FM Murad Abdulla (SCO, 2323) vs IM Fabian Bänziger (SUI, 2426) · ½-½
Board 4, Switzerland vs Scotland · Sicilian Defence, Najdorf Variation, Freak Attack (B90)
By Professor Zugzwang AI Coach . This analysis was written by a Bogner Chess AI coach.
Round five, board four, Switzerland against Scotland, both teams arriving on six match points. Fabian Bänziger had Black against a FIDE Master rated 2323, and on move six he was shown something you rarely see at this level: a rook move. , catalogued under the splendid name Freak Attack, prepares nothing except the pawn push g4.
Twenty moves later the game was drawn, and from first to last it was about two things, the h-file and the d5 square. Black answered the wing attack in the centre, traded off everything that landed on d5, and accepted the repetition at the end.
The pawn that forbids g4: 7...h5
After White stood a shade under four tenths of a pawn better, a perfectly ordinary opening advantage. After almost none of it was left. On g1 the rook guards no file at all, it simply waits for the pawn in front of it to move, and White pays for that wait with the advantage of the first move.
Almost every Black player answers here and puts the bishop on the square the Najdorf always revolves around. Fabian Bänziger played , a move that about one player in seventy picks at this level. It costs next to nothing, a fraction of a pawn, so it is a matter of taste, and it forbids White the push: after Black is two pawns up with a rook sitting in the middle of the white camp. White had to insert first.
A rook pawn that advances before the opponent invites it is a normal Sicilian device and an unpleasant one to meet in practice. Two questions decide whether it is right: what does it cost in structure, and which move does it take away from the opponent? Here the answer is a fraction of a pawn against a whole tempo, and that is a good trade.
FM Murad Abdulla (SCO, 2323)
IM Fabian Bänziger (SUI, 2426)
The answer is in the centre: 10...d5
With White carried out his plan and gave away what was left of his advantage. The exchange opens the h-file, and a black rook is already sitting on it without having moved once. From here the game was level, and it stayed level to the end.
The move that secures this is . After the centre opens at the exact moment when the white king is still on e1 and the rook on g1 does nothing but defend its own pawn on g4. Everything else lets the g4 pawn keep running: after the knight has to come back from f6 and White is a good pawn better, and , and serve Black no better. At this level about one player in twenty-five picks the break, everybody else develops a piece.
The old rule that a wing attack is answered in the centre is so durable because it can almost always be checked concretely. When your opponent pushes pawns on a wing, look for the lever in the centre first and calculate it. Only when it does not work do you develop a piece and defend.
FM Murad Abdulla (SCO, 2323)
IM Fabian Bänziger (SUI, 2426)
Which piece takes back? 11...Nxd5
Both recaptures look sensible, which is exactly what makes the position dangerous. keeps the balance. loses a piece, and it comes down to simple counting: the knight on c3 and the queen on d1 aim at d5, the knight on f6 and the queen on d8 cover it, two against two. After one of the two defenders is gone, and after that the bishop cannot be held.
The most resilient version runs , and there Black has given a piece for a pawn. About one player in fifteen at this level reaches for the bishop anyway, and it is easy to see why: the knight is well placed on f6, the bishop on e6 has nothing to do, so the bishop takes. That decision counts the pieces aiming at d5 and misses the pawn move that sends a defender away.
The check before any recapture takes ten seconds: who attacks the square, who covers it, and which pawn move changes those two numbers? Here g4 sat one single square away from g5. After the queens were off and the game was cleanly level.
FM Murad Abdulla (SCO, 2323)
IM Fabian Bänziger (SUI, 2426)
The bishop chases the rook: 16.Bb6
The rook on d8 is defended by the king, but a bishop that takes a rook wins the exchange even so, and the rook has to move. steps onto the square the bishop reaches from c5, and that settles the route: , and the position stands on the board for the third time. The bishop shuttles between two diagonals, the rook between two squares, and neither can do the other any harm.
Two thirds of players choose here, and the bishop reaches that square from neither diagonal. The difference to is a fraction of a pawn, so this is not a mistake but a decision. There was something left to play for: after the rook takes aim at the g4 pawn, and in the pawn structure White has three against two on the queenside while Black has three against two on the kingside. Both kings stand on the queenside, where any advance opens your own position first.
Before you accept a repetition in a level position, list what is still in it. Two things, an open file and a majority on the opposite wing, are enough for another twenty moves. If nothing comes to mind, the half point is honest work rather than a concession.
FM Murad Abdulla (SCO, 2323)
IM Fabian Bänziger (SUI, 2426)
Verdict
Twenty moves, not one mistake, half a point with Black. The substance of the game sits between moves seven and eleven: forbade the push g4 until White had prepared it with , answered it in the centre, and was the recapture that holds. Click through the game quickly and you see a short draw; stop at move eleven and you see the work behind it. That Fabian Bänziger accepted the repetition on board four against an opponent a good hundred rating points below him was a question of the match as a whole: the other three boards against Scotland were still running at the time.
Moves
½-½
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