Caruana takes it cool, preferring a solid Reti opening with White. Obviously, he aims for a position where his experience will count!

We have a familiar Sicilain Accelerated Dragon opening position here with colours reversed. Though Black is a move down, his pawns in the center will have long-lasting effect.

Caruana decides to take early action, planting his knight in the center. Now, though Black has his pawns in the center, White's initiative might poke holes into the black position.

Black seems to have consolidated his position well, developing all his pieces and ready to castle his king. It looks like Abdusattorov has the slight upper hand here, with solid center pawns dominating the position.

Caruana lacks a plan, as this queen move indicates. Though we might assume that this was played to connect the rooks, the passivity of those rooks can't be denied.

Caruana decides to act!

Looking at Black's domination of the center, Caruana decides to act, going for a familiar breakthrough. Now, though White has three pawn islands in the position, his activity counts, especially in faster versions of chess.

Abdusattorov goes on an expansion on the queenside. Black is obviously enjoying his space advantage. Abdusattorov likes his initiative, and he aims to squeeze Caruana on the queenside here.

Black aims at White's backward central pawns, slowly aiming to circle it with his pawns and pieces. Thus, Abdusattorov has a solid target to play against now.

provocation!!

Seeing that White's position needs more shaking up, Abdusattorov aims to provoke White pawns into moving up, thus creating weaknesses in the camp. Abdusattorov's advantage here is that White doesn't have any active plans to follow.

??MISTAKE??

Caruana allows dark bishops to be exchanged here, which should assist the side with the better control of the game - Black.

!!GREAT MOVE!!

Typical Abdusattorov! He loves his action, and bringing the black knight to the kingside seems to be a great plan here!

semblance of counterplay!!

With this pawn move, Caruana suddenly seems to achieve a certain balance in his position, restricting Black's dark bishop especially. Abdusattorov probably missed the plot in the past few moves, in his eagerness for active play.

White's queen is on an unlikely square but still creates counterplay. The point is, Black is unable to find a solid target in White's position to train his guns on.

The fact that Black is forced to defend the pawn passively might highlight his inability to show any active play. At the same time, Caruana's two major pieces being tied to attack the lowly pawn is not an ideal scenario either!

!!GREAT MOVE!!

Abdusattorov closes the door! The bishop occupies a dominating position, and finally, Black is ready to attack White's weak backward pawn. It is advantage Abdusattorov now!

??MISTAKE??

Caruana seems to lose patience, preferring to give up his weak pawn. It is a question if he would be able to generate any counterplay here.

Being low on time, Caruana desperately aims for counterplay and opens up the position. But Black's passed pawns are too much for White to handle.

LOW ON TIME!!

Black is up by two pawns now, and well on his way to win the game!

After sweating and weaving for a long time, Abdusattorov seems to have found a clear way to win the game: attack the white king

Black wins! A surprisingly one-sided game, where Caruana was always under pressure.

The opening set the tone for the game, as Abdusattorov established control of the center and slowly increased his pressure. The assumed counterplay never happened for Caruana, who played a surprisingly passive game with White pieces. Advantage Abdusattorov now, who has won a game with Black pieces!