One Pawn Push Saves the Game: Carissa Yip Turns Defense into a Win over Anna Sargsyan

Photo: Vysotsky / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

For most of the afternoon, Carissa Yip was the one defending. Anna Sargsyan's pieces were aimed at her king, and our engine rated White better by about a pawn or more for ten moves, and by more than two pawns at one point. Then Yip pushed one pawn, Sargsyan made one wrong capture with ten minutes on her clock, and the game turned all the way around.

Yip won with the black pieces in 43 moves in Round 9 of the 2026 U.S. Women's Championship in Saint Louis on Monday. Yip, the defending champion, has had a hard event. This was only her second win, and she now has 3 points from 9 games.

Here is how she did it, and what you can learn from it.

How the game started

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ is called the Bogo-Indian Defense. Black's bishop gives check early, and White has to block it. Sargsyan blocked with her knight, 4.Nbd2.

The middlegame came after a run of trades in the center: 13.Nxc6 bxc6 14.Bxc5 dxc5. Yip's pawns on c7, c6 and c5 were stuck on one file, but her dark-squared bishop landed on d4, a strong square in the middle of the board. Sargsyan put her king on h1 and pushed her f-pawn.

White attacks

By move 26, White's pawn had reached f5, and Sargsyan's rooks were swinging over to the kingside. When a rook climbs to its third rank and then slides across to attack, it is called a rook lift. Sargsyan's rook went 21.Rd3 and 23.Rg3, and later 27.Rh3.

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After 26...Rf8. White's pawn on f5 and the rook on g3 point at Black's king. White to move.

Analyze this position

Our Stockfish 17.1 engine, at depth 20, rated White better by about a pawn or more from move 26 to move 35, and by 2.2 pawns after 30...Rdf8. Yip took a pawn with 34...Qxg4, but White still had the more active pieces.

The pawn push that held

Then Sargsyan played 36.Ng5. The knight attacks the black rook on f7.

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After 36.Ng5. Black to move. The knight on g5 attacks the rook on f7. Can you find the pawn move that fights back?

Analyze this position

Yip answered with 36...e4. The pawn attacks White's bishop on d3, and White can take it in two ways. This is a pawn sacrifice: Yip gave the pawn away to make White's pieces move. Our engine says it kept the game level. Its next-best moves left White more than two pawns better.

Sargsyan had two choices. The engine's choice was 37.Nxf7, taking the rook, and the game would have stayed even. Instead she played 37.Bxe4. That one move took her more than eight minutes, and after it she had 10 minutes and 49 seconds left to reach move 40. Our engine's number swung from level to more than two and a half pawns in Black's favor.

The bishop that could not be taken

Now look at Yip's bishop on d7.

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After 37.Bxe4. Black to move. Which black piece can take on f5?

Analyze this position

Yip played 37...Bxf5. She took White's pawn on f5 with her bishop, on a square where both White's bishop on e4 and White's rook on f1 could take it back.

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After 37...Bxf5. The bishop on f5 can be taken twice. White to move.

Analyze this position

So why was it safe? Our engine checked what happens if White takes: 38.Bxf5 Rxf5 39.Rxf5 Rxf5. All the pieces on the f-file come off, and Black is two pawns up, with her queen, rook and bishop all pointing at White's king. The engine rates that as winning for Black. Taking the bishop did not help White, so the bishop was safe even though it looked loose.

Sargsyan did not take it. She played 38.Bf3, and that move cost her more than seven minutes. She had under four minutes left.

The finish

After 38...Rf6 39.Re1, Yip put her bishop where it could be taken again: 39...Bg4. This time Sargsyan took it, 40.Bxg4 hxg4, and the bishops were gone. Black's pawn on g4 now guarded the square f3.

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After 40...hxg4. The pawn on g4 guards f3. White to move.

Analyze this position

After 41.Ne4 Rf3, the black rook went to f3, guarded by the pawn on g4 and the rook on f8. Both players had reached move 40 and received 30 more minutes, but the damage was done. 42.Qe2 Kh8 43.Qc2, and the game ended there with Black to move. White was already losing, and 43.Qc2 allowed a forced checkmate.

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The final position. Black to move. The rook can check on f1.

Analyze this position

In the final position, our engine finds a forced checkmate for Black, starting with 43...Rf1+.

The game in numbers

• Before the turn: our engine rated White better by about a pawn or more from move 26 to move 35, with a peak of 2.2 pawns.
• The turning point: 37.Bxe4 moved the engine's number by 2.6 pawns, from level to a clear advantage for Black. Only the last move, 43.Qc2, changed it more, because it allowed a forced mate.
• The clock: after 37.Bxe4, Sargsyan had 10 minutes and 49 seconds for her next three moves, up to move 40. After 38.Bf3 she had 3 minutes and 59 seconds. Yip had 14 minutes after 37...Bxf5.

The women's title race

Before Round 9, Rachael Li and Alice Lee led with 6 points from 8, Thalia Cervantes had 5.5 and Irina Krush 5. All six games in the women's section ended in a win, and the top of the table changed:

• Irina Krush beat Alice Lee in 60 moves.
• Jennifer Yu beat Thalia Cervantes in 52 moves.
• Rachael Li beat Nazi Paikidze in 88 moves, in a knight endgame that ended a few minutes before 5:30 p.m. Saint Louis time.
• Tatev Abrahamyan beat Rose Atwell in 71 moves.
• Megan Paragua beat Anna Zatonskih with a queen-for-promotion finish.

That leaves Li alone in front with two rounds to go:

• Rachael Li 7
• Alice Lee 6, Irina Krush 6
• Thalia Cervantes 5.5
• Megan Paragua 5

If Li scores 1.5 from her last two games, she finishes on 8.5, and nobody else can reach that. Lee and Krush can each still reach 8.

Yip has 3 points. Her last two games are against Nazi Paikidze, with Black on Tuesday, and Jennifer Yu, with White on Wednesday.

What to take away

• Under pressure, look for the move that changes the question. 36...e4 gave up a pawn, but it made White deal with a new threat instead of continuing the attack.
• A piece that looks loose may be safe. Before you take a piece, check what happens after all the trades. Yip's bishop on f5 could be taken twice, and taking it still lost.
• Watch your clock before move 40. Sargsyan spent eight and a half minutes on 37.Bxe4 and more than seven on 38.Bf3, just when the position needed exact moves. She reached move 40 with about two minutes left.

Yip's previous game: Thalia Cervantes beat her with mate on a1 in Round 8. In the open section on Monday, Caruana and So drew. Also in Round 9, Megan Paragua beat Anna Zatonskih with a pawn that became a queen.