The Customer Is Not Always Right

Natalia Oleksandrivna Zhukova – Marina Brunello
18th European Individual Women’s Chess Championship; Riga, April 21, 2017
Old Indian Defence A55

1. c4 c6 2. e4 e5 3. Nf3 d6 4. d4 Nd7 5. Nc3 Ngf6 6. Be2 Be7. Brunello adopted the Old Indian Defence, which was pioneered by Mikhail Ivanovich Chigorin. It’s not probably the best choice to upset a methodical opponent such as Zhukova, who usually spends a lot of time on solid building plans, regularly ending up, however, in serious time trouble. 7. 0-0 0-0 8. Qc2 a5 9. Be3 exd4. Surrendering the centre is maybe not wrong, but I cannot see it as right. 10. Nxd4 Nc5 11. Rad1 Qc7 12. h3 Re8 13. f4 Bf8 14. Bf3 Nfd7. Black starts tangling up her Knights, searching for the best possible harmony. The “must go” of the on-line databases was instead 16. ... a4 17. Bf2 g6 18. g4 with the initiative for White, Martinović – Kožul, 21st Croatian Chess Championship, Poreč 2014. 15. Bf2 Ne6 16. Nde2 g6 17. Qd2 Nec5 18. b3 Qb6 19. Rb1 Qc7 20. Rfd1 Nf6? This is the worst possible move as it allows White to advance the e-Pawn (after Bf2xc5) with gain of time (as she is attacking the Knight) – otherwise Black might answer e4-e5 by ... Bc8-f5. 21. Bxc5 dxc5 22. e5. Now White’s Knight will jump to e4 with awkward consequences for our cause. 22. ... Nd7 23. Ne4 Bg7. If Black wanted to avoid an invasion on d6, she should have played ... Bf8-e7. 24. N2c3 Re7 25. Qf2 f6 26. Qh4. Zhukova achieved an imposing position, which will turn out to be quite easy to play even under time pressure. 26. ... g5. Brunello cleverly goes for complications, but her fierce resistance runs out of tricks after time control. 27. fxg5 fxg5 28. Nxg5 Bxe5

29. Bd5+! Nevertheless, 29. Nd5! cxd5 30. Bxd5+ Kh8 31. Rf1 was also much strong. 29. ... cxd5 30. Nxd5 Qd6 31. Ne4 Bh2+ 32. Kh1 Rxe4 33. Qxe4 Be5 34. Rf1 Nf8 35. Nb6 Qxb6 36. Qxe5 Qh6 37. Rf3 Qg7 38. Rg3 Ng6 39. Qxc5 Bd7 40. Qd5+ Qf7 41. Qxb7 Rf8 42. Rd1 1 : 0.