Survivor.
Irina Krush survives Covid-19 (and a strong challenge from Carissa Yip) to take home her eighth U.S. Women's Chess Championship title
Irina Krush was 14 in 1998 when she became the youngest ever U.S. Women’s Champion. She was 23 by the time she won the tournament again, in 2007, but to be fair, she’d taken some time away from chess in order to graduate from NYU with a degree in International Relations. Her 2007 win was the first in a string of impressive chessic results that culminated in 2013 when Irina obtained her peak FIDE rating of 2502, and became the first American woman awarded the FIDE International Grandmaster title. In 2008 she achieved a positive score (7/13) in Group C of the Corus Chess Tournament at Wijk aan Zee, where she defeated Fabiano Caruana in their over the board encounter. And in 2010, she won the U.S. Women’s Championship a third time.
This victory ushered in a new era of U.S. Women’s Chess, and one that Krush dominated, winning four of the next five championships. In 2015, she scored 8.5/11 in the event, holding off a challenge from Nazi Paikidze, who scored 7.5/11 in order to achieve clear second. Nazi would go on to win the title the following year, only to have her dream of competing for the women’s world championship snatched from her by FIDE mismanagement and the political realities of international chess in modern society. In 2017, Nazi refused to participate in the Women’s World Championship, which was held in Tehran, Iran, and required women to abide by a strict dress code which included the use of a hijab head covering. The incident received international notoriety.
In 2020, Irina Krush made headlines wearing a different sort of face covering, when the New York resident arrived at an urgent care clinic with double-lung pneumonia and tested positive for Covid-19. With New York’s hospitals and urgent care centers overrun, Krush was sent home to handle a months long recovery process on her own. But she prevailed, though today she says she still has occasional trouble breathing, and fatigue. Neither showed up during the 2020 U.S. Women’s Chess Championship, which Krush won, again, for the first time since 2015, and again with a score of 8.5/11.
This time, her strongest challenger was the 17-year old Carissa Yip, whose play for the U.S. team at the FIDE Online Olympiad over the summer was featured in the very first installment of Check. At the U.S. Championship, Carissa scored 8.0/11 after a phenomenal performance in the final two days of the event, where she scored 4.0/5.
The pair met in round 3, when they engaged in a thrilling battle typical of Irina Krush’s combative, tactical style. Krush bewildered her young opponent in a complex Sicilian middlegame that a real-life Beth Harmon would’ve been proud to call her own, but was forced to concede a half point to the alert and resourceful Yip, who seized her chance at a perpetual check after Krush went slightly wrong. It’s a bewildering, complex game, well worth a look as our ninth “Game of the Week:”
Game of the Week #9:
Carissa Yip - Irina Krush (1/2 - 1/2) U.S. Women’s Chess Championship 2020
We begin with a Keres attack in the Scheveningen variation of the Sicilian Defense:
e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e6 6. g4 (diagram)
This move, and the associated complications, are the reason why most players who prefer a Scheveningen structure play 5. … a6, the Najdorf variation, which is something of a “high class waiting move” that maintains the black bishop’s control over the g4 square, and asks white what their plan of development might be. In the game, a fearless Irina Krush stares down the black side of the Keres attack, and prepares to maintain a strong defensive posture around a pawn on the g5 square:
Over the next few moves, both players devote considerable energy to the g5 square, while Krush sets up the typical Sicilian queenside counterplay with … a6 and … b5. If white cannot find a breakthrough on the kingside, her queenside castled position will be disrupted by the pawn push b5-b4, supported by (usually) a rook on c8:
… h6 7. Rg1 g5 8. Be3 a6 9. h4 Rg8 10. Qd2 Nfd7 11. hxg5 hxg5 12. 0-0-0 b5 13. Nf3 Be7 (diagram)
Here, we’ve reached a critical moment in the game. Black would like to play … Nc6 and … Nde5, placing a knight on the strong e5 outpost, where the secure g5 pawn prevents it from being pushed away by the white f-pawn. There are many Sicilian variations where a strong, centralized e5 knight, supported by a pawn on g5 provide the black king with all the security he could ever need - despite that the monarch never leaves the center of the board. And this is one such instance. For the first 13 moves, Carissa has piled additional pressure onto the g5 point to discourage this set-up, but now it appears that the direct approach will be insufficient. Play could continue, for example:
Rh1 Nc6 15. Rh5 Nde5 16. Nxg5 Nxg4 17. f4 Nxe3 18. Qxe3 Ne5!!
