IM Almas Rakhmatullaev (UZB, 2418) vs GM Peng Li Min (SUI, 2568) · 0-1
Board 3, Switzerland vs Uzbekistan 3 · Italian Game, Two Knights Defence, Polerio Defence, Bishop Check Line (C58) · 90 minutes for 40 moves, then 30 minutes, plus 30 seconds per move
By Professor Zugzwang AI Coach . This analysis was written by a Bogner Chess AI coach.
Round eight, table twenty-three, Switzerland against Uzbekistan 3, both teams arriving on nine match points. On board three sat Peng Li Min with Black against IM Almas Rakhmatullaev, 2418, a hundred and fifty rating points below him. In this part of the match a team wants more than the half point from board three: if one board is to tip the result, it is the one carrying the larger rating.
The game was not decided early. For thirty-two moves the assessment moved by less than a third of a pawn, and then the white clock read one minute twenty-three, and the move that came most readily to hand tipped the position. In rounds three and six Peng held the worse side on this same board against 2653 and 2569; this time he was the one whose opponent had to sit out the clock.
The small imprecision on move thirteen: 13...Nxe5
The Polerio Defence of the Two Knights says in one sentence what Black has for the pawn: time. The king is heading for long castling, the rooks stand on d8 and h8, the queen works on e6, and White still has bishop and knight sitting on the back rank. As long as White holds the pawn on e5, every developing move costs him the road back to a position in which the compensation has run out.
The move that keeps this account running attacks the knight on e5 a second time, and the reply is not a choice: , a trade White needs to sort his position out, and one that hands Black a slightly better endgame with about half a pawn in it.
Peng chose the popular move: , and the half pawn is gone. It is not a mistake, it is a matter of taste, but the rule behind it is worth keeping: a player who has given a pawn for time holds the advantage by playing the piece that forces the opponent to answer. A trade that no longer forces something hands back the time it was paid to buy.
IM Almas Rakhmatullaev (UZB, 2418)
GM Peng Li Min (SUI, 2568)
The pawn you do not take: 32.Rxf6
Thirty-one moves of manoeuvring, and neither side had gone a third of a pawn worse. White had walked the rook via d5 and h5 to f5 and posted the bishop on f4, sensible moves in a position where manoeuvres are worth more than material. The move that holds the balance is : the bishop drops back to c1 to come forward via h6, and White keeps moving without anything for Black to grip.
White grabbed instead. took the pawn, and after Black plays the other hand: the rook stands on the third rank, the second black rook is ready to join it, and the white king looks at nothing but pawns. The margin is about half a pawn for Black. Not a win, but the jobs have been reassigned: from here on White is working on a position that Black can go after.
The rule holds in every endgame and is broken in most of them: at equal material, activity is worth more than a defended pawn. A wing pawn taken while your own pieces lose their job and your opponent’s pieces gain one is the wrong trade. Before that pawn, ask what you plan to do afterwards with the pieces it cost.
IM Almas Rakhmatullaev (UZB, 2418)
GM Peng Li Min (SUI, 2568)
Move forty at eighty-three seconds: 40.Ra8+
From move thirty-two on White is under five minutes and has been staying alive on the increment. Before the fortieth move his clock reads about fifty-three seconds, Peng’s reads twenty-six minutes. The black a-pawn is running, the white king sits on g2. What is called for here is the move no human with fifty-three seconds on the clock finds: , the h-pawn starting to march. The assessment stays at level, because on the other wing White gets a passed pawn that pays the bill.
White spent nine seconds and played . A check never hurts, except when it does, and the rook on a8 now does nothing except force the black king to a square Black wanted to reach anyway. Objectively Black is a good pawn better here, and the only question is which king move Peng chooses.
Two answers offer themselves. looks like the right move: the king walks toward the centre, the rooks want to link up. It is the trap. After there is the repetition, and White is back in the air. Peng took a minute and a half and played , the move that walks the king toward his own pawn. When a pawn is running and your own king stands within reach, an enemy rook check is a delay and not a remedy: the king belongs beside its pawn, not in the middle.
IM Almas Rakhmatullaev (UZB, 2418)
GM Peng Li Min (SUI, 2568)
The rook that offers itself: 42...Rb2
Two white rooks, a white bishop, two black rooks, a black bishop, and the black pawn on a3. After the only question left is how the pawn reaches a1. A move that separates the white rooks is not enough: tie one of them down and the other goes to work.
is the answer. The rook plants itself undefended in front of the white rook on c2, and White has no choice: is forced, because any retreat by the white rook lets the pawn walk to a2 with the queening no longer to be stopped. After the rook covers the back rank, and Black plays , the bishop tying the rook on e1 down and holding b1 for the pawn.
The rest is technique. places the black pieces so that the pawn cannot be taken without White losing the rook. Rakhmatullaev resigned. A rook trade that offers a queening pawn is one of the rare moves that make the outcome of an endgame visible in a single move. When you see one, you do not calculate around it, you calculate through it.
IM Almas Rakhmatullaev (UZB, 2418)
GM Peng Li Min (SUI, 2568)
Verdict
A full point on board three against a master a hundred and fifty rating points below him, and the one that carried the match to Switzerland. Peng handed a slim half pawn back on move thirteen, White handed it back on move thirty-two with the wrong trade, and from there the question was not who stood better but who could sit out the clock. Nine seconds before the time control Rakhmatullaev played instead of , and Peng took a minute and a half for the one king move that turns the edge into a win. Two moves later a rook offered itself, and the pawn on a3 walked to a1. In rounds three and six Peng held what could be held on this same board; here he did what board three does when the rating asks him to.
Moves
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