[Event "U.S. Women's Championship"]
[Site "St Louis"]
[Date "2023.10.15"]
[Round "9.3"]
[White "Yip, Carissa"]
[Black "Paikidze, Nazi"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "2372"]
[WhiteTeam "United States"]
[BlackElo "2316"]
[BlackTeam "United States"]
[Annotator "WGM Katerina Nemcova"]
[Variant "Standard"]
[ECO "B12"]
[Opening "Caro-Kann Defense: Advance Variation, Short Variation"]
[Source "https://lichess.org/study/b0nfXV2i/UCXftBVJ"]
[Orientation "white"]
1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. Nf3 e6 5. Be2 h6 6. O-O Ne7 7. Nbd2 Nd7 8. Nb3 g5 9. a4 Bg7 10. a5 O-O 11. Bd2 Rc8?! (11... b6!? { A better move was played
in this position by GM Hans Niemann, immediately targeting the pawn on a5 and
creating options for ... c6-c5: } 12. Bb4 c5!? 13. dxc5 Nc6 14. Ba3 bxa5 $13 { in Vignesh – Niemann, Ciutadella de Menorca, 2023. }) 12. Bb4! { Yip found
this excellent idea of transferring the bishop to the a3-f8 diagonal and
further blocking Black from creating active play. } 12... f6!? { Paikidze is trying
to quickly target the center and create counterplay on the f-file. } 13. exf6 Bxf6 14. Bd6! { This bishop is even better positioned here as it watches over
the most critical dark squares in the position. } 14... Rf7 15. Ne5! Bxe5 16. dxe5 c5 17. c3 a6 18. Re1 Rc6 19. c4! $16 { This is the perfect time to attack the
center and open up the h1-a8 diagonal. White's position is strategically
winning. } 19... dxc4 20. Bxc4 g4 21. Rc1 Ng6 22. Bf1 Qg5 23. g3 Rc8 24. Nxc5 Nxc5 25. Rxc5 Rxc5 26. Bxc5 h5 27. Bg2 { Although this move does not ruin White's
advantage, it is not necessary to move the bishop to this diagonal. White can
immediately push her pawns on the queenside. } (27. b4! h4 28. b5 axb5 29. Bxb5 $18 { And White's bishops are ready to join the attack on the black king. }) 27... h4 28. Qd6 h3 29. Bh1 Kh7 30. Be3 Qe7 31. Rc1? (31. f3! { One way to
play for a win was to free up the white king from potentially being checkmated
on the first rank. Additionally, White also gets to activate her h1-bishop. } 31... Qc7 32. Qxc7 Rxc7 33. fxg4 Bxg4 34. Be4 $18) 31... Qd7! { Paikidze is
finding the best defensive moves. Black needs to activate her pieces to launch
some counterplay on the locked king. } 32. b4 Qb5! 33. Rc7 Nxe5 34. Bxb7 Rxc7 35. Qxc7+ Kg6 36. Qc8 Kf7! (36... Qxb4?? 37. Qg8+ Kf6 38. Bg5#) 37. Bh6 Qxb4 38. Qc7+ { And White needs to make a perpetual check otherwise she risks her
own position. } 38... Ke8 39. Qc8+ Kf7 40. Qc7+ Ke8 41. Qc8+ Kf7 42. Qc7+ Ke8 { 1/2-1/2 The game is a draw. } 1/2-1/2