The Impossible Game

Mariya Olehivna Muzychuk – 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán)
Women’s World Chess Championship match game 8; Lviv, March 12, 2016
Queen’s Pawn Game D02

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. g3 d5 4. Bg2 b5 5. 0-0 Bb7 6. a4 b4 7. c4 a5 8. Bg5 Nbd7 9. Nbd2 Be7 10. Rc1 h6 11. Bxf6 Bxf6 12. Qc2. Klaus-Günther Besenthal suggests 12. cxd5! Bxd5 (12. ... exd5 13. Qc2) 13. e4 — White looks better.
12. ... c6 13. e4 0-0 14. e5 Be7 15. c5! Alea iacta est: White focuses her strategy on her space advantage.

15. ... g5! A strategic imperative. Black will succeed in consolidating her position by means of a non-random regrouping along the back rank.
16. h3 Kg7 17. Rfe1 Rh8 18. Bf1 Qg8 19. Re3 Kf8 20. Ne1 h5 21. Ng2 Ke8 22. Kh2 Nf8 23. Bd3 Ba6 24. f4 Bxd3 25. Qxd3 Qh7

“To summarise the action over the last few moves: 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) managed to neutralise White’s attack before it even got started. She evacuated her King from the danger zone and exchanged her bad Bishop. After the swap of Queens, Black only has to worry about the f-file”, Grandmaster Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant wrote in her commentary for Šahovski Informator (Chess Informant), No. 128, 2016, p. 274.
26. Rf1. As the previous note indirectly suggests, here maybe 26. Qe2!? Ng6 27. Rf1⩲ might have just been a little more ambitious.
26. ... Qxd3 27. Rxd3 gxf4 28. Nxf4 Ng6. 28. ... Bg5 29. Nb3 (29. h4!? Bxf4 30. Rxf4 Ng6 31. Rf6 Ne7 32. Rdf3 Rh7 does not apparently give any chance for a breakthrough) 29. ... Ng6 transposes to the game.
29. Nb3 Bg5 30. Nxg6 fxg6 31. Rdf3 Ra7

32. Kg2. Ukrainian Grandmaster Adrian Bohdanovych Mikhalchishin gives here 32. Na1 Rg7 33. Nc2 Rgg8? 34. Rf7 Rf8?? 35. Rxf8+ Rxf8 36. Rxf8+ Kxf8 37. Nxb4! axb4 38. a5 and the Pawn queens, but it is pretty obvious that Black would not have cooperated so fully with her opponent (33. ... Bd8 followed by ... g6-g5 seems to be a sufficient defence).
32. ... Rg8 33. Kf2. “Nominally White still has some pressure but it is not easy to convert this to a win. Black’s Pawn weaknesses are easily defended and there are no entry points along the f-file”, writes Arakhamia-Grant, ibidem. If 33. Na1 (Mikhalchishin) then 33. ... Bd8 seems okay for Black.
33. ... Rf8 34. Kg2 Rxf3 35. Rxf3 Bd8 36. Nc1 g5 37. Nd3 Rg7 38. g4 h4 39. Nc1 Rg8 40. Nb3 Rg7 41. Kf2 Rf7 42. Rxf7 Kxf7 43. Kf3 Ke8 44. Kf2 Kf7 ½ : ½.

This was in fact the end of the dreams of glory for Muzychuk’s fans, but not without leaving a poisoned trail behind it (maybe it is exaggeration?). At issue is whether retaliatory use in response to a débâcle is fair and even legal. The fact is that right after the game, 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) was targeted and subjected to a very harassing anti-doping test, which she managed to overcome only after being locked up incommunicado for four hours in a frozen room without food or drinking water. Photo: Vitaliy Hrabar.