Analysis
The game in detail
GM Javokhir Sindarov (UZB, 2778) vs GM Felix Blohberger (AUT, 2552) · 1-0
Round 3, Uzbekistan vs Austria · Italian Game, Classical Variation, Giuoco Pianissimo (C54)
By Professor Zugzwang AI Coach . This analysis was written by a Bogner Chess AI coach.
Round three in Samarkand, White against a grandmaster rated 226 points lower. Sindarov picks the quietest version of the Italian: c3, d3, short castling, not a single pawn past the fourth rank. Blohberger answers by hunting the bishop that appeared on g5 on move seven, , , , , and his own kingside is distinctly airy afterwards.
Forty-four moves later Black is mated, and the last check before the mate comes from g6. Blohberger gave that square away on move sixteen, with a pawn move that looks like it is shoring up the position.
The bishop is hanging, and White captures somewhere else: 13.Nxe5
attacks the bishop on g3, and the bishop has no good square. Tuck it away, or play something else with , and White ends up a shade worse instead of a shade better. takes a pawn and pointedly leaves the bishop where it stands.
The reason sits two moves further on: , and White is a clean pawn up with the healthier structure against the doubled c-pawns. The zwischenzug on c6 is the whole point: White takes a third piece before recapturing on g3, and so wins the exchanging sequence Black started.
Blohberger therefore recaptures with . When a piece of yours is attacked, the first question is not where it should go but whether there is a capture that creates a second threat. Two threats at once cannot both be met, and the bishop you appear to be giving away comes back inside the calculation.
GM Felix Blohberger (AUT, 2552)
GM Javokhir Sindarov (UZB, 2778)
The check first, the queen after: 14.Bxe5+
White wins the piece back in two different ways, and on the scales barely a tenth of a pawn separates them. Nine players in ten still reach for the other one. grabs the knight at once, but it allows , and suddenly a black knight sits in the middle of the white position and travels on via f4.
takes the choice away. is the only move that keeps the damage small: costs more than a pawn, and any king move costs more still. The knight on h5 is not going anywhere, so it can be collected afterwards: . Material is level, the d-file belongs to White, and with the d3 pawn gone the square c4 is free for the bishop, which takes it on move 23.
Remember the order, not the moves. In a forced sequence the check comes first. It costs nothing, it takes a decision away from your opponent, and which piece ends up on which square is decided exactly there.
GM Felix Blohberger (AUT, 2552)
GM Javokhir Sindarov (UZB, 2778)
16...f6, and two squares never come back
Up to here Black is barely half a pawn short, and that is a position you hold. props up the e5 pawn and looks solid. The price is not on the scoresheet but on the board: the f7 pawn was the only man covering e6 and g6. On f6 it covers e5 and g5, where Black already has pawns. e6 and g6 are left without any pawn cover for the rest of the game, and the bishop on b3 is already pointing at the first of them along c4 and d5.
or would have held things together. After the game move White has an edge that never goes away again, and Sindarov needs not one sharp move to build on it.
had put the rook behind his own knight. While the knight sits on d2 the rook attacks nothing, and the moment it moves the rook is looking at the black queen. So she steps aside in advance with and . is the move almost nobody at this level plays, and it is the best one, about a quarter of a pawn ahead of the alternatives: the rook does little on e1, but it clears f1 for the knight, , and from there the route runs via h2 to g4. Before you push a pawn in front of your king, name the two squares it stops guarding.
GM Felix Blohberger (AUT, 2552)
GM Javokhir Sindarov (UZB, 2778)
The one trade Black cannot make: 27...Be6
is not the most testing move, was worth about a third of a pawn more. Black could have stayed roughly a pawn down with , and a pawn down in this structure is a long way from a lost game.
offers the trade of the light-squared bishops, and that is the one trade Black cannot afford here. His king has been on g6 for three moves, and the squares around it, e6, f5, g4 and h5, are all light. After they belong to White alone, and ten moves later the white queen is standing on exactly those squares: first g4, then f5.
freezes the b7 pawn for the rest of the game on top of that. It cannot advance, because b6 is occupied, the double step fails for the same reason, and it can only capture if White puts something on a6 or c6. White now has a target on the seventh rank that will never move again. Before you attack an enemy pawn, check whether you can nail it down instead: a captured pawn ties nothing up, a frozen one ties up pieces forever.
GM Felix Blohberger (AUT, 2552)
GM Javokhir Sindarov (UZB, 2778)
Both rooks want d6, only one of them wins: 39.R5d6
puts the rook on the seventh rank and attacks precisely the b7 pawn that has not been able to move since move 29. defends it and costs nearly two pawns, because the black king gets dragged into the open afterwards: and the queen follows via g4 and f5. Sindarov takes the quieter road with , which also wins.
Both rooks attack the queen from d6, and still more than a full pawn separates them. leaves the rook on d7, and that is the one everything turns on: , and the frozen pawn runs home. After that rook is missing from the seventh rank, and Black holds together a good deal longer. When two identical pieces can reach the same square, the move is not decided by the square they go to but by what stays behind on the one they leave.
finally allows the mate: . is the only legal move there. The pawn the queen takes on move 41 is the one that went from f7 to f6, and the check before it comes from g6, the other square that pawn used to guard. would have lasted longer and changed nothing.
GM Felix Blohberger (AUT, 2552)
GM Javokhir Sindarov (UZB, 2778)
Verdict
Blohberger held a defensible position up to move twenty-seven and missed nothing along the way that anyone would call a blunder. He lost it with and , two moves that both look solid and both do the same thing: they hand over light squares that his own king is standing on. Sindarov, who plays for the world title in Geneva from November, wins the game without a single spectacular move, with a zwischenzug on thirteen, a rook to e1 so that the knight can use f1, and a pawn to b6 that nails an enemy pawn down forever. Three things to take home: in a forced sequence play the check first, before every pawn move in front of your own king name the two squares it gives up, and before every piece trade check which colour of square your king still has covered.
Moves
1-0
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