IM Carissa Yip (USA, 2468) vs GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI, 2495) · 1-0
Board 1, Switzerland vs United States, women’s event · Petroff Defence, Modern Attack (C43)
By Professor Zugzwang AI Coach . This analysis was written by a Bogner Chess AI coach.
Round 7 of the women’s event, table 8: Switzerland on ten match points against the United States on nine, both on eighteen board points. GM Alexandra Kosteniuk sat on board one with Black against IM Carissa Yip and chose the Petroff. After a white pawn stands on e5 in the middle of the black camp, and the whole opening turns on one question: is it a strength there, or a liability?
Kosteniuk castled long and defended stubbornly, but on move twenty-one a counter-attack cost more than it brought in. Then White handed over an advantage of a good four pawns with , winning a whole rook in the process. From there the game was open again, and what decided it was a pawn push that would have saved the day on move forty and loses on move forty-three.
The king goes where the pawns still are: 13...O-O-O
With and Kosteniuk pushed the pawns on her own kingside. Both moves are among the best in the position, but they leave no cover there, and the king is still sitting on e8. asks two questions at once: the c6 knight and the e6 bishop are both attacked.
is the answer and the best move in the position. Fewer than one player in ten finds it, and more than half reach for the e5 pawn instead. That costs: , and Black is a pawn up and worse all the same, because the kingside lies open and the king is still waiting on e8. also gives away half a pawn more than castling does.
The lesson is not that you should castle long, it is where the king does not belong: on the wing where your own pawns have already set off. And an extra pawn weighs nothing if you pay for it with a king in the middle of the board. Kosteniuk judged the position better than the material here.
IM Carissa Yip (USA, 2468)
GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI, 2495)
The wrong rook: 16...Rdg8
puts the bishop on the a1 to h8 diagonal, where it is White’s strongest piece. attacks the h3 pawn; instead offers that bishop a trade. The difference between the two is a whisker, a matter of taste.
After White is a pawn up, and the simplest move is the best one: wins it straight back. The game saw . The rook takes the g-file, the recapture comes with anyway, and White has been given the move for free. Half a pawn for one tempo. And if a rook has to go to g8, it should be the one from h8: is practically as good as recapturing.
The second price was invisible on move sixteen, and I would not hold it against anyone: the diagonal from d4 to h8 was blocked by White’s own pawn on e5, so the rook on h8 stood behind a closed door. On move 24 that pawn went to e6, the door was open, and collected the rook. With every rook move, check which rook stays behind and which diagonal it then sits on. Long diagonals open later than you calculate.
IM Carissa Yip (USA, 2468)
GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI, 2495)
A counter-attack is not an answer: 21...b3
attacks the queen, and at the same time the b4 pawn hangs to the c3 pawn. answers both with a counter-attack: the pawn goes after the white queen on c2. There is a real idea in it. The natural exchange turns the game round, because the pawn on c2 ties a white rook to the first rank; Black would be a pawn better. Only the pawn from b3 has to do the capturing, not the one from b7: after the queen is gone for a bishop.
The game went , and that settles the counter-attack. The queen takes the pawn and the bishop on b5 keeps attacking the black queen. So Black has to move her after all with , and has nothing to show for the pawn but a lost tempo.
Right was : the queen out of the attack, and the b4 pawn left as poison. , and the game is level again. White would have to leave the pawn alone, and two and a half pawns of advantage would shrink to a good one. A counter-attack has to weigh as much as the attack it answers. When you cannot calculate that to the end, move the attacked piece.
IM Carissa Yip (USA, 2468)
GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI, 2495)
A rook for the whole game: 24.e6
Before this move White was winning, a good four pawns ahead. attacks the d4 bishop and is as good as anything else still available: the position could not be held, so you ask your opponent the most awkward question you have and wait.
is a double blow. The pawn attacks f7 and at the same time opens the d4 bishop’s diagonal all the way to h8, where the black rook stands. wins a whole rook for a pawn, and after it the game is level. The count follows immediately: , and of four pawns of material one is left. Black has the two bishops in return, and the c4 pawn is in White’s way on the queenside.
The exchange was never needed. simply runs the pawn: , and the b7 pawn in front of the black king does not hold the queenside together. Winning material is no argument when it dissolves the position. Before any exchange, count not only the pieces but also how much pressure you are giving away for them.
IM Carissa Yip (USA, 2468)
GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI, 2495)
The same pawn push, three moves too late: 43...f3
The level picture held into move thirty, then two bishop moves handed it back: instead of cost a pawn, instead of rather more. After the queens came off on move thirty-eight, Black was defending a rook and two bishops against two rooks and a bishop, two pawns each.
On move forty White very nearly gave the game back. instead of let an advantage of almost two pawns collapse to nothing, and Black had exactly one move to use it: , a bishop and a pawn for the rook, White a pawn up and the position level. The game saw , and the advantage was back.
Three moves later the pawn push came anyway. and were both the best move, the black rook stood right. Only the white rooks now stood right too, because had brought both of them to the a-file. That is why loses: the checks come with tempo, the rook on f6 takes aim at the f3 pawn, and the black king ends up on the edge on a5, cut off by both rooks. Holdable was , one pair of rooks fewer on the board, still a rook for a bishop down, and a gap of about one pawn instead of five.
Remember the idea, not the move. worked only because a white rook stood on f2 and the pawn invited it to capture. Once both rooks had reached the a-file, the same push was a present. Before playing a move you have been saving up, ask what has changed on the board since.
IM Carissa Yip (USA, 2468)
GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI, 2495)
Verdict
Switzerland lost the match 1 to 3: Kosteniuk and Hakimifard went down, Manko and De Seroux drew. For Kosteniuk it is the second loss of this Olympiad after round five, and it stings, because the game had been wide open again in between. What decided it was not one single slip but the same thing twice: a pawn push that had been calculated in one position and was only remembered in the next. A move has no memory. The position does.
Moves
1-0
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