Back to Earth

于润荷 (Jennifer Yú) – Nazí Nodarovna Paikidze
62nd U.S. Women’s Chess Championship; Saint Louis, October 10, 2023
Queen’s Indian Defence E16

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Bb4+ 4. Bd2 Qe7 5. g3 b6 6. Bg2 Bb7 7. 0-0 Bxd2 8. Nbxd2 0-0 9. Qc2 d6 10. e4 e5 11. d5 a5 12. Ne1 Na6 13. Nd3 Nc5 14. Nxc5 bxc5 15. Rae1 Nh5 16. Re3 g6 17. f4 exf4 18. gxf4 Rae8 19. Qc3

19. ... Qh4. With this Queen sortie Paikidze does not make any secret of her aggressive intentions, but, all things considered, one should wonder whether 19. ... f6 would not have been a safer policy.
20. Rh3 Qg4 21. Rhf3 Bc8

22. Kh1! Freeing the square g1 for the Rook. Black’s situation is anything but appealing, as she’s got nothing but trouble from her Kingside campaign, yet probably there’s still a path back she could have followed. Instead, Paikidze, with her next three moves, in an attempt to make sense of her fallacious strategy, literally disintegrates.
22. ... f5? 23. e5 g5? 24. e6 h6? 25. Bh3 Qh4 26. fxg5 hxg5 27. Bxf5 Nf6

And 于润荷 (Jennifer Yú), finally confident of her own strength, finishes forcefully with a mating attack.
28. Bg6! Ng4 29. Rxf8+ Rxf8 30. Rxf8+ Kxf8 31. Qf3+ 1 : 0.