Gukesh avoiding heavy theory?!
His first move suggests he may not want an all-out and super direct theoretical fight, choosing a flexible knight move that is generally less well-studied than king's pawn or queen's pawn games.
Nogerbek immediately contests the center, driving his queen's pawn forward.
Nogerbek declines the option of pushing his pawn further and grabbing extra space, instead securing it while focusing on continuing his development.
Gukesh goes for a fianchetto of his bishop, a typical idea in opening systems like the Catalan, which is a cousin of the setup essayed by the World Champion here.
Nogerbek brings his own kingside knight out, further supporting his center and moving closer towards castling his king on the right hand side.
Gukesh continues to avoid gripping the center
Nogerbek has invited him to push his queen's pawn forward, which would take the game into the heavily theoretical terrain of the Catalan. But Gukesh seems intent on taking the game out of mainline waters.
Nogerbek grabs space!
In the end, Nogerbek cannot resist the temptation of securing a space advantage. This sharpens up the play, since now his pawn is a big asset but also a little more vulnerable to being targeted by Gukesh's pawns and pieces.
Gukesh brings his king to safety, ignoring the central invader for now.
Nogerbek supports his central pawn
He brings out his queen's knight, adding protection to his advanced pawn.
Gukesh sets up his pawn formation in the center along light squares, paving the way for his dark-squared bishop to enter the game.
Nogerbek continues to develop, while further strengthening the cover of his key central pawn.
Lacking space, Gukesh is forced to maneuver his knight via this central square instead, as he seeks to bring it into the game.
Nogerbek completes his kingside development
He's built up a quite harmonious looking position, with all of his kingside minor pieces now active while his king finds safety on that side of the board.
Gukesh continues his knight maneuver, targeting the bishop and at the same time adding pressure against Nogerbek's advanced pawn.
Nogerbek drops back
He couldn't continue to protect the pawn, since dropping the bishop back along the other diagonal would have allowed Gukesh to push his pawn forward, leaving it without any good square to turn to.
A somewhat mysterious move
An unusual choice from Gukesh, who continues to handle the opening in a creative manner. It looks to me like he might be considering supporting a future pawn push, which would open up a new dark-squared diagonal for his bishop to drop back along, as shown by the arrows.
Nogerbek adds to his space advantage
He not only supports his central pawn, but also makes sure to open up the path for his light-squared bishop.
Gukesh moves his own pawn forward, continuing to undermine Nogerbek's center.
The first trade of the game, with Nogerbek releasing the pressure in the center. That's a small win for Gukesh, as he's now going to be able to bring his final minor piece into the game with ease.
Gukesh takes back
Now all of his pieces have found quite good squares, as the situation in the center turns favorably in his direction. I suspect he'll be quite happy with the outcome of the opening battle here.
Already a big moment in this game, as Gukesh is invited to calculate the consequences of the very principled pawn push in the center. It's a desirable choice, since it aims to open up the battle and activate his light-squared bishop. But there's a lot to calculate, with Nogerbek having various pawn pushes to choose from in reply.
He plays the strongest move, after a relatively short think. Gukesh excels in situations like these, where the right move has to be backed up by very precise calculation. The problem for Nogerbek here is that he now has a variety of reasonable replies, but they are all similar in evaluation. That's something he won't know, so he might end up burning a lot of time on the clock here...
Nogerbek decides in favor of the pawn trade in the end, although this is going to give Gukesh a straightforward path to an edge as his pieces begin to flood the center.
Gukesh correctly recaptures with his queenside knight, avoiding this piece from getting hounded by Nogerbek's edge pawn.
A tempting choice
Gukesh can now consider recapturing with either the bishop or the knight. The one thing he will want to avoid is taking with the queen, since an endgame likely offers the best chances for Nogerbek of holding the balance.
Gukesh is playing a great game so far, and here he again makes the right decision. Capturing with the bishop allows him to take control of two of the most significant diagonals, while also pressuring Nogerbek's kingside.
Slight errors seem to be creeping into Nogerbek's game, a testament of the pressure that Gukesh has managed to put him under early on. His idea appears to be to try to trade off dark-squared bishops. But the drawback of this plan is that it's quite slow, and leaves Nogerbek ignoring his queenside piece development, something that Gukesh will seek to make the most of over the coming moves.
