Kollars, Dmitrij – Caruana, F.

2618 2023 · Black wins (resignation, time or agreement)

Modern Defense, 2023: Kollars (2618) against Caruana (2773). Queens come off in the middlegame and the position boils down to a rook-and-pawn ending, with Black pushing on the queenside. Caruana holds the edge until move 50, when 50...c5+ throws it away: the evaluation swings from -1.9 to 0.0. Two moves later the chance switches sides — 52.Kxd6 keeps things level where the engine had found +5.3 in another line. White never regains the thread and the game ends 0-1. Accuracy: 84% for White, 88% for Black. Club takeaway: in these endings a single pawn move can erase everything you built.