GM Isik Can (TUR, 2569) vs GM Peng Li Min (SUI, 2568) · ½-½
Board 3, Switzerland vs Türkiye · Four Knights Game, Spanish Variation, Rubinstein Variation (C48)
By Professor Zugzwang AI Coach . This analysis was written by a Bogner Chess AI coach.
Round six, board three, Switzerland against Türkiye, both teams arriving on eight match points. Peng Li Min had Black against a grandmaster rated 2569, a single rating point above him, and got the Four Knights on the board. With he chose the Rubinstein Variation, handed over a pawn for a moment, and took it straight back.
What followed was not a draw to order. From move twenty-one Black was worse, after twenty-six moves White stood a pawn and a half better and one quiet king move away from a very pleasant position. The king move never came, and Black had exactly one move that held the game.
Take first, save two moves: 10...Bxg4
Two players out of three at this level capture here without a second thought, and they are right. After both light squared bishops are gone, the black queen stands on the square she wants anyway, and Black is a good third of a pawn better: the d4 pawn attacks the knight on c3, and the knight on b4 eyes c2 and d3.
The move played was . The trade happened anyway, only on White’s terms: . The rook check forced the bishop to e7, and with White announced Ng3, which would have hit the queen on f5, so back she went. The queen needed three moves for a journey of one, and a small edge for Black had turned into a small edge for White, about half a pawn in all.
The rule cuts against instinct, which is why I state it plainly: when you are offered a trade you want anyway, capture first. The recapture is then your opponent’s problem and not yours. A piece that reaches by detour the square it could have reached in one move has handed over two tempi.
GM Isik Can (TUR, 2569)
GM Peng Li Min (SUI, 2568)
The queen trade Black declines: 21...Ne7
Objectively this is close to level; it is unpleasant for one side only. The d4 pawn is fixed in front of the white pawn on d3 and has to be watched, the bishop on f8 has no job yet, and the white queen reaches squares the black queen cannot.
Two moves hold the position together, and both do the same thing: they take the queens off. attacks the queen and trades her off, and after that nothing has happened. offers the trade at once and costs a third of a pawn, which is also holdable.
The move played was , and the queens stayed on. put the white queen behind the black pawns, and from there the plan is simple: push the h pawn, follow with b2-b4, shuttle the queen along the eighth rank. Black traded the knights with and was left with a bishop on f8 that had not moved since move seventeen. The difference to is about two thirds of a pawn, and that is no longer a matter of taste.
When you are the slightly worse side and your opponent’s queen is the only piece with open lines, trading queens is not timidity, it is the move. Do not ask which of your own pieces you are missing, ask which of your opponent’s is doing the damage, and offer that one the trade.
GM Isik Can (TUR, 2569)
GM Peng Li Min (SUI, 2568)
One square holds the game: 27...Qe2
White has been dictating since move twenty-one, and the advantage is not a mood, it is a threat: bxc5. A waiting move loses on the spot: leaves White a whole piece up. The reason sits in the bishop move to b4: it attacks the queen on c5, and behind her on the same diagonal stands the bishop on f8.
is the only move that survives this, and it survives by counterattack. From e2 the queen hits the bishop on d2 and the pawn on c2, and both are undefended; the grab leaves Black with a piece for a pawn. So the bishop has to move, and the best square is f4. From f4 it can no longer reach b4, and the whole idea is dead: is an honest trade. The queen returns to e7 every time because from there she covers b7 along the seventh rank, which is why does not exist.
So the game hung on one square. instead of would have covered e2, the bishop would have stayed on d2, Black would have had no active move left, and White would have stayed a pawn and a half better. How narrow the path was shows in the second choice: is more than two pawns worse. About one player in eight at this level finds here.
For the worse side: do not look for the best defensive move, look for the square from which your strongest piece attacks two undefended targets at once. For the better side, and this is the more expensive lesson: before you improve your queen, check whether a king move does more. looks like nothing and takes away your opponent’s only chance in the game.
GM Isik Can (TUR, 2569)
GM Peng Li Min (SUI, 2568)
Who is guarding d4? 34...Qc6
Material equal, queens and bishops, six pawns each, and exactly one weakness on the board: the black pawn on d4. The queen on d5 holds it, and as long as she stands there White has nothing.
took the defender away. After material would be level again, but White would stand a good half pawn better: his bishop sits in the centre, the black one still sits on f8. White played , and the chance was gone: collected the pawn on c2, and after that there was nothing left in the position.
The black queen did the rest by finding the right square. brought her to c6, where she guards b7 and takes d5 away from White. When White made a passed pawn with , it could not take a single step: d5 belongs to the queen and d8 to the bishop, which finally entered the game with . After the draw was agreed.
The most common mistake in a queen ending never looks like a mistake: the queen goes to a more active square and leaves something undefended behind her. Before every queen move, count what she is currently guarding and whether it is still guarded afterwards. With two pieces a side, the queen is almost always the only defender there is.
GM Isik Can (TUR, 2569)
GM Peng Li Min (SUI, 2568)
Verdict
Half a point with Black against 2569, and one that was work. Peng Li Min gave away about half a pawn on move ten, declined the queen trade on move twenty-one, and after twenty-six moves stood a pawn and a half worse, in a position where one quiet king move would have kept that advantage for White. The king move never came, came, and Black found , the only move that holds the position. He then brought the ending home, with a wobble on move thirty-four that White did not punish. On board three of an olympiad team the job is not to win every game, it is to hold the bad ones. The match against Türkiye was still undecided when this game finished.
Moves
½-½
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