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Alexandra Kosteniuk vs Wenjun Ju
2nd Cairns Cup (2020), St Louis, MO USA, rd 9, Feb-16
Spanish Game: Berlin Defense. l'Hermet Variation Berlin Wall Defense (C67)  ·  0-1

8
7
6
5
4
3
2
a
1
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
White to move.
ANALYSIS [x]
0-1

rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1
FEN COPIED

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Kibitzer's Corner
Feb-17-20  actinia: White doubled her rooks on the e-file, which is a little mystifying
Feb-17-20
Premium Chessgames Member
  offramp: Black entered the ♗♗v ♘♘ endgame a pawn down,


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but White always seemed to be struggling. Interesting all the way through.

Feb-17-20  DrGridlock: Fat Fritz confirms that the game was lost for White by the position <offramp> posts. It's interesting that White's material advantage (pawn up) is far offset by the positional facts that black's d-pawn is passed and the White's knights are rather helpless to prevent Black's bishop pair from pushing it down the d-file.

The positional decline of White's position began on move 27, when Kosteniuk has a choice of how to recapture:

Alexandra Kosteniuk - Ju Wenjun 0-1, Cairns Cup St Louis, MO USA 2020


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Better for white is exchanging minor pieces first on d4:

Bxd4 cxd4
Nxb5

Alexandra Kosteniuk - Ju Wenjun 0-1, Cairns Cup St Louis, MO USA 2020


click for larger view

Since this keeps the White pawns from doubling on the b-file (and becoming rather worthless as White's "extra" pawn in the game continuation).

Feb-17-20  SChesshevsky: <White doubled her rooks on the e-file...> Yeah, it was strange. And the time spent doing it and then undoing it probably can't be good.

Not saying it's better or best but with the Bb2 response, I usually try to get a Rad1, Rfe1 setup close to Kasparov's in game 3 of Kramnik 2000 WC and his breakout win vs Kramnik in 2001.

Feb-17-20  DrGridlock: <doubled her rooks on the e-file>

Fat-fritz prefers exchanging rooks on d8 at move 15, then occupying the d-file with white's remaining rook:

73: Alexandra Kosteniuk - Ju Wenjun 0-1, Cairns Cup St Louis, MO USA 2020


click for larger view

It's interesting here that the rook attacks black's bishop on d8, tethering black's king to the bishop as long as it is attacked by the rook. With the exchange of queens on move 8, black's king has lost the right to castle. By move 15, the king has moved back to its original square - e8 - and one wonders whether Kosteniuk remembered that black could not castle and protect the bishop on d8 with a castled rook on f8.

I clipped that position, and then gave black the right to castle. The advantage to black of castling here is worth about a quarter pawn.

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