Firouzja, Alireza – Nepomniachtchi, I.

2763 2024 · Black wins (resignation, time or agreement)

Firouzja (2763) faced Nepomniachtchi (2755) in 2024 in a Petroff where White castled queenside on move 9 and pushed the f- and h-pawns toward the black king. The queens came off early (22.Qxf4 Nxf4), leaving a long endgame of rooks, bishops and knights fought square by square. The engine flags no turning point at all: no single swing, just slow accumulation. Accuracies were close — 81% for White, 78% for Black — yet Black took the full point, 0-1, having advanced a pawn to f2 and swung the rook to g1. The club lesson: endgames are won by consistency, not by one miracle move.