Adhiban, Baskaran – Harikrishna, P.

2689 2019 · White wins (resignation, time or agreement)

An Italian Game with the sharp 4.Ng5 line: Adhiban (2689) and Harikrishna (2730) took an unbalanced path early, the black queen collecting on h3 while White built in the centre. Adhiban kept the tighter grip, playing 87 % at least good moves against 71 % for Black. The first turning point was 36.d4, a mistake that dropped the evaluation from +2.5 to +0.8 and handed back much of the work. Black failed to profit, and after 46...Rg6+ the evaluation swung from −2.8 to −6.5 — the chance was gone and the game with it. The takeaway: a clear advantage doesn’t hold itself, and a natural-looking check can decide everything. 1-0.