Analysis
The game in detail
GM Javokhir Sindarov (UZB, 2778) vs GM Robert Hovhannisyan (ARM, 2642) · 1-0
Board 170, Uzbekistan vs Armenia · Nimzo-Larsen Attack, Classical Variation (A06) · 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.
Round ten of the Olympiad, board 170 of the Open: Javokhir Sindarov, 2778, with White against Robert Hovhannisyan, 2642. After the loss to Wesley So on board one in round nine, this was not a rest day. Uzbekistan was in the fight for the medals, and Sindarov needed the point that a 2778 is expected to take with the white pieces against a 2642.
He took it, but not on the straight road. The Nimzo-Larsen with and gave nothing objectively, and after an unusual material distribution sat on the board. From there Sindarov built a slow advantage and, after twenty-two moves, stood a clean pawn up. Through move twenty-seven the calculation was clean. The twenty-eighth was a tactical error, and the twenty-ninth was the one move Hovhannisyan did not find.
The queen’s route: 17.Qe5 and 20.Qxa7
After Black had won the exchange and White had pushed the pawn to c6 with . Materially the score was rook against bishop plus pawns, practically the position was a question of which piece uses its open lines. Sindarov took eighteen minutes and fourteen seconds to answer.
is a strong move and the idea fits into one sentence: the queen takes the a1-h8 diagonal, gives the c6 pawn up for recapture and in one move prepares . Objectively was equivalent, but Sindarov’s move carried a concrete purpose, which is to enter the black position with tempo. After the queen stood on a7 three moves later, with two collected pawns and a back rank of her own that was not far off.
was the practical answer, with which Hovhannisyan handed the exchange back and cleaned up the material count. White stood a clean pawn up, kept the knight on f3, and had the task of turning the endgame into the point. In an uneven material balance the piece that has the open line has to use it with tempo. When the queen finds a road in eighteen minutes that brings in two pawns and gives the position its shape, the time on the clock was well spent.
GM Robert Hovhannisyan (ARM, 2642)
GM Javokhir Sindarov (UZB, 2778)
The passed pawn wakes up: 23.a4 and 24.e3
After Sindarov had a clean extra pawn, but the a-pawn still stood where it had begun. Without that pawn there was little to collect in the position, because the black king was open and the black queen was active. Sindarov spent eleven minutes and thirty-six seconds on and put the question of the game on the board: can the rook hold a far-advanced a-pawn if queen and knight support it?
shifted the rook onto the e-file, hoping to put the knight on f3 or the pawn on e2 in the line of fire. Sindarov played , the move that keeps the knight free and offers Black one more pawn push: came at once. After White stood clearly better, because the f5 diagonal was open for the white queen and the black king had no pawn left between himself and the centre.
put the queen back into the middle, and with the black king was fenced in without a single white pawn attacking it directly. Up to here the calculation was clean. The idea, which is to support the passed pawn and shrink the black defence at the same time, is exactly the plan an endgame with a passed pawn asks for: the pawn runs, the pieces support it, and the opponent is not allowed to move in his own position.
GM Robert Hovhannisyan (ARM, 2642)
GM Javokhir Sindarov (UZB, 2778)
The tactical error: 28.a5
Here the task was simple: activate the knight, tuck the king, then push the a-pawn. The move that does this is , with the idea of taking the king out of the back rank check and keeping the knight’s roads open. After White could have wound the position up without counterplay.
Sindarov spent six minutes and fifty-one seconds and played . It is the tactical error of the game, and calling it anything else would not be honest; it is not a matter of move order. After the black rook defends the a-pawn and attacks the b3 pawn at the same time, and White’s edge shrinks to a barely perceptible remainder. The sample line runs , and White stands at the end of the calculation with a perpetual on a board where both sides have traded their pawns.
was the practical move, because it pushes the passed pawn one rank further and looks like a continuation of the plan. It was the wrong move, because it left one reply on the board that levels the position. When a far-advanced pawn is not yet advanced enough to be defended on its own, a prophylactic move like comes first. Not because h3 is spectacular. Because without h3 the opposing rook finds a reply that reaches further than one’s own push.
GM Robert Hovhannisyan (ARM, 2642)
GM Javokhir Sindarov (UZB, 2778)
The one move: 28...Qd5 and 29.Qf4
After Hovhannisyan had a move that holds the game, and he had twelve minutes and fifteen seconds on the clock to find it. He took a minute and a half and played . It has to be said that really is not obvious: the move looks as if the rook is only escorting the passed pawn, and the refutation of only opens up through the idea of collecting the white f5 pawn with the rook.
?? is the move that loses. The queen goes into the centre, but she does not hold the white a-pawn back, she does not defend her own rook, and she sits on a square the white pieces can hit with tempo. Sindarov spent five minutes and fifty-seven seconds and found the one move that decides the position: . The move attacks the rook on b8 and gives the black queen no good road back.
Objectively the second-best move was , which takes the h-pawn and stays clearly better. It is much weaker than , because after the white queen on h6 no longer reaches into the black position. is the move that ends the game, and that Sindarov did not take the natural pawn but the more active centralisation is the reason the end came so quickly. After the position ran into mate with tempo, and after Hovhannisyan resigned.
The learning from this passage fits into two sentences. The move that looks like a centralisation on the board is not always the move the position asks for. And whoever has a chance to hold the opponent to his own mistake attacks the piece that cannot help him defend, and leaves the pawn grab on the board.
GM Robert Hovhannisyan (ARM, 2642)
GM Javokhir Sindarov (UZB, 2778)
Verdict
Thirty-five moves, a third win in Samarkand after the wins over Leko in round five and Bluebaum in round eight, and a point back after the loss to Wesley So in round nine. The road there was not a clean one. Sindarov won because his opponent, in a position that was not yet clearly lost, found the one wrong move, and because Sindarov had the right reply in under six minutes. The 28th move was a tactical error that should not go unpunished against a 2778, and yet it did. The point counts for as much as a cleanly calculated win. For the standings on board one that is the answer to the lost round the road to Geneva asks for.
Moves
1-0
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