GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI, 2495) vs WFM Milana Babic (BIH, 2196) · 1-0
Board 1, Switzerland vs Bosnia and Herzegovina, women’s event · Caro-Kann Defence, Two Knights Attack, Mindeno Variation, Exchange Line (B11) · 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, Switzerland against Bosnia and Herzegovina. GM Alexandra Kosteniuk sat on board one with White against WFM Milana Babic, and for once the plus sign stood on the Swiss side of the table: a good three hundred rating points of it, after two rounds where it had been the other way around. After one win, three draws and two losses, the team on board one was waiting for a full point.
The game had two faces. To move twenty-three, White built the position up with a long run of best moves; the black king stood on the queenside in the crossfire of a pawn storm. Then came , and the advantage broke apart. What decided the game in the end was not the calculation on the near side of the board, but the opponent’s mistake played with seconds on the clock.
The pawn storm builds up: 15.f4 to 20.Bf2
The opening was still open: the bishop on f3 traded itself off for the knight, the queens on the queenside did not quite come off the board, and by move fifteen the question was where the white king would go. kept it open and asked a question in the centre. The answer was , and with it the black king had the address c8 before the white one had any at all.
From here Kosteniuk played six moves in a row that were each the best on the board: clears the d1 to h5 diagonal, makes the queenside the direction of play, keeps the queen on the one diagonal that points at h5 without leaving the king on e1, and and lift the bishop above her own back rank. Together the picture reads: all four white minor pieces point at the queenside, the b4 pawn opens the account, the c2 pawn is waiting for c3 and for the black chain to break.
The old rule behind the whole setup is that you play on the wing your own pawn chain points at, and that you do not castle where the enemy pawns have already set off. When was played, was not on the board yet, but the white pawns were standing in a way that said it was coming. If you castle long, the next three of your opponent’s pawn moves are not something you can guess, they are something you have to count.
WFM Milana Babic (BIH, 2196)
GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI, 2495)
A long think, the wrong move: 24.Bg3
Between and there was a short exchange that gave a pawn back to Black and brought White the bishop on h4; the picture from the previous diagram stayed in place, only the white queen on f4 now also aimed at f7. The way to convert was easy to name: bring the rooks into the game, then run the c2 pawn to c3, then press.
was the move: the rook takes the e-file, the white pieces stand together, and the advantage stays at a pawn and a half. Second best was , third . What came, after eight minutes of thought, was , a modest move meant to press a rook locally. It is a tactical mistake in the literal sense: a clearly better position turned into one where both sides had their chances.
The human explanation is that looks like it has a concrete point; the objective one runs differently: a move that costs eight minutes is rarely the one that only carries on with what already stands well. When a think runs that long, ask first whether there is a forced win; when there is none, play the useful move, not the ambitious one.
WFM Milana Babic (BIH, 2196)
GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI, 2495)
One in-between move too many: 26...Nxd3
After the best move was : the rook steps aside, attacks the h4 bishop, and hands the g-file to the doubled rook. What came was , then , and both belong to the inaccuracies you can hardly punish one at a time; the move for White was , but the more important number was the clock, which stood at a good twenty-five minutes for White and a good nine for Black.
After and the combination that levels the game for Black was waiting: , with two pawns to Black and a position where White’s queen check makes up for the difference and the evaluation is back around the balance. What was played was , and then the same rook sacrifice a half-move later: .
The difference is a single move, and it decides the arithmetic. Without , the double blow against the king gives up material for a pawn and activity; with , the d3 bishop comes off first, and the same sequence turns into two rooks for two bishops and two pawns. When you start a combination, you start with the most forcing move you have; a quiet-looking in-between move before it can cost the whole trick.
After that finished the accounting: White stood with rook against bishop and one pawn more, clearly winning, and the rest of the game was only about the clock.
WFM Milana Babic (BIH, 2196)
GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI, 2495)
The blunder with seconds on the clock: 34...b5
After Kosteniuk held her clock, Babic did not: from move thirty-one Black was under five minutes, from move thirty-three under one. Even so, the position after the rooks came off on f3 still had defensive resources: keeps the b7 pawn standing as the guard in front of the king, and the black queen still has moves that bring her back to help defend it.
What came was , and with it the a-file opened for White. came with tempo (the c6 pawn hung to the rook), and , , , , followed in turn. The in-between exchange cleared the queenside, put the last black pawn on b2 under watch, and the promotion with was a formality. What stands out in the closing sequence is the h4 pawn: it walked four moves untouched, because no black guard ever came near it.
Passed pawns win when nothing meets them on the way. With Black could have left the guard on b7 and kept the white king busy; after that guard was gone, and the white rook had the address c1 waiting for it. In every pawn race the count is not only how fast your own pawn runs, but what stays standing on the other side.
WFM Milana Babic (BIH, 2196)
GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI, 2495)
Verdict
From the outside a clean win on board one, and Kosteniuk’s first full point since round two after three draws and two losses. From the inside an honest game: six best moves in a row, a tactical mistake on move twenty-four, and an exchange of chances that the clock in the end sorted out in White’s favour. The lesson of this game does not sit in the "White wins" column, it sits in the order of moves: when the advantage is clear, play the useful move first and the ambitious one afterwards.
Moves
1-0
Was this analysis useful?