And the knight finds its way to e5 anyway, courtesy of the awkward position of the white king and queen on the c1-h6 diagonal. (diagram)
If white tries to prevent this awkward tactic by playing the prophylactic 14. Kb1, black gets extra tempi for development:
Kb1 Nc6 15. Rh1 Qa5 16. Rh5?! b4! 17. Ne2 Nf6 when 18. Rxg5 Rxg5 19. Nxg5 Nxg4 20. f4 Nxe3 21. Qxe3 offers black full equality (diagram)
Given that, it strikes me that Carissa’s logic makes sense. From the original diagram after 13. … Be7, if “normal moves” give black the tempi that she needs to complete development, then white must look for a breakthrough, now, while she maintains a development lead. Over the first 13 moves, it’s worth mentioning that Krush has made 9 pawn moves, while white has developed every piece except the f1 bishop.
Carissa went in for 14. e5!?, taking immediate action in the center of the board:
e5 dxe5 15. Ne4 Bb7 16. Nfxg5 Bd5 17. Bg2 Nc6? (diagram)
And here, Krush goes awry. Understandably, she wants to complete her development by bringing the queen’s knight into the game on its natural square, c6. Unfortunately, Krush’s coordination is somewhat lacking, and white has a spectacular shot that takes advantage of the logjam of black pieces along the d-file, and the loose nature of the c6 knight and d5 bishop.
Nd6+!! would have won on the spot, if Carissa had seen it: 18. … Bxd6 19. Bxd5 exd5 20. Nxf7! Kxf7? 21. Qxd5+ is the “point.” Or… 20. … Qc7 21. Qxd5 Be7 22. Nxe5. The marauding queen wins back all the sacrificed material, with interest.
Of course, computers see nothing unusual about dropping the knight on d6. For humans, it’s a different story, and neither Carissa nor Irina were aware of this spectacular variation, lurking in shadows of their calculations.
Instead, Carissa tried:
f4 Rc8 (now the c6 knight is defended, and Nd6+ has lost most of its sting, though it still might be played… 19. Nd6+ Bxd6 20. Bxd5 exd5 21. Qxd5 Rxg5 22. fxg5 Nb4! when black has achieved counterplay against the c2 square)
a3!? b4? (a mistake in reply, now the c6 knight has lost access to b4, and black has no satisfactory answer to 20. Nd6+!, but again, neither player appreciated the tactical justification for the knight check on d6.)
a4? b3! but now, Carissa has missed her chance, and Krush has firmly seized the upper hand (diagram)
Of course, now black’s c-file counterplay prevents Nd6+. 21. Nd6+? Bxd6 22. Bxd5? bxc2 23. Kxc2 Ne7+! or 22. Nxf7 Kxf7 23. Bxd5 Nd4! and black is winning. Instead, Carissa looks to retreat and close down the c-file.
Nc3 Bxg2 22. Qxg2 exf4 23. Nxf7 (of course not, 23. Bxf4?? Bxg5 when white is losing the piece for nothing) Kxf7 24. Bxf4 (diagram)
White has a pawn for the knight, and Carissa has succeeded (in a way) at finally breaking down the defensive structure in front of black’s king, but without the c3 knight in play, there isn’t enough material around the white king to seriously play for mate. With patient play, Irina has inevitability on her side: 24. … Ke8 for example, 25. Qh2 Qa5 26. cxb3 Qc5 27. Qh6 Nd8 and black is consolidating her extra material. Instead, Krush looks to immediately “cash in” on her c-file counterplay:
… bxc2?! 25. Qxc2 Nb4? 26. Qh7+ Rg7 27. Qh5+ Kg8 28. Rh1! (diagram)
Yip doesn’t miss her chance to set up a perpetual check.
