The Art of Doing Nothing: Sarana's Olympiad Squeeze

One round after losing to Fabiano Caruana, GM Alexey Sarana bounced back on board 1 for Serbia with a masterclass in patience against GM Sebastian Bogner of Switzerland at the 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad in Samarkand. With a clearly better position and an opponent who had almost no useful moves, Sarana faced a classic dilemma: the natural plan, g4, would open lines but also expose his own king. So he didn't hurry. He walked his king all the way to the safe side of the board, stopped Black's counterplay with g3, and only then struck with g4. When the lines opened, Black's pieces were tangled, and a sharp d4! finished the game. A short, instructive lesson on converting an advantage: before you attack, make sure your own king is safe. Analysis with FM Bahne Fuhrmann. ⏱️ Chapters 0:00 Intro 0:13 An opponent with no moves 0:38 Why not g4 right away? 1:02 The king walk to safety 1:39 g3: stopping ...h4 2:08 Ka2: the final destination 2:41 The g4 break 3:10 Black's awkward pieces 3:23 d4! The tactical finish 4:04 Why king safety made the difference ♟️ Game info Event: 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad 2026, Samarkand (Open) Round 9 · Board 1 · Serbia vs Switzerland GM Alexey Sarana – GM Sebastian Bogner (2547), 1-0 This video is part of our Olympiad series, where the players explain their own best games from Samarkand. 📚 More from ChessBase ChessBase Shop: https://shop.chessbase.com Chess news: https://en.chessbase.com 👍 Enjoyed Sarana's technique? Leave a like, subscribe, and tell us in the comments: would you have played g4 straight away? #ChessOlympiad #Samarkand2026 #Chess #ChessBase #Sarana #Bogner #ChessStrategy