IM Olga Zimina (ITA, 2305) vs WIM Mariia Manko (SUI, 2285) · 0-1
Board 2, Switzerland vs Italy, women’s event · Queen’s Pawn Game, London System with e6 (D02)
By Professor Zugzwang AI Coach . This analysis was written by a Bogner Chess AI coach.
Round 6 of the women’s event, table 13, Switzerland against Italy, both teams on eight match points: on board two WIM Mariia Manko sat with Black against IM Olga Zimina, rated twenty points higher. It became a London System, the setup with Bf4, e3 and c3 whose first ten moves almost play themselves. On move twelve White took the cover away from the black king with and opened the g-file in the process.
For twenty-six moves White was the side doing the pressing, and after a clear advantage was there for the taking. The game was decided by White’s time trouble: with just under five minutes went unplayed, with just under four minutes came , and from then on the f4 pawn had one guard too few and the knight on h4 none at all. What Black made of it is an eight-move piece of arithmetic and, at the end, a passed pawn on a2.
Two legal moves, one of them mate: 14...Kg7
The London System lives on nothing happening. Here something did: tore open the pawn cover in front of the king, attacked the new pawn on f6 straight away, and after the knight landed in the middle of the king’s position with . No black piece can take it, a knight check cannot be blocked, and the king is left with exactly two squares.
The square the hand reaches for is the losing one. . The reason stands on f6: from there the knight covers h7. The queen can land on h7 without being taken, and the king on h8 has no square. Everything Black tries afterwards only postpones the end by a few moves.
The game went , and after the king was home again, this time with no mating net, because from h5 the knight no longer covers h7. After the position was level once more. The lesson is not a variation but an order of operations: against a knight check, count first the squares your king has left, then the squares the checking knight covers around your king. The two together decide it, not the first impression.
IM Olga Zimina (ITA, 2305)
WIM Mariia Manko (SUI, 2285)
The square the knight needed: 17...f6
After the position was level, and Black had exactly one job: get rid of the knight on h5. It sits there out of reach of everything, it guards the f4 pawn, and it keeps the black king small. The road to it is . The bishop goes to e7 not because d6 is uncomfortable, but so that it can recapture on f6.
is the move that looks like it costs nothing. It firms up the pawns, it leaves nothing hanging, and it takes from Black’s own knight the one square from which it could question the opponent on h5. From here on White stood just under a pawn better without having to do anything for it.
Three moves later the same motif repeated with a different piece. would have routed the knight through b6 to c4, into the heart of the white position, and levelled the game again. The move played was , and now the queen stood on the square the knight wanted. Before any quiet move, ask which of your own pieces still needs that square. A pawn closes it forever and a queen only for a while, but in both cases it is missing exactly when you want it.
IM Olga Zimina (ITA, 2305)
WIM Mariia Manko (SUI, 2285)
The move that turns the game: 29.Ng3
On move 27 the white pressure could have become something solid. looks like counterplay and is the wrong try: , and White stands a good two pawns better. Right was a move almost nobody plays in practice: , the bishop stepping backwards to take aim at the b2 pawn.
With just under five minutes on the clock White chose and left the d4 pawn alone. After it was still there for the taking, and with just under four minutes came instead. The move does two things at once and both of them hurt: it removes the second guard from the f4 pawn, because from h5 the knight was defending it, and it gets in its own queen’s way. From e1 she covered the knight on h4 across f2 and g3; now she does not.
takes the pawn and attacks the h4 knight on the same rank in the same move. White had to give material back: . After that each side has a queen, two rooks and a knight, and Black has a pawn more. Tougher was , though Black is the better side there too. Ask the double question before every piece move: what is this piece guarding right now, and which of my own lines am I closing with it?
IM Olga Zimina (ITA, 2305)
WIM Mariia Manko (SUI, 2285)
The only continuation: 33...Ne5
and fetched two pawns back, and both rooks are undefended while they do it. had prepared it: the queen went to the centre and attacked the rook on f3 from there, which is why that rook stepped aside with a capture. Two loose rooks and a queen in the middle of the board are the ingredients for exactly one kind of move.
is that move, and the knight places itself on a square attacked twice to play it. The arithmetic runs . At the end Black has won rook for knight and paid two pawns for it, and the two pawns come back with and . No second move holds the win; the gap to the next best is three pawns.
The move that suggests itself is . The queen attacks b2 and b4 and looks like it collects everything at once. ends that: the rook steps in front of the queen under protection and attacks her, and a clear winning position has turned into one where White is the slightly better side. Calculating here means counting to the last capture and judging only there. Stop at and you see a piece thrown away. Count on to and you see the exchange won.
IM Olga Zimina (ITA, 2305)
WIM Mariia Manko (SUI, 2285)
The a7 pawn sets off
The conversion started a rook for a knight up and two pawns down, and the pawns were back in no time: took the first, and six moves later took the second. What remained was two rooks against rook and knight, two pawns each, and a passed pawn on a7 with nothing on the whole queenside to stop it.
It set off without hurrying: , three steps while the white pieces were busy on the kingside. The move worth noting is : instead of pushing on at once, Black put the rooks in order first. From b6 the rook attacks the one on d6 and forces it back to the first rank with , where it has to watch the queening square.
Only then came , and White resigned. The rook on d1 may never leave the back rank again, and against two rooks that is not enough: attacks the rook that may not leave a1, and it has to give itself up for the pawn. In an endgame, count not just the pawns but the duties. A piece that has to guard a queening square is no longer defending, it is discharging an obligation, and obligations can be attacked.
IM Olga Zimina (ITA, 2305)
WIM Mariia Manko (SUI, 2285)
Verdict
Fifty-one moves, and the game changed sides once and completely. For twenty-six moves the higher rated player with White did the pressing, on move 27 the clear advantage was there, and in time trouble it was left standing twice. The rest belongs to Mariia Manko: at the right moment, the liquidation with for which there is no substitute, and a passed pawn she only sent off once the rooks were in place. For her it is the fourth win in five games of this Olympiad, and the lesson reaches well beyond this position: before you move a piece, ask what it is guarding. After it was guarding nothing it had guarded before.
Moves
0-1
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