the sicilian defense

Arjun goes for his favored Sicilian, an opening that is both reliable and extremely sharp. Let's see which direction Leko wishes to navigate towards.

The early signs point towards an Open Sicilian battle, as Peter prepares to push his pawn towards the center.

Arjun opens up the scope of his bishop, a slightly cagey move that keeps things very flexible for now.

Immediately occupying the center, and effectively forcing a pawn trade.

take!

The first exchange, as Arjun understands that this pawn has to be removed. Otherwise, Leko could keep pushing it forward!

Recapturing with the knight is necessary, since otherwise the queen would be an easy target in the center.

Arjun targets Leko's strong central knight.

So far, everything is going according to mainline Taimanov Sicilian theory. Let's see where the first big break away from well-trodden lines takes place.

arjun lands the first surprise

This move is not a novelty per se, but it is a very rare choice. No wonder that Leko is sinking into thought here for the first time, as he will be trying to figure out the nuances between this move and the much more popular path of bringing the queen out one square along the left-hand diagonal.

The most natural reaction

Leko moves in with his knight, taking aim at the weak dark squares on Arjun's queenside and center.

Arjun continues his development as normal, getting ready to escape any pressure in the center by bringing his king to safety and castling on the next move.

Peter combines his advanced knight with his bishop, and is now threatening a deadly check that would pick up a clean rook.

Arjun escapes the threat

Bringing the knight in now would in fact be a losing move, since Arjun could sacrifice his rook and would end up winning two minor pieces in exchange!

Peter moves in with his bishop instead, targeting the queen and continuing to seek out an advantage by making use of the weak dark squares.

Arjun runs away from the attack on his queen.

Leko decides to force simplifications

This move ensures that at least the bishops, and perhaps even the queens, will soon come off the board.

take!

Arjun has no choice but to agree, since there is a double attack on both his queen and bishop.

Peter recaptures with his queen

He doesn't mind another piece trade, as he would have a clear edge in the queenless middlegame due to his strong grip over this weak square of Arjun's in the center.

Arjun doesn't want to deal with passive play, so he instead keeps the queens on the board to maintain some dynamism in the position.

Transposition!

We have in fact transposed (reached a known position via different move order) into relatively well-explored terrain. So now Leko may well be about to pick up the pace, as he likely understands the main plans here.

Leko could not have brought his knight forward instead, as then after Arjun moves the knight would have gotten stuck behind enemy lines.

Arjun retreats his own knight

He needed to avoid the threat of knight takes knight from Leko, as that would have left him with a pretty damaged structure and took away a lot of attacking chances on the queenside for him.

Leko looks to clamp down on the queenside

He brings his pawn forward, and given the chance he'll try to push it one more square in order to shut down any pawn advances from Arjun.

an uncompromising idea!

A really nice idea from Arjun, offering up a pawn in order to open up lines attack against Peter's king!

Peter goes for it!

Leko knows that most of the time, the right way to meet a gambit is head-on, by accepting it!

Arjun is about to go down a pawn, but he's carved out an open file in exchange.

Leko is going to have to deal with pressure against his king either way, so he needs to take the pawn as 'compensation' for this!

Arjun still playing instantly!

It'll be really fascinating to see just how deep Arjun's prep runs, since he is continuing to whip out one move after another, near-instantly. Meanwhile, Leko has already used up about 1/3rd of his starting clock time!

Leko escapes the attack of Arjun's knight.

Arjun gives a quick check, forcing Leko's king out onto the center.

While it's true that Leko could instead have blocked with his knight, that would leave that piece way too passive while leaving Arjun's rook to stay on a very threatening and advanced square.

a draw on the horizon?!

Interestingly, Arjun simply returns to the starting square. Which in theory could invite a draw by 3-fold repetition. Then again, Leko may not want that considering this is his one shot at playing with the White pieces in the Classical portion of the match.

Is Leko going to bail out?!

He drops his king back, inviting an initial repetition. Now, this doesn't mean anything yet, since the game has to repeat three times in order for the draw to be claimable. This could still just be Leko trying to gain some time.

Arjun returns with his rook to give the check, signaling that if Leko wants to make a draw, then he's happy to oblige.

Now we're really getting quite close to that draw possibility. Leko will have to find a different direction to take the game in if he wants to avoid it.

crunch time!

Leko needs to make his mind up now! If he does decide to drop his king back once again, then the players will be splitting the point and going home early!

Peter leko claims the draw

He makes his mind up, and drops his king back. The game ends in rather lackluster fashion, with a 3-fold repetition meaning that the players split the point quickly.

On the one hand, you cannot really blame Leko for accepting the draw. He was caught out with an unexpected and aggressive line, where Arjun offered up a pawn on the queenside in order for continued attacking chances against his king.

From Leko's perspective, with half the time on his clock versus Arjun's 90 minutes, it was simply too much of a gamble to play on. Not to mention that he knows that Arjun excels in precisely these sort of super-sharp dynamic struggles.

From Arjun's perspective, it's certainly a success. This leaves him with excellent chances to push for the full point tomorrow, playing with the advantage of the White pieces.

Catch you then, when we'll find out if this one is going to end in the classical portion, or if we might just be treated to rapid tie-breakers!