Analysis
The game in detail
GM Ediz Gurel (TUR, 2636) vs GM Javokhir Sindarov (UZB, 2778) · ½-½
Round 4, Uzbekistan vs Türkiye · Ruy Lopez, Morphy Defence (C78)
By Professor Zugzwang AI Coach . This analysis was written by a Bogner Chess AI coach.
Round four in Samarkand, Uzbekistan against Türkiye, Javokhir Sindarov with Black against Ediz Gurel, rated 142 points below him. It becomes a Ruy Lopez, and with and Sindarov builds the same airy king position he faced one round earlier from the other side of the board. That one finished with mate on move 44.
This one is drawn, and not because nothing happened. On move seventeen Gurel leaves the pawn on g5 alone, and Sindarov finds one position where exactly one move holds, and five in a row at the end.
10...g5 breaks the pin and costs squares
pins the knight on f6 against the queen, and changes nothing. settles it: the bishop has to go to g3, the knight is free, and Black has a tempo. The bill is paid in squares. No pawn covers f6 now, the pawn on h6 stands alone, and both sit on dark squares, where the bishop retreating to g3 works. Against the quiet that costs a quarter of a pawn at most, a matter of taste.
A pawn move in front of your own king cannot be taken back. Make it when it solves something concrete, as here with the pin, and look at which enemy piece works on the squares you gave up. Here that is the bishop on g3, and on move twenty-two it checks on e5.
GM Ediz Gurel (TUR, 2636)
GM Javokhir Sindarov (UZB, 2778)
13...Bxa8 or 13...Qxa8: which piece gets a job?
The bishop has sat on b7 since move seven, pointing down the long diagonal at e4. Recapture with the queen and she lines up behind it, two pieces on the same pawn, and the bishop keeps its square. Recapture with the bishop and it lands in the corner, doing the same job worse while the queen waits on d8. is better, by under half a pawn.
Sindarov takes with the bishop, and the bill arrives five moves later: the only way to bring that piece back into the game is a trade in the centre: . The bishop leaves the corner and the board at once, and the quieter was about the same piece. When two pieces can recapture, ask which one ends up with a job it did not already have.
GM Ediz Gurel (TUR, 2636)
GM Javokhir Sindarov (UZB, 2778)
The move White does not make: 17.h4
is the loosest thing Sindarov does all game, a good third of a pawn and the largest swing the game produces. goes straight at the bishop on g3, the piece that lives off the concessions of move ten. By now has left White a pawn on a3 with no neighbour.
was the move, straight at the pawn on g5, and White would have stood a good three quarters of a pawn better, the biggest edge of the game. Gurel plays , a square for the knight, and leaves the kingside alone; the edge is straight back to a third of a pawn and never grows again. When your opponent pushes a pawn in front of their king, look first for the move that attacks it. The pawn stays where it is; the piece you can reroute three moves from now.
GM Ediz Gurel (TUR, 2636)
GM Javokhir Sindarov (UZB, 2778)
22.Bxe5+, and only 22...f6 holds
The pawn on a3 stands alone, and on move twenty-one Sindarov collects it: . The reply is immediate: the bishop that had to step back to g3 on move eleven reaches the diagonal to the black king. takes the pawn back with check, and material is level again.
There is exactly one move. blocks the check and attacks the bishop, which has to retreat with . Each king move costs around two and a half pawns, because the bishop stays on e5: , the knight goes back from d5 and the pawn on b5 drops.
was not even White’s most awkward move; and asked more of Black at the moment of the decision, though the difference washes out when the lines are played on. A check forces an answer and takes every other answer away. Before you give one, ask whether it hands over the single problem your opponent is certain to solve.
GM Ediz Gurel (TUR, 2636)
GM Javokhir Sindarov (UZB, 2778)
Five moves with no alternative
On move twenty-five Sindarov enters a sequence with no way back: . From on, every black move is the only one that holds, and the gaps grow: at and a good two pawns separate it from the next best, at more than four.
The last is the sharpest. On g6 the king stands in the open and it is still the only square: after White drives him there with two checks and collects the rook on the way. loses the same way.
At the end everything is level, queen, rook and four pawns each. Go into a forced line and you have to calculate it to the last move, the one people skim because by then the position looks quiet.
GM Ediz Gurel (TUR, 2636)
GM Javokhir Sindarov (UZB, 2778)
Verdict
Half a point with Black against a grandmaster who twice had more in hand than he kept: after , where would have gone at the pawn on g5, and after , where asked more than the check did. Sindarov did what you have to do on days like this: he solved the one position where a single move holds, then five more of the same kind. On the road to Geneva these afternoons count for no less than the ones that finish with mate on move 44.
Moves
½-½
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