Nepomniachtchi, I. – Niemann, Hans Moke

2792 2022 · Black wins (resignation, time or agreement)

King’s Gambit, 2022: Nepomniachtchi (2792) invites a sharp fight, and Niemann (2687) answers with 2...d5, giving the pawn back and trading queens early with 10...Qxe6 and 11.Qxe6+ fxe6. The resulting minor-piece endgame stayed workable for White, whose accuracy came in at 79% against Black’s 84%. The turning point was 27.d4, a mistake that swung the evaluation from +1.6 to -0.3; one move later 28.g3 missed the chance to hold, dropping things from -0.2 to -3.5. Black steered the rest home for 0-1. The takeaway: in a winning position, one poorly timed central push can erase the whole advantage in two moves.