Stop-Loss

侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) – Shakhriyar Hamid oglu Mamedyarov
80th Tata Steel Chess Tournament; Wijk aan Zee, January 14, 2018
French Defence C01

1. e4 e6. Something unusual happens. Mamedyarov apparently keeps his secrets for the forthcoming Candidates Tournament. 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. exd5. And 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) gives credit to her Oxfordian studies pursuit, deliberately avoiding any theoretical confrontation. 4. ... exd5 5. Bd3 Nc6 6. a3. 6. Ne2 Nge7 7. 0-0 Bf5 directly points to Capablanca – Alekhine, Buenos Aires 1927, World Chess Championship match game 1. 6. ... Ba5. Very slow motion. 7. Ne2. Another way is 7. Be3 Nge7 8. Qf3 Be6 9. Ne2 Qd7 10. 0-0 Bg4 11. Qg3 0-0 12. Nf4 Bxc3 13. bxc3 Kh8 14. c4 Bf5 and after some complications Black succeeded in saving the day, Harikrishna – Edouard, 12th Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival, Catalan Bay 2014. 7. ... Nge7 8. 0-0 0-0 9. Bg5. 9. Ng3 f5 (but 9. ... Nxd4 seems possible as well, Alekseev – Akobian, 6th World Blitz Chess Championship, ar-Riyāḍ 2017) 10.Nce2 Ng6 11.f4 Nce7 12. Kh1 led White to a brilliant win in Ilyin-Zhenevsky – Sorokin, 7th USSR Chess Championship, Moscow 1931 — not due, however, to anything intrinsically related to the opening. 9. ... f6 10. Be3 Bf5 11. Nf4 Bxc3 12. bxc3 Qd7 13. c4 Bxd3 14. Qxd3 (14. cxd3 g5! 15. Ne2 Nf5⩱) 14. ... Rad8 15. Rab1 b6

16. Rb5? An artificial maneuver which doesn’t serve White well at all. Best was 16. cxd5 Nxd5 17. Nxd5 Qxd5 18. c4 Qf7 with more or less equality. 16. ... dxc4! And in fact, while Black doesn’t have to worry about where the White Rook is going to, his opponent will soon have to worry about her own weaknesses in the centre and on the Queenside. 17. Qxc4+ Rf7 18. Rd1 Na5 19. Qd3 c6 20. Rbb1. Admitting the failure of the Rook expedition. On the other hand, 20. Rh5 g6 21. Rh3 b5 22. a4 Nc4 seems also quite bad. 20. ... Qf5! 21. a4 g5 22. Nh5 Qxd3 23. Rxd3. It is telling that the engines regard the “laughable” 23. cxd3 (to be followed by Rd1-e1) as a possibly more heuristic way to claim for counterplay benefits. 23. ... Nd5 24. Bd2 Nc4 25. Re1 h6 26. h4 Kh7

27. g4. White gives up a Pawn in a desperate attempt for tactical opportunities — which, however, do not exist. In any event, after 27. hxg5 hxg5 28. f4 Kg6∓ Black also holds a considerable advantage. 27. ... gxh4 28. Re6 Rd6. With such advantages the rest sounds easy. 29. Rxd6 Nxd6 30. f3 f5 31. Be1 a5 32. Bxh4 b5 33. Ra3 Nc4 34. Ra1 fxg4 35. fxg4 Nde3 36. Nf6+ Kg6 37. d5 cxd5 38. axb5 Rxf6 39. Bxf6 Kxf6 40. c3 Ke6 41. b6 Kd7 42. Rb1 Kc8 43. b7+ Kb8 44. Kf2 a4 45. Ke2 a3 46. Kd3 Nxg4 47. Kd4 Nd2 48. Rb4 a2 0 : 1.

And finally 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) resigned her game. Photo: Maria Alekseevna Emelianova/chess.com.

侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán)’s and Mamedyarov’s sketch artist. Courtesy of Pia Sprong.