Eight Squares for One Queen: Rachael Li Beats Irina Krush on Her Debut

Illustration of Rachael Li at the chessboard. This is not a real picture of Rachael Li, and the pieces shown are not a position from this game.

Let us start with a puzzle from the game.

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Black to move, after 30.c5. The white pawn on c5 attacks the black queen on d6. Which of its eight squares are safe?

Analyze this position in the full game

Black to move in the position above, after 30.c5. The white pawn on c5 is attacking the black queen on d6. The queen has to move. It has eight squares to choose from. Which ones are safe, and which ones lose the queen?

Take a minute before you read on. You will find the answer near the end. First, let us see how the game got here.

Rachael Li 1-0 Irina Krush 2026 U.S. Women's Chess Championship, Saint Louis · Round 1 · 9 October 2026 White: WIM Rachael Li · Black: GM Irina Krush

A debut against an eight-time champion

The U.S. Chess Championship and the U.S. Women's Chess Championship started on Friday at the Saint Louis Chess Club. Each event has 12 players, and each player meets every other player once over 11 rounds.

Irina Krush has won the U.S. Women's Championship eight times. She is also the only woman to earn the grandmaster title while representing the United States. Rachael Li, who is 16, was playing in the U.S. Women's Championship for the first time. In Round 1 she had the white pieces against Krush.

This article follows the whole game. It has two lessons. The first is about counting attackers and defenders, and how Black won a pawn by doing it. The second is about checking every square before you move your queen, and it decided the game.

The Game: Li v Krush

The opening: a pin and a double attack

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e6 6.g3 Bb4

The game began as a Sicilian Defence, where Black answers 1.e4 with 1...c5. With both players bringing out both knights early, this line is called the Four Knights Sicilian. With 6...Bb4, Black's bishop pinned the knight on c3. A pin means a piece cannot move without exposing something more important behind it. Here the piece behind the knight is the white king on e1, so the knight on c3 was not allowed to move at all.

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Position after 6...Bb4, with White to move. The black bishop on b4 pins the white knight on c3 to the king on e1.

Analyze this position in the full game

7.Bg2 d5 8.Nxc6 bxc6 9.e5 Nd7 10.Qg4

Our engine preferred 8.exd5 here. After 8.Nxc6 bxc6, the black pawn on c6 supported the pawn on d5, and our engine already rated Black slightly better.

White traded knights on c6 and pushed the e-pawn to e5, which chased the black knight from f6 to d7. Then the white queen jumped to g4. From there it attacked two things at once: the pawn on g7, which nothing was guarding, and the bishop on b4. An attack on two targets with one move is called a double attack.

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Position after 10.Qg4, with Black to move. The white queen attacks the pawn on g7 and the bishop on b4 at the same time.

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10...Bf8

Krush found the move that answered both threats. The bishop went back to f8. From there it was safe, and it also guarded the pawn on g7.

Move 15: two attackers against one defender

11.Bf4 Ba6 12.Bf1 h5 13.Qd1 Bxf1 14.Kxf1

Black traded off White's light-squared bishop, the bishop that moves only on light squares. White took back with the king instead of the rook on h1, so the white king could no longer castle.

14...Qb8

Look at the white pawn on e5. Before this move, one black piece attacked it, the knight on d7. One white piece defended it, the bishop on f4. One attacker against one defender means the pawn is safe. The queen move to b8 added a second attacker, because the queen on b8 looks along the diagonal toward e5.

15.b3 Nxe5

Now there were two attackers and only one defender, so the pawn fell. Black was a pawn ahead.

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Position after 15...Nxe5, with White to move. Black has taken the e5 pawn and is a pawn ahead.

Analyze this position in the full game

The middlegame: Black presses

16.Qd4 Bd6 17.Re1 f6 18.Na4 O-O 19.Kg2 Ng6 20.Bxd6 Qxd6 21.h4 Ne5 22.Qc5 Qd7 23.Re2 Ng4 24.Rd1 e5 25.Nb2 Qe6 26.Nd3 Rfd8 27.Nb4 Qd6 28.Qa5 d4 29.c4 Kh7

For the next 14 moves, both sides moved their pieces around, and Black kept the extra pawn. Black's pawns on d5 and e5 stood in the middle of the board, and later the d-pawn moved forward to d4.

Our Stockfish 17.1 check at depth 20 rated Black as clearly better through this stretch, by about two pawns at move 29. That is more than the one extra pawn. Black's strong center and active pieces counted too.

Move 30: the queen is attacked

30.c5

This is the puzzle position from the top of the article. The pawn on c5 attacks the black queen on d6, and the queen must move.

Here are all eight squares it can go to, and what happens on each one:

• f8, b8, d7, e7 and e6: no white piece attacks these squares. They are safe.
• d5: this square gives check, but the white knight on b4 attacks it. After 30...Qd5+, White simply plays 31.Nxd5 and wins the queen for a knight, even though Black can take the knight back.
• c7 and c5: the white queen on a5 attacks both of these squares, and no black piece guards them. A queen that goes there is simply lost.

Our engine's first choice was 30...Qe6. After that, Black would still have been about two and a half pawns better.

30...Qc7 31.Qxc7

The black queen went to c7, one of the two squares that lose it. Krush had less than a minute left on her clock. White's queen took it, and no black piece could take back.

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Final position, after 31.Qxc7. White has won the black queen, and no black piece can recapture on c7.

Analyze this position in the full game

The game ended there, 1-0. In the usual count, where a queen is worth nine points, White was now eight points ahead.

What to Learn

1. Count attackers and defenders. Before you capture, count how many of your pieces attack the target and how many of your opponent's pieces defend it. If you have more, you can usually win it. Krush's 14...Qb8 added one more attacker to the pawn on e5, and the pawn fell on the next move.

2. When your queen is attacked, check every square. Do not move it to the first square you see. Go through each square it can reach and ask: what attacks this square, and what guards it? In the puzzle position, five squares were safe and three lost the queen.

3. Look for the long lines. The white queen on a5 was far away from c7, but it still hit it along the diagonal a5-b6-c7. Queens and bishops attack from far away, and the far pieces are the easiest to forget.

4. Strong players miss things too. Krush is an eight-time champion, and for most of this game our engine rated her position as the better one. Every player, at every level, can miss one square. That is why the habit in lesson 2 is worth practicing in every game you play.

Puzzle answer: Black has five safe squares: f8, b8, d7, e7 and e6. The engine's choice is 30...Qe6. Three squares lose the queen: c7 and c5 to the white queen on a5, and d5 to the knight on b4.