A Clock, a Check and a Lonely Pawn: How Kuybokarov Beat Tabatabaei at the European Club Cup

Photo: Stefan64 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

For 20 moves, Amin Tabatabaei and Temur Kuybokarov played an evenly balanced game. Then Tabatabaei thought for 20 minutes about a single move. He spent the rest of the game racing his clock, and Kuybokarov, rated 199 points lower, won in 42 moves.

The game was played on top board in Round 2 of the 2026 European Chess Club Cup in Budva, Montenegro, on Sunday, 18 October. Tabatabaei, rated 2728, plays first board for Bayegan Pendik, the highest-rated team in the event. Kuybokarov, rated 2529, plays for Crvena Zvezda of Belgrade. Pendik still won the team match 5-1, so this was Crvena Zvezda's only point. It was a big one.

The puzzle

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White to move, move 42. Black's queen and bishop are close to the white king. Find the move that ends Black's attack.

Analyze this position in the full game

Hint: White has more pieces. What happens if the queens come off the board? The answer is at the end of the game.

The Game: Kuybokarov vs Tabatabaei, Round 2

Temur Kuybokarov 1-0 Amin Tabatabaei, European Chess Club Cup 2026 (Open), Budva, Round 2, 18 October 2026.

The opening: a bishop on the long diagonal

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5. This is the Rossolimo, a popular way to meet the Sicilian. White's bishop attacks the c6 knight. Later it can take the knight and spoil Black's pawns.

3...g6 4.O-O Bg7. Black puts his bishop on g7. This is called a fianchetto (say "fee-an-KET-oh"): the bishop sits behind the g-pawn and looks down the long diagonal, from h8 all the way to a1.

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After 4...Bg7. The black bishop on g7 looks down the long diagonal toward b2 and a1. Remember this bishop: it comes back on move 41.

Analyze this position in the full game

5.c3 Nf6 6.Re1 O-O 7.d4 a6 8.Ba4 cxd4 9.cxd4 b5 10.Bc2 d6 11.h3 e5 12.a4 Nxd4 13.Nxd4 exd4 14.Qxd4 Bb7 15.Qb4 d5. The pawns in the middle swap off quickly. Both kings are safe and all the pieces are out.

Black gets a passed pawn

16.Nc3 d4. Black pushes his pawn and kicks the knight. Now the d4 pawn is a passed pawn: no white pawn stands in front of it, or on the files next to it, to stop it marching to d1.

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After 16...d4. The black pawn on d4 is passed. The bishop on g7 can protect it along the long diagonal once the knight on f6 moves out of the way.

Analyze this position in the full game

A passed pawn is a strong weapon, but only while its friends protect it. Keep an eye on this pawn. Its story decides the game.

17.Rd1 Nd7 18.Nd5 a5 19.Qxb5 Ba6 20.Qc6. The position is still level. Our Stockfish 17.1 check at depth 22 gives neither side an edge.

Twenty minutes on one move

Here Tabatabaei thought for a long time. Before the move he had 31 minutes on his clock. He played 20...Be2, attacking the rook on d1, and he had 11 minutes left. Kuybokarov, after his reply, had 22.

The move itself was fine. Our engine likes 20...Ne5 a little more, but the difference is small. The real cost was the clock. For the rest of the game, Tabatabaei had to play difficult positions quickly.

21.Re1 Ne5 22.Qc5 Bc4. This is the first real slip. Our engine says 22...Bd3 or 22...Ba6 kept the game close. After 22...Bc4, White has a strong check.

A check that wins time

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White to move, after 22...Bc4. The black bishop on c4 is attacked by the white queen. White has a check that makes everything easier.

Analyze this position in the full game

23.Ne7+ The knight jumps to e7 and gives check. Black has only two answers: move the king, or take the knight with the queen. But 23...Qxe7 loses the queen to 24.Qxe7, because the white queen on c5 guards e7. So Tabatabaei moved the king.

23...Kh8 24.Bf4. Now White's bishop hits the e5 knight. A check like 23.Ne7+ is called gaining a tempo: Black has to answer the check, so White gets a free move to bring another piece into the attack.

24...Nd7 25.Qxc4 Qxe7. White takes the bishop, and Black takes the knight. The material is even again, but White's pieces are now the ones doing the work. Our engine says White is close to a pawn better.

