GM Falls for Simple Opening Trap, Loses in 11 Moves*
*(Ok, 29 moves - but she could have resigned on move 11.)
I know, you’re waiting for me to cover the big event. The one with the former world champion, though not the current champion or the last challenger. So that’s what this post is all about: I’m covering the Cairns Cup in St. Louis, with former Women’s World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk, but not current champ Ju Wenjun or her last challenger, Aleksandra Goryachkina. (That is the tournament you had in mind, right?)
At least that’s what I’m doing tonight, because of the epic opening play in round 1. In a Symmetrical English with 4.d4, GM (not WGM, but GM) Bella Khotenashvili played 5…g6 of her own free will, and on move 9, in an extremely well-known position (for those who play that line - not recommended) she played 9…Ng4?? Her opponent, IM Gunay Mammadzada was surely confused for a few moments - “This is impossible, isn’t it?” [attempted mind-reading on my part, not a quotation] - and then executed the refutation, winning a full piece. Khotenashvili understandably played on, but never came close to scaring anything up and duly lost in 29 moves. (Have a look here.)
This blog is all about helping you improve your chess, so let’s learn some lessons from this. I think the main lesson is that it’s not important to study your openings, especially in sharp lines, because GMs don’t know what they’re doing, either. So why bother? Another valuable lesson is that if the position is similar to one where the move you’re intending works, then go ahead and play it! The differences are probably irrelevant, and not worth spending any time thinking about - especially when you’re playing with a classical time control. (On the other hand, if it’s blitz, then you should spend as much time as possible reflecting on those nuances. It’s a blitz game, so does it really matter if you have two minutes for the whole game rather than just 20 seconds?)**
** N.B. It’s possible that the advice in the last paragraph might be slightly mistaken. If so, it would be the first error I’ve made in the almost 20 years I’ve been blogging.***
*** The last statement might be the second error.****…
We can't really accuse Khotenashvili of playing too quickly in the opening: According to clock times on chess24, she spent 3 1/2 minutes on 7.-0-0 (here 7.-Ng4 was an option, it's exactly the position that can also arise from the Sicilian Accelerated Dragon) and 4 1/2 minutes on 9.-Ng4??.
For what it's worth, both players had apparently deviated from their general repertoire (at least according to database games I found, which probably won't include all of their Internet games if applicable): Mammadzada played mainly 1.e4, sometimes 1.d4, 2.Pf3 only twice in Titled Tuesday games, never 1.c4. She also took her time for 4.d4 (6 1/2 minutes) and 7.Be3 (4 1/2 minutes, 7.Pc2 is an alternative).
Khotenashvili generally chose different setups against 1.Pf3 or 1.c4, while she had the position after 8.-d6 three times from different move orders. Two games in 2016 and 2020 continued 9.0-0 Bd7, recently (Georgian Women championship, February 2023) Batsiashvili refrained from "setting an opening trap" and played 9.h3 - not yet needed, but possibly useful later if white goes for Qd2 and doesn't want to bother with -Ng4.