Anand, V. – Harikrishna, P.

2785 2014 · White wins (resignation, time or agreement)

Queen’s Gambit, 2014: Anand (2785) against Harikrishna (2726), a classical line with 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 before White opened the centre with 15.e4. The turn comes early: 21...Ne5 misses the chance and drops the evaluation from -2.0 to -4.1 for Black. Things only slide further: 31...Be6 is a mistake, -6.9 to -8.8, and 35...Bg4 pushes it from -9.6 to -15.0. White slips once too, 32.Rxg7+ giving back ground from +8.8 to +7.2, but it changes nothing. Accuracy read 97% for White, 86% for Black, and the game ended 1-0 after 38.Qf6+. The takeaway: bad positions get lost by what follows them.