Gukesh doesn't find the computer's top choice or two, but his move is a very natural choice for a human player. He's now pressuring Nogerbek's vulnerable queenside pawn, while also making space for one of his rooks to come to the central file and take aim at the enemy queen.
Nogerbek follows through on his plan, moving his bishop forward in order to offer up a piece trade to ease the pressure against his position.
Gukesh supports his bishop
He keeps the tension, inviting Nogerbek to initiate the piece trade if he wants to reduce material. That would allow him to recapture with his knight, bringing another piece towards the center and opening up the scope of his light-squared bishop.
Nogerbek keeps the piece tension, bringing his rook into the game via the open file in the center. Gukesh has a nice edge here and lots of tempting options, but it's far from obvious how to make the most of his superior development.
One natural option is to trade bishops, but it's also tempting to drop the bishop back and immediately pin the knight against the enemy queen.
Gukesh's move keeps maximum tension on the board, while immediately making Nogerbek's queen uncomfortable along the central file. In practical terms this is a very tricky position for Nogerbek to handle, especially considering he's down to just over half an hour on the clock!
Nogerbek sidesteps the pressure
He brings his queen out, breaking the pin against his knight. But the question is: what is he planning to do if Gukesh brings his other rook to bear down on Nogerbek's queen?
Gukesh quickly plays the most natural move in the position, and asks the difficult question of Nogerbek. There's a lot of discovered attacks possible against her now, so it's likely that Nogerbek will feel the need to once again retreat the queen away from the piece pressure.
Nogerbek tucks his queen away
He steps away from the vision of Gukesh's other rook. It makes a lot of sense, but the concern for him has to be that Gukesh's piece development is now far better. Nogerbek has yet to figure out how he can bring his passive light-squared bishop into the game.
Gukesh sets up new threats
He steps his queen away, safeguarding her against a possible pawn push or knight jump from Nogerbek. At the same time, he is now threatening a knight jump of his own. That would set up an immediate threat of checkmate, so Nogerbek has to be alert to the danger.
Nogerbek desperately tries to develop
His queenside has been paralyzed all game by the indirect pressure from Gukesh's fianchettoed bishop. Nogerbek's rook lift is a creative way of trying to solve his development problems, but now Gukesh can consider the previously mentioned knight jump among other tempting options.
Gukesh takes aim at the queenside
Rather than driving his knight forward along the kingside, he instead takes aim at Nogerbek's compromised queenside. The threat is to invade into enemy territory on the next move, which would cause serious problems for Nogerbek's hard-to-defend pawn.
Nogerbek moves his bishop forward, vulnerable to attacks but with the goal of keeping his queenside pawn defended.
Gukesh grabs space
He shows continued ambition as he aims to build on his clear initiative with a fast attack on Nogerbek's bishop.
Nogerbek drops back
He wants to ensure that the queenside pawn remains defended, but now it means that if Gukesh jumps forward with his knight then he will be able to win the bishop by force. That's going to leave him with the bishop pair, a key long-term asset.
Gukesh offers up a rook trade
It makes sense to offer this specific piece exchange, since the central rook is arguably Nogerbek's only well-placed piece.
Nogerbek doesn't have any good way of avoiding the trade, so he initiates the exchange himself.
Gukesh seizes the open file
The difference between the quality of the rooks becomes especially pronounced, as Nogerbek's rook sits awkwardly on the left edge, while Gukesh's own rook controls the most valuable file on the board.
A significant error, though not an obvious one to punish. The key for Gukesh is to spot that if he targets the bishop, it's not going to have many good squares to turn to...
...what makes it tricky is that the bishop can move forward along the diagonal, and even hit Gukesh's rook. But sooner or later Gukesh would be able to hit that piece wit his left-hand pawn, and at that point Nogerbek would greatly struggle to find a new home for his bishop.
Gukesh does find it, and now Nogerbek is in serious trouble. His first real test is to find the dangerous-looking advance of the bishop into enemy territory. Any other move, and he'll already have an objectively losing position. Nogerbek is walking a tightrope!
For now, Nogerbek doesn't err further. The bishop gains time against Gukesh's rook, which means that the World Champion is not yet ready to kick it back with his pawn.
