Analysis
The game in detail
GM Gukesh D (IND, 2703) vs GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov (UZB, 2654) · ½-½
Board 3, India vs Uzbekistan · Nimzo-Indian Defence, Three Knights Variation (E21)
By Professor Zugzwang AI Coach . This analysis was written by a Bogner Chess AI coach.
In the top match of round six, India against Uzbekistan, Gukesh D had White against a grandmaster rated 2654. It became a Nimzo-Indian in which the queens came off as early as move twelve and in which the two sides were never more than half a pawn apart after that. Forty moves, no mistake on either side, half a point each.
The move the game is worth reading for is the fourteenth. White was a pawn down and could take it straight back, and did not: takes the knight first and collects the pawn a move later. The obvious order would have left Black close to a pawn better. At the end Gukesh was a pawn up and still had to agree to the draw.
Almost half the field takes with the pawn: 8.Bd2
After the knight stands undefended and is already attacked by the knight on c3. attacks it a second time. The main move is , which a good half of the field reaches for; is a shade more modest and worth practically the same. Black does not defend the knight but plays , and after the piece comes back with check: .
The recapture is with the bishop, not the pawn: . After the queen takes the rook in the corner and finds her way out again. White has given rook and pawn for a bishop and received only time in return, and being roughly two pawns down after eight moves is too much for any opening idea. Of the four legal moves is the best: costs a good quarter of a pawn and the right to castle, considerably more.
At this level almost half the field still takes with the pawn, because bxc3 is the normal transaction in the Nimzo-Indian. The rule behind it is simpler than it looks: before you answer a check by capturing with a pawn, look at the file and the diagonal the captured piece leaves behind. Here the bishop on c3 hands its own diagonal to the queen on a5, and she has been sitting there since move six.
GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov (UZB, 2654)
GM Gukesh D (IND, 2703)
The rook first, then the trade: 12.Qe3
attacks the c4 pawn and asks White for a plan. offers the trade of queens, and after White has doubled pawns on e2 and e3 and in return the half-open f-file and a king that may set off at once. That is exactly what happened: , , .
The same idea one move later held a little more: puts the rook on the c-file before the queens come off and keeps a good quarter of a pawn. After the position is dead level. That is not an inaccuracy, it is a decision, and in a top match a quiet, healthy ending is a fine thing to buy with White.
A queen trade is not a move, it is a transaction. Ask what you are buying and what you are paying before you make the offer. White buys an active king and an open file here and pays with the pawn structure, and the two items come out almost exactly even. If you cannot name the price, you have not seen it yet.
GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov (UZB, 2654)
GM Gukesh D (IND, 2703)
The order is the whole move: 14.Bxc6
Almost everyone plays here, and almost everyone is worse afterwards: drives the knight back, Black has a centre with d5 and e6 and the knight on c6 as well, and a level position becomes close to a pawn for Black. The difference between the two recaptures is more than a pawn.
reverses the order and costs nothing, because the c4 pawn is not running anywhere. In exchange the knight on c6 is gone, the d7 pawn now sits on c6 and will never reach d5, and it sits on a file where White no longer has a pawn. The rooks went there immediately: and . The black king took over the defence with and , well placed and tied down at the same time.
When you can win a pawn back, ask first what the recapture allows your opponent. One move of delay that trades off a defender and forces an enemy pawn onto a square it will never leave is often worth more than the tempo. The c6 pawn was the subject of the game from here on, and it fell twenty moves later.
GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov (UZB, 2654)
GM Gukesh D (IND, 2703)
Space, and the answer to it: 25...g5+
In the double rook ending Gukesh took space: , , , and the king marched into the middle of it with and . The plan is right and it was carried out cleanly, but the position never held more than a whisper. An extra pawn of space on a wing weighs little while the defender still has the squares to meet it.
is the most direct answer. The pawn gives check and offers itself in the same move: , and the h-pawn that was supposed to carry the space advantage is off the board with the king back on f3. White did collect the pawn with , but on a wing that was close to empty by then. The quiet also held; settles the question at once.
Against a space advantage on a wing, the push that forces an exchange usually beats sitting still. Every pair of pawns that disappears shrinks the area the space advantage can work in. A defender counts exchanging chances, not pawns.
GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov (UZB, 2654)
GM Gukesh D (IND, 2703)
An extra pawn that weighs nothing: 39.Rg2
The c6 pawn fell on move thirty-four. Black took the white b-pawn with and allowed in return, a fair trade after which White was a pawn up again. The pawn that had forced onto c6 was the pawn that finally dropped.
It wins nothing, and shows why: White offered the trade of rooks, Black took, and after the white pawns stand on e2, e4 and g4, the black ones on e6 and f7. Three against two, but the three occupy two files, the extra pawn is a doubled pawn, and puts the black king right in front of it. The game ended here.
Rook endings with an extra pawn on one wing only are drawn, and a doubled pawn takes away what little was left. So count files in a rook ending, not pawns: an extra pawn carries weight when it has a file of its own and can produce a passed pawn, and otherwise it does not.
GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov (UZB, 2654)
GM Gukesh D (IND, 2703)
Verdict
Half a point in the top match, and forty moves in which neither side ever gave away more than a good half pawn. Gukesh D recaptured with the right piece on move eight, found the move order almost nobody finds on move fourteen, and then handled an ending in which he risked nothing and gave nothing away. The extra pawn at the end does not make the draw a missed chance: from the queen trade on, the two camps were never more than half a pawn apart, and neither of them ever left that frame. What stays are three questions that come up in every game: which line does the captured piece open, what does my recapture allow my opponent, and how many files does my extra pawn really have to itself?
Moves
½-½
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