WIM Laysa Latifah (INA, 2213) vs WIM Mariia Manko (SUI, 2285) · 0-1
Board 1, Switzerland vs Indonesia, women’s event · Sicilian Defence, Nyezhmetdinov-Rossolimo Attack with 3...e5 (B30) · 90 minutes for 40 moves, then 30 minutes, plus 30 seconds per move
By Professor Zugzwang AI Coach . This analysis was written by a Bogner Chess AI coach.
Round 8 of the women’s event, board 1 for Switzerland against Indonesia. On the top chair today sits WIM Mariia Manko, and across from her WIM Laysa Latifah, rated seventy-two Elo points lower. Nobody arrives on board 1 at an Olympiad by accident, and the number on the pairing list is a piece of information you do not overrate. What this match needs is a full point at the top, so the rest of the team can build on it.
The game began with a Rossolimo and , the sharp answer. Nothing slipped until move seventeen; then the game skidded twice, once on Manko’s clock and once, under real time pressure, on her opponent’s. The turning point sits on move twenty-nine.
The bishop sacrifice on h7: 14.Bxh7+
The d4 pawn has belonged to Black since move eleven; it comes out of the central exchange Manko begins with and finishes with . Two moves later attacks the bishop on d6 and takes the second pawn, which puts the classical question on the board that Rossolimo systems with ...e5 like to ask: is still the sacrifice here, or is the black king in fact well enough looked after.
The answer sits in the material count after the sequence. , and each side has given up a bishop for a pawn; whoever was a pawn ahead going in is a pawn ahead coming out. Black is that side. The only move in the line that had to be calculated was . On h8 the queen holds the h-file, and Manko found the one legal square.
The finer bit follows. lifts the rook to the sixth rank before the white queen finds anything the king cannot solve on its own. From b6 the rook is one move away from g6 or h6, and for an exposed king the rule is not to wait but to bring a piece over. The real work in an accepted bishop sacrifice is done by the third move, not by the two forced ones before it.
WIM Laysa Latifah (INA, 2213)
WIM Mariia Manko (SUI, 2285)
The knight belongs on f5: 17...Bb7 and 18...Rg6?
After the white queen puts itself on a square a black knight can attack. The move is , with tempo against the queen and a second jump that leaves her chasing rather than chased after. Manko thought for nine minutes and twenty-one seconds and played , the solid developing move. The small edge that would have kept is the arithmetic of the other choice; at this level that is taste, not error.
Move eighteen was no longer taste. ?! left the f5 square open where would have held the white king together. The answer was still the same: , and Black plays with two active pieces while White is still assembling a defence. Manko thought for seven minutes and thirteen seconds and played ?, which in the long run wants to eye the g2 pawn but in fact throws the knight’s chance on f5 out of the window.
Two moves, the same idea, twice not played. The small pawn edge sits after ? back where it stood before move seventeen: at nothing. The rule behind it is short and worth keeping. When the enemy queen has landed on a square a knight can attack with tempo, that jump is the move, not the sound developing move next to it.
WIM Laysa Latifah (INA, 2213)
WIM Mariia Manko (SUI, 2285)
The turning point: 29.Bg1?? and 29...axb5??
Between moves twenty-six and twenty-eight White gave the position back move by move: , , , and the clock came down from 14 minutes to 5 minutes to 5 minutes 9 seconds. ?? was played with 3 minutes 30 seconds on the clock and takes the last defender off the f3 pawn. After that move the position is clearly won for Black, and the move that shows it is , and Black wins.
Manko saw ?? and reached for the pawn. ?? takes a pawn on b5 that no white piece can defend properly, and overlooks that comes with a double hit on the b7 bishop and the d5 pawn and restores most of what White had lost: after ?? Black stood only about a pawn ahead, not winning. This was the moment where thirteen minutes against three were plenty of reason to move the queen instead of grabbing the pawn. The loose pawn does not run away; the combination against the white king does.
The second chance came at once. did not come; ?? did, a move without an idea, and the advantage was back. The rule for the pawn that looks like the position: before you take it, ask what your queen is doing. If she sits on the square where the decisive combination starts, the pawn is one notch below the block of dominos about to fall.
WIM Laysa Latifah (INA, 2213)
WIM Mariia Manko (SUI, 2285)
The pawn opens the diagonal: 33...d4
After ?? Manko left the pawn she no longer needed and rerouted the queen. , and the queen sits on a square from which she defends f3 and prepares Nxf3. would have cost a piece and prolonged the game; Latifah chose ?, and after White was on the way to the exit.
is the pretty move. The pawn attacks the queen and at the same time opens the long diagonal the b7 bishop has been eyeing since move seventeen: from b7 to h1 only her own d5 pawn had stood in the way, and one step to d4 cleared it. does take the pawn, but it also puts the bishop on a square where the f3 knight captures it a move later.
The rest Manko finished with a small detour: ? let a forced mate slip ( was the shorter road), and with the queen trade the endgame was still won: fetches the bishop, and ? allowed the mate in eight that brought down. The rule for the central passed pawn that attacks an enemy piece and opens your own diagonal at the same time: it is worth more than it costs itself.
WIM Laysa Latifah (INA, 2213)
WIM Mariia Manko (SUI, 2285)
Verdict
A full point on board 1, and the honest word is that the game could have ended the other way round. Between moves twenty-four and twenty-six White stood clearly better, because ?! did not push the d-pawn forward and the opponent’s clock still had plenty of time; only , and handed the advantage back in three small steps. On the decisive twenty-ninth move the same mistake was played that had already decided the game in round six, this time from the other side of the board: a piece walks away from the duty it had, and the advantage goes with it. And ?? is the second lesson in the same round, this one Manko’s own: whoever reaches for the wrong square in the winning moment turns the combination into a pawn and lets the opponent back in. The rescue this afternoon was called ??. That is how an important team point on board 1 comes about, and that is how honestly one has to look at it in the reckoning.
Moves
0-1
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