Karjakin, Sergey – Christiansen, Johan-Sebastian

2757 2021 · White wins (resignation, time or agreement)

Karjakin (2757) opened 1.b3, the Nimzo-Larsen Attack, and Christiansen (2618) met it head-on with e5 and quick development. The queens came off early and the game turned into a rook-and-bishop versus rook-and-knight ending, White pushing the a-pawn. The turning point was the black king: 51...Kd7 dropped the evaluation from -2.2 to -3.7, and 52...Kc6 pushed it further, from -3.7 to -5.7. Karjakin gave some of it back with 54.Rc5+, from +6.6 to +4.0, but the position stayed winning and Black resigned. Accuracy: 96% for White, 87% for Black. The takeaway: in an endgame, where your king steps matters as much as any piece move.