IM Fabian Bänziger (SUI, 2426) vs FM Zhuo Ren Lim (MAS, 2309) · 1-0
Board 3, Switzerland vs Malaysia · Sicilian Defence, Najdorf Variation, Opocensky Variation (B92)
By Professor Zugzwang AI Coach . This analysis was written by a Bogner Chess AI coach.
Round 7 on table 22, Switzerland against Malaysia, both teams arriving on eight match points. Fabian Bänziger had White on board three against a FIDE Master rated 2309 and met the Najdorf with the Opocensky set-up, , one of the quietest side roads the Sicilian offers. It stayed quiet until move twelve, when he pushed the kingside forward with .
What followed is a game about one piece. The rook on a1 had nothing to do behind its own pawn on a5, travelled via a4 and c4 to e4, collected the pawn there, and arrived through e3 on h3, where the game was decided. Thirty-one moves, one inaccurate move on the white side, a full point.
The e4 pawn was there for the taking: 15.Be2
Black has given up a pawn with and attacks the bishop on f3 in return. The reflex is to retreat, and retreat is what White played with . The pawn on e4 could simply be taken, though, and removes the pawn and the attacker in a single move.
The calculation runs . White gives up the right to castle and stands a good pawn better with two extra pawns, while leaves an edge of a little over half a pawn. The difference is roughly two thirds of a pawn: no disaster, but not a matter of taste either.
When a pawn attacks one of your pieces, always check whether you can take it before you move away. An advance that arrives with tempo depends entirely on the attacked piece stepping back.
FM Zhuo Ren Lim (MAS, 2309)
IM Fabian Bänziger (SUI, 2426)
The rook takes the fourth rank: 17.Ra4
The rook on a1 was the worst piece on the board. Its own pawn on a5 blocks the file, and along the first rank the queen is in the way. solves that with tempo, because from the fourth rank the rook immediately attacks the bishop on b4. Black has to answer, and after the rook stands where the rest of the game is played.
The two moves one plays instead fall clearly short. costs a good half pawn, and after the a5 pawn is gone, because the rook covers it from a1 and no longer from c1; White is even slightly worse there. Four players in ten at this level would pick and two in ten . The rook move to the fourth rank does not appear on that list at all, because in our heads a rook works along files and not along ranks, and because keeps covering a5 on the way.
From a4 the journey continued: against the knight on c5, to collect the pawn, and as the junction on the way to h3. Remember the route rather than the single move. A rook whose file is blocked goes looking for a free rank, and the third and fourth ranks are the connecting roads that are almost always available.
FM Zhuo Ren Lim (MAS, 2309)
IM Fabian Bänziger (SUI, 2426)
18.h4 instead of 18.h3
Nearly nine players in ten at this level play here. It props up the g4 pawn and does nothing else. props it up as well, but it also prepares g4-g5 and opens the h-file for the rook on f1 once the pawns come off on g5. It is worth half a pawn more than any alternative, and in this position that is the difference between an advantage and an attack.
The main line shows the idea: . White opens the kingside at a moment when the black king has no piece anywhere near it.
Black answered , a knight heading for d3 or b3 and finding nothing on either square. The move was , the counter-blow on the queenside. The knight move cost a good half pawn, called it to account at once, and drove it away for good. A player without a plan likes to put a piece on a square that looks good; a player with one first checks whether it is allowed to stay there.
FM Zhuo Ren Lim (MAS, 2309)
IM Fabian Bänziger (SUI, 2426)
First the preparation, then the file: 20.Kg2
Three players in ten at this level break through with here, and the move throws away most of the advantage. After the black queen reaches the kingside via e5, and a good two pawns shrink to about one. The file opens before White has anything standing on it.
finishes the preparation first: the king leaves g1, the rook on f1 gets the h1 square, and only then does White decide about the pawn push. The continuation shows the order. Almost two pawns separate the king move from pushing at once.
Black then took the decision out of White’s hands: , and the h-file belonged to White because Black had opened it. The rule behind this is old and broken daily: open a file only once your own heavy pieces are already on it. Otherwise you open it for both sides.
FM Zhuo Ren Lim (MAS, 2309)
IM Fabian Bänziger (SUI, 2426)
The bishop clears the file by capturing: 31.Bxf8
White has picked up three pawns along the way, the first on move fourteen, the second with and the third with . On the h-file the job is not done, though: the rook on h3 aims at h7, its own bishop on h6 is in the way, and the knight on h7 is covered by king and queen. clears the file and takes a piece with it.
After that every recapture loses material. wins the knight, because from f8 the king no longer covers it. gives up queen and knight for bishop and rook. And costs the queen for the rook, because h6 and h7 are both empty now. Black resigned here.
The books call this removing the defender; in practice it is simpler than that. Before any capture, count which line it opens. A piece of your own that blocks your own heavy piece should not vacate the square at some point, it should leave it by taking something.
FM Zhuo Ren Lim (MAS, 2309)
IM Fabian Bänziger (SUI, 2426)
Verdict
A game without sacrifices, without complications, and with a single inaccurate move, the retreat . Everything else was high-quality craft: the rook that goes looking for a rank because it has no file, the pawn move that hardly anybody makes, and the king move that looks like it does nothing and in truth is what makes the whole attack possible. Nico Georgiadis drew with Black on board two, while boards one and four were still being fought out. A full point from board three against an opponent of the same strength is exactly what a team needs from its third board in a match.
Moves
1-0
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