Vazquez vs Georgiadis

The Catalan Open Defence runs on an old accounting: Black takes the pawn on c4 on move six, and White collects it back with the knight to a3. The standard reply is 7...Bxa3, bishop for knight, so White must recapture with the pawn and double the a-pawns.

Nico played it in twenty-two seconds. The price is the bishop pair; the return is the doubled pawns on a2 and a3 that stand for the rest of the game, and the c-file that is open for the black rook. The move is the main line here, and Nico wanted the type of position it produces: a middlegame with two small imbalances, in which both sides have work to do.

The rule reaches further than the Catalan: when a knight is sent to the wing to fetch a pawn, bishop for knight is usually the right answer as soon as the recapture damages the white structure. A pawn that stands doubled works less than a pawn that stands on its own, and the difference is usually worth more than the bishop given for it.

After the double rook trade on the a- and the b-file the position stood at zero, and Black had two natural moves: 21...Qxc5, the queen trade from his own hand, or 21...Na4, which attacks the white queen and leaves the queen trade to the opponent.

Nico chose 21...Na4 after fourteen minutes. The move is no great sin, but it is the worse of the two. After 22.Qxd6 cxd6 23.Rxb7 White has the b-pawn in hand, and Black needs six precise moves to fetch back the white a-pawn: 23...Bc6 24.Rb4 Nc3, then 25.Nd2 d5 26.exd5 exd5 27.Bf3 Nxa2. In the main line 21...Qxc5 22.dxc5 Na4 23.Rxb7 Rc8 24.Ne5 the position sits level with the pawns on c5 and on a2 as mutual targets, and Black does not have to fetch back what he never gave up.

What separates the two moves is a good third of a pawn, so little. What separates the clock is more: after 21...Na4 Nico stood at ten minutes for the last nineteen moves, and the thirty-second increment begins to count in this kind of position. The rule for such crossroads: when two plausible moves lie on the board and the clock runs without a decision falling, the simpler continuation is usually the right one. The trade Black plays is the trade Black controls.

From 22.Qxd6 onward Nico had one plan: the knight back to a2 via c3, the bishop to c6 against the white rook, the pawn to d5 against the white centre. Six moves, all of them the strongest, and on move twenty-seven the account stands: 27...Nxa2 fetches the pawn back, and the position is level again.

The move looks unspectacular, but it is the reply to 21...Na4. What Black gave up in structure six moves earlier, he wins back here. After 27...Nxa2 both sides have four pawns, the black bishop on c6 stands on an open diagonal, the white rook on b6 finds no target, and the game is ripe for the repetition.

The rule for defending after a disadvantage of your own making: the material you lost is the account you have to close before you think about the next target. The knight that moved for six moves around the white a-pawn is the account Nico closed.

From move twenty-nine onward the pieces shuttled around zero: the white knight from f3 to f1 to e3, the white rook from b3 to b6 and back, the black knight from a2 to c3 to e4. None of it was random, and both sides could see that neither wanted to take the first step out of balance.

Nico played 33...Ne4, the move that put the position on the board a second time, and Vazquez answered 34.Rb6. With that both shook hands. The black clock showed 4:30, the white one 18:06.

The rule for repetition is an old one: when the material counts, the pieces defend each other, and the opponent offers the repetition, you take it on the second occurrence. You do not go looking for the one move that shifts the balance, because it is not there, and the search costs the clock you have not yet spent in this round.