A very common opening we see in situations where a draw is good enough. This is the Petroff Defense, and might just be the most solid option in King's Pawn games.
Sindarov can be quite happy here in the early middlegame. He has chances to target that advanced pawn and plus, with all the pieces on the board there's a tonne of tension here.
A nice idea! The point is that after the pawn pushes, Sindarov is going to go for a double attack.
This double attack was Sindarov's idea.
Hikaru cuts out both threats with one move. The point is that after bishop takes knight, then bishop takes bishop will make sure his pawn is defended.
Nice shot by Hikaru! Now the bishops will come off, and his queenside pawn will be indirectly defended.
Things going Hikaru's way here. There's just no good way for Sindarov to pick up the pawn. And without it, Hikaru's central pawn will remain a monster protected passer.
Sindarov goes for it, using the edge pawn to try and chip away at Hikaru's kingside.
Hikaru offers up a queen trade, with endgames suiting him well both in terms of the match and the position.
This isn't a terrible move by any means, but from a match perspective this seems very wrong. Now Hikaru can take the pawn in the center and we could find ourselves with a lot of fast piece exchanges coming up soon after that...
Hikaru Nakamura could have chopped the pawn in the center and kept things simple. But instead, he decides to test Sindarov's tactical vision here. Now Sindarov should push his central pawn to handle all the threats, but that's a super hard move to recognize...
He spots it! Now there looks to be chaos on the horizon. This can't be comfortable for Hikaru, as he's now allowed something that is going to open him up to being attacked!
This is one of the problems for Hikaru. Now the American's pawn cover in front of his king has been shattered.
Not ideal for Sindarov to have to play down an #exchange, but he's going to have the better placed pieces and safer king to make up for it.
Hikaru might be considering moving his bishop to target the knight straight away, in order to try and pour water on the fire building around his king. Then again, grabbing the rook certainly must be tempting for him too!
Inviting further trades is the way to go here for Hikaru.
A fantastic practical choice. Hikaru gives his queen up in order to grab a tonne of remaining material and simplify his defense. This is going to be so hard for Sindarov to make any progress in.
If Hikaru can get rid of Sindarov's pawn marked in red, then his knight can get into the game. And if that happens, it could be curtains for Sindarov.
Sindarov mixes things up, exactly what he needs to do. But now it's a bullet game, with both players just 1 minute on the clock!
The final score tells a story of domination for the world number 2. But in fact, the young Uzbek grandmaster Javokhir Sindarov certainly gave Hikaru Nakamura a run for his money! It was only the last-minute creativity and resourcefulness in game 1, allowing Hikaru to reverse a lost position and end it by trapping Javokhir's king in a mating net, that paved the way for things to ultimately go so smoothly for him.
The problem for Sindarov was that he found himself in a must-win spot against Hikaru, and that was always going to prove a difficult task. To his credit, he created all sorts of tactical complications, but Hikaru was able to navigate them well and by the time the dust had settled it was the American who had the more comfortable endgame. Javokhir knew a draw would not be enough, so he pushed even when the position didn't offer much hope. And in chess, that is a fast track to the game crumbling. Hikaru took quick advantage of this, forcing resignation and progressing through to the next stage of the upper bracket!