GM Sebastian Bogner (SUI, 2547) vs IM Jun Ying Tan (MAS, 2399) · ½-½
Board 1, Switzerland vs Malaysia · Sicilian Defence, Richter-Rauzer Attack, Neo-Modern Variation (B67)
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. Sebastian Bogner had White on board one against an International Master rated 2399 and got the Richter-Rauzer, the classical main road of the Sicilian: bishop to g5, queen to d2, king castled long, and then the attack on the kingside.
What decided the game was the order in which White attacked. The pawn push on move 17 came one move too early, five moves later Black was two pawns better, and from there Sebastian Bogner worked his way back to level with a chain of exact moves. Then, in the time scramble before move 40, the win changed hands twice. The rook ending was a draw and the match finished 2 to 2.
First 17.Nd5, then g4
In the Rauzer the kings go to opposite wings, and then whoever gets there first wins. White has the more natural lever, g4 followed by g5 against the knight on f6, which is why most players reach for here. It costs a good pawn in value, because Black does not answer on the wing but in the centre: , and White has given the rook for the bishop to be rid of the piece that looks at a2 and at g2 at the same time.
The same plan carries one move later: . Now a white pawn sits on d5, the centre is shut, the g4 push gains a tempo on the bishop into the bargain, and White is level instead of a pawn worse. Almost the same moves, played in the order that denies Black the counter in the middle.
Before any pawn advance on the wing, check first whether your opponent can tear the centre open. A pawn storm needs three or four moves, a central break needs one, so the wing attack arrives too late whenever both are available. Close the middle first and then storm, and the same moves have twice the effect.
IM Jun Ying Tan (MAS, 2399)
GM Sebastian Bogner (SUI, 2547)
The pressure on a2: 23.b3
The bishop on d5 is the piece everything revolves around: it looks through c4 and b3 at a2. With Black added the queen, and now the capture on a2 is the threat, because the king may not take back while the queen holds the a-file. Stronger was with a two pawn advantage; after three quarters of a pawn is left of it.
The answer is , the only pawn move that works here. It plants itself in the middle of the diagonal, the a2 pawn defends it, and attacking it again achieves nothing: , and with the queen goes the attack. loses on the spot, because the other bishop takes: , four pawns for Black.
The move played was , rook for bishop, to get the strong piece off the board. The idea is right and the price too high: after White is the exchange down and Black is a pawn and a half better, clearly more than after . Against a piece aiming at your king there are three answers: take it, block it, trade it. Calculate the block first, because one of your own pawns standing defended in the diagonal costs nothing, and a rook for a bishop always costs.
IM Jun Ying Tan (MAS, 2399)
GM Sebastian Bogner (SUI, 2547)
The pawn you spend: 26.e6
The balance sheet is uncomfortable. White has given rook for bishop and taken one pawn back, so a narrow exchange is missing, and the e5 pawn is hanging: the queen on c7 attacks it and no white piece defends it. Instead of holding it, White spends it. is worth a good pawn more than any alternative, and almost nobody finds it. The tempting move would be , and that loses the pawn for nothing: , two and a half pawns for Black.
Black took with , and that gave White exactly what the pawn was meant to buy: the f7 pawn was off the board, the b1 to h7 diagonal was open, and a weakness stayed behind on e6. Decline it and the pawn stays on e6 as a wedge: , and White has levelled the material. The bishop then walked , and straight into the holes had torn, and on move 39 the e6 pawn fell to .
A pawn that is going to fall anyway is small change you can buy something with, usually a file, a diagonal or a square for a piece. Always calculate the push before you defend the pawn with a piece: defending ties up your piece, pushing ties up your opponent.
IM Jun Ying Tan (MAS, 2399)
GM Sebastian Bogner (SUI, 2547)
Which piece recaptures? 34.Rxe3
Between moves 26 and 33 White won the position back square by square: , and , and then , asking the bishop on d4 what it is still doing there. That move too was a full pawn better than any other. Black answered , and now there are two ways to take back.
With the rook the game is level, with the queen White loses it: costs three pawns in value even though White picks up the h5 pawn along the way. The rooks arrive on c4 and f4, attack the pawns at the same time, and rook and bishop cannot be everywhere at once.
With the queen on the board White has an argument Black never gets rid of: the king on g8 has no pawn on f7, the bishop sits on g6, the h5 pawn is weak. shows the pattern. Whoever is short of material needs pieces that attack, and the queen is the best of them; whoever is ahead trades her off. That one rule decides more games than any opening variation.
IM Jun Ying Tan (MAS, 2399)
GM Sebastian Bogner (SUI, 2547)
Two problems in the scramble: 36.Ka2 and 37.Re4
After the game was level again. was imprecise, , and held the balance more cleanly, and would have put Black in front again. What came was , with one minute and twenty-four seconds on the clock, and that check swings the game by around three pawns.
White has exactly one square to step out to, and that is the right move: after White is a good two pawns better. Blocking loses in both forms. trades the queens and lets the rooks into an ending where White is the exchange short, and is simply lost.
One move later the e6 pawn is hanging, and is the move you see first and must not play: . The check comes from the bishop on b3 the moment the rook leaves the diagonal, it looks handsome and it helps nothing: the queens are off, White is the exchange short, Black is two pawns better. The move is , which attacks the queen and at the same time occupies the fourth rank, the rank that makes the check on c4 possible in the first place: .
The move played was , which blocks the diagonal to a2 as well but says nothing to the queen and costs more than half the advantage. After the move still held around two pawns; left barely a third of that, and after the queens came off after all. White had under five minutes at that moment, Black under one. The moves that go missing in such phases are rarely the hard ones, they are the ones there is no longer time for.
IM Jun Ying Tan (MAS, 2399)
GM Sebastian Bogner (SUI, 2547)
Verdict
Half a point with White against an International Master, and a more restless one than the result suggests. Sebastian Bogner mixed up the move order on move 17 and was two pawns worse five moves later; then he won back, with , the bishop manoeuvre to g6 and , a position that looked barely holdable, and after the queen check on move 35 he was clearly better. What lost the advantage was not a combination but the fourth rank and the clock. The ending after that was rook and four pawns against rook and four pawns, thirty moves later it was rook and one pawn against rook, and nobody wins that. The match against Malaysia finished 2 to 2: draws on boards one and two, a win for Fabian Bänziger on board three and a loss for Colin Federer on board four.
Moves
½-½
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