[pgn]

[Event “FIDE World Cup 2021”]
[Site “Chess.com”]
[Date “2021.07.22”]
[Round “null”]
[White “Fedoseev, Vladimir”]
[Black “Kovalev, Vladislav”]
[Result “1-0”]
[WhiteElo “2696”]
[BlackElo “2637”]
[TimeControl “5400+30”]
[ECO “E16”]
[Opening “Queen’s Indian Defense: Capablanca Variation”]
[Annotator “https://lichess.org/@/foreignspidey”]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 { Queen’s Indian Defense. } 4. g3 Bb7 5. Bg2 { Opposite side fianchetto which exerts pressure down the center of the board. } 5… Bb4+ 6. Bd2 Bxd2+ 7. Qxd2 O-O 8. O-O d6 9. Rd1 Qe7 { This is the first novel move of the game and it is here this position has never been reached before. } 10. Qe3 c5 { Black wants to undermine the pawn structure in the center of the board without blocking the side of the bishop on b7. Other ideas may include re-routing with Na6 then Nc7. } 11. Nc3 Nc6 12. Qd2 Nxd4 13. Nxd4 cxd4 14. Qxd4 Bxg2 15. Kxg2 { Interestingly enough in this position there is a transposition into a game played before by Vladimir Akopian in 2007. } 15… Rfd8 16. e4 Qb7 17. f3 a6 18. a4 { This move is designed at stopping black from pushing to b5. If black does push to b5 it would result to a huge trade and a drawn endgame. } 18… Rac8 { Since the plan on the flank is gone black reroutes to the center to start putting pressure. } 19. Rd2 h6 20. Rad1 Rd7 21. b3 Rcd8 22. g4 Qc6 23. h4 Qc5 { Black found an idea that almost works but would have been better to rotate the knight. This knight rotation that black misses actually ends up being the deciding factor in the game once time starts running low. } 24. Ne2 Qa5 { Black does not want to trade queens because white is the only one with a truly dynamic position. In trading queens there would be no real way to defend from the attack forming on the queenside. } (24… Qxd4 25. Nxd4 Ne8 { White has tremendous pressure on the center and black is forced to play passively to defend. }) 25. Qe3 Qc5 (25… Nh7 26. Nd4 Qc5 27. f4) 26. Nd4 { White is using the queen trade to reroute the knight to a square where it can more actively fight for the pawns and freeze black’s position. Since black’s queen is the only active piece white is more than happy to make the trade. } 26… Nh7 27. f4 e5 (27… Nf8 { This is the move that needs to be played in order to justify the Nh7 play. } 28. f5 Re8 29. Rd3) 28. Nf5 Qxe3 29. Nxe3 exf4 30. Nd5 Re8 31. Nxb6 Rde7 32. Rxd6 Rxe4 33. Rd8 Nf8 { This move blunders the game and white will win the knight. What needed to happen was that black needed to play the knight actively to protect the rook rather than passively protecting the king. } (33… Nf6 34. Rxe8+ Rxe8 { [%csl Gg4] } 35. c5 { [%cal Gf6g4] } 35… Nxg4 36. c6 Ne3+ { This is the difference. If black had played an active knight move white would not have been able to further advance the C pawn. }) 34. Rxe8 Rxe8 35. c5 Re2+ (35… Ne6 36. c6) 36. Kf1 { Here black’s position is completely busted as there is no way to stop the knight from getting taken. } 36… Rc2 37. Rd8 g5 38. hxg5 hxg5 39. Nd7 Kg7 40. Rxf8 Rc1+ 41. Ke2 Rc2+ 42. Ke1 Rc1+ 43. Kd2 f3 44. Ke3 Rc3+ 45. Kf2 *

[/pgn]

Vladimir Fedoseev (2698) vs Vladislav Kovalev (2637). A Russian GM vs a Belarusian GM.
The game started with a standard Indian opening with black having a late decision on playing king’s or queen’s Indian position. This gives white time to fianchetto the bishop as well and what happens is there is a transposition into a queen’s Indian position with opposite side fianchettos.

The issue that occurred was a positional mistake when Kovalev decided to reroute the knight too late. On move 25 Kovalev needed to reroute the knight allowing the knight to play a more active role in the defense. By playing the move order wrong there was a positional mistake and the move e5 was played. Kovalev was not supposed to push e5 and needed white to initiate the attack because from that point with only one active piece Fedoseev had the advantage by exerting pressure on the center pawn.

On move 29 Kovalov had just about 10 minutes on the clock while Fedoseev had almost an hour. Time continued to be a huge deciding factor in this game as Kovalov drops down to under a minute for a few moves consecutively which leads to a blunder. Unfortunately what needed to happen was the knight needed to play an active role in the defense of the rook rather than a passive one. As it turns out once the rook is traded there is no way to save the knight as it is pinned by the rook and the black knight can go in and take it. This blunder is understandable as it is such a minute detail with almost no time on the clock it is not surprising why this move was missed.

In this game Fedoseev really only needs to make a draw to move on in the tournament but what happens is a win due to better piece positioning by the Russian GM. This game also seemed to be relatively easy for Fedoseev who did not even get under an hour on the clock meanwhile Kovalev was already under 5 minutes

[pgn]

[Event “FIDE World Cup 2021”]
[Site “Chess.com”]
[Date “2021.07.23”]
[Round “null”]
[White “Kovalev, Vladislav”]
[Black “Fedoseev, Vladimir”]
[Result “0-1”]
[WhiteElo “2637”]
[BlackElo “2696”]
[TimeControl “5400+30”]

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Qxd4 Nc6 5. Qd2 g6 6. b3 Bh6 7. f4 Nf6 8. Bb2
e5 9. g3 O-O 10. O-O-O exf4 11. gxf4 Nh5 12. Nd5 Be6 13. Kb1 Bxd5 14. exd5 Ne5
15. Ne2 Qh4 16. Qb4 Ng4 17. h3 Ngf6 18. Qxb7 Ne4 19. Rg1 Bg7 20. Bxg7 Nxg7 21.
Bg2 Nc5 22. Qb4 Rfe8 23. Nc3 a5 24. Qb6 Nf5 25. Nb5 Reb8 26. Qc6 Qd8 27. Nc7 Rc8
28. Nxa8 Rxc6 29. dxc6 Qxa8 30. Rge1 Kf8 31. Rd2 Qb8 32. Rde2 Ne6 33. Re4 Ne7
34. Rd1 d5 35. Ra4 Nxf4 0-1

[/pgn]

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