Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Lê Quang Liêm – Sarasadat Khademalsharieh
17th Gibraltar Chess Festival; Catalan Bay, January 27, 2019
Spanish Game C88

After two lucky escapes in a row, Iranian International Master Sarasadat Khademalsharieh looked a bit too tired today to be repeating herself in her game with Vietnamese Grandmaster Lê Quang Liêm. 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. 0-0 b5 6. Bb3 Bb7 7. d3 Be7 8. Re1 0-0 9. Nbd2 d6 10. a4 Na5 11. Ba2 c5 12. Nf1 Rb8? The book move is 12. ... b4(!) that, in a recent game, gave raise to 13. Bd2 Bc8 14. Ne3 Be6 with reasonable play for Black, Anand – Praggnanandhaa, 1st Tata Steel Chess India Blitz, Kolkata 2018. 13. axb5 axb5 14. Ne3 Bc8 15. c3! 15. b4 Nc6 16. bxc5 dxc5 17. Bb2 Bd6 doesn’t seem to offer anything special for White, A. Ivanov – G. Golovchenko, Saint Petersburg 2002. 15. ... b4? After this, White easily gets a considerable strategic advantage, so maybe Black should have preferred 15. ... Nc6(!) eventually followed by ... Bc8-e6. 16. cxb4 cxb4 17. Bd2 Bd7 18. Nd5 Nxd5 19. Bxd5 Rb5 20. h3 Be6 21. Qa4 Qb8 22. Bxe6 fxe6 23. Rec1 d5 24. Be3 Bd6 25. Ng5 d4 26. Bd2 Re8 27. Rc2 h6 28. Nf3 Qb7 29. Rac1

29. ... Ra8? This allows White to decisively infiltrate into the enemy position, and can certainly be regarded as Black’s fatal mistake. If nothing else, 29. ... Kh7(!) would still have offered some defence. 30. Rc8+! Rxc8 31. Rxc8+ Qxc8 32. Qxb5 Nc6 33. Be1! Qc7 34. Nd2. The rest is a cat-mouse play. 34. ... Be7 35. Nc4 Bf8 36. h4 h5 37. Bd2 Be7 38. g3 Bd6 39. Kg2 Kf8 40. Qa6 Kf7 41. Qa8 Nb8 42. Nxd6+ Qxd6 43. Qb7+ 1 : 0.

Lê Quang Liêm vs. Sarasadat Khademalsharieh. Photo © John Saunders.