Gukesh lifts his rook up, away from the attack by the enemy bishop. He's now ready to hit this piece on the next move, something that is going to be very difficult for Gukesh to deal with.
Nogerbek needs to dislodge this knight from its strong post, though the problem for him here is that the dark squares around his king have now become very weak. Gukesh will have good long-term attacking chances from here on out.
Gukesh immediately makes use of the new weaknesses, winning time against the enemy king with a check.
Nogerbek moves away from the check, hitting Gukesh's unguarded knight.
A dangerous post
The piece remains very problematic to deal with, as it eyes up the dark squares next to Nogerbek's king.
Resilient play from Nogerbek
He immediately kicks the dangerous piece back, and it has to be said that he's done an excellent job of containing Gukesh's initiative for the past half a dozen moves.
Check!
Gukesh steps forward with his bishop, targeting the king and making space for his knight to retreat to a more natural square on the next move.
It's nothing major, but Gukesh will likely be happy to see that Nogerbek did not block the check with his pawn. That would have somewhat patched up the dark-squared weaknesses and made it harder for Gukesh to continue to attack the enemy king.
Gukesh drops the knight back away from the strike by Nogerbek's pawn. Soon he'll be looking to bring it towards the center, to renew the attack.
Nogerbek once again offers a bishop trade, the piece exchange that he's been working hard to get for many moves by now!
Gukesh supports the bishop
It's no longer ideal for him to drop his bishop back, as then his knight would be pinned against the king and he would lose his strong coordination.
Nogerbek gets to play out the bishop trade, though only at the cost of inviting Gukesh's queen to the strong central post.
Gukesh takes back, and is now threatening a deadly knight jump.
A big achievement for Nogerbek, as he's able to open up the vision of his off-side rook. He's inching closer to equality here, with Gukesh's initiative dying down a bit.
Gukesh drops back, continuing to keep his queen along the dangerous diagonal.
Nogerbek keeps up the strong play, with this move being very significant in that it keeps Gukesh's knight away from the dangerous central square.
The tempo of the game slows down, as Gukesh seeks out slow improving moves.
Nogerbek seeks to bring his queen into the game, perhaps eyeing up a piece trade in the center.
Gukesh brings his rook forward, adding to the pressure against Nogerbek's queenside pawns.
It's not objectively best to invite the queen trade, since then Gukesh is going to be left with a weak pawn for Nogerbek in the center to take aim at.
A significant moment in the game, as Nogerbek allows a better endgame for Gukesh. Understandable given how little time the Kazakh grandmaster has on the clock, but now Gukesh will have renewed ambitions.
Nogerbek takes back, leaving himself with a passed pawn that is quite vulnerable as it lacks defenders.
The knight as the best blockader
Knights are well-known to be the best blockading pieces, so Gukesh will be happy to park it in front of Nogerbek's passed pawn.
Nogerbek ignores the pawn
He instead brings his king to a safer square. Taking the pawn was not bad objectively speaking, but it does lead to absolute tactical chaos. And Nogerbek doesn't have the time to try and work through the complications.
Gukesh continues to target the queenside
He stays loyal to his strategy throughout the bulk of this game. At the same time, he's got to be a little careful as he continues to play with the undefended pawn on the right edge of the board.
Nogerbek is coaxing Gukesh into playing knight takes pawn here, likely hoping that he'll have enough counterplay with his dangerous passed pawn.
Gukesh makes the right decision, going up a pawn but knowing that he'll have to be ready to meet some fast counterplay by Nogerbek over the coming moves.
Nogerbek finally trades off his passive bishop.
Gukesh now has bishop vs knight, and an extra pawn. Typically both advantageous, but Nogerbek's passed pawn is the most dangerous on the board for now!
Nogerbek moves forward, and Gukesh must be quick to react.
Gukesh prepares to meet the continued advance of the pawn by blocking the queening square with his bishop.
Nogerbek approaches the promotion square, forcing Gukesh to go passive with his bishop on the next move.
A long road ahead for Nogerbek
With the time scramble behind them, I think that Gukesh is going to be very happy with the endgame he's obtained. Nogerbek is down a pawn, and his passed pawn is firmly blockaded. Unless the Kazakh proves to be very resourceful in generating counterplay, it could be just a matter of time before Gukesh rounds up the passed pawns and leaves himself with a winning position.
