So Light, So Heavy

Rameshbabu Vaishali – Aleksandra Yuryevna Goryachkina
Women’s Candidates Tournament 2024; Toronto, April 17, 2024
4k3/8/p2Pp3/3p4/1q3QK1/1P6/P5P1/8 b - - 6 64

Position after 64. Qg5-f4

Yesterday’s result was the second defeat in a row for Goryachkina, meaning that her hope of returning to the limelight as a world challenger is fading away. Her lack of struggle against Vaishali in what, absolutely, was a game to win at all costs, might suggest, if not a lack of preparation, a lack of emphaty with the upper hierarchy of Russian chess, but who knows? In any event, after having been lucky enough not to resign before the time control (at the 40th move), after another twenty or so moves she finally succeeded at reaching at least a drawish Queen ending.
In the position of diagram, the drama reaches its climax. In his annotations for Championat, Grandmaster Dmitry Vadimovich Kryakvin notes that “Black is down a Pawn, but her Queen is active, and there is a good chance of capturing the passed Pawn on d6”.
64. ... d4? Allows the White Queen a crushing centralisation. Black had more ways than one to save herself: 64. ... Qb6, 64. ... Qc3, 64. ... Qe1, and even 64. ... a5 65. Qxb4 axb4 66. Kf4 d4 67. Ke4 e5 would have led to a draw.
65. Qe5!+− d3+. The point is that now 65. ... Kd7 would be refuted by 66. Qg7+! either winning the Queen (66. ... Kxd6 67. Qf8+) or hunting the King to mate (66. ... Kc6 67. Qc7++−).
66. Kf3 Kf7 (66. ... d2 67. Qxe6+ Kf8 68. Qf6+ Kg8 69. Ke2+−)
67. d7 Qb7+ 68. Qe4 d2. If 68. ... Qxd7 then 69. Qh7+ Ke8 70. Qxd7+ Kxd7 71. Ke3 with an easily won Pawn ending.
69. d8=N+! Of course 69. d8=Q would also win for White, but Vaishali is too tempted by a spectacular promotion to Knight.
69. ... Kf6 70. Nxb7 1–0. A piece and a Pawn down, Goryachkina resigned.

Goryachkina did not play in the second half of the tournament with the same confidence that she showed in the first half. Photo: Michał Walusza/FIDE.