A very early decision to trade the pawn in what is a very typical Queen's Gambit Declined opening. But nothing too out of the ordinary, and the game should follow along commonly explored paths next.
The secondary line
Typically the White side prefers to pin the enemy knight by bringing the bishop out one more square along the diagonal. But this is also a quite popular and sensible choice, with Arjun simply seeking to bring his bishop into play before pushing his king's pawn forward.
Wei Yi has clearly decided to go for solidity in the second and final classical game of their mini-match. Likely, he considers his chances of winning the match to be greater in the tiebreakers versus from the Black side against Arjun in classical.
A typical idea, immediately targeting the exposed bishop of Wei Yi.
What's fascinating here is that Arjun's choice of move is extremely rare, and yet Wei Yi has just responded instantly! This suggests that Arjun's hope of catching him out with this rare line is not going to succeed, at least not so easily.
Arjun has nothing better than to accept the trade of one bishop for the other, since his knight and bishop were both hanging.
But this is a success for the Chinese grandmaster, as the position now simplifies quite heavily in the very early stages of the battle.
Arjun is just continuing his development as if it's all going according to plan, but to me it feels like it's Wei Yi that will be in a celebratory mood. It's opposite colored bishops already (something that tends towards draws), while the structure is symmetrical. This one could be going to tiebreaks!
Arjun's move looks to be something very subtle, and it'll be interesting to see just how deep he's gone into this position. The reason I say this is that it appears like Wei Yi can just step his own queen out and offer a trade. Is Arjun's idea to then drop his queen back and argue that Wei Yi's own piece will be misplaced there?!
After a brief pause, Wei Yi does play the most natural move, challenging Arjun's queen.
No draw!
Arjun, in spite of having obtained a quite bland position out of the opening, shows that he still harbors ambitions to win the game today. He drops his queen back, ensuring that we don't get an early endgame.
Kicking out the invading piece, while also preparing for a possible fianchetto of Wei Yi's remaining bishop.
No other squares for the knight to turn to, so Arjun retreats to the edge of the board.
Wei Yi prepares to castle
He does fianchetto the piece, which makes sense as he may be able to go for a pawn break at some point in the future, in order to crack open the diagonal.
Arjun does likewise, as both sides are now ready to bring their kings to safety.
A slow burn
This game could last a very long time, with cagey maneuvering and very subtle strategic details being what is mostly going to be on the player's minds. It's hard to find major tactical opportunities given that the structure is similar and a little inflexible.
Arjun returns his piece to the game
The knight was completely dead on the edge of the board, with no forward jumps. So Arjun brings it back towards the center.
Wei Yi sets up an x-ray
An x-ray in chess refers to when one piece eyes another indirectly. X-rays against the enemy queen are especially helpful, as they can lead to tactical opportunities down the line. So Wei Yi will be happy to have his rook opposing Arjun's queen, even if it's from a distance.
Arjun is known for being an extremely fast player, but these kind of positions tend to force even the speediest of grandmasters to slow down. It's just really hard to discern between a variety of possible plans, and so Arjun was likely trying to orient himself a bit better here. In the end, he goes for a solid and safe choice.
Arjun prepares for the pawn break
Wei Yi's last move defended his queen's pawn in the center, setting up the possible pawn break that would crack open the position. With his last move, Arjun adds to the firepower along the file in order to take the sting out of this idea.
He's decided against keeping the position so closed, playing the only pawn break in the position. After the trade of pawns he will be left with an isolated pawn. But he'll be hoping that his active pieces offset this slight bit of damage to his structure.
The game sharpens up
Arjun goes for the pawn exchange, the natural way of trying to take advantage of Wei Yi's ambitious pawn break. Now Wei Yi is left with an isolated queen's pawn (IQP), something that Arjun will try to exploit long term.
A strong practical choice
The decision from Wei Yi to take with the rook seems smart, at least from a practical point of view. Now Arjun has to be very careful about the pressure against his queenside, with the threat being to jump the knight into the center next.
Arjun steps his queen away from the file, taking the sting out of Wei Yi's ideas of jumping his knight to the center. He's now got a big threat of his own: forking the queen and rook on the left-hand side!
Arjun with a real chance here!
The position is still objectively close to equal, but Wei Yi seems to have overlooked a very troubling resource here for Arjun. The Indian grandmaster can now drop his knight back, which would activate his light-squared bishop and in this way completely cut out Wei Yi's pawn push. And then that same piece would be threatening to target the rook on the next move. Very tricky for Wei Yi if Arjun goes for this!
Arjun spots it! A very challenging situation here for Wei Yi. This is the best position Arjun's had so far in the game. And to make matters worse for Wei Yi, he's down to just over 15 minutes on the clock. That's a huge problem when he still needs to play another 20 moves to reach the time control!
The Chinese player was simply unable to get out of the maze of problems, and now Arjun has a forcing sequence where he is going to emerge a clean pawn to the good!