Nogerbek goes after the left-hand pawn, but it's a little premature. His most serious threat is actually to push his edge pawn forward, to break up Gukesh's pawn chain. But now, Gukesh can move his king forward to avoid this!
Gukesh moves forward with his king. The clever point is that if now Nogerbek pushes his right-edge pawn, then Gukesh will bring his king over with an attack on the rook and then push his pawn forward right after.
Nogerbek gets his pawn back for now, but the problem for him is that Gukesh can now bring his king forward. That will allow him to win Nogerbek's passed pawn by force.
Gukesh does move in with his king, pressuring the pawn. Looks like he's going to have very good chances of grinding down Nogerbek over the long run.
Nogerbek takes aim at the queenside pawn
His goal will be to try to trade off his own left-hand pawn for one of Gukesh's two. That will make stopping the advance on that flank much more realistic than if Gukesh gets to keep the healthy structure that he has right now.
An easy move for Gukesh to pull the trigger on, as there was no other way of defending the pawn.
So far Nogerbek is handling his inferior position very well, with his point being that if Gukesh takes the pawn, then he'll be able to move in with his rook. That will ensure that he wins his pawn back and keeps his rook actively placed.
Gukesh recognizes that his only practical chance of winning this endgame comes from taking here and creating a passed pawn for himself.
While it's true that Nogerbek's rook now both attacks Gukesh's pawn and defends his own, the fact is that things remain very tricky for him. The main reason is the outside passed pawn that Gukesh now has, a term that refers to passed pawns located on/near the edge of the board.
Gukesh continues to be precise
One of his strengths is his ability to, much like Magnus, grind down opponents from only slightly better endgames. So far so good for today's game, as he finds an important pawn push.
The point is that Nogerbek can both attack and defend the pawns for now. But Gukesh knows that now, whenever his left-hand pawn is taken, then he'll get a chance to play king takes pawn and remove Nogerbek's dangerous passer.
Gukesh misses a great chance to put his opponent under a lot of pressure. He had the opportunity to push his pawn, and gain time in the queen race. What likely put him off was the fact that then Nogerbek would have been able to win one of his right-hand pawns. His move is designed to stop that.
Nogerbek chops off the pawn, restoring material equality once again.
Gukesh follows through on the idea behind his previous move. This way, he cuts out the threat against his kingside pawns.
Nogerbek needs to keep rooks on the board in order to be able to control Gukesh's passed pawn.
Gukesh goes up a pawn once again, and now Nogerbek must find the key idea of damaging Gukesh's pawn structure by pushing on the right hand side. Anything else, and Gukesh's position remains resilient and Nogerbek's counterplay insufficent.
Nogerbek spots it, something that will somewhat deflate the spirits of Gukesh's many fans. The point is that now Nogerbek's future knight jump to the center will come with a lot more sting.
Gukesh wins a second pawn, though the damage to his structure means that it can only be considered neutral at best.
The point!
This is the benefit of Nogerbek's pawn sacrifice. Now Gukesh's rook is hit. What's more, he cannot defend the pawn by lifting his rook forward. That would run into a rook sacrifice followed by a knight fork!
Gukesh abandons the defense of his kingside pawn, aiming instead at maximum piece activity.
Gukesh activates his bishop, taking aim at Nogerbek's vulnerable kingside pawn.
A smart retreat, locking down that diagonal and also threatening to bring the knight closer towards the queenside to try to win Gukesh's passed pawn.
Gukesh slides his rook over, cutting out the threatened knight jump.
Nogerbek moves forward with his knight, hitting the bishop and forcing Gukesh to retreat it.
Gukesh has no other choice but to jump to this square. Otherwise, Nogerbek would be able to take his pawn on the left hand side.
With his knight and rook as well-placed as possible, Nogerbek takes the time to bring his king into play.
Gukesh invites the rook trade, something that Nogerbek should avoid. Otherwise, Gukesh's pawn will be too strong.
With both players down to under 2 minutes on the clock, it's quite possible that we just see a draw by repetition from here. For sure Nogerbek will be agreeable to this, but Gukesh is usually extremely ambitious until the end...
