IM Eline Roebers (NED, 2378) vs GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI, 2495) · 1-0
Board 1, Switzerland vs Netherlands, women’s event · Caro-Kann Defence, Advance Variation, Botvinnik-Carls Defence (B12)
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 one GM Alexandra Kosteniuk had Black against IM Eline Roebers, rated a hundred and seventeen points lower. It became a Caro-Kann, and on move three the sharp , which pulls the ground out from under the white centre at once.
Ninety-four moves later Black resigned. In between lies a game of swings: a pawn left standing on move eight, a fork on move eleven that was never a fork, a position back in balance after twenty-two moves, and a single bishop move on move twenty-three that handed that balance away for good.
The pawn on f2 stays put: 8...Nc6
The Advance Variation with lives on one small detail: the black bishop reaches c5 and from there looks down the diagonal at f2, where the pawn is guarded by the king and nobody else. After it was there to be taken. collects it with check, the bishop returns to its square immediately, White has lost the right to castle and Black has a clean pawn. The position stays balanced, and with Black that is a good bargain.
The game saw , and the pawn stayed on the board. The difference is no drama, but it is real: about three quarters of a pawn, and above all a change of roles. After White trades off precisely the bishop that gives the whole system its point, and the f-file belongs to the white rook from then on.
Nine out of ten players take on f2 here, and they are right to. When a pawn is available with check and the piece that takes it can step straight back to its good square, calculate the line to the end before you discard it. A pawn is a pawn, and an enemy king on e2 is not a concession anyone hands you for free.
IM Eline Roebers (NED, 2378)
GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI, 2495)
The fork that is not one: 11...Bd7
The knight has been sitting on b4 since move ten, looking at c2. There is an undefended pawn there, and behind it, on a1, a rook. looks like the end of the story and is the beginning of a different one: , and the knight is paid for, a piece for a pawn. Stepping aside does not help, because costs it just the same, and the third way, blocking the check with the b-pawn, does not exist: Black’s own queen stands on b6 and gets in the way.
Kosteniuk played . The move develops, and it puts the piece on exactly the square the queen check would have to travel through. That would have made the fork real, which is why White answered at once: from a3 the knight covers c2 permanently, and after the b4 knight had to go back with .
A fork is only a fork when your opponent has no move in between. Before any such excursion, check every check available in the enemy position, including the ones on squares nobody thinks about. A queen check right across the board to a4 costs White nothing here and wins a whole piece.
IM Eline Roebers (NED, 2378)
GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI, 2495)
A pawn down and level again: 22...Be7
Up to move nineteen White had increased the advantage cleanly. offered the trade of bishops, and would have held the lead, worth a good pawn. The game saw , a retreat that gave most of it back.
Kosteniuk accepted the gift with the piece that had been doing the least: , and from g6 the knight blocks the white queen’s way home. collected the pawn, and answered it, a move almost nobody finds and one that puts the game back in balance. From e7 the bishop covers g5 and f8, and if White wants to keep the queen out there the moves repeat: and so on, a draw.
Giving up a pawn is allowed when the piece that takes it goes out of play in exchange. In moments like this, count not the pawns but the moves your opponent needs to bring their strongest piece back into the game. As long as that sum works out, the pawn is paid for and you can sleep soundly.
IM Eline Roebers (NED, 2378)
GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI, 2495)
A question White is glad to answer: 23...Bb5
attacks the bishop on d3, which no white piece defends, and therefore looks like a free tempo. It is the most expensive move of the game. White answered , and that single move both defends d3 and brings the queen back from the edge to the centre. The question asked was exactly the one White was looking for an excuse to answer.
Right was or . After the black pawn structure is damaged, but the difference is only a quarter of a pawn. After it went quickly instead: , the queens are off the board, and Black is left a pawn down in an endgame with no counterplay. The bishop then needed three moves, and , to find a square behind the e5 pawn where it does nothing at all.
Before you attack a piece, ask yourself which move you are allowing in reply. An attack whose best answer also solves your opponent’s biggest problem is not a gain of tempo, it is a loss of one by a scenic route. The white queen was badly placed on h6, and invited her home.
IM Eline Roebers (NED, 2378)
GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI, 2495)
The knight on d4 was there to be taken: 36...Ne7
From move thirty-three onwards Kosteniuk had under four minutes on the clock, and the position had been bad for a while. still asked a concrete question: the knight on d4 was there to be taken. was the best answer and not a good one, because fetches the bishop back and leaves White a pawn up, with the rook on g8 against the knight on g6. Everything else is worse.
The game saw , which attacks the d5 pawn and leaves the knight standing, and followed immediately. From there it was forced: . Black has won the piece back, but stands two pawns down, and the white bishop is the better minor piece against the black knight.
In time trouble you defend with material, not with hope. When an enemy piece can be captured, look at the capture first and at everything else afterwards: it forces your opponent to calculate, and it costs you no time at all. The knight on d4 was available for one move, and one move later it landed on e6.
IM Eline Roebers (NED, 2378)
GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI, 2495)
Verdict
The last fifty moves were defence without prospects, first with two rooks and a knight against two rooks and a bishop, then in a bare rook ending, and at the end two connected passed pawns stood on g7 and h7 with no answer left against them. For Alexandra Kosteniuk it is the first loss of this Olympiad in her fourth game, and it was not one move that did it but three decisions of the same colour: the pawn on f2 she left standing on move eight, the bishop that asked a question on move twenty-three instead of keeping the white queen pinned to the edge, and the knight on d4 she did not take on move thirty-six in time trouble. In between stand and , two moves almost nobody sees. On boards two and four Mariia Manko and Ghazal Hakimifard won, and that is exactly what a team is for: whoever plays board one against the hardest opponent loses sometimes, and the match goes on regardless.
Moves
1-0
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