My Kingdom for a Knight!

Alireza Firouzja – Ian Alexandrovich Nepomniachtchi
7th Grand Chess Tour; 1st stage; Superbet Chess Classic; Bucharest, May 6, 2022
1b4k1/1p3pp1/5r2/pN6/P1PPpr1q/4Qn1P/1PK2P2/3NRR2 w - - 28 41

Position after 40. ... Ng5-f3

Woman Grandmaster Sabina-Francesca Foişor, in her daily recap, assessed the position in the diagram as “completely winning” for Black — and indeed it is, especially from a machine standpoint! 41. d5 Be5 42. c5 Nxe1+. “Nepo seemed to have given up part of his advantage by choosing to take the Exchange on e1, with 42. ... Nxe1+, instead of taking his time with 42. ... Qxh3. Firouzja may have had the chance to hold on to the position, but he missed it and Nepomniachtchi ended up scoring an important victory for the day”, writes Foişor. 43. Rxe1 Rxf2+! 44. Nxf2

44. ... Rf3? A bit too sophisticated. 44. ... Rxf2+ 45. Re2 Rxe2+ 46. Qxe2 Qf4! 47. d6 e3! leaves Black with a very strong initiative. 45. Nxe4? Firouzja panics and cracks. 45. Qxe4! Rxf2+ 46. Kd1 Qxh3 may be a little better for Black, but also basically holdable for White. 45. ... Rxe3 46. Rxe3 f5 47. Nec3 Bxc3! 48. Nxc3 Qf2+ 49. Kd3 f4 50. Re4 Qg3+ 51. Kd2 f3

52. d6 Qg2+ 53. Ne2. Or 53. Ke3 f2 54. d7 f1=N+!−+ — an underpromotion to Knight which may have been overlooked by Firouzja. 53. ... f2! 54. Re8+ Kf7 55. Re7+ Kf6 0 : 1.

At a time when Firouzja ought to have been riding the tiger, he lost the thread of the story. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour.