GM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus (TUR, 2716) vs GM Sebastian Bogner (SUI, 2547) · 1-0
Board 1, Switzerland vs Türkiye · Queen's Gambit Declined, Semi-Tarrasch Defence (D41)
By Professor Zugzwang AI Coach . This analysis was written by a Bogner Chess AI coach.
Round six, board one, Switzerland against Türkiye, both teams arriving on eight match points. Sebastian Bogner had Black against GM Yağız Kaan Erdoğmuş, fifteen years old, rated 2716, world number 26 and since May the youngest player in history to cross 2700. What appeared on the board was the Semi-Tarrasch, the quietest way of asking for equality with Black: symmetrical pieces, an isolated pawn on d5 and no secrets.
For fifty moves the Swiss was the better player. On move 38 his opponent gave up a pawn, on move 45 a second one, and by move 50 Bogner was two pawns up and winning, with a little over three minutes on his clock. Two moves later the game was lost.
Only one square for the queen: 22...Qxg4
With White opened the h-file and accepted doubled pawns on g2 and g4 for it. After came , and from there the knight aims at three points at once: the queen on e6, the pawn on g6 and the pawn on d5. The queen has to move, and exactly one of her squares is any good.
takes the pawn no white piece defends and keeps the position level. The comfortable retreat costs a good pawn. And loses on the spot: the black king is out in the open, a good three pawns worse.
After White has the pawn back and material is level. The habit that finds this is a simple one: when a piece is attacked, look at the squares it can capture on before you look at its retreat squares. The capture is not played here because it wins a pawn but because it is the only move that holds.
GM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus (TUR, 2716)
GM Sebastian Bogner (SUI, 2547)
The chance was on the e-file: 27...Re8
would have kept the position level. puts rook and queen on the same file with only White’s own e3 pawn between them, and that pawn is already attacked by the black knight on c4. A player standing like this has no free choices for the next few moves.
adds the third piece to the file and is worth a good pawn: . The game went , a sensible move in the wrong place, and after the position was level again.
When your opponent lines up two heavy pieces on one file, the move that occupies that file comes before any improvement to your own pawns. You do not have to calculate the pin to the end. It is enough that he has to.
GM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus (TUR, 2716)
GM Sebastian Bogner (SUI, 2547)
The king walks towards the knight: 40...Kg6
The first pawn had already gone: after the imprecise , the move was the best White had left. continues in the same direction. With the deficit would have stayed small; after the check it is a good full pawn.
is the only move that holds on to it. The king steps in front of the knight and attacks it, nothing defends the knight, and White has to move it again at once: . Any other king square lets the knight into f6 and gives everything back: , and the position is level.
The instinct when checked is to pick the safest square. Check first whether the checking piece has a retreat at all. If it has none, the king move that walks towards it is often the strongest, however uncomfortable it looks. The game went , and Black stood about two pawns better.
The player on this move 1:32 in German
Sebastian Bogner on the king move: the queen and rook are doubled on the seventh, but f7 is covered by the knight and the queen — which is why was, in his words, not a difficult moment. The knight on h5 has no square, White has to play and weakens himself doing it. Plus why the g4 pawn cannot be taken straight away, and what it means to reach move 40 after twenty moves of mutual time trouble.
GM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus (TUR, 2716)
GM Sebastian Bogner (SUI, 2547)
A pawn up, you trade: 43...Rxa6
attacks the rook on f6, and the trade comes with a tempo for White: is check. It is the best move anyway, and barely one player in five at this level picks it. A pawn up you trade pieces, not pawns, and a check your opponent collects on the way does not count as long as your king has a square afterwards: .
On move 44 Black offered the queen trade with , and White declined. would have kept the deficit at one pawn. After the move collected the second pawn and attacked the rook on e3 from g4 into the bargain. From here Black’s position was worth a good three pawns.
The queen is the piece a player short of material can still do something with. So when you are behind you take the queen trade even when the resulting position looks dry. Dry is precisely the other side’s problem.
GM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus (TUR, 2716)
GM Sebastian Bogner (SUI, 2547)
Two pawns up, three minutes: 50...g4
White has two pawns left, both on the kingside. There is nothing at all on the queenside, which makes the pawn on b5 the most important unit on the board: every step it takes ties white pieces to watching it. keeps about two pawns of advantage: .
is a move on the wing where there is nothing to win. It changes nothing about who guards the b-pawn and hands White the time he was missing; after nothing of the two extra pawns would have been left. White played , and the advantage was back: , and Black has four pawns for the knight and a clearly better position.
ends the game. There followed , and the rook builds a mating net: mate. The rook guards h6 so the king may not capture, the knight on g3 takes f5 away from him, and f6 and f7 are occupied by his own pieces. The only answer is , and White stands about four pawns better. Six moves later it was over.
The player on this move 1:19 in German
Sebastian Bogner on this exact position: with he wanted to weaken the e4 pawn in advance and collect it later, and missed that h6 goes weak for it — Qd2, Qh8, and his pieces are stuck. Plus the part that is not above: that three moves earlier would have settled the game, and what he thinks went wrong in that moment.
GM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus (TUR, 2716)
GM Sebastian Bogner (SUI, 2547)
Verdict
Against the second 2700 opponent of this olympiad, a winning Swiss position stood on board one for fifty moves. It did not come from a combination but from two moves that had no alternative: in the middlegame and after a knight check that most players answer by running the other way. It was lost on two moves in three minutes, and both belong to the same pattern: a pawn move on the wing where the opponent has nothing, and a queen move that missed a mating net. The lesson for your own games is not about calculation but about order: two pawns up and short of time, push the pawn your opponent cannot reach, and simplify while there is still time to do it.
Moves
1-0
Was this analysis useful?