Another game from today (#1614654)

Arjun and MVL, both in contention for first place in their group (D...?) #1614144 -- after this round, MVL, Arjun and fan favorite Hans Niemann are on 13 points. Fucking exciting last day!

The boys play a Tarrasch Defense

...which Hikaru in his stream usually calls "the trash" or "semi-trash" opening. (LOL, even my autocorrect agrees!)

There was some move-order tricks, and then MVL spent 10 minutes considering whether or not to SAC THE ROOK here...

He opts against it (and spends/invests/wastes another 5 minutes on the next move), and the time deficit came back to bite him later. The rude thing is that it doesn't matter... (my browser-based Stockfish) says +0.08 for his move, h6, and +.016 for Rxe3. So whatever: just play it faster!

Small advantage for white all the way into the late middlegame/endgame.... but look at the clock times here:

You're just not gonna make that work against someone as elite as Arjun Erigaisi, who loves to create chaos on the board. A while later we get these cute little pins, and Arjun wins himself a pawn + creates a passer on the queenside:

Middlegame simplifies to a pretty straightforward rook-and-pawn endgame with that h-pawn being a nasty passer.

ANYWAY, STACKERS: Which pawn do you push, f7 or g7?!

There's a moment right before this that I skipped over, where Arjun's advantage went from +4 to this dead draw... for no obvious reason. Rook endgames are SO TRICKY and NONOBVIOUS.

As black you feel like you have to do something. White's plan is simple: king to b1 to kick the rook, and then start advancing up the board to escort/protect the pawn. For black, you can't stop that; your king is stuck and most immediately, the f7 pawn is about to fall. What do you do?

One of these pawn pushes continues the narrow path toward a draw, as incredible as it seems. The other blunders away the game.

What say the chess-schtackers??

@Dash_1971, @Alex333, @SimpleStacker, @BlokchainB, @SatAttack etc