Spacetime

Sarasadat Khademalsharieh – Gunay Vugar qizi Mammadzada
1st Women’s World Chess Cup; match game 2; Krasnaya Polyana, July 19, 2021
Slav Defence D11

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. g3 dxc4 5. Bg2 g6 6. 0-0 Bg7 7. a4 Ne4 8. Nc3 Nd6 9. e4 Bg4 10. Be3 Na6 (10. ... Qc8!? 11. Qe2 Na6 12. Rad1 0-0 13. h3 Bxf3 14. Bxf3 Nb4 ½ : ½ Štukan – Basso, Third Saturday Mix 158, Novi Sad 2021) 11. h3 Bxf3 12. Qxf3 Qb6? A novelty which is useless to say the least. But 12. ... Nb4 13. Qe2 Nd3 14. b3 also proved quite unpleasant for Black in Gelfand – Sarana, 6th Nutcracker Match of the Generations, Moscow 2020, match game 1 (time control: 15 minutes plus 10 seconds per move). 13. a5 Qd8 14. Qe2 0-0 15. Rfd1 Nc7 16. f4 Qd7 17. Bf2 f5? (⌓ 17. ... e6 18. e5 Nf5 19. Qxc4 Nd5 20. Rd3 Rab8 21. Ne4±) 18. e5 Ndb5 19. Nxb5 cxb5 20. d5+− Na6 21. d6 e6 22. Qf3 Rfb8 23. b3 cxb3 24. Qxb3 Rc8 25. Rac1 Kf7 26. Qf3 Rcb8 27. g4 Kg8 28. gxf5 gxf5 29. Rd3 Kh8 30. Rdc3 Qf7 31. Kh1 Qe8

32. Rc7! Nb4 (32. ... Nxc7 33. dxc7 Rc8 34. Qxb7+−) 33. Qg3 1 : 0.

Khademalsharieh masterfully took advantage of Mammadzada’s opening inaccuracies. Photo © Anastasia Korolkova.