IM Rijad Burovic (BIH, 2414) vs GM Peng Li Min (SUI, 2568) · 1-0
Board 2, Switzerland vs Bosnia and Herzegovina · Italian Game, Two Knights Defence, Modern System with 4.d3 (C55) · 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 ten, board two for Switzerland. Peng Li Min with Black against IM Rijad Burovic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a hundred and fifty-four rating points below him, in a match where the upper boards have to bring something back for the team. On board two on a day like this the job is easy to name: do not lose, win if possible.
For fourteen moves the position stood at zero, a quiet Italian with , and the whole set of small moves this system offers. Then came , and after that every long think went the wrong way: eleven minutes for the wrong bishop on move twenty, twenty-one minutes for the wrong king move on move twenty-three. In round nine the twenty-eight-minute think had still produced the one right move; here two long thinks produced two wrong ones.
The pawn that opens the diagonal: 15...f6
For fourteen moves the game had been well played on both sides. White had the small structural edge that in this line always promises, and Black with had opened the central tension at the right moment and with had brought an active bishop into play. The position was level, and the only open question was how Black would bring the last piece into play. Two bishop moves suggested themselves: or , and either of them is the move.
The move played was , in a little over three minutes. This is a mistake, and one that makes the position clearly worse in a single move. The pawn defends e5 against the bishop on b2, that is true, but it does two things it should not: it develops no piece, and it leaves the a2 to g8 diagonal open, where the white queen wants to come via h5. After the queen is there, the knight on h4 also aims at f5 and g6, and Burovic has an attack that he does not give back for the rest of the game.
The learning is one that gets missed in club play all the time: a pawn move that is supposed to defend a piece and opens a diagonal around your own king on the way is almost never the answer. Ask which piece does the same job first, and only move the pawn when no piece is enough. On b4 or c5 the bishop would have done both, developed and covered the diagonal.
IM Rijad Burovic (BIH, 2414)
GM Peng Li Min (SUI, 2568)
Eleven minutes for the wrong bishop: 20...Bb4
After Black has to move a bishop. The white queen stands on h5 pointing at f7, the white bishop on b5 looks down the c4 to f7 diagonal, and one of Black's pieces has to block that diagonal. The move you make almost on instinct here is : the bishop that has to be defended goes to the square that defends it, and attacks the queen on h5 on the way.
Peng thought for eleven minutes and twenty seconds and played , the other bishop. The move attacks the rook on e1 and looks like it hands out a tempo. The game went on with , and it is plain: the bishop had to go to f7 anyway. The eleven-minute move was a detour for the move that was coming regardless, and in a position where every tempo counts, a detour like that is expensive.
The learning: in a defensive position a move is not to be judged by which square it takes a tempo from, but by whether it solves the problem. The problem here was queen and bishop both on the diagonal to f7, and the only answer to that was the bishop to f7.
IM Rijad Burovic (BIH, 2414)
GM Peng Li Min (SUI, 2568)
Twenty-one minutes for the wrong king move: 23...Kh7
After the position is no longer to be held, but it is not lost yet either. White wants to play Bc4, double-attack the bishop on f7 and break the defence. The move that keeps the position in one piece is : the queen defends f7 from behind, covers the eighth rank and stands next to the bishop that needs the cover. The main line runs , and there Black is clearly worse, but the king is still up, and the pieces are coordinated.
The move played was , a king move, after twenty-one minutes and thirty seconds on the clock. It takes the king out of the possible check on f5, but it does not help the defence anywhere else. After the queen had to go to f8 anyway, only now without the king move as a spare tempo. From here the position falls apart for good: takes two pawns, and after that it is work for White, not calculation.
The learning: in a hard-pressed position the king is only moved when no move is left for the pieces. As long as one of your own pieces can help with one of the defensive tasks, that is the move, not the king that walks to safety and leaves the rest of the position on its own.
IM Rijad Burovic (BIH, 2414)
GM Peng Li Min (SUI, 2568)
Verdict
Round ten, board two, Peng Li Min with Black against an International Master a hundred and fifty-four rating points below him, and a result that hurts the team. Objectively the game was decided on move fifteen, with a pawn move that opened the diagonal to Black's own king. Practically it was never caught up again: eleven minutes for instead of , twenty-one minutes for instead of , and in between a white queen that takes two pawns and picks off the black pieces one after the other. Burovic played the attack from move sixteen onwards calmly and cleanly, that has to be said; the position after offered him the chance and he took it. For Switzerland it is a zero on a board where half a point was expected, and in a team match that is expensive.
Moves
1-0
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