Baptism of Fire

Inna Grigoryevna Gaponenko-Yanovska – Nataliya Igorivna Buksa
75th Ukrainian Women’s Chess Championship; Lviv, December 6, 2015
Spanish Game C63

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 f5 4. d3 fxe4 5. dxe4 Nf6 6. 0-0 Bc5 7. Bxc6 bxc6 8. Nxe5 0-0 9. Bg5 Qe8 10. Bxf6 Rxf6 11. Nd3 Bd4 12. Nd2 d6 13. c3. If 13. Qe2 then 13. ... Qg6 14. Kh1 Ba6 15. Rab1 Raf8 16. f3 Qg5 17. Rfd1 ½ : ½ Spassky – Antunes, 28th Chess Olympiad, Thessaloníki 1988. 13. ... Bb6 14. e5!? A very interesting novelty by Gaponenko-Yanovska who gives back her extra Pawn in order to grab the initiative. For 14. c4 Qg6 15. Kh1 Bg4 16. f3 Be6 17. f4 Bg4 18. Qe1 Re8 see Macieja – Radjabov, Chess World Cup, Baku 2015, match game 1. Instead, for 14. Qe2 Ba6 15. c4 Qf7 16. b3 Re8 17. Kh1 see Bruzón Batista – Gomez Fontal, 62nd Cuban Chess Championship, Santa Clara 2000. 14. ... dxe5 15. Ne4 Rf8 16. Ndc5 Bf5 17. Qe2 Qe7 18. b4 a5 19. a3 Qh4 20. Kh1 Kh8 21. Rae1 axb4 22. axb4 Ra3 23. Qb2 Ra7? It seems to me that by 23. ... Rfa8! Black would have avoided some of the upcoming problems. 24. Qe2 Ra3 25. Ng3 Bxc5 26. bxc5 Bg6 27. Qxe5 Bd3. Black is down a Pawn and she must necessarily strive for some counter-play. 28. Rg1 Ra4 29. Qe7 Qxe7 30. Rxe7 Rc4 31. Rxc7 Rxc5 32. Rc1 h6 33. f3 Rb8 34. h3 Kh7 35. Kh2 Rb3? A serious mistake. After 35. ... Rb1 36. Rxb1 Bxb1 37. Ne2 Black should, indeed, defend a difficult ending a Pawn down, but that would have been by far the lesser evil.

36. Re1 Rbxc3 37. Ree7. Black has regained her Pawn, but the penetration of both White’s Rooks to the seventh rank is overwhelming. 37. ... Rg5 38. h4 Rg6 39. Nh5 Rc2 40. Nf4 Bf1 41. Kg1! It makes no sense to play 41. Nxg6 Rxg2+ 42. Kh1 Rxg6 that would uselessly complicate matters. 41. ... Bb5 42. Nxg6 Kxg6 43. Rxg7+ Kh5 1 : 0.

Inna Yanovska Gaponenko vs. Nataliya Buksa
Photo: Ukrainian Chess (Facebook)