Nikolic, Predrag – Hector, Jonny

2597 2010 · White wins (resignation, time or agreement)

Budapest Gambit, 2010: Nikolic (2597) against Hector (2592), a game that turns sharp once the queens go pawn-hunting. Balance holds until move 39, where 39...Kh7 lets the evaluation slide from +0.4 to +3.3 for White. Nikolic hands it straight back with 40.Qc2+ (from −3.2 to −0.5), but 41...Kh7 repeats the error and restores the same gap, +0.4 to +3.3. From there it snowballs: 47...Rf8 pushes it from +4.6 to +6.2, and 49...Kh5 from +6.2 to +10.1. Accuracy was 82% for White, 80% for Black, and the game ended 1-0. The takeaway: under queen pressure, a king move that failed once will fail again.