Aronian, Levon – Ivanchuk, Vassily

2809 2013 · White wins (resignation, time or agreement)

Aronian (2809) faced Ivanchuk (2757) in 2013 in a Budapest Gambit, Black giving back the e5-pawn for piece activity. Ivanchuk handled it well, grabbed material on the queenside, and kept the balance deep into the game — the engine still called it level as the middlegame wound down. The turning point was 28...Rh8, which swung the evaluation from 0.0 to +1.7. Two moves later 29...gxf5 threw away the last chance to hold, from +2.0 to +4.3, and Aronian brought it home. Accuracy: 87% for White, 83% for Black. The takeaway: twenty-eight moves of equality can vanish with one misplaced rook.