Analysis
The game in detail
GM Yannick Pelletier (2519) vs IM David Pires Tavares Martins (2449) · ½-½
Board 4, ASK Réti vs SG Zürich · Semi-Slav Defence, Normal Variation (D45) · 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 four, ASK Réti against SG Zürich, round seven in Zurich. Across the board sits Yannick Pelletier, grandmaster, 2519, seventy rating points higher, and five grandmasters stand in the Zürich line-up. Zürich lead the table with fourteen points from seven rounds, which is seven wins out of seven; Réti are fourth. From board four against that side, a half point is the number the other seven boards get to work with.
A half point is what it became, and there are two games inside it. On move 34 Black was winning. Three moves later the mate was forced, and Pelletier had less than a minute to find it.
Twenty-six minutes for three moves
Semi-Slav, and Black makes room in the centre early: and, after , straight away, the best move in the position. After the two d-pawns face each other and do not move again until deep in the endgame. Martins spent twenty-six minutes on , and , leaving him 1:02:00 after , and there the time was well spent: the next best move was almost half a pawn behind. Pelletier used eighteen minutes on alone.
tucks the bishop in behind the queen on c2, and the b1-h7 diagonal points at the black king. shuts it and is the only move: the next best, , is two and a half pawns worse, and Martins sees it in forty-one seconds. is where it goes wrong. The knight steps back to come out again via g7, and the move was , which takes both attackers off, the bishop on g5 and the knight on e5. It is also the move most players choose here. costs half a pawn, and after White has an attack with weight behind it and Black has a knight that only defends.
, and the attack is at its height. was the move: , and White is about a pawn and a half better. Pelletier plays and gives away the piece that carried the attack. After a quarter of a pawn is left of it, and his clock has fallen from 16:04 after move 20 to 7:35 after move 24, while Martins still has 27:51 after . An attacker counts pieces as well as moves: the bishop on h6 was one of the pieces this attack needed, and the attack left with it.
GM Yannick Pelletier (2519)
IM David Pires Tavares Martins (2449)
29...Rxd4 was there
is a shade loose, was more accurate, and after White is still half a pawn better. levels it. costs Pelletier four minutes and leaves him on 52 seconds; from here to move 40 he plays every move under a minute. Martins still has 15:22 after .
takes the pawn and attacks the rook on b4 doing it. Two answers suggest themselves: defend the rook or move it. does both. No white piece defends the pawn on d4, the rook steps off the queen’s diagonal and takes the material back: , and Black is half a pawn better. Almost every player at this level plays it.
was played instead, after five minutes thirty-three, with 10:19 left after the move. The bishop covers the rook from e7, and that is the movement the eye makes first: a piece is attacked, so you look for a defender. Only the pawn on d4 is still standing afterwards, and half a pawn of advantage becomes a level game. When a piece is attacked, both lists need counting: the moves that defend it and the moves that move it. A move that moves it and takes something on the way is almost always the move.
GM Yannick Pelletier (2519)
IM David Pires Tavares Martins (2449)
34...Qc2, a tactical error
, and the position is level. Then Pelletier’s clock starts working against him. was the move, costs more than a pawn, and costs almost three more. Taking was better than checking: after White stood a good two pawns worse, after five.
is Martins’ best move of the game, a good pawn better than anything else. It puts the bishop where the pawn on g2 can take it, and that is exactly the point: after the black queen stands next to the white king. And is the only move, the king walking forward with the opponent’s queen and rook close by. only holds the balance, is five pawns better, and he took fifteen seconds over it.
After the winning move was : the bishop comes out of the g2-pawn’s reach and the queen stays on c8, where it covers the bishop on f8 and the eighth rank. was played, after forty seconds, with 8:58 left after the move. That is a tactical error. The queen leaves c8, and the bishop on f8 is loose: , and White is clearly better. In human terms the move makes sense, because Qc2 and Bh3 attack g2 together and it looks like the attacking move. It stays wrong all the same, and wrong as a miscalculation, not as a matter of taste. Pelletier did not find or and played , with 31 seconds left after the move, and Black was winning again. Before a queen moves, count what it is covering where it stands.
GM Yannick Pelletier (2519)
IM David Pires Tavares Martins (2449)
The king walks to e3
The way was , the bishop onto the diagonal pointing at the white king and the rook on b1 against the bishop on f1, and the game would have been over. hands the win back and puts the game level again. This time Pelletier finds the only move that holds, , with 31 seconds left after the move, and the next best move loses to mate against White. costs Martins five minutes twenty-three and takes him under five minutes for the first time, on 2:02. After it is level again.
, after twenty-one seconds and with 2:11 on the clock, is the third tactical error of the sequence and the dearest: , and the mate can no longer be stopped. From here Black has no choice. , and are each the only move that delays it, and the saving square lies further forward every time. Pelletier plays and correctly, then instead of , and after was still there. went on the board. He had 52 seconds after , and the thirty minutes of the time control only arrived with move 41.
is the only one of three legal moves after which White does not mate, and the only one of two. Then, with twenty-one minutes on the clock, Pelletier gives the win away: would have decided it, allows exactly one defence, and Martins finds it in three minutes forty, with 30:19 left after the move: . Most players go here and lose. After there was nothing left: , rook and four pawns against rook and three, a passed pawn each, the black king in front of its own. The trade holds too, , and the repetition is what was played: , with the position on the board for the third time. A hunted king is calculated square by square and not in plans, and the saving square lies forward more often than back.
GM Yannick Pelletier (2519)
IM David Pires Tavares Martins (2449)
Verdict
A half point on board four against a grandmaster seventy points higher is a good result on paper, and there are two results inside this game: on move 34 it was won, on move 37 the mate was forced. Twice the move was sitting there, and , and once Martins found three only moves in a row with everything at stake, , and , the last of them with half an hour on his clock against Pelletier’s 5:02 at the finish. Credit where it is due: Pelletier played thirteen moves under a minute and found among them; that he missed the mate twice and let the win go with twenty-one minutes on the clock belongs in the same account. The learning fits into two sentences. When a piece is attacked, count the moves that move it before you look for a defender. And before a queen moves, count what it is covering where it stands. For Martins this was a half point that feels like a rescue and was a missed chance; for Réti it was one of five half points on a day when three boards were lost and Zürich won 5½ to 2½.
Moves
½-½
Was this analysis useful?