… Na2+ 29. Kc2 Nxc3 30. Qh8+ Kf7 31. Qh5+ Kg8 32. Qh8+ Kf7 33. Qh5+ Kg8 (1/2 - 1/2 - drawn by repetition of moves)
I found this game to be really interesting from a theoretical standpoint, given that Krush tried to simply deny white the opportunity to play g5 in the Keres attack, and that 9. … Rg8 appears to be a novelty already in the well trodden theoretical pathway of the Sicilian defense. Of course, Carissa had Krush on the ropes by move 18, but it’s unclear to me whether or not white will be able to demonstrate a clear edge if black plays correctly, with 17. … Nb6!? instead of 17. … Nc6?
Furthermore, I found it incredibly instructive. Candidly, I’m still playing over this game again and again. The tactical sequence after 18. Nd6+! is stunning to me, and it’s interesting how subtle changes in the position after 18. … Rc8 and then 19. … b4? alternately either allow black to defend the threats, or prevent her from doing so. Lastly, the position after 24. Bxf4 is fascinating to me, from a practical standpoint. Every fiber of the chess player’s body, and certainly an attacking virtuoso like Irina Krush, wants to “get on with” the counterplay, but the cold logic of the computers suggests that it’s rather more accurate to play patiently, simply consolidating the black’s king position and winning with the extra material, in the end.
Lastly, I find the games between Carissa Yip and Irina Krush to simply be fascinating. I featured Carissa’s chess in the first email I ever wrote for this column, several weeks ago now, and I’m happily featuring it here, again. She has a bright future in chess, and it’s clear from a close analysis of her play that she brings something to U.S. Women’s chess that nobody other than Irina Krush herself ever has. Back in the inaugural issue, our puzzle of the week was a study-like endgame position that gave Carissa her first win over Irina. This week, our game of the week was a hard fought draw between the two masters, that gave the U.S. Womens’ Championship to her rival. Over the next few years, you can expect many more columns about Carissa Yip.
Puzzle of the Week #10:
But first, I promised a lengthy explanation of last week’s puzzle:
White has a significant advantage, already, in this “queen-less middlegame” position. The rooks are quicker to the open c and d files, and the b7 pawn is already hanging along the h1-a8 diagonal, where white’s light squared bishop is posted. What’s more, the b5 knight is a little thorn in black’s side, controlling key squares in the black position. Black’s last move, … Nd5!? (I hadn’t given you the score of the game, but that was the move) was intended to solve all of these problems, and given time, it would have. Black wants to play … h6 and … f5, and bring his rooks to the c8 and d8 squares. But oddly, white controls all of the squares that the d5 knight might jump to. After 1. e4! Nb4? would lose immediately to 2. Be7!. So 1. e4 forces a retreat to f6:
e4 Nf6 2. Nc7! Rad8 3. Nxe6 fxe6 4. b3!
Black’s doubled and isolated e-pawns are weak, and will be lost. White has deprived the b6 knight of any squares through which it might enter the game. White has obtained the bishop pair, and the d-file is firmly contested. White is significantly better here, and I went on to win a significant amount of material over the next 3-4 moves. The key motifs to recognize in the original problem were (1) the d5 knight had no squares - (… Nb4? Be7! forking the b4 knight and f8 rook) and (2) the d5 knight was the only black piece controlling c7 and preventing Nc7! which forked the rook on a8, and threatened to win the bishop pair, doubling black’s pawns with Nxe6. 4. b3! isn’t the engine’s top choice, but I was proud of this move because I think it stubbornly prevents black from improving his position in any way. My opponent lashed out and played a number of inaccurate moves in response, but it’s difficult to offer advice given the deficiencies in black’s position.
This week’s puzzle comes from another of my tournament games, played on a lichess server vs. “Hahano.” After a long struggle, I was playing on increment in an “equal-ish” bishops-of-the-same-color ending, and I missed my shot to win:
White to play and win:
JensenUVA vs. Hahano - DMV October Sunday Action Swiss #4, Round 3
Our game was drawn, but if you spot the winning move (it’s really not that difficult if you have the time, and the critical moment is pointed out to you), email me at JensenUVA@gmail.com or DM me on twitter @JensenUVA
As always, like, forward, share, subscribe, retweet, post about it, be about it, you know the drill!
Until next time, ARGH! SHAKHMATY!!