Analysis
The game in detail
FM Sigurdur Sigfusson (ISL, 2307) vs IM Gabriel Gaehwiler (SUI, 2383) · ½-½
Board 5, ASK Réti vs SG Zürich · Sicilian Defence, O’Kelly Variation, Maróczy Bind (B28) · 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 five, ASK Réti against SG Zürich, round seven. Across the board sits Gabriel Gaehwiler, International Master, 2383, 76 rating points higher. That is not the exception this afternoon: Zürich lead the table and were the higher rated side on all eight boards. In a match like this the team does not count on wins from the lower boards, it counts on half points, and board five with White is one of the boards where a half point looks realistic before the first move is played.
A half point is what it became, and it was defended in the second half rather than won in the first. From move 26 Sigfusson was never better than level, twice clearly worse, and he held the position until his opponent, with a little over two minutes on the clock, took the repetition.
Eleven minutes for 11.a3
is the O’Kelly Variation, and answers it with the Maróczy structure: the pawn takes the squares b5 and d5 away from Black and White plays for space. After the knight has to leave d4. and are equally good there, and Sigfusson spends 7 minutes 32 on , with 1 hour 18 left after the move. From c2 the knight covers b4 and d4 and leaves d5 to the knight on c3.
After White stands a small amount better, and Sigfusson thinks for 11 minutes 43, the longest think of the game, with 56:26 left after the move. He plays , with the idea of b2-b4 and chasing the bishop off c5. The move is too slow. A queen move was better, or : after the rook stands on the half-open d-file and the backward pawn on d6 is the target. After nothing is left of the small edge.
costs another 8 minutes 09, and then Gaehwiler answers the question himself: . The bishop goes of its own accord, two white pawn moves did not chase it away, they offered it a trade. On the recapture the structure decides: keeps the pawns intact, doubles them and costs three quarters of a pawn. Sigfusson takes with the pawn after not quite four minutes. It does open the f-file, and the rook on f1 is going to need it. Before you chase a piece with pawns, it is worth knowing whether it wants to leave at all.
IM Gabriel Gaehwiler (SUI, 2383)
FM Sigurdur Sigfusson (ISL, 2307)
The pawn on e4 changes hands twice
Gaehwiler spends 12 minutes 16 on and puts d5 up for discussion. is the move there, and by a distance: everything else costs about another pawn. Sigfusson finds it after 11 minutes 37, with 32:15 left after the move. asks the second question, and it is bigger than it looks: is right, would have been about a pawn and a half worse. The natural capture is the wrong one.
pushes the pawn forward and gives up its control of d4 and f4. Those are exactly the two squares White uses over the next few moves. Until then the knight on f6 defends the pawn, and takes that defender away; it is a decision rather than an oversight, Black wants his pieces in the game. accepts the invitation. Almost everybody puts the knight on here; is a good deal better, because the rook attacks the pawn straight away. Sigfusson thinks for 6 minutes 10 and has 23:19 left after the move, his opponent 14:23.
arrives after nine minutes and drops the pawn: , and White is a pawn up. Not for long. is a little imprecise, was better, and takes the pawn back. After material is level and so is the position, the clocks are not: 14:31 against 9:16. A pawn that advances gives up the two squares it used to control. Before you push it, ask which enemy piece wants them.
IM Gabriel Gaehwiler (SUI, 2383)
FM Sigurdur Sigfusson (ISL, 2307)
26.Qb2 leaves the diagonal
The position was level, and would have kept it that way: , and White has something to do on the kingside. He played instead, after 59 seconds, with 14:23 on the clock. The thought behind it was probably the a1-h8 diagonal and the knight on e5, which the queen looks at from b2. It is a mistake all the same, and the price of it is on the board: the queen gives up the e2-d3-c4 diagonal, and those are exactly the squares Black uses to get into the white position.
Gaehwiler sees it at once: after 1 minute 45. The knight has to go back, and where it goes matters: is the move, and Sigfusson plays it after 4 minutes 07. Black stood about a pawn and a half better after it, and the way to use that was : the queen sits on c4, on exactly the square the white queen covered from e2.
Gaehwiler plays . That asks too much of a position that was already good: after almost everything is level again, and the pawn finally stands where it belonged two moves earlier. Sigfusson has 10:03 left after , his opponent 6:02 after . When a queen covers squares on a diagonal that nothing else covers, you count those squares before you move her.
IM Gabriel Gaehwiler (SUI, 2383)
FM Sigurdur Sigfusson (ISL, 2307)
30.Qd2, a tactical error
The position is level and not hard to play. takes the pawn and with the same move covers d3, the square the black knight is heading for; after White is a pawn up and the position is level. He played , after 1 minute 23, with 8:59 on the clock. That is a tactical error, not a question of move order: after a rook ending is left in which Black is a pawn up and clearly better.
Gaehwiler did not play it. He had 5:12, thought for 1 minute 57 and chose , and that cost him about half a pawn: the jump to d3 was worth a good deal less one move later. It came a move later anyway, after eight seconds: . Then , the pawn goes, brings it back, and after material is level again and Black is a narrow pawn better.
From here the clock decides. Gaehwiler had 3:45 after move 30 and 2:49 after move 34, and already hands back half of what he had. gives a little more away, takes it straight back, and then the position repeats: . Sigfusson was never under five minutes and had 7:36 after his 39th move, Gaehwiler 2:08. The draw was agreed with . A move that takes a pawn and covers an entry square at the same time does not need a long calculation.
IM Gabriel Gaehwiler (SUI, 2383)
FM Sigurdur Sigfusson (ISL, 2307)
Verdict
A half point with White against an International Master rated 76 points higher, out of a game in which Sigfusson was never better than level from move 26 on. Réti lost the match 2.5 to 5.5, with defeats on boards 3, 6 and 8; this half point is one of the five that kept the score from being worse. Two queen moves let the game slip, and both for the same reason: gives up the e2-d3-c4 diagonal, which is where the black queen would have come in, and leaves d3 uncovered and the pawn on f4 standing, the pawn would have taken. The learning fits into one sentence: before you move the queen, count the squares she leaves behind. What he did better than his opponent belongs in the record just as much: he was never under five minutes, Gaehwiler was from move 30 on, and in a position you hold rather than win that is the difference. For the team it is one of five half points in a lost match, for him an afternoon on which the 76 rating points across the board did not play.
Moves
½-½
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