Nogerbek returns to the corner, inviting Gukesh to repeat moves if he wishes.
Gukesh declares that the war is far from over. Brave as usual, but will he come to regret this? After all, Nogerbek has his own trumps in the position, like the more active pieces and the healthier pawn structure...
Nogerbek is likely hoping to move forward with his king to try to pick up Gukesh's weak kingside pawns.
Now Gukesh can pick up Nogerbek's kingside pawn, but it's going to come at the expense of his one on the queenside. With that trade, the position would become a lot more drawish.
Another set of pawns get traded. Again, Gukesh continues to have the more dangerous passer on the right edge. But it should be easy for Nogerbek to contain it.
Gukesh begins advancing his passed pawn.
I would be surprised if the game lasted more than 7 or 8 moves from here. It's all about whether Nogerbek can smoothly liquidate the remaining material on board.
A bit of a risky way to do things, as Nogerbek is going to have to remain precise in this rook and pawn endgame. Has he calculated out the draw to the end?!
Ah! This is a very clever way of forcing the draw by Nogerbek. His idea is to let Gukesh step forward with his king and then take the opposition with his king.
Nogerbek might well take the opposition here to hold Gukesh's king back for the next few moves.
In fact, Nogerbek does not even fight for his remaining pawn. He's spotted that if Gukesh takes it, he can then run towards the corner squares and reach a straightforward theoretical draw.
Gukesh continues to fight, unwilling to take the pawn as he plays quick moves to build up some time on the clock again (the players get an increment on the clock for every move played).
Try as he might, there are no real tricks to find here for Gukesh.
Only one tiny glimmer of a trick here for Gukesh. If Nogerbek were to give another check here, it would be a losing position!
The green arrow shows a natural-looking check, inviting the rook trade. But that would lose if Gukesh were to just step his king to the right in response!
Nogerbek doesn't take the bait with the losing check, and instead continues to check from the side. This should be a draw in the next few moments.
Nogerbek will just keep checking, and then if the king strays too far from the right-hand pawns, then Nogerbek will try to pick one up with his rook.
If Nogerbek drags his rook to the right, it should lock in the draw almost immediately. Once one of these pawns drops, the other one should soon follow suit.
Nogerbek locks in the draw!
Once this move is played, the drama of the battle is over. Nogerbek will finally break down Gukesh's kingside pawns.
Gukesh gives up the quest to win, and goes for the fastest route to liquidating the remaining material on the board.
He won't be happy with his first game at the FIDE World Cup.
From the get-go, it was clear that he was looking to fight for the full point. And, for a long time, everything seemed to be going according to plan.
The truth is that Nogerbek did not escape the opening unscathed, with Gukesh exerting long term pressure with a very strong fianchettoed bishop that almost paralyzed Nogerbek's queenside pieces.
Bit by bit, Gukesh seemed to be moving towards an eventual victory. While the queenside pressure did ease for Nogerbek, it came at the expense of weakening his king and left viewers believeing that one way or another, Gukesh would find a decisive breakthrough.
As it turns out, the most that Gukesh was able to produce against an inspired Nogerbek was a slightly better endgame.
But even here, Nogerbek kept finding the best moves at every turn. Against that calibre of play, there's not a whole lot one can do, even the World Champion. At some point, Gukesh had to give up the ghost and recognize that no breakthrough would come.
A hard-fought game, and a huge result for Nogerbek.
Gukesh under pressure from the Black side tomorrow - see you then!
The World Champion prepares to do battle
Welcome to round 2 of this year's FIDE World Cup!
It's going to be a lively round, with the top seeds arriving at the board having enjoyed automatic qualification into the second round of play.
While Gukesh did not have to edge out any player to get to this match-up, the same cannot be said for Kazybek Nogerbek. The Kazakh grandmaster played a marathon match in round 1, ultimately ousting Indian grandmaster Raja Rithvik in game 8 of their clash.
Will Gukesh avenge his compatriot, and impose himself upon his lower rated opponent?
It hasn't been plain sailing for Gukesh since he became World Champion a little less than one year ago, and he'll certainly be hoping he can end 2025 on a high note. Can Nogerbek find a way to derail his quest for one of the most prestigious titles in chess?