De Seroux vs Sihite

The position is exactly level. Black’s knight has just returned to b7 to reroute through d8 to e6, and the other one stands on g5 offering the exchange. De Seroux has two moves in front of her, one with a pawn, the other with a piece. Eleven minutes and thirty-one seconds of thought later, the piece came: 18.Bd1, the bishop returns to its starting square to travel on to e2.

The stronger move was the pawn: 18.d4. After 18.d4 a5 19.Nxg5 Qxg5 20.Qxg5 hxg5, all four minor pieces are gone, the white pawn stands in the middle, and the black knight’s trip to b7 ends unemployed. The difference is structural and worth close to a pawn. After 18.Bd1 the central pawn stayed on d3, and the black knight received with 18...a5 19.Nc2 Nc5 20.Be2 Na4 the three moves it had been missing.

A central pawn break has a shelf life. As long as the enemy pieces have not reached the squares from which they answer it, the break is the move that changes the position. One move later Na4 is on the board, and the same idea costs half a pawn more. The bishop move is always still available. The pawn move is not.

The black knight on g5 has been offering the trade since move sixteen. The white knight on f3 can take it at any time; each move that it does not, Black gains half a tempo. The clear move was 22.Nxg5. After 22.Nxg5 Qxg5 23.Qxg5 hxg5 two pairs of minor pieces are off the board and the white position has no weaknesses.

The game saw 22.Nh4, the knight sidesteps to the rim. The square looks at f5 and g6 but attacks nothing that was not defended already. The strongest reply for Black was the sequence 22...c5 23.Nf3 Nxf3+ 24.Bxf3, which makes the knight tour retroactively pointless and leaves Black with a clamping pawn on c5 that was not there before. The game went 22...g6 instead, also a small inaccuracy, and De Seroux was allowed to trace her steps back with 23.Ne1, a retreat no c5 pawn blocks.

A trade the opponent has been offering for four moves is a resource, not an obligation. But the fifth move is not the moment to walk your own piece to a rim where it reaches nothing. If you do not want to take the trade, play the move that puts your own knight better, not the one that puts it worse.

Between moves twenty-seven and thirty-five both clocks emptied out and one capture followed another on the board. The a4 pawn arrived, the b3 pawn arrived, 29.d4 b3 30.axb3 axb3 31.dxc5 bxc2 32.Rc1 Rxb2 33.cxd6 Qxd6 34.Qxe5 Qb8 are all forced. Both queens spend three moves each attacking something that is no longer there. White found the move that keeps the calculation intact every single time.

With 34...Qb8 Black offered the queen trade, and De Seroux took it: 35.Qxb8 Rfxb8, and the position is queenless and materially level. Five pawns each, rook and knight against rook and bishop, the black c2 pawn is a passer on the second rank, and the white pieces stand so that it does not come through. Thirty-six seconds on the white clock, twelve minutes nineteen on the black.

In time trouble the forcing sequence is not the shortcut but the road. Every non-forced move is a fresh decision; a forced one is calculated once and then played. Anyone tracing the position from move twenty to move thirty-five sees a run of small slips on otherwise bright squares; anyone watching only the last eight sees a calculation that should have broken on the white clock and did not.

The only move that holds the balanced position is 36.Ne1. From e1 the knight goes to c2 and picks up the passer. After 36.Ne1 c5 37.Rxc2 Rxc2 38.Nxc2 both rooks are off, the c-pawn is gone, and the remaining position is knight against bishop with equal pawns. Find the move, hold the draw. Less than a minute on the clock, and De Seroux spent twenty-six seconds of it before playing Nd2.

Nd2 also moves into the centre, but it no longer covers c2. The passer stays alive, and Black’s rook finds the third rank with 36...Be6 37.Kf2 Rd8 38.Ke1 Rd3, attacking the c3 and e3 pawns at the same time. 39.c4 tried to save one; after 39...Bg4 40.Nf3 Bxf3 41.gxf3 Rxe3+ 42.Kd2 Rxf3, three pawns were gone in four moves. A level position had become a lost endgame.

A passed pawn on the second rank is the pivot of the position. In time trouble the piece move that reaches it next move is the move that holds. Any other square gives up the pawn, and in a rook ending with a live passer, the side without it plays for the half point, if that.

The ten moves after the knight move were Sisyphean: 44.Rxc2 collected the black passer, 47.Rxc6 collected the second pawn, but the structure went with them. By move forty-eight Black was three pawns ahead, and on the same move 48...Re4 put the rook on the one square where it stood in the way of its own advantage.

The move that saves the game is 49.e6. After 49.e6 Rxe6 50.Rxe6 fxe6 51.c5 White is still two pawns down, but the c-pawn sets off, and the black rooks have to stop it before they can think about their own pawns. The position is practically level. Five minutes and twenty seconds on the white clock, enough time for the calculation, and De Seroux played 49.Rc5, the rook that defends the e5 pawn.

The difference is the passed pawn. After 49.Rc5 h5 the black h-pawn set off, and three moves later it stood on h3. Before any decision in a rook ending: which pawn reaches the eighth rank first, and who is waiting for it there? A rook defending a pawn wins no race. A pawn running for the queening square does.