Analysis
The game in detail
GM Erwin L'Ami (NED, 2595) vs GM Gukesh D (IND, 2703) · 0-1
Board 1, India vs the Netherlands · Sicilian Defence, Rossolimo Attack, Fianchetto Variation (B31)
By Professor Zugzwang AI Coach . This analysis was written by a Bogner Chess AI coach.
Board one of the Olympiad, Black against a grandmaster rated 2595 who knows his openings as well as anyone: Erwin L’Ami has prepared half of Europe against the Rossolimo and played it himself here. Gukesh D answered with and , accepted the doubled pawns with , and kept the bishop pair and a wall on e5 and f6 in return.
The game turned on a single move. White stood a shade worse after twenty-two moves, played , and Black found the one reply that punishes it: . From there Gukesh was the exchange up, and a pawn he set going on move forty-five ran all the way to promotion.
The pawn breaks the clamp: 13...b5
After Black has the two bishops and doubled pawns on c5 and c6, and the pawns on e5 and f6 form a wall that White has nothing quick against. The price of that structure is time, and L’Ami took it: , and clamp the queenside, and then lifts the rook into the position. More precise was , stopping the clamp before it exists; is a shade imprecise and a move nobody else at this level plays.
A clamp is undone by the pawn it holds down. , the pawn is taken in passing, the a-file disappears along with the rooks, and the position is level. comes to the same thing and is a matter of taste. Half the field plays here instead, and White keeps the a-file and a small but real edge.
In any clamped position, look at the pawn move before the piece move. Pieces can work around a clamp, only pawns dissolve it, and the right moment is the one where the trade takes the open file with it.
GM Erwin L'Ami (NED, 2595)
GM Gukesh D (IND, 2703)
The pawn was in its own bishop’s way: 23...c3
looks like the move the position asks for: the f-file opens and the e5 pawn comes under fire. It costs White a good pawn, and only because there is a single reply. puts the pawn on offer and buys a square with it: Black’s own pawn on c4 was standing exactly where the bishop on e6 wants to go.
From c4 the bishop attacks the queen on e2 with the rook on f1 right behind it. The queen has to move and the rook drops: . The check on b6 exists only because the pawn has left f2. changes nothing, the bishop comes to c4 all the same. The second best move, , is a good pawn behind, and looks the most natural and hands almost the whole advantage back.
Without the idea does not carry: after White is clearly better, because the f6 pawn was defended by the g7 bishop alone. That leaves two questions to ask before every pawn move. Which square am I giving an enemy piece, and which diagonal to my own king am I opening? On the other side of the board the question is the same one: which of my own pawns is standing in my best bishop’s way?
GM Erwin L'Ami (NED, 2595)
GM Gukesh D (IND, 2703)
More material, fewer pieces: 30...Qb5
After it is rook, knight and bishop against two knights and a bishop, with five white pawns against four. The next two moves were not showpieces: brings the rook back to the square it had just left and pushes the white king from f1 to the more central e2. Together with , close to a whole pawn of the advantage was gone after that.
offers the trade of queens and is the best move on the board. When you are up material you want fewer pieces, because an extra exchange weighs more in an ending than in a middlegame, and because without queens nobody is trying anything against your king. At this level almost everyone reaches for a knight move here instead.
followed, not . The difference is small, the plan behind it is not: taking with the knight leaves the c6 pawn free, a move later it stands on c5, and after it lands on d4. That pawn is the one that decides the game. When in doubt, recapture with the piece that leaves your pawns able to move.
GM Erwin L'Ami (NED, 2595)
GM Gukesh D (IND, 2703)
The king covers the wrong square: 45.Kd5
Thirteen moves later the position is an ending of rook and bishop against two knights, White has four pawns against three, and the d4 pawn from the previous section is ready to go. forces the white king out of check, and of the squares available only one puts the king in front of the pawn: . The move played was , and the pawn sets off at once: . A deficit of a good pawn becomes more than twice that.
From there the pawn cannot be caught. White had to guard it with , and from that moment the knight stands on a square it is no longer allowed to leave. A pawn one square from promotion ties a piece down completely without ever having to promote.
Against knights, the king is the first blockader. Knights hold a passed pawn only while they sit directly in front of it, and they are almost always a tempo short of getting there. So count the squares you give up before every king move, especially when you are in check and have to decide quickly.
GM Erwin L'Ami (NED, 2595)
GM Gukesh D (IND, 2703)
The last guard: 51...Be3
White has the pawn on c6 and two moves to a queen, Black has the pawn on d2 and one move, which the knight on f2 prevents. That makes the knight the only piece that still matters, and attacks it. It is also the only move that wins: the alternatives are around five pawns behind.
The reason is a promotion that is not a queen. After the new knight stands on c8 with check and attacks the rook on d6, and the win turns into a level ending. A pawn on the seventh that promotes to a knight with check is not a curiosity in positions like this, it is the standard escape.
The game went , the guard is gone, and after White is mated. Almost every player starts with the check here: after White gets a queen, and a forced mate turns into a position Black still has to win. The reflex to check first costs more points in endings than any gap in your opening file. When a pawn stands one square from promotion, the pawn is not the subject: the piece that guards the promotion square is.
GM Erwin L'Ami (NED, 2595)
GM Gukesh D (IND, 2703)
Verdict
A game worth reading twice: once for and once for the pawn that arrives on c6 with on move six, goes to c5 on move thirty-two, recaptures on d4 with on move thirty-five, and becomes a queen on d1 on move fifty-three. Against an opponent who knows the Rossolimo from both sides, Gukesh D equalised cleanly, punished one imprecise move, let a little slip twice while converting, and then found every move that mattered in the ending. A point on board one, and three ideas to take away: break a clamp with the pawn, ask before every pawn move which of your own bishops it is blocking, and just before promotion attack the guard rather than pushing the pawn.
Moves
0-1
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