Lu Miaoyi Beats Warmerdam When a Passed Pawn Is Left Hanging

Photo: Frans Peeters from Roosendaal, The Netherlands / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Black to move. The black pawn on e3 is two steps from becoming a queen, and the white rook on c3 is attacking it. Black also has a rook on f2 that could take the pawn on g2. Which would you play?

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Position after 40.Kd1, with Black to move. The pawn on e3 is attacked by the rook on c3. The rook on f2 could take on g2.

Analyze this position in the full game

Our own Stockfish 16 run, at depth 18, called this position exactly level, and its choice was 40...e2+: push the pawn with check, so it is no longer standing where the rook can take it. Max Warmerdam took on g2 instead, and lost the pawn and the game.

Lu Miaoyi 1-0 Max Warmerdam Tata Steel Chess Challengers 2026, Wijk aan Zee · Round 1 White: Lu Miaoyi (2431) · Black: Max Warmerdam (2576)

Castling on opposite sides

The game began as a Sicilian Defence.

1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Qxd4 Nc6 5.Qd2 g6 6.b3 Bh6 7.f4 Nf6 8.Bb2 O-O 9.O-O-O a5

White castled on the queenside and Black on the kingside. With the kings on opposite sides, each player can push pawns at the other king.

Black gives up a rook for a bishop

10.a4 Be6 11.Nf3 Nb4 12.Ng5 Rc8 13.Nxe6 fxe6 14.Kb1 Bg7 15.Bc4 Rxc4

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Position after 15...Rxc4, with White to move. Black's rook has taken the bishop on c4. White takes back with the b-pawn.

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Black gave a rook, worth five points, for a bishop, worth three. This is called an exchange sacrifice. After 16.bxc4 the white pawns in front of the king were broken up, and Black hoped to use that.

16.bxc4 Qc8 17.e5 dxe5 18.Qe2 Nd7 19.fxe5 Nxe5

It worked. Black won one pawn back with 19...Nxe5 and a second one with 20...Nxc4. Our engine called the game dead level from 19...Nxe5 onward.

A wild time scramble

20.Nb5 Nxc4 21.Bxg7 Kxg7 22.Rd4 Nb6 23.c3 N4d5 24.Rc1 Qc5 25.Qxe6 Rf6 26.Qe4 e5 27.Rd3 Re6 28.Rcd1 Nf6 29.Qxb7+ Re7 30.Qa6 Nxa4 31.Qxa5 e4 32.Rh3 Rb7 33.Qxa4 Rxb5+ 34.Kc2 Qb6 35.Qa3 Qb7 36.c4 Qc7 37.Rc3 Rf5 38.Rd2 e3 39.Rd4 Rf2+ 40.Kd1

In this game each player had to reach move 40 before getting more time. Both players were very short of time in the moves before it. Lu Miaoyi had 20 seconds left after move 39, and Warmerdam 26 seconds. In those moves the engine's evaluation swung back and forth by more than a pawn several times. When time is that short, even very strong players miss things.

Then, after move 40, both players got 30 extra minutes. The scramble was over, and the position was level.

The capture that lost the pawn

40...Rxg2

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Position after 40...Rxg2, with White to move. The pawn on e3 is still attacked by the rook on c3, and no black piece protects it.

Analyze this position in the full game

Black won a pawn on g2. But the pawn on e3 was still attacked by the rook on c3, and no black piece protected it.

41.Rxe3

White took it. Our engine now rated White about three and a half pawns better. Black's dangerous passed pawn, the one that could have become a queen, was gone.

Escaping the checks

41...Rg1+ 42.Kc2 Qxh2+ 43.Rd2 Qh4 44.Re7+ Kh6 45.Qe3+ Rg5 46.Rd4 Qh2+ 47.Kc3 Qh1 48.Re5 Qa1+ 49.Kb4 Qb2+ 50.Ka5 Qa2+ 51.Kb6

Black gave check after check. White's king walked all the way to b6, where the checks ran out. Black resigned.

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Final position, after 51.Kb6. The white king has escaped the checks, and White's queen and two rooks are ready to attack. Black resigned.

Analyze this position in the full game

What this game teaches

1. An exchange sacrifice can pay off. Black gave a rook for a bishop on move 15, won two pawns back, and the engine called the result level.

2. Push your passed pawn with check if you can. 40...e2+ moved the pawn out of the rook's reach and kept it dangerous. After 40...Rxg2 the pawn was simply captured.

3. Count attackers and defenders before grabbing. The pawn on e3 had one attacker and no defenders. Grabbing a different pawn did not solve that.

4. Time trouble creates chaos. With seconds on the clock, the evaluation swung wildly. The mistake that decided the game came right after the scramble was over.

5. A king can walk out of checks. White's king marched from d1 to b6, and Black ran out of checks.