GM Sebastian Bogner (SUI, 2547) vs IM Sanjin Culum (BIH, 2441) · ½-½
Board 1, Switzerland vs Bosnia and Herzegovina · Sicilian Defence, Modern Variations, Main Line (B54) · 90 minutes for 40 moves, then 30 minutes, plus 30 seconds per move
By Bogner AI Coach AI Coach . This analysis was written by a Bogner Chess AI coach.
Round 10, Switzerland against Bosnia and Herzegovina, the match meant to steady the team after 1 to 3 against Serbia. Sebastian Bogner sat with White on board one against IM Sanjin Culum, a hundred rating points lower, and the half point here is the half point a team on board one does not want to write down: with White against an International Master, the full point is the expected result.
The opening was a Sicilian with , a quiet setup and a small centre. For the fifth round in a row the last five minutes before the time control went into the time control, and this time the outcome changed hands more than once, because both players let it.
The tactical error: 21.Nd3
The move that holds the position is . The bishop goes back to its starting square, covers e4 and keeps the two rooks connected. The main line runs , and there the game sits within a few tenths of a pawn of equality.
What was played was , fourteen minutes of thought, an active-looking move that attacks the knight on c5 as well. It has exactly one problem, and the opponent saw it at once: the bishop on c4 is undefended. After Black stood with the more active rooks, one healthy pawn against two doubled ones, clearly better, a good pawn worse, closer to a pawn and a third. This is not a move-order question, it is a tactical error in the evaluation of the c4 square.
When a minor piece hangs on a square the opponent can take in one move, the defender goes back, not the other piece into the middle. Probably the costliest move of the day, and it was the costliest because it came after a long think, not a fast one.
IM Sanjin Culum (BIH, 2441)
GM Sebastian Bogner (SUI, 2547)
The king walks, the rook waits: 26.Kf2 and 29.Ke2
The position was holdable, but it wanted to be held. The move that does that is , with the idea of taking the b-file before Black doubles on the d-file. The line wins the pawn back and leaves White with active rooks.
Sebastian set off with the king instead: , three moves later , with in between. In a rook ending without queens the active king is right in principle; here it was not, because the black rooks were faster. After the game stood two pawns worse and the king sat in the middle of the black rooks.
In a worse position, piece activity comes before king activity. First the rook that defends its own pawns, then the king that follows. Play it the other way round and you play fast, but you have not stopped anything.
IM Sanjin Culum (BIH, 2441)
GM Sebastian Bogner (SUI, 2547)
Two errors in four moves: 33.Rb1 and 34...Kf8
The best move was , the king to the only safe square it still has, and the main line shows how White holds the rooks active and can still defend. Sebastian played , and the rook that had been covering the c-pawn from c1 left the square: took it at once.
Two moves later came the chance that pulled the game back. After Black stood objectively a good two pawns better, and the move that turns that into a win is . The line shows the black rooks following the white king into the corner, and there the position is strategically decided. What was played was , a safety move with three minutes thirty-eight on the clock, and the advantage was back around half a pawn.
The move is exactly the move one has to see in this position, and with three minutes it is very hard to see. Culum played what humans play under time pressure: the king out of the way, then look further. For White it was the second round in a row where the opponent was the first to spend the time he had been handed.
IM Sanjin Culum (BIH, 2441)
GM Sebastian Bogner (SUI, 2547)
The rook belongs on h7: 36.Rxh7 instead of 36.Rxe6
The one move that objectively keeps the position within the half point is . The rook takes the kingside pawn, and White holds on to the h4 pawn as a counterweight. The main line shows how the rook trade balances the position: a rook ending that is holdable in spite of the material, because the h-pawn and the active white rook compensate.
Sebastian took the pawn in the middle: , the move a human plays because it gives the own king air without giving up the passed pawn. Objectively the position after was a good two pawns worse, and the reason is plain: the white rook on e6 attacks nothing, while the h7 pawn is left standing.
Practically the move did not lose the game. Culum played , the move that looks as though it wins everything and is exactly the move that levels the position. The objectively winning move was , with the idea of taking the second rank only after the king move. After that the game was drawn, and the moves followed almost by themselves.
The lesson stays anyway: when defending, take the pawn whose capture pulls the attackers further from your king, not the one that opens a file the king already stands on.
IM Sanjin Culum (BIH, 2441)
GM Sebastian Bogner (SUI, 2547)
Verdict
Half a point with White on board one against an International Master a hundred points lower, and the game could have gone differently at four places, twice for White and twice for Black. Sebastian lost objective control on move twenty-one, from move twenty-six he stood in a position that looked two pawns worse, played it on with the king in the middle, and on move thirty-six he did not find the only save . That the game still ended in a draw was down to a calculation by the opponent that pointed the same way on move thirty-four and on move thirty-seven: the king out of the way instead of the rook onto the second rank.
For the fifth round in a row the clock carried its last five minutes into the time control, and for the first time in that run the opponent was the one to walk into it first. For Sebastian a half point one gives up on board one differently, and for the team a half point one takes with both hands in a round after a 1 to 3.
Moves
½-½
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