World no 1 Magnus Carlsen vs World Championship Challenger Javokhir Sindarov

World Championship challenger Javakir Sindarov has a big test ahead of him. He's facing the world number one, the GOAT of chess, Magnus Carlsen. This is the first time that Sindarov will play Magnus after he won the candidates and everyone is excited for this encounter. And there you have Magnus coming in, a handshake and we are ready. It's 15 minutes plus 10 seconds increment. It's team WR chess against Uzbekistan at the World Rapid Team Championships 2026. Magnus has the white pieces. 15 minutes plus 10 seconds increment. For years, Nodirbek Abdu-Sataro was the default number one player of Uzbekistan on board number one. But now after Sindarov won the candidates, he is rightfully sitting on that board. The players are ready. They are completely focused. The focus mode is on and this, dear friends, is the new row game of the day. The best game that you will see. D4 played here by Magnus and D5 by Sindarov. C4 e6. Queen's Gambit declined knight to f3 and Sindarov brings his knight to f6. We have the Catalan on the board with pawn to g3. You know, of late we've seen so many games with knight to c3 that g3 has become a little less common. But Magnus plays it and Sindarov plays the open Catalan by taking the pawn on c4. Magnus successfully employed this weapon of Catalan to win the World Championship match in 2021 against Nepomniachtchi. Bishop b4 check. Now you can block with bishop d2. You can also block with your knight. Blocking with the bishop is more common. Let's see what Magnus does. He blocks with the knight and now Javakir. Well, right now the c4 pawn isn't hanging as the knight is pinned. But he still plays b5 and notice that this diagonal is now open. But always when you jump in, I have knight d5. So you can't take advantage of it. He castles. Now the main move here is castles for black. But Sindarov, you know, takes his time. Somehow he's mixed up his openings, it seems. He doesn't remember it. He's down to 10 minutes. He plays bishop b7 and this gives Magnus a tactical opportunity which is to chop the pawn on c4 which he does. Pawn takes c4 and queen a4 check. And believe it or not, Noderbeck has played this line with white pieces on the joining board he's sitting. He goes knight e5. But Noderbeck had played queen to b5 in this position. Knight e5. Knight comes to d5. Very interesting. And now it's time for Magnus to think because there are so many variations. And guys, just look at this. This is the playing hall and so many people have gathered around the board of Magnus and Sindarov. The pressure is truly very very high. Okay, coming back to the game. If you take knight c6, I have queen b7 here. So this is the point. He goes queen b5 attacking the bishop. And he's like, okay, I'm attacking the knight as well. I'm attacking the bishop. If you play rook b8 now, I'll take on c6 this time. And for Sindarov, this is an opportunity to actually trap the white queen. How? By playing pawn to a6 and luring the queen further in. It's not an easy move. Plays it. Magnus takes. Takes it so confidently. And remember, now it's queen trap. He takes on d5 because the queen had no squares, you can see. So he takes on d5. Jaokir takes on b7. Bishop takes b7. And now white has two pieces for a queen. Just two pieces. But the rook is hanging here. And so Sindarov has to decide, should he give up the rook? He can castle here. But knight c6 is very strong as it attacks here and here. So he goes rook b8. Bishop checked. King f8. And now bishop comes back to f3. Magnus moving quickly. He's threatening knight c6 with a kind of fork here. And you can get rid of that fork. You can play rook b5. And Jaokir under pressure because he has 9 minutes on the clock. It's a new position for him. He goes bishop d6. What an amazing decision by the Uzbek youngster because he's ready to give up an exchange. He sees that what is more important here is not to keep an exchange but to coordinate his pieces. So he takes, takes. And now bishop for a bishop, rook for a rook. So it's queen versus rook and bishop. And the number of pawns are equal. So Magnus is kind of material down here but he's banking on his superior coordination. He plays pawn to e4. A good move. And Jaokir finds e5. It's a nice move trying to stabilize the position if you take. My bishop would be very active here. Maybe d5 is what Magnus could play. Bishop e3 and rooks are connected. I mean there's only one rook but the rook is connected in the game. Magnus has to make this passive move, rook b1. It's not a move you make happily. But you can't see anything better. So he plays it. Rook comes to d8. One of the things that Sindarov does incredibly well is in defense, he makes very active moves. This somewhere reminds me of Vishy Anand, you know. He's so good at it. Queen b4 brings the queen in. And now I don't even know how white should continue. Maybe rook fd1. He goes rook fc1. Now can we not go rook b8 putting even more pressure? He plays rook b8. And there are ideas of c3. Rook takes c3, queen takes c3, b takes c3 and the rook on b1 is hanging. So these are the tactical possibilities. Magnus is unhappy with his position. He's down to 4 minutes. He plays pawn to a3. Well, concretely this move does not work because of queen b3. And rook c3 is met with queen takes c3. That's the point. So that's the reason why if you play bishop d1, then maybe I can even go queen a2 and then b2 pawn is under pressure. So he goes king g2. And now it's time for us to push the pawn to c3. I think it's a great move. Javakir is taking stock of the situation and he sees that this is a great move. He pushes forward, pawn to c3, bishop d1 played by Magnus. You clearly didn't want to take on c3, b1 was hanging. Queen c4, the e4 pawn is