Fier, Alexandr – Bacrot, Etienne

2603 2012 · Draw

A 2012 King’s Indian where Fier (2603) went for the early f4 and e5 push, and Bacrot (2704) took on the complications; queens came off with 15.Qxd4. What followed was a rook-and-minor-piece endgame full of near misses. On move 43, 43...Kd4 threw away the work: from -4.4 to -0.2, Black’s win gone. Fier didn’t take the gift either — 44.Rd8+ moved the evaluation from +0.2 to +2.5 for White. Bacrot lost the thread once more with 53...Nxd2, from -4.6 to 0.0, and the game petered out to a draw. Accuracy: 79% White, 67% Black. The takeaway: in a sharp endgame, a single king move or exchange can be worth a whole point.