When Ju Wenjun resigned Game 12 on Wedesday, Aleksandra Goryachkina and her fans breathed a sign of relief with renewed hope that the Russians' fortunes may turn up in the tiebreak match that would follow.
While some observers naturally drew a parallel to the 2018 World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana, other than the final score the circumstances could not be more different. Carlsen vs Caurana famously saw a string of twelve draws, the last of which was, much like it had been in 2016, a strategic decision on the part of the World Champion to take the game to a rapid tiebreak. Carlsen estimated his chances over four games would be much higher than in the last classical game, even if his position was better!
Ju and Goryachkina, in contrast, traded wins throughout the contest — and equal number of decisive games as draws. For Ju, with a half point lead, she only needed to hold a last draw with black in the twelfth game to avoid a tiebreak. Losing that game was clearly a blow, and the question became, how would she handle it?
Ju contemplating game 12 | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili
On paper the Elo gap between the players is significantly higher in rapid where Ju could be confident in a 114 point edge (2613 to 2499) and of course, lest we forget, she is also the 2018 World Rapid Champion. But Goryachkina is still young and improving steadily, and she showed tremendous fighting spirit to be able to come back from a point deficit, not once, but twice in the match!
The challenger had a golden opportunity to spoil Ju's New Year (Chinese New Year begins tomorrow) with black in the first rapid game:
Black has a very serious edge thanks to her better pawn structure and safer king. Goryachkina's 37...b4 was a fine move but the tactical shot 37...♝xa3! would have already put the game out of reach. White's best 38.♖xe8+ (38.♗xa3 b4 39.♖e5 bxc3 40.♖d3 a4) 38...♜xe8 39.♗xa3 b4 40.♗b2 bxc3 41.♗xc3 ♛d5+ 42.♔h2 ♛xb3 leaves black with a passed a-pawn and a winning advantage.
After missing this chance, it's not as surprising that another tactical shot with a similar theme (the discovered attack on the e4-rook) escaped Goryachkina's notice a few moves later.
Can you spot the winning move?
SHOWJu succeeded in exchanging pieces and obtaining a passed d-pawn drumming up enough counterplay to reach a drawn ending.
In the second game Goryachkina pressed in a better rook endgame for 72 moves, but again yielded a draw.
Goryachkina was pressing but never broke through | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili
Game 3 was the turning point for Ju, as she developed a safe and solid edge on the white side of a Reti. Goryachkina adopted a triangle Slav set-up as she had in the first rapid game, but gradually lost control of the position, which finally became critical after 39...Rg5:
Ju correctly played 40.f4! forcing ♜xh5 (40...♜g8 41.♕f5 +-) but quickly took on e5, overlooking 41.g4 ♜h4 41.♕f5 which wins quickly.
After 41.fxe5 ♛e6 42.♔g1 Goryachkina still had a chance to bring her rook back 'onside' by 42...♜f5, but 42...d4 was met decisively by 43.♕g6! and the rook is lost thanks to the threat of mate and the strength of White's e and f-pawns.
This set the stage for a dramatic fourth and final rapid game with a now-familiar theme: Ju with black and a one-point lead; Goryachkina with white in a must-win scenario.
The game began quietly, but Goryachkina gained the upper hand after Ju decided she couldn't live with the white e5-pawn cramping her position and played the dubious-looking 12...f5:
After the en passant capture 13.exf6 ♝xf6 14.♗a3 ♞xf3+ 15.♕xf3 ♝e7 16.♕h3 g6, White's position is obviously for choice with more active pieces and a target on e6. It's something to work with, but is it enough to win?
Ju exchanged the dark-squared bishops, then the queens, and finally made a wise decision to jettison her b7-pawn in exchange for activating her remaining pieces.
23...♝d7 24.♖xb7 ♝e8 25.♖b3 ♜d8 and the position was only slightly better for White. Ten moves further and the engine assessment trended to 0.00, which in Chinese translates to "hurrah" (celebrations ensue)!
The 17th World Champion already defended her title as recently as November 2018, but now she will have until at least 2021 or perhaps even 2022 to enjoy the glory.
It's easy to see who won solely from their faces! | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili
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The tiebreak consisted of four 25 minute (plus 10 seconds per move) rapid games, followed, if necessary, by up to five sets of blitz games (5+3) and, if these still fail to break the stand-off and Armageddon game.
Analysis by Fat Fritz (lc0 CUDA)
Commentary by GM Nigel Short & GM Hou Yifan
