vs Egypt, women’s event · Sicilian Defence, Delayed Alapin Variation with e6 (B40)
By Professor Zugzwang AI Coach . This analysis was written by a Bogner Chess AI coach.
Round two, table 17, Switzerland against Egypt: WGM Ghazal Hakimifard had Black on board three against WCM Dema Alaa, and the Sicilian turned into a Delayed Alapin. For nine moves both sides walked the straight road and the position stood level.
What decided this game was not an attack but a structure. With White was left with an isolated pawn on c3, and from then on every white move circled around it.
One trade and a pawn on c3: 10...Nxc3
offers the knight trade, and the reply is the first real decision of the game. is the only move after which Black is not slightly worse: the b2 pawn has to recapture, and on c3 it then stands isolated on a file that is open for both sides. The alternatives and hand the pleasanter side back to White, worth about half a pawn.
The next three moves are pure bookkeeping, and each of them was the strongest on the board: . White keeps the e5 pawn and the space that comes with it, Black gets a weakness that cannot run away and puts the queen straight onto the file that leads to it.
, , , : four white moves that circle c3 instead of pursuing a plan of their own. That is exactly the return on such a trade. Before every exchange, ask not only which pieces disappear but which pawn it leaves behind, and whether you can attack it.
WCM Dema Alaa (EGY, 2010)
WGM Ghazal Hakimifard (SUI, 2243)
The queen on the rim: 25...Qa3
The queen came in via , and Black stood a good pawn and a half better. After that she stayed on the rim: , , . None of those three was the strongest move, and together they cost more than any single error in this game.
Twice the move was the centre: and . After an endgame remains in which the bishop on c5 and the weakness on c3 do all the work. On the rim the queen attacks only the a2 pawn, which is easy to defend; on e4 she steps in front of the b7 bishop and aims with it at the corner where the white king sits, while offering the queen trade at the same time. The difference is a quarter to half a pawn each time, and it adds up.
On move 34 White opened that diagonal herself. After it runs from b7 to h1 without an obstacle, and followed by the push to e4 was a good pawn stronger than the she played. An invading queen needs a second target: with one she ends up on the rim, with two she usually ends up in the centre.
WCM Dema Alaa (EGY, 2010)
WGM Ghazal Hakimifard (SUI, 2243)
The last dark-squared bishop: 37...Bb4
was the move that cost the game, and was the reply: the offer to trade the last dark-squared bishops. It is a good pawn stronger than anything else, and the reason is simple. After the trade White has no bishop left to guard the dark squares around her own king, and that is precisely the road the black queen travels.
, and the queen stands behind the white position. was tougher. There followed , and White resigned: after she loses the queen for a rook, and the material had been level the whole game up to that point.
When your opponent’s weaknesses all sit on one colour, trading the bishop of that colour is not an exchange but an attacking move. Offer it, even when at first glance it only simplifies.
WCM Dema Alaa (EGY, 2010)
WGM Ghazal Hakimifard (SUI, 2243)
Verdict
A win with Black against an opponent rated 233 points lower, and Switzerland won the match against Egypt 4-0. The game is instructive because the winning plan was settled on move 10 rather than on move 37: an isolated pawn on c3 tied the white pieces down for more than twenty moves, and the fact that Black left the shorter road lying several times along the way changed nothing about the result. A structure does not run away; a chance does.
Moves
0-1
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