So, Wesley – Firouzja, Alireza

2765 2020 · White wins (resignation, time or agreement)

A classical Catalan from 2020: Wesley So (2765) against Alireza Firouzja (2726). Queens came off on move 23, the white rooks settled on the seventh rank, and the game turned into a rook ending where every tempo counted. White slipped first with 43.b4, letting the evaluation drop from +4.9 to +2.1. Firouzja returned the favour with 55...Kf4, which swung things from -5.7 to -13.3, and So finished the job through 57.Qa4+. Accuracy was 70% for White and 77% for Black — the higher black figure still lost the game. Club takeaway: in these endings one poorly chosen king square outweighs ten sound moves.