WGM Machteld van Foreest (NED, 2333) vs WIM Sofiia Hryzlova (SUI, 2254) · 1-0
Board 3, Switzerland vs Netherlands, women’s event · English Opening, Anglo-Indian Defence, Queen’s Indian Formation (A15)
By Professor Zugzwang AI Coach . This analysis was written by a Bogner Chess AI coach.
Round 5 of the women’s event, table 6, Switzerland against the Netherlands, both teams arriving on seven match points: on board three WIM Sofiia Hryzlova had Black against WGM Machteld van Foreest, rated seventy-nine points higher. The English Opening turned into a Queen’s Indian formation, both sides fianchettoed on the queenside, and for thirteen moves every black piece was allowed to go where it belonged.
On move sixteen Black found a sequence that two players in a hundred play at this level, and came out of it a point of material ahead. The game was not lost to a miscalculation but to three plans: a rook that never found work on a8, a tempo that was paid for twice, and at the end a bishop on c4 that pinned the f7 pawn.
Two in a hundred play 16...Nxf2
asks the knight on e4 the question, and more than ninety players in a hundred at this level answer . That is exactly the catch in the position: , and the bishop on a3 hits the knight on c5, the queen on d6 and the bishop on f8, all on one diagonal. Black gets out, but as the slightly worse side.
The queen is on that diagonal because of , the first black move of the game that cost something; even then was the unpleasant reply. Two moves later it has become a concrete problem, and Black solved it by going forward: . Both knights are off the board, and in return a rook and the pawns on e3 and f2: one point of material for Black, and an edge of about half a pawn.
The gap between the two roads is a good pawn, and both of them run along a diagonal you do not see while you are looking at the attacked piece. Before any retreat, check what stands behind the retreat square: the knight on c5 was not the problem, the queen on d6 behind it was. And calculate a forcing sequence to the last capture. Stop at and you see a sacrifice; count on to and you see arithmetic.
WGM Machteld van Foreest (NED, 2333)
WIM Sofiia Hryzlova (SUI, 2254)
The rook that never arrived: 22...c5
Rook and two pawns against two knights means open files. Black already has one, the e-file, and the e8 rook stands on it. The a8 rook has none, and there is a plan waiting for it: . The a-pawn opens the line, the rook lands on the second rank behind the white position, and Black stays half a pawn better.
gave the rook nothing and gave White the move the position had been waiting for: . From there on the c5 pawn is a piece of work in every line, the a-file stays shut, and the a8 rook set off on a journey that says everything about the rest of the middlegame: , then , then , then , then . Five moves later it stood next to the square it had started from.
The difference between and is just under a pawn: half a pawn of advantage became a small disadvantage. That is not a mistake in the sense of a move overlooked, it is a plan that was missing. When you have a rook against a minor piece, the first question is never which move to play but which file to open, and the second is which of your two rooks still has none.
WGM Machteld van Foreest (NED, 2333)
WIM Sofiia Hryzlova (SUI, 2254)
One tempo, paid for twice: 29...Qg5
After the exchange on f3 and the queen’s walk via e6 to e3, Black had caught up again; the position was level. What was needed now was . The pawn move gives the king air, the queen finds work on c3, and the balance holds.
The trouble with is not that the queen stands badly on g5, it is that she can be attacked there: , and the queen has been pushed to the edge. The game went , which is the same pawn move one move later, with a queen that has meanwhile moved twice. A level position had become one where White is a good pawn better.
This is the kind of error that appears in no variation: g6 was needed anyway, and moves that are needed come first. A good test before any move you would like to play is whether you would still want to play g6 afterwards. If the answer is yes, play it now, because later the same move costs a tempo and the queen a square.
WGM Machteld van Foreest (NED, 2333)
WIM Sofiia Hryzlova (SUI, 2254)
The bishop on c4 pins the f7 pawn
Since move forty White has had exactly one idea, and it turns up in almost every line: the rook takes on g6. Black cannot take it back, because the bishop on c4 pins the f7 pawn to the king on g8, and a move later the capture on g7 strips the king’s cover away completely.
The objection is b5 both times, an attack on precisely the bishop that carries the pin. On move forty-one it runs , one move later . Black is clearly worse in both, by two to three pawns, but the game goes on.
The game saw and , two moves at the other end of the board. The passed pawn stood two squares from its goal, and it was no help to the king on g8. came at once, and Black resigned. The lesson is uncomfortably simple: when a sacrifice is coming at you, do not defend the square, find the piece without which the sacrifice does not work. Here it was the bishop on c4, and for three moves it stood within reach of a pawn.
WGM Machteld van Foreest (NED, 2333)
WIM Sofiia Hryzlova (SUI, 2254)
Verdict
The match ended 2 to 2: Kosteniuk lost on board one, Manko and Hakimifard won on boards two and four, and this game was the fourth. For Sofiia Hryzlova it is the first loss of this Olympiad after three wins in three outings, and it has little to do with calculation. The combination on move sixteen was faultless and is hardly ever found at this level. What was missing afterwards were plans, and plans can be learned: two rooks want a file, necessary pawn moves come before the ones you would like to play, and a sacrifice is refuted at the piece that carries it.
Moves
1-0
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