Grischuk, A. – Mamedyarov, S.

2810 2014 · Draw

Slav Defense, 2014: Grischuk (2810) against Mamedyarov (2765), a game where both kings end up walking in the open. After 19.Nxh6+ gxh6 20.Qxh6, White keeps permanent pressure on the black king, which travels all the way to c4 and then d3. The turning point is a quiet move: 34.c6, which shifts the evaluation from 0.0 to +2.1 for White — a missed chance on Black’s side to keep the balance. Grischuk finds no way to convert and settles for perpetual check with 41.Qb3+ Kd2 42.Qb2+ Kd3 43.Qb3+. Accuracy: 95% for White, 89% for Black. The lesson: with an exposed king, one imprecise move is enough to turn equality into a clear edge.