CM Yi Chen Chow (MAS, 2152) vs FM Colin Federer (SUI, 2269) · 1-0
Board 4, Switzerland vs Malaysia · Sicilian Defence, Najdorf Variation with 6.f3 (B90)
By Professor Zugzwang AI Coach . This analysis was written by a Bogner Chess AI coach.
Round seven, board four, Black against an opponent rated 117 points lower: Colin Federer was the favourite at this table, and Switzerland needed every half point in the match against Malaysia. He reached for the Najdorf, White answered with the solid , and the game became the thing you least expect from that pairing, namely dead level for thirty-eight moves.
It was decided by a single knight move played with thirty-two seconds on the clock, one move before the time control. Ahead of it lies the stretch from move thirty-two to move thirty-eight, where Black found the best move on the board six times, and four of those were the only move that held the position at all. The last one he did not find.
The bishop with no diagonal: 13...Bh6
After the light-squared bishop is off the board and the black pawns stand on e5 and d6, which are dark squares. That leaves the bishop on f8 without a square of its own: on g7 it stares at its own knight on f6 and its own pawn on e5, on e7 it does nothing at all. The white bishop on e3 has no such problem, both its diagonals are clear.
Which is exactly why is the move. The bishop goes to the one square from which it reaches its white counterpart, and after Black is perfectly fine. The rook recaptures on h6 and walks home again next move: two tempi to trade a piece you cannot use anyway are two tempi well spent. costs about a quarter of a pawn and leaves the bishop exactly where it was.
Hardly anyone at this level plays ; what lands on the board is almost always or , because those look like development. The rule behind it is simpler than the moment makes it look: when your own pawns take the diagonals away from a bishop, trade it, and do it while the enemy bishop of that colour still stands on a square you can reach. One move later White tucks the bishop away on f2 and the offer is gone.
CM Yi Chen Chow (MAS, 2152)
FM Colin Federer (SUI, 2269)
Twenty-eight minutes for 29...Re4
White took the f7 pawn on move twenty-eight and got nothing for it: the active pieces are the black ones. attacks three things at once, the bishop on e2, the knight on d4 and the pawn on h4, and after the pawn is back and the material is level again.
The move is faultless. is worth exactly the same, so it is a matter of taste, and nobody separates two moves like that reliably at the board. The problem is not the move, it is the clock: Federer had thirty-two minutes before it and three and a half after it. From there he had to pay for the eleven moves to the time control out of the increment.
Time is part of the position, and it works in both directions. If you cannot tell two candidate moves apart after ten minutes, they are very probably the same move, and the right one is then the one you can see to the end faster. Colin Federer calculated a flawless line in those twenty-eight minutes and still lost the game inside them.
CM Yi Chen Chow (MAS, 2152)
FM Colin Federer (SUI, 2269)
Giving the exchange back: 33...Rxe6
The liquidation won Black the exchange, rook for bishop. Three moves later White asks for it back: attacks the knight on d7 and the rook on e8 at the same time, and neither piece is defended.
There is exactly one move. hands the exchange straight back and takes off the knight that holds the white position together. The alternatives and cost close to two further pawns, which is the game. After White has a passed pawn on e6 in return, and everything that follows is about that pawn.
When two pieces hang at once, counting them does not help. The question is not which of the two you save, it is whether you can remove the attacker or the piece it is aimed at. Giving material back to end an attack is a trade, not a loss. Hardly anyone at this level finds this move; most players save the rook, and that is mate: .
CM Yi Chen Chow (MAS, 2152)
FM Colin Federer (SUI, 2269)
The checks run out: 37...Rh4
Black has been checking since , and the reason sits on d7: the knight is attacked by the pawn on e6 and by the queen on f7 and defended by nobody. Any move without a check costs it. That is why were each the best move on the board, and why loses on the spot.
On move thirty-seven the series ends. The move is : the rook on h1 finally joins the game by attacking the rook on d4. The main line runs , Black gives up the knight, has the rook for it, and the checks keep coming. The game went , a good half pawn worse, because the rook supplies the block and the queen then has to go back to c5.
A check is a good move only for as long as it improves something. Count the checks you have before you start the series, and look hard at the last one: where the checks stop, you need a move that changes the position, not one that postpones it. is such a move, is not.
CM Yi Chen Chow (MAS, 2152)
FM Colin Federer (SUI, 2269)
One move before the time control: 39...Ne5
was a gift. With the white king walks out of the checks and stands more than a pawn better; after the trip back to d2 the position is dead level again. Exactly one move keeps it there, and that is : check and an attack on the rook on e4 in the same move. White has to interpose, and after that there is nothing left to play for: .
attacks the queen on f7 instead, and White simply lets it be taken: . The knight is no longer on d7, so nothing stops the pawn. The black queen cannot reach e7 because her own pawn on d6 blocks the diagonal, and the rook on h1 would only get in front of the pawn via e1, where the king takes it. The game went , and White is a bishop up for a pawn.
That knight move to e5 was in the air three times during the checking series, on moves thirty-four, thirty-six and thirty-seven, and all three times it was the worse choice. The fourth time it got played. The danger in time trouble is not that you stop calculating, it is that you stop checking what a move does besides attacking something: and both hit a piece, but only one of them is also a check.
CM Yi Chen Chow (MAS, 2152)
FM Colin Federer (SUI, 2269)
Verdict
Forty-eight moves, and the game was open until move thirty-nine. Colin Federer understood the opening better than his opponent, calculated a liquidation on move thirty that won him the exchange and asked for it back three moves later, and then balanced on a ridge for seven moves where four times only a single move held. He found six of them. The seventh came with thirty-two seconds on the clock, one move before the time control, and after that the passed pawn ran all the way to e8; allowed mate in a position that was long lost anyway. The match against Malaysia stayed close all the same: Nico Georgiadis drew on board two, Fabian Bänziger won on board three, and on board one Sebastian Bogner's game was still going when this was written.
Moves
1-0
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