Back in Time

侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) – Dronavalli Harika

3rd Online Women’s Speed Chess Championship Main Event; Final match game 7; time control: 5 minutes plus 1 second per move; chess.com, July 3, 2021

Two Knights Defence C55

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. d3 h6 5. 0-0 d6 6. Re1. At this point, according to the correspondent from chess.com, Harika got “disconnected” to reappear after what seemed like hours (even though it was only minutes). In any case, when she finally reconnected, she was down to a minute and 21 seconds for the rest of the game.

6. ... g5! 7. c3 Bg7 8. d4. In the ninth game, 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) continued 8. Nbd2 g4 9. Nh4 Nxe4 10. dxe4 [10. Nxe4 Qxh4 11. f4?? gxf3 12. Qxf3?? Qxe1+ 0 : 1 Praggnanandhaa – 韦奕 (Wéi Yì), 1st Junior Speed Chess Championship, chess.com, May 31, 2019, match game 12 (time control: 3 minutes plus 1 second per move)] 10. ... Qxh4 11. Nf1 Qf6 12. Ne3 h5 13. b4 (⌓ 13. Nd5) 13. ... Be6 14. Bd5 a6 15. Qa4 Bd7 16. Qd1 Qg6 17. Bb3 h4 18. Nd5 Rc8 19. Be3 Ne7 20. Nxe7 Kxe7 21. c4 Bf6 22. c5 only to get overwhelmed by Black’s attack after 22. ... g3! 23. fxg3 hxg3 24. h3 Bxh3! 25. gxh3 Rxh3 26. cxd6+ cxd6 27. Rc1 Qh7 (27. ... g2!−+) 28. Qg4 Rh1+ 29. Kg2 Rxc1 30. Rxc1 Qh2+ 31. Kf3 Rxc1 32. Qxg3 (32. Bxc1 Qf2#) 32. ... Rf1+ 33. Kg4 Qh7 (33. ... Qe2+ 34. Kh3 Rh1+−+) 34. Bf2 Qxe4+ 0 : 1 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) – Harika, 3rd Online Women’s Speed Chess Championship Main Event, chess.com, July 3, 2021, Final match game 9 (time control: 5 minutes plus 1 second per move). 8. ... Qe7 9. Nbd2 Bg4 10. Bb5 Bd7 11. a4 a6 12. Bd3 g4 13. Nh4 Nxe4 14. Nxe4 Qxh4 15. Ng3 Qe7 16. Nf5 Bxf5 17. Bxf5 h5 18. d5 Nd8 19. Qd3. White has more space and an easier game. Here 19. f4 might also have been considered. 19. ... Bh6 20. Bxh6 Rxh6 21. c4 b6 22. a5 Rb8 23. axb6 Rxb6 24. Qc3 Kf8 25. c5. 25. b4 Qg5 26. c5 might be a better move order, since 26. ... Rb5 27. Bd3 transposes to the game. 25. ... Rb5 26. b4

26. ... Qg5? Owing to her initial disconnection from the server (with loss of time), Harika can’t calculate the consequences of 26. ... dxc5! 27. Rxe5 cxb4! 28. Qe3 Qf6 which were perfectly good for her, forcing White to play carefully to save the day: 29. h4! Rxd5 30. Rxd5 Qxa1+ 31. Kh2 Rd6 32. Re5! Qa4+ (32. ... Ne6 33. Qh6+ with perpetual) 33. Qg5 securing a draw by perpetual check. 27. Bd3 Rb8 28. Rxa6 Rf6 29. cxd6 cxd6 30. Ra2 Kg7? In such a situation, Black would have desperately needed the lost time back. Now better is 30. ... Rf4 (in order to reply to 31. Qc7 with 31. ... Rfxb4) 31. Rb2 with a manifest advantage to White. 31. Qc7 Rxb4 32. Qxd8 h4 33. Ra8 1 : 0.

Speaking afterwards with Jennifer Shahade and Keti Tsatsalashvili, the newly Women’s Speed Chess Champion admitted that her opponent’s Internet outage was a kind of turning point, not only in a technical way, but most of all in a psychological sense. Screenshot from the live stream.