hanging. And now pawn to b4 played. Magnus could not save everything. He gives up the e4 pawn. King g1, I mean bishop f3 was possible but queen d3 there is better for black. So king g1 and now a5 hacking away at the queenside structure. Bishop comes to c2, Magnus down to 41 seconds. Queen takes d5, the bishop comes in and queen goes back to a8. He takes the pawn on c3 but now after takes takes, you have the b4 pawn hanging and he takes on b4. Rook comes to c1. Somehow this structure with the bishop and the pawn is so solid that Javakir now has a queen and two pawns for a bishop and rook. So it's almost like as if you are a piece down. Magnus brings his bishop back and g6 played to blunt the diagonal and to push f5, f4. h4 played by Magnus and Sindarov goes rook to b2 and Magnus brings his rook one step ahead. Rook to c4. It's not at all even clear how to create counterplay. f5 and now bishop comes to d3 slowly and steadily trying to wriggle out. Maybe bg5 check somewhere. Bishop could enter this diagonal. Some hope. Rook b3 attacking the d3 bishop. Bishop check. The king can go to f7 now. He goes to e6. Magnus going for his bishop there. Bishop c2 seems like a natural move to attack the rook. He plays bishop c2. Rook goes back to b2. In such positions, you should have some patience. You know, it doesn't always win on the spot but in the long run, it is winning. It doesn't matter if you take more time. Play it accurately. Now rook c3 and Jaokir goes with his king to d7. Magnus can give a check with his bishop. Is this turning into slightly dangerous position if the rook could somehow magically enter on e8? Could be something. Bishop comes back to c2 and now can I enter in with my queen somewhere? He goes queen b4 attacking the rook. Bishop to d3 and now e4 pushing one step ahead. Check. King d7 and Sindarov is so confident at this point. Magnus plays bishop to g8 but now you can play rook b1. He plays rook b1. King to g2. Notice that if you had taken here, I can take on c3 and after takes, this is a very recurring theme to trap the bishop. So king g2, rook c1, rook c1. Rooks are traded and now queen to b2. The rook isn't attacked but the pawn is now defended because of queen g7. So rook to d1 and Jaokir would love to keep the pawn on c7 because this supports the bishop. Also I don't know how to push the kingside pawn. So exactly how to make progress is the question. He goes king e7. Sometimes the answer isn't obvious. You just have to wait. Magnus goes rook to c1. He's fighting hard but it's not so easy for him. Queen to b2 and now bishop to c4. Maybe there's some f4 break in the air. He goes bishop e5. Now rook d1 taking the open file. Queen c2 attacks the bishop and the rook. Rook c1, queen b2. We have a repetition there but I'm pretty sure Jaokir wants to not even go close to a repetition. Bishop d6 and bishop g5 check. It seems like black is making no real progress but that's how chess is you know. For moves you might feel nothing's improving when then suddenly things start to roll. Queen a3 and the bishop goes to g8 attacking the h7 pawn. Queen to c3 with the same idea that if you take on h7, I'll go queen g7. Magnus tries to block the diagonal with rook d4 and he has 57 seconds. Sindarov down to now 20 seconds. Okay this is getting intense. Can Magnus stage a comeback? King e7, he takes the pawn. Now you want to bring your queen back here but the rook is blocking the path. So bishop c5 is a great move. Check. King f7, another check. Just shouldn't fall for a mating net here. He goes king e6. Well if you take here I think there's a check and you will lose the pawns. So maybe Magnus has to come back and he comes back rook d2 but now queen g7 and the bishop is trapped. Magnus resigns. Jaokir Sindarov scores a massive win over Magnus Carlsen and what a game this was. Once Magnus messed it up in the opening, Jaokir Sindarov got an advantage and did not let it slip at all. This is very rare and this just goes to show how good Sindarov is and perhaps even Magnus is a bit out of shape right now. He needs some rest. I'm not sure what he needs but perhaps rest can do him some good. The team WR chess did strike back on board two with Wesley So winning and on board three with Karuana winning but on the below 2000 board Uzbekistan struck back and the score was equal 3-3 and here you can see Jaokir looking at the games. So is Magnus Carlsen you know he's also very worried about what his team is up to because in a team tournament you want to win and you also want the team to win but the next best thing is that let the team win even if you lose because after all it's a team event you can see Magnus, Fabi, Jan Gustafsson everyone looking at the games and in the end it was Mukhiddin who played till the end against MVL. It was a draw and you can see Sindarov also looking at the game of his second Mukhiddin Madamino fresh from the success of Uz Chess Cup very very closely and the score is stood at 2.5-2.5 a handshake there and Sindarov goes away. I'll leave you with some moments from there the venue where you can see Kazim Janov and Gustafsson shaking hands with each other. I'm pretty sure they've played against each other on several occasions. Jaokir Sindarov signed some autographs as well and I hope you had a good time watching this game. Kudos to Sindarov he's looking ready as the world championship challenger and will surely be a great world championship match. Have you ever blundered a winning position because your brain just blanked out? That's called brain fog. In chess and in life lack of attention and focus can cost you key games and key moments. Instead of reaching out for that third cup of coffee or that energy drink which can overstimulate you or give you jitters, try Neurogum. 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