Bjerre, Jonas Buhl – Bacrot, E.

2633 2023 · Draw

Bjerre (2633) and Bacrot (2668) produced a remarkably clean Sicilian Alapin in 2023: 94 % of White’s moves were at least "good", 98 % of Black’s, and the engine flagged no turning point at all. After 3.c3 d5 the queens came out early and pieces came off smoothly; the queen trade with 29.Qxc5 Nxc5 led to a rook endgame in which both sides kept finding top continuations. Bacrot picked off the a3 pawn, gave the material back, and 41.Nxe7+ Rxe7 simplified further. What followed was patient rook manoeuvring on the open files until 67.Ke2 and the split point. The takeaway: with no exploitable error, a balanced rook ending is a draw — accuracy, not fireworks, settles it.