The Petroff Defense, a super-solid opening system and the top choice when an elite Grandmaster knows that a draw is all that is needed!
Bad news for Sindarov! Wei Yi is playing every move instantly, and he's fully equalized the position. The Chinese player certainly looks the more confident of the two here, with Sindarov the one to burn a lot of time on the clock so far.
This does not look good. What is he planning if Wei Yi jumps in with his knight to the center? This would allow his opponent to either shatter his structure or build a huge piece initiative.
Wei Yi goes for the most pragmatic choice available, saving his knight and hitting the strong light-squared bishop of Sindarov. Piece trades favor him, after all.
Keeping the pin. If Sindarov tries to break it, his pawn structure would become far too weak.
Now there are some ideas in the air about jumping in here, exploiting the pin against Sindarov's kingside knight.
Opening up scope of the bishop, and - crucially - covering against the threatened knight jump.
Smooth sailing here for Wei Yi, who has the more natural piece configuration and now a very safe king.
Wei Yi going for liquidations. His idea is to trade pawns in the center and get rid of the queens at the same time, looking for a drawn endgame!
Sindarov sees nothing better than to go for it, but now the queens are going to come off. Hard to imagine the Uzbek grandmaster able to truly test Wei Yi from here.
A nice finesse! Wei Yi forces Sindarov to initiate the queen trade himself, allowing the rook to come into play straight away.
If Sindarov is going to win this, it's going to have to be a long endgame grind using the two bishop advantage.
At least Sindarov has some targeting play looking to break down the pawn chain and combine with the bishops. Still some practical chances for now.
Preventing active knight moves for now. Sindarov knows that his queenside play involving pawn push isn't going to go away anytime soon, so he takes a patient approach.
Wei Yi sets up a solid pawn structure, designed to make it hard for Sindarov to make real progress on that flank.
Sindarov with some practical difficulties to deal with here. The further pawn push is now going to cost Sindarov time on every turn, thinking about whether this option is going to be strong or not. Great approach from Wei Yi.
X-raying the undefended minor pieces.
Bringing the king in to protect a couple of the loose pieces.
Pre-empting any pawn pushes here, so that if Wei Yi keeps pushing the kingside pawn it won't come with tempo.
A painful move to see for Sindarov. Now the bishop pair is going to have to come off, and if anything it's Wei Yi that has the better position!
Two minutes for each player. That's looking like the best shot for Sindarov to tie the match - profiting from the approaching chaos of the scramble.
Nice move, stabilizing the knight!
Another powerful move here, forcing off yet more pieces.
Trying to break down the structure.
The final minor piece forced off!
30 seconds for Sindarov, and his tournament life on the line!!
All the pawns are dropping. Flagging is Sindarov's last resource but he's down on the clock!
A convincing victory for the Chinese grandmaster in the end, securing his spot in the qualification match. Very smooth performance across both games, winning a piece early on in the first encounter and then leaving Sindarov with absolutely no chance to claw his way back into the match in the second one. He survives, while for Javokhir Sindarov, it's the end of the line at the Esports World Cup!
Sindarov in a must-win situation!
Can he bounce back after the opening disaster of that first game? He'll have very little time to regain his composure, and a loss means that he will be eliminated from the Esports World Cup!