Sofija Mimic (BIH, 1961) vs WIM Camille De Seroux (SUI, 2152) · 0-1
Board 2, Switzerland vs Bosnia and Herzegovina, women’s event · Sicilian Defence, Taimanov Variation, Bastrikov System with English Attack (B48) · 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 nine of the women’s event, table seventy-two, Switzerland against Bosnia and Herzegovina. After the loss in round eight the captain rearranged the lineup: Camille De Seroux moves up to board two, with Black against Sofija Mimic, rated close to two hundred Elo below her. What this board is asked to bring in today does not need to be said.
White chose the English Attack against the Taimanov Sicilian, but with short castling: the pawn storm with g4 without the long-castled king that normally makes it safe. That came anyway was part of the plan. From that point on the question was no longer whether Black had an answer, only when she would find it.
Short castle, and g4 anyway
For six moves the opening was still in the book. With and White announced the short castle, and confirmed it. The English Attack in the strict sense needs long castling, so that the white king is out of the line of fire when g4 comes. Without that ingredient the pawn storm turns into a move that opens White’s own king.
was played because it belongs to the picture of the opening. stepped aside, rerouted the knight, arrived on a square no white pawn will ever reach. had to move the bishop out of the knight’s attack: a retreat neither the book nor the attacking system asks for. After that move White had no move left that looked like an attack.
came after ten minutes of thought. The move clears c6 for the c4 knight, so the c4 knight cannot be traded off, and reroutes the other knight through d7 to a better square. That is the human choice. Objectively equal was with tempo. The difference is not on the board but on the clock, and those ten minutes come back later.
Sofija Mimic (BIH, 1961)
WIM Camille De Seroux (SUI, 2152)
The move in the centre: 22...e5, not 22...Bd8
The knight had been on b3 doing little. From d4 it sees half the board. Objectively was not the best move either: , the central break, was the calculation of this position. And opened Black a deeper answer in the centre. asks the knight out of the middle, and Black stands noticeably better, the b7 bishop on the long diagonal, the white king with no pawn cover on the f-file.
was played after ten minutes of thought. The bishop had really been passive on e7, and through d8 to b6 it finds the one detour still open to it. The move is the human choice: it improves a piece rather than punishing a mistake. Only the mistake was there, and it called for the punishment. Objectively was the move by which a clearly better position became a slightly worse one: tactically an error, practically the warmer path.
White found , the move that puts the position back in balance: the c4 knight is chased away, the b3 pawn takes the square from it. . The edge that had handed back was gone. Before you retreat a piece, ask two questions: what has the opponent just done, and does the centre already answer it. On move 22 the answer to was .
Sofija Mimic (BIH, 1961)
WIM Camille De Seroux (SUI, 2152)
The knight to b5: 25.Ndxb5
The size of a piece error is set by what the clock says at the moment. was played with eleven minutes on it: no time trouble, no panic move, a positional decision at a quiet board. The knight goes to a square where it is lost, and the only idea behind the move, cracking the queenside open, does not survive a calculation. A quiet move such as or would have kept the small white edge; the move chosen gave a piece.
takes the pawn back and attacks the queen on c7. From that queen there is exactly one move that attacks two pieces at once: takes a pawn and posts the queen against the c1 bishop along the c-file and the d1 rook along the diagonal. White has one move, then one of the two pieces falls.
, the counter-attack, hits the e8 rook and the b7 bishop: the practical defence, trading piece for piece rather than losing one. solves everything in a single move: the pawn attacks the queen on g4, shuts the g2 bishop out, and opens the b7 bishop along the long diagonal. After the board holds a black passed pawn on e4, a queen that threatens three squares at once, and a pair of white bishops on defensive duty. Anyone who parts with the b7 bishop should have a reason; here there were three.
Sofija Mimic (BIH, 1961)
WIM Camille De Seroux (SUI, 2152)
Two minutes, and every move holds
From here to the end Black has eight minutes of thinking left across six moves. White has less, and White has the worse position. In this situation the move you already see counts for more than the move you still have to look for.
puts the knight on a square that attacks the f4 pawn and blocks the d-file against the white rook. defends the pawn and attacks the knight again; takes the pawn and, in passing, attacks the h3 bishop. stepped aside. walked deeper into the position; traded the knight for the rook and left a passed pawn on d3 that only the bishop could stop. collected the next pawn.
Almost every one of those moves stood in the calculation as the first or second choice, and none had to be taken back. Two smaller inaccuracies fell in between, had left unplayed and came before the cleaner , both irrelevant at this point, the game had been decided long before. After White resigned. In real time trouble the chain of moves whose next step you already see is worth more than the search for the one best move. Nd5, Nxf4, Nd3, Rxd3, exd3, Qxb3, Qd5+ were exactly such a chain.
Sofija Mimic (BIH, 1961)
WIM Camille De Seroux (SUI, 2152)
Verdict
A full point with Black on board two against a lower-rated opponent is the answer that was already on the pairings sheet after an avoidable loss the round before. On move 22 the position was waiting for a move in the centre, and that it was overlooked for ten minutes is this game’s mistake; that everything after held is its merit. The rule that has come up in several rounds this week, before moving a piece, ask what it is doing where it stands, showed up here from the other side: before moving a piece, ask what the position expects of it. On the clock it was the fourth time scramble of the week, and the first that ended without anything given back.
Moves
0-1
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