Once Upon a Saturday

Evgeny Georgievich Tsygankov – Leonid Korogodski
7th Chess 960 World Cup Final; ICCF, September 9, 2020 – December 12, 2020
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Position #842

1. d4 d5 2. Ng3 Ng6 3. f3 f6 4. e4 dxe4. Breaking the symmetry. 5. fxe4 e5 6. d5 Nf4 7. Nb3 Bg6 8. a3 c6 9. Qf2 cxd5

10. Nf5. Of course there could have been danger in opening the diagonal b1-h7. 10. ... b6 11. Ba6 Ne6 12. exd5 Nc7 13. Bxc8 Kxc8 14. d6 Rd7 15. Rd2 Qe6. Basically a playable move but with the wrong aim in mind. There were probably other good replies he would rather have been playing. 16. g4

16. ... Bxd6?? Here comes the disaster — Black snatches the Pawn, but it’s a poisoned one. Comparatively best was 16. ... Ne8 in order to reply to 17. 0-0-0 by 17. ... Rb8 18. Rd3 (18. Rc3+ Kd8 19. Nbd4!? leaves White with nothing better than a draw by perpetual check after 19. ... exd4 20. Nxd4 Qxd6 21. Nc6+) 18. ... Rbb7! 19. Bb4 Kb8 with an apparently tenable game. 17. 0-0-0! 1 : 0. Black’s house falls apart like a card castle: if 17. ... Bxf5 18. gxf5 Qe7 then simply 19. Qg2 with decisive effect (19. ... e4 20. Bg3+−). Likewise after 17. ... Ne8 18. Qg2 Kb8 19. Rd3! (Δ Be1-b4) 19. ... Bxf5 (19. ... a5 20. Qc6+−) 20. gxf5 Qxf5 21. Nc5!+− Black cannot avoid the worst outcome.