WCM Grete Olde (EST, 2002) vs WIM Camille De Seroux (SUI, 2152) · ½-½
Board 4, Switzerland vs Estonia, women’s event · Sicilian Defence, Delayed Alapin Variation (B22)
By Professor Zugzwang AI Coach . This analysis was written by a Bogner Chess AI coach.
Round three, table 16, board four: Switzerland play Estonia, and WIM Camille De Seroux has Black against an opponent rated 150 points lower. WCM Grete Olde chose the delayed Alapin with , De Seroux took the centre at once with , and after ten moves the position was healthy and level.
From there the clock decided. Two quiet pawn moves on moves 11 and 14 handed White a small, stubborn edge that De Seroux had levelled out again by move 23. Between moves 31 and 33 the game turned twice: White lost it in three moves, and Black handed it back on the next one with forty seconds on the clock. What remained was a rook ending against a passed pawn on c7, which De Seroux held by putting her rook behind it. Switzerland split the match 2 to 2.
Two pawn moves that attack nothing
The position is level, and level positions are decided by tempo. The one white piece with a future is the knight on c4, eyeing d6 and e5. There is a move against it that improves Black at the same time: takes the square away and sends the knight home with .
De Seroux played . The move is not bad, it is slow. It denies the f3 knight the g5 square, but nothing was coming to g5 that would have changed the game, and two moves later b5 appeared on the board anyway. The difference between and is about half a pawn, and half a pawn from move eleven is why you defend on move thirty instead of attacking.
Three moves later the same pattern with . The pawn props up b5, and that is exactly why it fails to hold it: after the prop has been traded off and the pawn drops. De Seroux saw it and sidestepped with . The question matters more than the move: can my opponent trade off my defender? A pawn that guards another pawn only guards it for as long as it stays on the board.
WCM Grete Olde (EST, 2002)
WIM Camille De Seroux (SUI, 2152)
The pawn on b2 was free for exactly one move
By this point De Seroux had levelled the game cleanly, above all with , forcing off White’s strong bishop, and with , bringing the knight back to the centre. Then White played , and the pawn on b2 had no defender left.
costs White that pawn. It is no more than that, one pawn in an otherwise equal position, but in an otherwise equal position one pawn is the whole of what there is to win. The game went , a good and healthy move, and after the position was completely balanced again.
One move later the same pawn was a trap. costs both rooks for the knight, because from d6 the knight hits the rook on e8 and the recapture on e8 runs into nothing. When you see an undefended pawn and decide not to take it, work out whether it will still be undefended next move. Here the answer was no, and the reason was two pieces: a knight that was not yet standing on the square it struck from, and a queen that has sat on a4 since move 16, guarding e8 through c6 from there.
WCM Grete Olde (EST, 2002)
WIM Camille De Seroux (SUI, 2152)
Forty seconds for a winning move
On move 29 De Seroux’s clock read one minute and ten seconds, Olde’s four and a half minutes. let White back into the game: on b8 the queen looks at a defended pawn on b2, and her own pawn on e5 blocks the diagonal towards the white king. After she would have sat on the a7-f2 diagonal, right inside White’s position.
Olde had barely any time either, and from move 31 it went quickly. attacked the black queen, but the bishop was guarded only by the rook on b5. steps aside and attacks in the same move: from d7 the queen aims through c6 at exactly that rook, the pillar the whole white set-up rests on. and only step aside, and would have given almost the entire advantage back. She spent three of her forty-three seconds on the right one.
was the last mistake, and the refutation is . The queen would stand on the long diagonal to g2, where the knight on f4 already covers the square, and together the two of them mate there. White has to block the diagonal, and after the position cannot be held. The game went , which guards the pawn on e5 and leaves both white pieces in peace, and it was level again. In time trouble you look for the move that defends something. The move that wins is almost always the one that does two things at once.
WCM Grete Olde (EST, 2002)
WIM Camille De Seroux (SUI, 2152)
The rook belongs behind the passed pawn
After the time control De Seroux had over twenty minutes again, and the position was level. The only dangerous thing on the board was White’s c-pawn. With she took the last white queenside pawn off, the only one that could still have helped the passer. After she recaptured with the king rather than the pawn: in a rook ending the king is a piece, and from e5 it reaches every corner of the board.
is the move the whole ending rests on. The rook sits behind the pawn, and the further the pawn runs the less that helps it. On c7 it stands under fire, and if it queened on c8, Rxc8 follows. White’s rook has to stay on the seventh rank and guard it, and that is now the only job it has.
The rest is a repetition with a system behind it. attacks rook and pawn at the same time, has to step away and keeps guarding c7, , and the same again. The old rule still holds: rooks belong behind passed pawns, your own and your opponent’s alike. Behind the pawn the rook works by itself, because it attacks the moment the pawn moves, and that ties an enemy piece to the defence.
WCM Grete Olde (EST, 2002)
WIM Camille De Seroux (SUI, 2152)
Verdict
Half a point with Black against an opponent rated 150 points lower looks like half a point given away, and on move 33 that is what it was. The game shows two things that belong together, though: in time trouble De Seroux found , the one move that held the advantage, and missed the one that would have cashed it in a move later. Afterwards, with time on her clock, she let White inch a little closer again on moves 43 and 44, and still brought the ending against a passed pawn on the seventh rank safely home: the rook behind the pawn did the rest. Switzerland split the match against Estonia 2 to 2, and without this half point on board four it would have been a defeat.
Moves
½-½
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