Beerdsen, Thomas – Laurusas, T.

2502 2024 · Checkmate — White wins

Vienna Game, 2024: Beerdsen (2502) against Laurusas (2578), with 3.f4 and an early fight for the centre. Black takes over on the queenside, but the swing comes at move 19: after 19...h6 the evaluation moves from +0.6 to -1.5 from White’s point of view, and the chance changes hands. It gets worse with 22...Nd8, which slides the evaluation from -1.6 to -3.3, again from White’s side. Beerdsen keeps pressing and finishes with 35.Qd6#. Accuracy: 83% for White, 76% for Black. The lesson: in a sharp position, one loose move is enough to hand the game over for good.