WIM Sofiia Hryzlova (SUI, 2254) vs WFM Sara Jacimovic (BIH, 2002) · 1-0
Board 1, Switzerland vs Bosnia and Herzegovina, women’s event · King’s Indian Attack (A05) · 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 9 of the women’s event, board 1: WIM Sofiia Hryzlova with White against WFM Sara Jacimovic from Bosnia and Herzegovina. On the rating list White is two hundred and fifty points ahead, but the moment the clock starts, that stops counting. Board one is board one, a half point here weighs more in a team match than anywhere else, and the hall always watches the woman at the top table a little more closely. The opening was quiet, a reversed King’s Indian Attack: , , , and the bishop was already looking down the long diagonal.
On the fourth move the clock stopped for seven minutes and thirty-eight seconds. What followed is a game in four chapters: a wing thrust, two quiet centre moves that did not punch, a bishop retreat that Black did not accept, and a knight that collected everything Black had on that side, one square at a time on a5, b7 and c5.
Seven minutes for 4.b4
After the question was how White develops the fianchetto setup further. Almost three quarters of players at this level simply castle short here and the game slips into English waters. Sofiia Hryzlova took seven minutes and thirty-eight seconds for another move: , a wing thrust before any central hit.
is not a catastrophe. A comfortable starting position turns into a slightly awkward one, because the pawn commits White to further wing moves ( to stop ...a5) before the c2 and e2 pawns have gone anywhere. The straight answer to was : a pawn given up for a move or two, in return for the setup of the reversed King’s Indian Attack in place and the pawn fetched back on one of the next moves.
The lesson: a quiet wing pawn move played before the centre is settled has to answer a specific question about the opponent’s position. Whatever White meant to collect here was nowhere to grab in the moves that followed. The eight minutes on the clock are the price for the answer not being on the board yet.
WFM Sara Jacimovic (BIH, 2002)
WIM Sofiia Hryzlova (SUI, 2254)
Two quiet moves: 13.Ba3 and 14.Rac1
For twelve moves everything went by plan: the bishop on g2, the king safe, the c4 pawn fetched back by , and with Black had committed to keeping the long diagonal open. The white position is tidy, and the question is simply which pawn to let speak next.
The straight answer is : the central pawn takes the square from the f6 knight, opens the road for the c1 bishop and begins to turn space into threats. The game saw , the bishop leaving the long diagonal and settling on a square where it stares at a d6 pawn that is not there yet. Thirteen minutes and eighteen seconds later followed, and the move points the same way: the rook heads for a file where nothing stands. and continue the tidying, and for another fourteen minutes and twenty-two seconds are spent without a single new pressure point on the black position. A clear, comfortable position turns into a small, cosy one.
The practical impulse is understandable: White wants every piece on its best square before making the break. Objectively the break has teeth precisely when the black pieces are still looking for something. Once the minor pieces are placed, the pawns decide, and sorting the rooks after development is finished, instead of letting a pawn speak, gives the opponent the time to organise for herself.
WFM Sara Jacimovic (BIH, 2002)
WIM Sofiia Hryzlova (SUI, 2254)
The trade that did not come: 18...Bg7 and 19.Na5
looks like a retreat, but it is an offer: the bishop stands in the way of its black counterpart and invites the trade. The practical move for Black is ; White stays a touch better after that, but Black plays on without any structural damage. The bishop on g7 had been guarding the kingside, and many players do not like to give it up.
does not accept the offer, and with that the game turns. The white bishop is alive, and the c4 knight is free to do what it was placed there for: , a move barely three players in a hundred at this level find. It attacks b7, and because Black cannot cover the square any more, follows, played in nine seconds, a clean pawn on the account.
Black played , and White had the finest sequence of the afternoon: blocks both black knights on the same move (it attacks d7 and e4 at once), is the only defence that holds, recaptures. The pawn on c5 lies across Black’s chest, the b7 pawn is on the account, and the comfortable white position of ten moves earlier is a clearly winning one now. Black had spent fourteen minutes on alone, and the arithmetic never came together again after that.
The lesson: when your opponent offers a bishop trade, the question is not whether you want the bishop but what the piece behind it does on its new square. Behind waited a knight on c4 that had to be calculated three jumps ahead; the bishop on g7 was pretty, but at the wrong end of the board.
WFM Sara Jacimovic (BIH, 2002)
WIM Sofiia Hryzlova (SUI, 2254)
The wobble and the answer: 26.Qd3 and 27.e4
After the game almost played itself. asks the e4 knight the question, , a pawn up, a clearly better structure, every piece on the square White wants it on.
Move twenty-six is the one place White lets the thread slip a little into the wrong hand: ?! puts the queen in front of her own rook instead of doubling on the d-file straight away with . A slice of the advantage goes with the move. But because Black seals her own position further with and , the nuance is handed back at once: finally puts down the pawn that had not, and the rook has its way in with .
The rest is administration. places the second rook on the same file, sharpens the queen trade, sweeps the black rook off, puts the bishop on the right diagonal. Black plays with six minutes left, the white reserve stands at sixteen. leaves the more direct alone, and when Black, with four minutes and eleven seconds on the clock, chooses instead of the tougher (the queen attacks its counterpart but no longer covers e6 along the c4-e6 diagonal), White reaches in nine seconds: wins the rook for the e4 pawn that takes back. and clear the two queen checks, and with that the game was over.
The lesson is in the clock reading: nine seconds for , because the arithmetic had been standing for a while. To spend one more move looking for a better square for the queen in a clearly winning position, instead of playing the move already in the plan, is to hand a piece of the lead back. This morning the lead was large enough to carry the price.
WFM Sara Jacimovic (BIH, 2002)
WIM Sofiia Hryzlova (SUI, 2254)
Verdict
Sofiia Hryzlova took the point on board 1 she had been sent for, and never let it out of her hand again. A quiet opening with the one long think on move four, a stretch of tidying moves without a central pawn, a bishop retreat that her opponent did not accept, then the clean harvest with the three knight jumps to a5, b7 and c5, and at the end a rook for a pawn. For her it is the second White win of this Olympiad, taken on a board where she had not sat in Samarkand before. Anyone playing the reversed King’s Indian Attack takes away the old advice: once development is finished, the pawns are what speak, and no tidying moves in between.
Moves
1-0
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