Le, Quang Liem – Naroditsky, Daniel

2713 2020 · White wins (resignation, time or agreement)

Pirc Defense, 2020: Le Quang Liem (2713) against Naroditsky (2621). Black gives up the bishop early with 7...Bxf3, and the game stays balanced until White breaks in the center with 21.dxc6 and 22.Nc4. The turning point is move 28: 28...Re2 swings the evaluation from 0.0 to +1.7. After 29...Qxb2 30.Qxb2, recapturing with 30...Rxb2 makes it worse, from +2.0 to +3.6. White slips once with 31.Re8+, from -3.6 to -1.9 from White’s side, but regains control with 33.Nxf5 and active rooks. Accuracy was 87% for White, 89% for Black — solid on both sides, decided by two moves. The takeaway: in a level position, a rook sent too deep costs more than any slow positional error.