Polish Women's Championship: Kulon stays on course

by Klaus Besenthal
8/10/2020 – Six rounds have been played at the Polish Women's Championship in Ostrów Wielkopolski, and with 5.5/6 International Master Klaudia Kulon has a comfortable 1.5 point lead over Karina Cyfka. Another half point behind follows Monika Socko with 3.5/6. | Photos: Szymon Pieczewski (Polish Chess Federation)
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MOKATE Women's Championship of Poland

Klaudia Kulon has better chances than ever to become Polish Women's Champion 2020. Okay, she still has to play Monika Socko, the highest-rated participant in the tournament, so there is still a lot of work ahead for Kulon, but she nevertheless has a 1.5 lead with three rounds to go.

However, chess players know that joy and grief aren't very far apart.  Joanna Majdan, for example, experienced this in rounds five and six. In her round five game with Black against Patrycja Waszczuk, Majdan launched an irresistible mating attack after an original opening. The finish with an extremely powerful bishop was remarkable:

 
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1.e4 0 e6 0 2.d4 0 d5 0 3.Nd2 0 dxe4 0 4.Nxe4 0 Nf6 0 5.Nxf6+ 6 gxf6 0
Recapturing with the Queen at this point is far more common, capturing with the pawn, however, is also fine. 6.Nf3 36 Nc6 15 7.Bf4 5:57 In any case, this move does not prevent e6-e5 and is therefore somewhat questionable, although it has been played before by Fabiano Caruana in a game against Richard Rapport in Wijk aan Zee 2014. e5 0 8.dxe5 0 At this point, Caruana preferred 8.Be3 8...Qe7! 0 The point: White's attempts to protect the Bishop on e5 are futile - at least in terms of gaining an advantage. 9.Qe2?! 0 This move hinders the development of the kingside. 9.Qd5 would have been better: Qb4+ 10.Bd2 Qxb2 11.Bb5 Qxa1+ 12.Ke2 Qxh1 13.Bxc6+ bxc6 14.Qxc6+ Kd8 15.Qxf6+ Be7 16.Qxh8+ Kd7 17.e6+ fxe6 18.Ne5+ Kd6 19.Nf7+ Kd7 20.Ne5+= 9...Qb4+ 1:06 10.Bd2 0 Qxb2 7 11.Qd1 2:26 Nxe5 7:20 12.Nxe5 5:04 Qxe5+ 38 13.Be2 3:20 Bd6 0 14.Rb1 3:47 Rg8 1:50
This position is advantageous for Black: castling queenside is still possible after a move like b7-b6, while the white King can't escape from e1. Therefore the white Rook on h1 cannot participate in the action for a while - Black potentially plays with a rook more. 15.g3? 11:37 With 15.Kf1! White would have conceded that she is worse, but still have been able to defend her position. 15...Bh3! 9:20 Now the white King is basically locked on e1. 16.Rb5 28 Qe4 4:20 17.f3 5:31 Another inevitable weakening. Qe7 3:28 Here 17...Qe6! was even better: apparently the black Queen has better access to other strong squares, compared to when she is on e7. For example here: 18.Rxb7 Bg2 19.Kf2 Bxh1 20.Bb5+ Kd8 21.Qxh1 Qd5! 18.Kf2 8:24 The losing move. After 18.Rxb7 Rxg3! Black keeps her advantage. 18...Bg2?! 19.Kf2 Bxh1 20.Bb5+ Kd8 21.Qxh1 leads to an almost equal postion. 18...0-0-0 6:30 19.g4 5:08 After this fatal weakening White is out of options. 19.Bd3 was necessary, even though Black would go up in exchange after Rge8 with the threat of Bc5+. 19...f5 6:06 20.Rxf5 15 Qh4+ 20 21.Kg1 45 Bg3! 21 This feisty Bishop now decides the game by itself. There is a mating threat on f2. 22.Be3 3:05 Rxd1+ 5 23.Bxd1 5 Bf4 51 24.Bf2 2:09 Be3! 0
0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Waszczuk,P2321Majdan,J23250–12020C10POL-ch Women MOKATE 20205.5

But in round six Majdan was on the losing side of a similar type of game. Honorata Kucharska is by far the nominally weakest player in the field, but Majdan's all too ambitious typical Sicilian attack with b7-b5 was dissected by the 18-year-old with merciless precision – with the no-less typical Sicilian sacrifice on b5:

 
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1.e4 0 c5 0 2.Nf3 0 Nc6 1 3.d4 0 cxd4 8 4.Nxd4 0 Nf6 11 5.Nc3 0 d6 6 6.Bc4 58 e6 1:12 7.Be3 29 a6 1:42 8.Qe2 1:50 Na5 2:48 9.Bd3 0 b5 11:21
Whether Black's last move was really sound? It has to, at least, be questioned. 10.0-0 8:05 Qc7 3:58 11.Ncxb5 9:03 axb5 19 12.b4! 5 forces the Knight on a5 to a bad square. Nb7 0 12...Nc6? 13.Nxc6+- was out of the question. 13.Nxb5 26 Qd8 4 14.a4 2:04 d5 13:51 14...Be7 15.a5 was barely possible. 15.a5 2:55 Bb6 is a threat. Nd7 0 16.exd5 4:41
An opening accident - from Black's point of view - takes its course. 16...Bxb4 1:31 17.dxe6 2:21 fxe6 5:37 18.Qh5+ 5:15 g6 10:07 19.Bxg6+ 55 hxg6 0 20.Qxh8+ 27 Bf8 0 21.a6 32 Kf7 9:09 22.axb7 2:33 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Kucharska,H2113Majdan,J23251–02020B89POL-ch Women MOKATE 20206.1

Jolanta Zawadzka, Julia Antolak, Anna Kubicka and Monika Socko (from left to right) keep  distance!

Standings after round 6

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Translation from German: Arthur Paul

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Klaus Besenthal is computer scientist, has followed and still follows the chess scene avidly since 1972 and since then has also regularly played in tournaments.

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