Rapport, R. – Tan Zhongyi

2717 2016 · Draw

Filed as a Bird’s Opening, the game quickly takes on a closed Sicilian shape: Rapport (2717) trades his bishop on c6 against Tan Zhongyi (2496), pushes f4-f5 and plants a knight on f5. Black holds until 15...Nc5, which swings the evaluation from −1.2 to −3.1 and hands back everything that had been earned. Nothing stays settled, though: on move 24, 24...Rae8 lets White’s advantage slip from +1.6 to −0.6. After the rooks come off and the queens take over, the position steadies and the players agree a draw on move 50. Accuracy: 80% for White, 86% for Black. The takeaway: two opposite swings can cancel each other out, and a winning position is only kept one move at a time.