Once Upon A King

Aleksandra Yuryevna Goryachkina – Polina Sergeevna Shuvalova
FIDE Women’s Grand Prix 2022–23; 1st stage; Astana, September 18, 2022
Scotch Game C45

1. e4 e5. Being asked about who first caught the other one by surprise, Goryachkina answered: “I think we surprised each other”.
2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. d4 exd4 5. e5 d5 6. Bb5 Ne4 7. Nxd4 Bd7 8. Bxc6. If, dogmatically, 8. Nxc6?! then 8. ... bxc6 9. Bd3 Bc5! 10. Bxe4 Qh4! leaving Black with the Bishop pair and a crushing initiative, Lichtenhein – P. C. Morphy, 1st American Chess Congress, New York 1857.
8. ... bxc6 9. 0-0 Be7 10. f3 Nc5. Not less objectionable is 10. ... Ng5 11. f4 Ne4 12. f5! c5 13. Ne2 Bb5 14. Na3! Bc6 (14. ... Ba6? 15. c4!±) 15. c4! d4 16. Nf4 Bg5 17. Nd3 Rb8 18. Qe2 h6 19. Bf4 Rb6 20. Rae1 Ba8 21. Qg4± Sveshnikov – Ferčec, 1st Open, Nova Gorica 1996.
11. Be3 0-0 12. Nc3 a5 13. Qd2 a4 (13. ... Ra6 14. Nb3⩲ Ninov – Chudinovskikh, 6th Open, Prague 2007)
14. Rad1 a3 15. b3 Na6

16. Nde2 Bf5?! Black’s move loses time and ends up helping White to regroup her Knights to get at new targets on the Kingside. 16. ... Re8 17. f4 Bb4 18. h3 f6= seems to be preferable.
17. Ng3 Be6 18. Nce2 c5 19. c3 Qd7?! (19. ... c4!? 20. bxc4 bxc4 21. Qe1 Qe8 22. Nd4⩲)
20. Nh5! Threatens Be3-h6.
20. ... Kh8 21. Bg5 Rad8?! (21. ... d4!? 22. cxd4 Nb4 23. h4⩲)

22. Qc1! With an eye to both wings.
22. ... Nb8 23. h3! Nc6 24. Bxe7 Qxe7 25. f4 Bc8. If 25. ... c4 then 26. f5! and the Black Bishop must retreat to c8 anyway.
26. Qxa3 f6 27. exf6 gxf6 28. Neg3 Qe3+ 29. Kh2 Qxc3 30. Rc1 Qb4 31. Qxb4 Nxb4 32. Rxc5

32. ... Nxa2? Sheer desperation. Black gives up the Knight to advance the d-Pawn to queen, but White’s mating attack comes first. It is just the case to note, however, that the endgame — or, to say it more properly, the semi-endgame — was close to a technical win for White, whatever Black played.
33. Rxc7 d4 34. Ra1 d3 35. Rxa2 d2 36. Raa7 1 : 0

Goryachkina being about to make her first move, the one Bobby Fischer used to call “best by test”. Photo: Anna Shtourman/FIDE.