The Way Things Happen

Valentina Evgenyevna Gunina – Klaudia Kulon
19th European Individual Women’s Chess Championship; Vysoké Tatry, April 17, 2018
King’s Indian Defence E94

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Nf3 0-0 6. Be2 e5 7. 0-0 exd4 8. Nxd4 Re8 9. f3 c6 10. Kh1 Nbd7 11. Bf4 Nh5 12. Bxd6 Qf6 13. Nc2 Nf4 14. Rf2 Ne5. The alternative is 14. ... Nxe2 15. Rxe2 Ne5 16. Ne3 Be6 17. c5 b6 18. Ned5 cxd5 19. Bxe5 Qxe5 20. exd5 Qf5 21. dxe6 Rxe6 22. cxb6 axb6 23. Rxe6 Qxe6 24. Qd2 Qc4 25. a3 Bxc3 ½ : ½ Lerner – Kuzmin, 1st International Tourmament, Simferopol 1992. 15. c5! A providential novelty by Gunina. 15. Bf1? Nfd3! is obviously good for Black, Kishnev – Brendel, 21st “Dortmunder Schachtage” International Tournament, Dortmund 1993. 15. ... Nxe2 16. Qxe2 Qe6? Perhaps for superstition, Kulon – who is a Pawn down – reverts back to her yesterday’s gambling strategy, which brought her very good luck. Now, however, the advance ... f7-f5 really doesn’t have any justification, so maybe she should have played more objectively (for instance: 16. ... b6!?). 17. Rd1 f5? Consistently moving towards catastrophe. If, however, 17. ... Qc4 (just to give a meaning to 16. ... Qf6-e6) then 18. Qd2 Qa6 19. Ne3 with great advantage to White. 18. exf5 gxf5? This is tantamount to surrender, but any other move wouldn’t have been better either.

19. Qf1? Gunina misses the coup de grâce 19. Qe1!+− – that no engines obviously fail to spot! – with the double threat of Rf2-e2 and f3-f4 (19. ... Qf6 20. f4+−). The text, of course, may not be wrong, but gives Black good reasons to keep fighting. 19. ... Qf7 20. b3 b6 21. Na4 b5 22. Nb2 a5 23. Nd3? Kulon’s good luck seems to repeat itself. Better appears to be 23. Nd4 followed by Rf2-d2 with a powerful advantage to White. 23. ... Nxd3 24. Qxd3 a4 25. h3 axb3 26. axb3 Be6 27. Rb1 Qf6 28. Nb4 Qh4! Black seizes the initiative, even if just for a moment. 29. Qd2 Bxb3! 30. Rff1. Clearly not 30. Rxb3?? because of 30. ... Ra1+ 31. Kh2 Ree1 winning heavy material. If, instead, 30. Nxc6 then 30. ... Ra2 and certainly Black is not worse. 30. ... Bc4 31. Rfe1 Rxe1+ 32. Rxe1 Rc8?? In the end, Gunina has been more lucky than Kulon. It didn’t seem too hard to find 32. ... Qxe1+! 33. Qxe1 Ra1 34. Qxa1 Bxa1 35. Nxc6 Kf7 with a likely draw in sight. 33. Kh2! Now White won’t give her opponent any other chance to take a break. 33. ... h6 34. f4 Bf7 35. Be7 Qh5 36. Qd7 Re8 37. Nxc6 Bc3 38. Re3 b4 39. Nd8 Bg7 40. c6 b3 41. c7 b2 42. Re1 Bc3 43. Rg1 Bd4 44. Qxd4 1 : 0.

Valentina Evgenyevna Gunina (right) vs. Klaudia Kulon (left). Photo: Oleksandr Martynkov.