Welcome to a new Hivechess lecture, and we will be looking at a new lesson that talks about the power of pawn structure. It is an interesting game in the sense that all it took was a single blunder from Black to lose the game. The game is between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Hans Niemann from the UzChess Cup. They have played a couple of matches in the past in the form of a challenge match, but what is interesting about this game is Ian's management of his time. How can he still add more than an hour left on his clock?
The opening was the Ruy Lopez: Morphy Defense, a quite popular game in the play of grandmasters, but it has the tendency to end in a draw most times if both sides play well. The only time there might be a win is in cases where there is some new novelty or possibly a blunder, like in this game. A major idea in this opening is the control of the center and an early move of the kings, then a break in the center to create more space. The control of more space plays a huge advantage when playing the Ruy Lopez: Morphy Defense.
As explained and now employed in the game. Both sides have gone for an early castling, while not white has initiated a break in the center through the move
d4. It is up to black at this point to accept or reject, but in the best-case scenario, accepting would help to keep the tempo going for black, especially now that the game has gotten to the middle game. What makes it exciting is the fact that from this point, it becomes a huge factor in determining the kind of endgame that will be played. The exchanges made in the middlegame take a toll on the kind of endgame that will be played.
It is at this point that a bishop exchange was offered that got me surprised because why offer an exchange of bishop when it will leave you with a double-crossed pawn structure, so I thought. The computer engine at this point still says it is equal for both sides, even after the exchange was made and the double-crossed pawns were created. The reason being the board is still wide open in terms of space that can be controlled.
The game lasted for a while, down to move 35, where white took the endgame initiative to go for more pawns at the expense of his knight sitting at the edge of the board. This initiative is what will later lead to him winning the game because he would end up with a pawn major against a knight.
Even with the sacrifice of the knight for more pawns for white, it was not over because the game was drawish, but the game will be more difficult for black to defend compared to white, who has to create a passed pawn or more. So it was easy for black to make the blunder by moving his knight to g4 to launch an attack on white's pawns. This is what brought the winning position black because while black will be chasing pawns, white will be creating a passed pawn. Here is what it looks like.
Here is the game link
Here is the PGN game:
[Event "Round 8: Nepomniachtchi, Ian - Niemann, Hans Moke"]
[Site "UzChess Cup 2026"]
[Date "2026.06.07"]
[Round "8.1"]
[White "Nepomniachtchi, Ian"]
[Black "Niemann, Hans Moke"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2733"]
[BlackElo "2742"]
[WhiteTitle "GM"]
[BlackTitle "GM"]
[ECO "C88"]
[Opening "Ruy Lopez: Closed, Anti-Marshall"]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7
6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 O-O 8. a4 b4 9. d4 d6 10. dxe5 Nxe5
11. Nxe5 dxe5 12. Qxd8 Rxd8 13. Nd2 Bc5 14. Nf3 Ng4
15. Be3 Bxe3 16. fxe3 Rd6 17. Bd5 c6 18. Bb3 Be6
19. Rad1 Rad8 20. Rxd6 Rxd6 21. Bxe6 fxe6 22. Kf1 Nf6
23. Ke2 Nxe4 24. Rd1 Rd5 25. Rxd5 exd5 26. Nxe5 c5
27. Kf3 Kf8 28. Nc6 Ke8 29. Nb8 Kd8 30. Nxa6 Kc8
31. Kf4 Kb7 32. Ke5 Kxa6 33. Kxd5 Nf6+ 34. Kxc5 Ng4
35. e4 Nxh2 36. Kxb4 Ng4 37. Kc5 h5 38. Kd4 Ka5
39. b3 Nf6 40. e5 Ng8 41. e6 h4 42. Ke4 Ne7
43. Kf4 Kb6 44. Kg5 Kc6 45. a5 Kd6 46. a6 Nc8
47. Kxh4 Kxe6 48. Kg5 Kf7 49. Kf5 Na7 50. g4 g6+
51. Ke4 1-0
I am 
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Thanks For Reading!
