[Event "?"] [Site "?"] [Date "2021.04.10"] [Round "?"] [White "Harmon, Beth"] [Black "Borgov, Vasily"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D20"] [Annotator "Andrey Gutov"] [PlyCount "105"] [SourceVersionDate "2021.04.10"] {[%evp 0,105,16,28,26,-14,30,20,51,-13,-13,-8,31,97,89,89,77,73,74,57,61,53,58, 51,57,32,51,47,54,33,55,31,37,35,58,47,30,7,-1,4,40,28,25,-22,53,59,47,59,141, 6,10,4,17,17,10,17,1,-6,19,-25,0,-49,34,2,35,0,2,18,8,41,10,-14,63,16,37,44,82, 46,254,114,29,32,0,-24,-24,0,0,-65,-22,-28,0,0,0,203,212,210,264,241,241,241, 349,357,1433,29984,29987,29986,29989,29990]} 1. d4 d5 2. c4 {The Queens Gambit! } dxc4 3. e4 Nc6 4. Be3 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. d5 Ne7 {Na5 is a more popular choice.} 7. Bxc4 Ng6 8. f3 Bd6 9. Qd2 Bd7 10. Nge2 {Beth develops her pieces harmoniously and has a pleasant position.} a6 11. Bb3 {Anticipating Black's b5 thrust and plays the prophylatic Bb3.} b5 12. a4 O-O 13. O-O Qe7 14. Rac1 Nh5 15. g3 {Restricting the knight} h6 16. Bc2 Rab8 17. axb5 axb5 18. Ra1 Ra8 19. Bd3 Bb4 20. Rxa8 {While this may seem like a mistake to the untrained eye, the open file has no value to the position and Rxa8 is a sensible positional move} Rxa8 21. Qc2 Bc5 {Black tries to trade off the dark squared bishop. A general rule is that you want to trade off the bishop opposite to the squares your pawns are on. In thiscase white's pawns are all on the light squares so black wants to trade off the dark squared bishop to weaken the dark squares.} 22. Nd1 Bd6 23. Nf2 Nhf4 $1 {A practical decision that stops Beth right in her tracks. Vasily has correctly evaluated that black pieces have enough compensation for the attack and while with best play, White can come out equal, Black is the only one with chances here.} 24. Rc1 $6 {It was best to accept the sacrifice.} (24. gxf4 exf4 25. Bc1 Nh4 26. Kh1 Nxf3 27. e5 Bxe5 28. Bxf4 Nxh2 $44) 24... Qg5 $40 25. Kh1 Qh5 26. Ng1 Nxd3 27. Nxd3 f5 {Black has the intiative.} 28. Nc5 Bc8 29. Rf1 Ne7 30. Qd3 fxe4 31. fxe4 Qg6 32. Kg2 Kh7 33. Nf3 Ng8 34. Nh4 Qg4 35. Nf5 Nf6 {Vasily misses his chance and the gave is up for grabs now.} (35... Bxf5 36. Rxf5 Nf6) 36. h3 {Adjournment} Qg6 37. Ne6 Ra4 38. b3 Rxe4 39. Nxd6 Bxe6 40. dxe6 cxd6 41. e7 d5 42. Bc5 {Stockfish 13 at depth 52 gives +3 to the position while Stockfish 12 at depth 50 gives 0.00. This shows how deep this endgame is.} Qe8 {Draw offered by Borgov however Harmon declines} (42... h5 43. Ra1 h4 44. Ra6 b4 45. Rd6 {Computers first line. Black can keep this messy and White must calculate well.}) 43. Qf3 Qc6 44. b4 {The bishop has found an outpost and will be there for the rest of the game.} Qe8 45. Qf5+ Kh8 46. Qxf6 $3 {A stunning queen sacrifice that finishes Borgov off!} gxf6 47. Rxf6 Qh5 48. Rf8+ {Only move.} Kg7 49. e8=Q Re2+ 50. Kf1 Qxh3+ 51. Kxe2 Qg2+ 52. Rf2 Qe4+ 53. Kd2 {Black runs out of checks and White will deliver mate in a few moves.} 1-0