WIM Mariia Manko (SUI, 2285) vs GM Zhaoqin Peng (NED, 2353) · 1-0
Board 2, Switzerland vs Netherlands, women’s event · Catalan Opening, Closed Variation (D30)
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 two WIM Mariia Manko had White against GM Zhaoqin Peng, rated sixty-eight points higher. It became a Closed Catalan, White exchanged on d5 on move seven, and for fourteen moves nothing happened that a spectator would have called an event.
The game was decided by a knight that never moved. It stood on b8 for twenty-two moves, and the trade that took it off the board created the position in which two black pieces were suddenly attacked at once. Before that come a queenside clamp, a break in the centre, and a sequence that looks like a knight sacrifice and is a piece of arithmetic.
Take or step aside: 15.Nd3
With Black asked the first real question of the game, and the best answer is : White resolves the tension herself before Black can fix it. After the game stays in balance, and Black never gets the pawn chain that made the next twenty moves so comfortable for him.
The game saw , a sidestep that costs about half a pawn and allows Black exactly what he is after: . The pawn on c4 is not a weakness but a nail. It takes the d3 square back from the knight that had only just arrived there, and it supports the advance b5-b4.
The lesson is about move order rather than taste: when your opponent offers a pawn exchange in the centre and your pieces are the better placed ones there, take before he can fix the structure. A pawn on c5 is mobile, a pawn on c4 is a permanent condition.
GM Zhaoqin Peng (NED, 2353)
WIM Mariia Manko (SUI, 2285)
The break and the arithmetic: 20.Nxf7
Manoeuvring does not help against a clamp, a break does, and White needed three moves for it. undermines the c4 pawn, with a shade better, so a matter of taste. was then all but forced, anything else costs three quarters of a pawn. And occupies the centre and restores the balance.
looks like a sacrifice and is a piece of arithmetic: . White gives the knight, collects the bishop and the pawn, and the push e5 attacks queen and knight at the same time, so the f6 knight drops in every line. At the end of the sequence material is level again and so is the game.
The value of the move lies in what it prevents. Over the board almost every player reaches for , and after White stands a piece for a pawn worse; costs a good half pawn too. Not one move of the liquidation is hard once you count it to the final capture, and counting it is what hardly anybody does. A sacrifice that wins the material back is not a sacrifice but a liquidation, and a liquidation does not require courage.
GM Zhaoqin Peng (NED, 2353)
WIM Mariia Manko (SUI, 2285)
The knight that never moved: 22.Bxb8
Instead of Black grabbed the pawn with . Material is level after it: White has given knight and pawn, Black bishop and pawn. The difference is on b8. A knight has been standing there since move one, because Black walked his rook along the seventh rank with and rather than developing it.
is an entirely ordinary trade, bishop for knight, and by a distance the strongest move: after or Black consolidates and a pawn and a half of the advantage is gone again. Once the trade is made the black queen sits offside on b8, and hits two pieces at once. The knight leaves f3 and opens the g2 bishop’s diagonal onto the knight on e4, and on e5 it cuts the e8 rook off from defending that square.
was the tougher defence: , the knight attacks the c1 rook from e2, and Black has at least counterplay for the exchange; the difference from the game is about a pawn and a half. Played was , which rescues the knight and forgets the rook. When two of your pieces are attacked at once, look first for the move that answers both problems with a counterattack, and only then for the one that brings a single piece to safety.
GM Zhaoqin Peng (NED, 2353)
WIM Mariia Manko (SUI, 2285)
The quiet move: 25.Bf1
The exchange up, and the question is no longer whether but how. The bishop on g2 sits on a diagonal with nothing left on it: d5 and e4 are empty and the king stands on f7. At the other end of the board a black pawn sits on c4 with the a6 bishop as its only guard. puts the bishop opposite that pawn and offers the guard a trade.
It is the rarest move of the game, and the most popular push here, , gives a good pawn of the lead away. The continuation shows why: , and only now, with the bishop on f1 and both rooks ready, does the advance d4-d5 really achieve something.
The rest is technique with one small wobble: takes the pawn with the wrong piece, was more accurate, and the difference was small enough to change nothing. Remember the question behind : which of my pieces is doing the least work right now? In winning positions it answers more moves than any combination.
GM Zhaoqin Peng (NED, 2353)
WIM Mariia Manko (SUI, 2285)
The passed pawn on move 37: 37.d6
offered the queen trade and Black took it: without queens an extra exchange stops being a question and becomes a calculation. is then the move almost nobody picks and the one that puts the position in order, because the rook takes up its place behind the d5 pawn before that pawn starts running.
then walks past the knight. Black may take it: after the knight is pinned against its own king and attacked by rook and bishop, and White stays the exchange up and the position won. Black played , and the pawn stayed where it was, two squares from promotion and in the way of every black piece.
The rest is bookkeeping. offers the last minor piece trade, accepts it, and the black rook is chained to the d6 pawn. attacks the a5 pawn, and the rook cannot do both jobs: . Black resigned. A passed pawn rarely wins by itself. It wins by tying an enemy piece down as a guard and handing you the majority on the other wing.
GM Zhaoqin Peng (NED, 2353)
WIM Mariia Manko (SUI, 2285)
Verdict
A WIM beats a grandmaster rated sixty-eight points higher, and she does it with four decisions rather than a trick: the liquidation on move 20 that she counted to the end, the trade on b8 that sent the black queen to the edge, the quiet , and the passed pawn that set off on move 37. Twice her opponent helped, on move 21 and on move 23, and both times White was ready. For Mariia Manko it is the third win in four games of this Olympiad. And for everybody else there is the reminder that a piece which stays at home for twenty-two moves eventually gets handed the bill.
Moves
1-0
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