The first surprise
Wei Yi goes a relatively unexplored route against Arjun's French Defense. It seems that usually it's the Indian grandmaster who is the one spinning the first surprise, but not here!
We have transposed to a line that has been played a few times at the grandmaster level. Interestingly, the White side's results have been really promising here, scoring 50-60% wins and with very few losses. Can Arjun buck the trend?!
Wei Yi continues to explore fresh territory, with most games instead having involved lifting the queen up one square to prepare to castle to the left instead.
It seems that Arjun may be a little shaken by Wei Yi's original approach. His last move does not do anything to stop the threatened knight jump, so Wei Yi might be able to drum up a quickfire attack now!
Wei Yi jumps in with his knight, and Arjun already finds himself in a delicate situation. The threat is to chop off the knight to make room for the queen to move forward and threaten checkmate!
A big error, allowing Wei Yi to ignore the attack on his knight and bring his queen forward, with a huge already near-winning attack!
Arjun has been very slightly let off the hook, with Wei Yi going for the more human and practical choice to trade pawns. Arjun still under fire here and in fact Wei Yi may be able to win the exchange with a precise combo!
Wei Yi doesn't go for any win of material, instead carrying on his attack at a fast clip. He's looking to castle queenside next, when his own king will be much safer than Arjun's.
Forced, in order to meet the threat of queen takes pawn.
Wei Yi going for the rook
There's no square to turn to for Arjun's piece, since otherwise Wei Yi would be able to invade decisively with his queen. So it looks like the Chinese player may be going to go up the exchange.
Wei Yi goes up the exchange, though the good news for Arjun is that this is a little less strong than if Wei Yi had kept the tension and castled. Still a big edge for Wei Yi though.
Wei Yi can afford to simply castle here, since his knight is immune from being captured as that would open up Wei Yi's right-hand rook.
Wei Yi has gone for the most pragmatic continuation, simply trading down pieces into an endgame where he'll have excellent winning chances due to his extra material.
The dust settles, with Wei Yi a clean exchange to the good. However, Arjun will have some decent chances of surviving here, owing to his bishop pair and strong pawn center.
Arjun looks to cement his knight in the strong central outpost in the future, while also opening up the scope of his dark-squared bishop.
Now Wei Yi has ideas like pushing his kingside pawn forward in order to open up lines for his rooks to get into the game.
Wei Yi misses a chance to ramp up the pressure, with the best move having been to push his pawn forward and allow Arjun to capture the hanging one on the dark squares. But that would be a very inhuman way of playing.
Arjun would love to be able to push this pawn forward, kicking back Wei Yi's knight and setting up an invasion of his own along the central outpost.
Wei Yi shuts down the continued advance of Arjun's pawn.
A huge moment, as Wei Yi is given the option to finally go for the strong pawn break.
He plays it! Arjun in serious trouble now as the position could open up soon, when Wei Yi's rooks could become monsters.
The position opens up in Wei Yi's favor. But Arjun will be hoping he can drum up counterplay against Wei Yi's vulnerable pawn on the kingside.
Keeping up the strong play. Now the bishop will help coordinate with a rook once Wei Yi brings it onto the file, against Arjun's king.
Arjun is doing all he can to complicate matters. The bad news is he's objectively losing, but the good news is that the strongest sequence for Wei Yi here is very hard for a human to find, involving pushing the queen's pawn forward to counter-attack the enemy knight!
Unsurprisingly, the Chinese grandmaster is unable to find the strongest computer move. Arjun has some very real chances to get back into the game now!
Defending the pawn.
Arjun has turned his piece pressure into recovering one pawn, but Wei Yi is still in the drivers seat as his exchange up is worth more than Arjun's pawn. Still, with reduced material this one offers good chances for Arjun to save a draw.
A strange decision from Wei Yi to have forced the knight trade, as the position simplifies further. The position is back to close to equal, with Arjun's bishop pair continuing to pose problems.
A second pawn is up for grabs now, and there's no reason why Arjun shouldn't take it! This one is most likely headed for a draw.
Wei Yi has to start being a little careful here. The passed pawns of Arjun will become dangerous very soon.
With just seconds on the clock, Wei Yi needs to start thinking about bailing out here and trying to secure the draw!
Ambitious, but risky!
Arjun seems to be harboring ideas about trying to win the full point here, as he chooses to keep both bishops on the board to assist his passed pawn. But this introduces a lot of risk, and now all three results are once again possible.
Now Wei Yi is completely safe, as he will end up with rook and two pawns versus two bishops. It's a draw, but Arjun will be the one who has to be the most careful.
Arjun didn't have time to move his pawn forward due to the threat of discovered check when Wei Yi moved his bishop.
Wei Yi has had to part ways with his bishop to kill the strong passed pawn. But now, unless he blunders his rook, he will at the very least make a draw.
Arjun's position feels safe now, with his king so close to the passed pawns. This one should be headed to a draw!
Arjun should be able to win Wei Yi's pawns sooner or later, transitioning to a drawn endgame like say rook vs bishop at worst.
Wei Yi is trying his best to avoid his pawns being taken.
Wei Yi manages to pick up one of Arjun's bishops, but it comes at the cost of both of his passed pawns. Draw imminent!
A huge escape for Arjun, as he'll get to enjoy the benefit of having the White pieces in game 2 of the first tiebreaks mini-match!
A heavyweight clash!
Arjun Erigaisi came agonizingly close to a win against Wei Yi in yesterday's second and final classical game of their mini-match, but ultimately the Chinese player's defenses were just good enough to hold up.
This means that today the two players will have to duke it out over what could be a marathon set of rapid and blitz games, unless one of them is able to break the deadlock early.
The tiebreak format means two games of 15+10 rapid, and if still tied then another set of slightly faster rapid games played at 10+10.
If after this it's still tied, we move to the blitz section, first beginning with 5+3 and if still tied, moving to 3+2 (again two games in each section).
And if still a tie, then it's one final game of armageddon to decide who books his ticket in the semi-finals of this year's World Cup!
Should be an exciting, and possibly marathon, match! Kick-off in just under half an hour :)
Oh, and in case you enjoy the live commentary, we'll switch it to a different match should this one finish earlier than expected, so keep an eye out for that!