The Indian grandmaster has likely worked it all out by now, with the immediate attack on the rook forcing Wei Yi's hand to play bishop takes knight next.
Wei Yi has to capture, since his rook had no good square to turn to. This saves his rook, since Arjun's own central rook is now under fire.
Arjun has to recapture, and it's important to choose the pawn. The point is that soon he'll have a deflection tactic with bishop takes pawn in the center!
Forced!
If he had moved his rook anywhere else, then the knight would have either captured it immediately, or Arjun would have had a fork to win at least the exchange. So Wei Yi's hand has been forced here.
The key here for Arjun as he looks to score what would be a massive victory for his chances of qualifying to the candidates, is to play bishop takes pawn in the center! Then Wei Yi's queen would be hit, while after queen takes bishop the rook would be hanging.
The words of GM Peter Leko in the commentary booth, as Arjun does not go for the strongest move in the position of playing bishop takes pawn. It's almost certain that he saw the move, but felt that giving up his light-squared bishop to win the exchange was just too risky, as the light squares around his king would have become extremely weak.
The pressure against Wei Yi's rook was too great, so again this is a forced exchange.
Wei Yi will remain under a lot of pressure for some time. Arjun now takes back his rook with a strike on Wei Yi's queen. And soon the pawn in the center will drop, with Arjun having by far the better placed pieces.
The only real bit of good news from Wei Yi's perspective is that the position has simplified quite a bit. The longer he can avoid any sort of big mistake, while gradually reducing material, the bigger the chance he has of clinging onto a draw.
Arjun had the opportunity to take the pawn with his queen, when Wei Yi's left-hand pawn would likely have dropped next. The computer was showing an endgame where Arjun would have been a clean pawn to the good!
Close to equality again!
Now the worst appears to be over for Wei Yi, as he has somehow managed to escape the complications with equal material. Arjun's bishop still gives him some chances to try and squeeze from here, but it should be defensible for Wei Yi if he can avoid blundering in the time scramble.
Arjun drops his bishop back, away from the attack of the knight.
Wei Yi brings his rook to the central file, with gain of time against Arjun's queen.
Arjun moves his queen away from the attack, onto the long diagonal from where it hits Wei Yi's undefended knight.
Wei Yi drops his knight back
It's not an ideal move to play, but there was no comfortable way of defending the piece and there were also no good knight jumps because Arjun controls the key central squares.
Arjun hoping to reroute the knight
The knight is aiming to come towards the center. If Arjun could have just one more move, he would be able to create some very dangerous threats against Wei Yi's kingside.
Wei Yi brings his queen forward to target the knight, a strong resource that robs Arjun of the time to carry out his plan. For the first time in a while, Arjun is the one that has to respond to Wei Yi's threats.
Arjun lifts his rook forward to support the knight.
Wei Yi makes use of the fact that Arjun's back rank is now undefended, dragging one of Arjun's minor pieces onto the last rank to block.
Arjun blocks the check, but now this piece becomes quite passive for the foreseeable future.
Wei Yi consolidates
He solves against the pressure on his pawn, as the position settles down into what could be a quieter phase of play over the coming moves. It's complete equality, and now tiebreaks really feel like the most likely scenario!
Wei Yi defended brilliantly under time pressure, and had solved all of his problems by the time the final position was reached.
Frustrated, and likely certain that he missed a real chance to punish Wei Yi, the Indian grandmaster decides that it's as good a time as any to offer a draw and to guide their clash into tomorrow's rapid & blitz playoffs.
It's hard to name a favorite tomorrow. Arjun Erigaisi has perhaps played the more convincing chess in the tournament thus far, but you can't discount the fact that Wei Yi is currently number four in the FIDE Rapid Ratings list. To many, that kind of pedigree skews the odds in his favor.
A huge amount is on the line. Let's see whose nerves hold up best!
Can Wei Yi defend?!
Arjun Erigaisi has been one of, if not the most, impressive player of the 2025 FIDE World Cup.
In particular, his opening preparation has been devastating in its effectiveness. Against Peter Leko, he completely neutralized the Hungarian's attempt to play for an advantage in a sideline of the Sicilian Defense.
And yesterday, against Wei Yi, he played instantly up until the moment a draw was agreed just beyond move 30. In fact, by the time the players shook hands, he even had a few minutes more than his starting clock time!
This will for sure be boosting the top Indian grandmaster's confidence, as he will be looking to pressure the Chinese no.1 in the hopes of securing a place in the semi-finals without the need to go to tiebreaks.
Will Wei Yi, for his part, be able to show the same kind of opening pedigree that allowed Arjun to guide game 1 to a draw so effortlessly? Or will Arjun manage to trouble his veteran opponent?
Either way, the stakes are almost as high as they're going to get, as whichever player wins this match will be a big favorite to book a coveted spot in the 2026 Candidates tournament - the tournament where the winner earns the right to challenge Gukesh for the highest title in chess: the World Championship!