Analysis
The game in detail
IM Evgeny Degtiarev (2361) vs GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (2504) · 0-1
Board 3, ASK Réti vs SG Zürich · Slav Defence, Quiet Variation, Schallopp Defence (D12) · 90 minutes for 40 moves, then 30 minutes, plus 30 seconds per move
By Bogner AI Coach AI Coach . This analysis was written by a Bogner Chess AI coach.
Board three, ASK Réti against SG Zürich, round seven. Zürich lead National League A, Réti sit four match points behind them in fourth, and against the leaders the opponent is the higher rated player on all eight boards. Across from Evgeny Degtiarev sits Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2504, a grandmaster and former Women’s World Champion, 143 points above him. The team can budget nothing from this board, which is exactly why a half point here would be worth more than on any other. He has White for it.
It became a loss. What lies in between is more than that: Degtiarev lost a piece on move 16, had never more than 1 minute 34 on his clock between move 20 and move 40, and from move 24 to move 32 the position was level all the same.
16.Be3, a tactical error
A Slav, quiet variation: an opening where you put the pieces up and force nothing. With and Degtiarev asks the bishop the question, after it has to go back to g6, and takes it off the board. Properly played, only expensive: and use 28 minutes between them, and after the tenth move the clocks read 48:16 against 1:28:16. Forty minutes of difference, and nothing has happened yet.
is the right moment for the centre and the best move on the board. After White is a pawn down and about half a pawn better, and the reason stands on d4: the knight there is undefended, and the rook on d1 gets at it the moment the bishop leaves d2. After or Black has to defend it with the pawn, and wins it back by inserting a move first: .
arrives after 13 minutes, with 20:49 left after the move, and it is a tactical error. From e3 the bishop attacks the knight as well, two attackers on an undefended piece, but it stands on the diagonal of the black bishop on c5, and the piece in between is exactly the knight White wants to trade. attacks the queen on a4 and defends the knight tactically by doing so, because costs the queen. White has to take on b5, the knight disappears from d4, the diagonal opens, and the bishop on e3 falls. Two and a half pawns separate the retreats from the move that was played. This is not a question of move order and not a matter of taste, this is losing a piece on move 16.
How little it was about anything else shows in the same pawn break with the bishop one square along: , material level, White still a shade better. Before a piece goes to a square, it is worth asking which enemy piece then points at it once the piece in between has gone.
GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (2504)
IM Evgeny Degtiarev (2361)
Nineteen and a half minutes for 17.Nxb5
The calculation takes 19 minutes 30, the longest think of the game by either player. leaves him 1:49, and move 40 is still 23 moves away. From here on Degtiarev plays the game on the 30 seconds a move.
was more accurate, not by much, about a third of a pawn: , and Black has a piece for a pawn, but the queens are off the board. Here it really is only the move order, the same two exchanges in the other sequence. In the game the queens stay on, and the white king on b1 gets no peace for the rest of the evening. is the first check of many.
What follows goes onto the board on almost no time, and it is the best the position still offers: . The pawn that stood on e2 in the opening captures on d5, on e6 and on d7, collects two pawns and a knight, and is taken on d7 itself. comes after five seconds, after four, after four, after two; the one think in between is at 2 minutes 23, with 47 seconds left after it. At the end of it White is a bishop down and a pawn up. A lost piece rarely comes back, but it can be sold dearly.
GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (2504)
IM Evgeny Degtiarev (2361)
23...O-O, and the game starts again
The game is decided here, only not in White’s favour. A piece for a pawn down, the king open on a1, 1 minute 09 against 50 minutes: Kosteniuk needs to find one sensible move. She gave check with , answered it, and now her bishop on e3 is undefended. She has to move it or defend it.
was the move: , the bishop is safe on b6, Black keeps the piece and stands about three pawns better. She spends 12 minutes 48 and plays . The move is as natural as a move gets, the king goes to safety, the rook comes into play. It just does not do the one thing the position is asking for.
goes onto the board after five seconds, with 1:34 left, and it is the only move: everything else leaves the piece where it is and is four pawns worse. Material level, the game starts over. The 143 rating points stopped mattering here, and Degtiarev did nothing to make that happen except be there when it did. Which is why, when the opponent is short of time, you do not play the natural move but ask one question first: what of mine is undefended?
GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (2504)
IM Evgeny Degtiarev (2361)
Nine moves on one minute, then 33.Qd4
From move 24 to move 32 Degtiarev defends a level position with never more than 1 minute 34 on his clock, and he defends it well. is the best move on the board and offers the rook trade, comes after two seconds. After the black pawn sticks to the white king and stays there for twenty-five moves. would have held the position dead level, costs half a pawn, and at 43 seconds that is nothing to hold against him.
The practical picture is more lopsided than the position. Only Black has chances, because only Black has something to attack, the king on a1 and her own pawn on b3. White has nothing to lose and a clock that does not stretch. Kosteniuk spends 20 minutes 33 on ; between move 24 and move 32 she uses 27 minutes and he uses four and a half, and she found nothing. Credit where it is due: she looked seriously, in a position where there was nothing.
is the move that tips the game over, after 1 minute 01, with 33 seconds left. or were right: , and half a pawn of disadvantage stays half a pawn. On d4 the queen leaves the second rank, and the square c2 is unguarded from then on. lands after twenty seconds and attacks b2 and g2 at once, the king covers b2, nothing covers g2. , the pawn in front of the king is gone, and from here White is only defending. In time trouble you do not put the queen where it sees furthest, you put it on the rank where it covers your own weaknesses.
Kosteniuk does the rest cleanly: after the pawn on h4 goes too, and in the rook ending b2 and f3 follow. Degtiarev finds the one practical chance still left there: . is the best move on the board, the rook trade pushes the a-pawn through, and there are two queens on the board again, only two pawns apart. He plays the last twelve moves on under a minute, with 51 seconds against her ten, and after the mate can no longer be stopped.
GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (2504)
IM Evgeny Degtiarev (2361)
Verdict
A loss on board three against a grandmaster rated 143 points higher takes nothing from the team that the team had budgeted for: Réti lose to the leaders 2.5 to 5.5, and here a half point was the hope and never the budget. For Degtiarev himself the game is a bitter one. was a tactical error and it cost a piece, and after it the game was objectively gone; that it did not stay gone he earned himself across twenty moves on the increment, and handed it back in one. Two sentences are worth keeping. Before a piece goes to a square, ask which enemy piece points at that square once the piece in between has gone. And in time trouble the queen does not belong on the square with the longest view, it belongs on the rank that covers your own weaknesses. What goes into the match record is a zero; what is in the game is nine moves in which it was not one.
Moves
0-1
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