Nothing Given Back

White built a clear advantage against a higher-rated opponent, saw it become decisive when Black recaptured the wrong way on move 14 — and then converted it across thirty-eight moves without a single inaccuracy.

Notes by Tilburg Chess Notes

AnalysisStockfish 18, depth 30 per position, four candidate lines per move. Evaluations in pawns from White’s perspective; marks and assessments are the engine’s.

☛ Tap any move — or any board — to open the interactive board. It pins to the top and follows along; ←/→ step, × closes it.

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 d6 — The Steinitz Defence, the old answer to the Ruy Lopez, named for the first World Champion, who leaned on it in the late nineteenth century. The idea is to prop up e5 at once with …d6; the long-understood cost is activity — the move quietly pins Black’s own knight and cedes a little of the centre, which is why modern practice prefers livelier Spanish lines and 3…d6 now lives mostly in club play.¹ 4.d4 Bd7 — the standard freeing move, breaking the pin before White builds with d5. 5.Nc3 exd4 6.Nxd4 — White has the easier game, a small but real pull.

6…Ne5 — The largest concession, though not the first: 3…d6 and 4…Bd7 had already cost about as much between them. The knight has no future on e5. Stockfish’s reply is 7.f4, hitting it with tempo, and Black has nowhere good to go — …Ng4 is the move he wants, but the bishop that would defend g4 is pinned to the king by the bishop on b5. 6…g6 was the move, and holds White’s pull to about half what it becomes.

7.Bxd7+ Qxd7 8.O-O Nf6 9.Bg5 Be7 10.Nf5 — White’s pieces find their squares, and the knight reaches f5 — the post that decides so many Spanish middlegames, eyeing g7 and e7.

10…O-O-O 11.f4 Ng6 — The knights regroup, Black’s pieces drift toward the edge, and White’s edge reaches +2.

12.Qd4 Kb8 13.Nxg7 — The knight takes the pawn and, more to the point, tears open the black king’s cover.

13…Ne8 14.Bxe7 — The knight scrambles back to e8, and White’s initiative hardens. White then offers a trade that should simply be taken back.

14…Nxg7?! — The misstep, and the hinge of the game. Black recaptures the knight instead of the bishop. Simply 14…Qxe7 keeps Black clearly worse but in the game; the text leaves White’s bishop on e7, free to crash through.

15.Bxd8 — The bishop collects the rook.

15…Ne6 16.Bxc7+ Qxc7 17.Qf6 Qe7 18.Qxe7 Nxe7 — White steers into a position the exchange and a pawn to the good, queens off the board and no counterplay to fear.

19.Rad1 Rd8 20.Nb5 d5 21.exd5 Nxd5 22.c4 Ne3 23.Rxd8+ Nxd8 24.Rc1 Ne6 25.Kf2 Nf5 26.g3 a6 27.Nc3 Kc7 28.Rd1 Kc6 29.Ne4 h6 30.g4 Ne7 31.f5 Nf8 32.Rd6+ — No drama, only technique: the rook and king come forward, the knights are tied to defence.

32…Kc7 33.Rxh6 Nd7 34.b3 Ne5 35.h3 Nd3+ 36.Ke3 Ne5 37.Ng5 N7c6 38.Rh7 — and Black resigned.

White stood +2.67 before 14…Nxg7 — the bishop already on e7, the black king already loose. The recapture turned a large advantage into a decided one; it did not create it. What followed is the part the title is about: thirty-eight moves, not one of them marked an error, an average of a tenth of a pawn from Stockfish’s choice. Against an opponent rated 120 points higher.