Besting a WGM

Chessfriend and regular contributor to this blog, Yury V. Bukayev, sent his following online game. It is 5-board simultaneous exhibition 5 10 rapid game against a Women's International Master Rucha Pujari (Ruchess27) - actually she has made three Women's Grandmaster norms, so she is a WGM, in fact.

Yury played a steady game, and at the end he is clearly better (with approximately " - 3.40 " deep analytical evaluation by Stockfish 18 engine).

I have included not deep engine comments from the site, some of my own comments in blue and some diagrams.

Event: WIM Ruchess27 5-game online simul

Site: lichess.org

Date "2026.04.03"  

White "Ruchess27"

Black "Yury_V_Bukayev" 

Result "1-0" 

UTCDate "2026.04.03" 

UTCTime "18:01:13" 

WhiteElo "2509" 

BlackElo "2040" 

WhiteTitle "WIM" 

Variant "Standard" 

TimeControl "300+10" 

ECO "D37"

Opening "Queen's Gambit Declined: Three Knights Variation" 

Termination "Time forfeit" 

Annotator "lichess.org" 

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 

D37 Queen's Gambit Declined: Three Knights Variation

4...h6 5. Bf4 Bd6 6. Bg3 c5 

7.dxc5 Bxc5 8.e3 O-O 9.Qc2 dxc4 10.Bxc4 Bb4 11.O-O Bxc3 12.bxc3 Qa5 

13.Rab1 a6 14.Rfd1 b5 15.Bb3?! 

(0.80 → 0.10) Inaccuracy. Bf1 was best.  15.Bf1 Bb7 16.Nd2 Nbd7 17.c4 Rfc8 18.Qb2 Bc6 19.f3 Nc5 20.e4 Na4 

15...Bb7 16.Nd4?? 

{ (0.00 → -2.32) Blunder. Rbc1 was best. 16.Rbc1 Nbd7 17.Ne5 Rfd8 18.Nxd7 Rxd7 19.Be5 Rxd1+ 20.Rxd1 Qb6 21.Qe2 Rc8 

Stockfish is right here. Giving up the Rook-Bishop exchange is a large mistake, and against Yury's solid play it proves decisive. 

16...Be4 17.Qb2 Bxb1 18.Rxb1?! 

(-2.33 → -3.03) Inaccuracy. Qxb1 was best.  18.Qxb1 Qb6 19.e4 Nc6 20.e5 Nxd4 21.Rxd4 Nd5 22.Qd3 Rac8 23.Bc2 g6 

18...Nbd7 19.c4 bxc4 20.Bxc4 

Black is clearly better, as White's slight lead in development is not sufficient compensation for the exchange.

As legendary football coach Vince Lombardi once said, "We didn't lose the game; we just ran out of time."