WGM Joanna Worek (CZE, 2278) vs GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI, 2495) · ½-½
Board 1, Switzerland vs Czech Republic, women’s event · Queen’s Pawn Game, Zukertort Variation (D02)
By Professor Zugzwang AI Coach . This analysis was written by a Bogner Chess AI coach.
Round 4 of the women’s event, table 13, Switzerland against the Czech Republic, both teams arriving on five match points: GM Alexandra Kosteniuk sat on board one with Black against WGM Joanna Worek, rated 217 points lower. White set up a quiet Queen’s Pawn game, knight to f3, pawn to e3, bishop to d3, the kind of structure in which nothing has to happen for twenty moves.
On move eight something happened anyway. Black came out of it a pawn up, handed the advantage back over five quiet moves, then defended an entire endgame correctly and lost the game on move 39 to a single pawn push. Four moves later she got it back.
Two pieces hanging: 8.g4
White has planted a knight in the middle of Black’s position with , Black has attacked it with , and instead of moving it away attacks the bishop on f5. Two pieces hang at once. Rescue your own piece first here and you lose the race.
There is exactly one move: . The sequence leaves Black a clean pawn up with two pawns in the centre. The natural-looking costs the game its thread: after it is White who is a pawn up with both bishops. The gap is a good two pawns, so this is not a matter of taste.
The habit worth taking away: when two pieces are attacked at once, count the captures before you save anything. Whoever captures first decides the arithmetic.
WGM Joanna Worek (CZE, 2278)
GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI, 2495)
An extra pawn is not yet an advantage
The position asks one question: develop the pieces or release the tension in the centre. The pawns on e5 and e4 are doubled, but between them they take d3, f3 and f4 away from White’s pieces. Black’s bishop belongs on d6, where it eyes h2 and clears the way for castling long.
That move, , was the best one, and had been the best one on move eleven too. What followed instead was , then , then , then . None of them is a mistake, and none costs more than a fraction of a pawn. Together they cost the whole advantage: after fifteen moves the game was level again, with Black still holding the extra pawn.
When the bishop reached d6 on move sixteen, it was only an offer to trade: . An extra pawn is a mortgage on the future. While your pieces sit at home and your king sits in the centre it is a number rather than an advantage, and it vanishes not by being captured but by the position around it turning ordinary.
WGM Joanna Worek (CZE, 2278)
GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI, 2495)
The passed pawn that ran one move too early: 39...h3
After the queens came off on move 22 and a pair of rooks on move 26, the game became rook and knight against rook and bishop, level on material. Black got the h-pawn moving with and , and when White took a pawn with , two came back with . Black is a pawn up, with the only passed pawn on the board.
The position holds with exactly one move: . The rook attacks the bishop on e4, and only that tempo makes the pawn fast: , and Black stays a pawn up in a level position. What came instead was at once, handing the rook on g1 a free move.
It used it: puts the rook on the eighth rank, attacking the knight on e8 on the way. After Black has exactly one legal move, , and collects the passed pawn. The pawn falls in both lines; the difference is where the pieces end up. Here White’s king sits on e5 in the centre, Black’s on the edge, and the knight on g7 is in its own way. A level position has become a winning one with the material unchanged. A passed pawn never runs by itself: find the move that gives the defending pieces something to do first, then push.
WGM Joanna Worek (CZE, 2278)
GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI, 2495)
43.d5 and the half point handed back
White is winning and only has to keep the order: pieces first, pawn afterwards. drives the black king to h3 on the edge and sends the passed d-pawn on its way while that king is nowhere near the action. came immediately.
The difference is a single tempo, and it belongs to the defender. After Black gets two moves with check, pushes the white king out of the centre, and sets up the blockade with the c-pawn along the way. The position is level again.
From there Kosteniuk did not put a second foot wrong. The knight took up the square in front of the passed pawn, , and a lone bishop does not get past a blockading knight. Her last move was the only one that holds: rather than , which costs the piece. After the players shook hands; in the final position is forced, because forks king and knight.
WGM Joanna Worek (CZE, 2278)
GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI, 2495)
Verdict
A game in which the half point changed hands twice: Kosteniuk won a pawn out of the opening, let it shrink to a number over five quiet moves, defended a long endgame correctly and then gave it away with . Four moves later gave it back, and from that moment on every move was right. A draw with Black on board one while boards two and three win: that is how team matches are won, here 3 to 1 against the Czech Republic.
Moves
½-½
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