Two bishops and a ticking clock

26.Qe2 Ne5 27.Bd3 h5 28.Rac1 Rac8 29.Bb5 Kh7 30.Qd2 Qf6 31.Bg5 Qb6 32.Rxc8 Rxc8 33.Rc1 Rxc1+ 34.Qxc1. White has two bishops, Black has a bishop and a knight. On an open board, two bishops are often stronger, because they cover squares of both colours from far away.

By move 29, Tabatabaei had less than three minutes. White was slowly getting better, about one and a half pawns, but Black was still in the game.

The lonely pawn

34...d3 With 57 seconds on his clock, Tabatabaei pushed his passed pawn one more step.

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After 34...d3. The pawn has run away from its friends. The bishop on b5 already attacks it, and only the knight on e5 defends it.

Analyze this position in the full game

On d4, the pawn was guarded and hard to attack. On d3, it is cut off. The white bishop on b5 attacks it at once, and only the knight defends it. Our engine says this push cost Black about a whole pawn: 34...Qe6 was the better move.

35.Be3 Another move that gains time. The bishop attacks the black queen on b6, so Black must move the queen again.

35...Qe6 36.f4. Now White's f-pawn attacks the e5 knight, the only defender of the d3 pawn.

Black throws everything at the king

36...Nf3+ 37.gxf3 Qxh3. Tabatabaei gave up his knight to open White's king. It was a brave try with almost no time left, and our engine says it was about as good as the quieter moves. But White's king had enough defenders.

38.Qf1 Qg3+ 39.Kh1 g5 40.Bxd3. The lonely pawn falls. 40...gxf4 41.Bg1 Bxb2. The g7 bishop finally takes the b2 pawn on the long diagonal, the same diagonal it has watched since move 4.

The answer to the puzzle

42.Qg2 This is the answer. White offers to trade queens. If Black takes, 42...Qxg2+ 43.Kxg2, the attack is over and White is a whole bishop ahead: two bishops against one. If Black does not take, the white queen guards the king and White keeps the extra bishop. Black has only one extra pawn for it. Tabatabaei had less than a minute on his clock, and he did not play another move. The game ended 1-0.

Our engine rates 42.Qg2 as the clearly best move, about five pawns better for White. Every other move gives Black more chances.

What to Learn

1. Your clock is a piece too. Tabatabaei did not lose because of one terrible move. He lost because 20 minutes on move 20 left him playing 22 more moves with very little time, and his small slips added up. If you are stuck on one move for a long time, pick a good, safe move and keep going.

2. A passed pawn needs friends. On d4, Black's pawn was safe. On d3, it was alone, and it fell. Before you push a passed pawn, ask: who will protect it on its new square?

3. Look for checks that win time. 23.Ne7+ and 35.Be3 both forced Black to answer a threat, and White used the free move to improve. A check or a threat to the queen is often the strongest kind of move.

Elsewhere in Round 2: a queen check to remember

In the women's section, Dinara Wagner (2392) of SuperChess Romania was winning against Michalina Rudzinska (2215) of Club Ajedrez Linares. Wagner had four pieces against a queen, and our engine rated her position as nearly four pawns better.

Then, with her king in check, she moved it to the wrong square.

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Black to move, after 45.Kf4. Black can win a piece with one check. Can you find it?

Analyze this positionReview the full game

45...Qf5+ The queen checks the king on f4. From f5 it also looks along the fifth rank at the white bishop on d5. White's king has only two squares, e3 and g3, and neither one protects the bishop. On the next move, 46...Qxd5 took it.

This is a fork: one piece attacking two targets, and one of them is the king. When your king is in check, do not only ask "where is it safe?". Also ask "after I move, can the next check hit one of my pieces?". Moving the king to f2 or h4 kept Wagner well ahead.

Rudzinska went on to win on move 96, and Club Ajedrez Linares held the third seeds, SuperChess Romania, to a 2-2 draw.

The other big results

In the open section, most favourites won easily. Alkaloid beat Breidablik 6-0, with wins for Wei Yi and Arjun Erigaisi. The defending champions, SuperChess Romania, beat KBSK Brugge 6-0, and Jorden van Foreest won his game for them. Two strong players were held to draws by much lower-rated opponents: Nihal Sarin (2709) by Tykhon Cherniaiev (2386), and Pavel Eljanov (2664) by Milos Stankovic (2413).

On Day 1, we looked at Aleksandra Goryachkina's game against 11-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan, which was decided by another fork. Round 3 is on Monday, 19 October.