Karjakin, Sergey – Topalov, Veselin

2732 2008 · Draw

Karjakin (2732) against Topalov (2780), 2008: a classical Caro-Kann, with White pushing h4-h5 early and castling queenside. For a long stretch the game stays balanced and accurate — 88% at least good moves for White, 89% for Black — until move 33 turns everything over. 33.f5 is a mistake that swings the evaluation from +0.6 to +2.4, but 33...Nd5 hands the gift straight back, from -2.3 to -0.4. The endgame keeps lurching: 39.Kc2 goes from +0.1 to +1.7, 40.Kc3 misses the chance, from +1.8 to +7.8, and 41...Nd4 throws away the answer, from -7.8 to -0.5. Draw by repetition. The lesson: high accuracy doesn’t cover the few moves that decide everything.