[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