The last game I commentated with this variation led to an extremely quick and forcing draw, played from the White side by Jose Martinez against...Sindarov!
The main line
Yakubboev steps his knight forward, immediately threatening to capture Sindarov's advanced bishop.
Sindarov goes for a relatively rare line, but one that modern theory considers as packing very little punch. In general, such forcing sequences tend to suggest that the White side is not feeling too ambitious...
Sindarov counter-attacks
He doesn't move his knight away, instead targeting the enemy one. More piece trades on the way, since Yakubboev doesn't have a good square to turn to with his knight.
Anything else is a disaster for the Black side, either because of going too far behind in development, or because of some nasty tactics involving a quick check from Sindarov's queen along the open file.
Sindarov recaptures away from the center
Usually, it's considered better to take towards the center. But in this case, it's more important to speed up development and open up the scope of the dark-squared bishop.
Had he given a check with his queen instead, then that would have led to a trade of these pieces along the open file. Had this happened, we would have been able to say that Sindarov almost certainly just wants a safe draw today. But the fact he chose to castle instead, means that he may still try to test Yakubboev for a bit!
Best was to castle immediately, a move that would have kept pure equality. Now, Sindarov is presented with a chance to fight for a small but annoying edge. He can give a queen check along the file, and then when Yakubboev blocks it, he can then move to the right and target the undefended bishop. It's very computer-like, but Sindarov is the kind of modern player who's definitely able to find these tricky sequences.
Sindarov targets the bishop immediately
The situation is already surprisingly complicated. Yakubboev could push his queen's pawn forward to block the attack, but then Sindarov could consider playing queen takes pawn! According to the computer, that's not so dangerous for Yakubboev. But as a human, it's not an easy call to make...
Yakubboev protects his bishop
The most human approach, continuing development and covering the bishop, without allowing any of those complicated queen takes pawn lines.
The thing about this position is that Nodirbek is down to only one move to hold the balance. While he will almost certainly find and play it, that's often a sign that things have gone a little pear-shaped.
Necessary
Otherwise, Sindarov was going to be bringing his bishop in, when Yakubboev's queen would have been very limited in terms of where to turn to. The main thing that Sindarov is trying to exploit at this moment is Yakubboev's lag in development, with his king still parked along the central file.
Sindarov keeps up the pressure
He's making use of the fact that if bishop takes bishop, then the file will open up for Sindarov's right-hand rook. That's something that Yakubboev really cannot allow, and so once again Black is forced to find tricky moves here like pushing a pawn to hit Sindarov's queen.
To his credit, Yakubboev finds the only good move once again! The point is to force the queen back, so that she's not able to continue pressuring his bishop.
Sindarov x-rays the enemy king
Yakubboev has to be quick to react, but even if he winds up losing castling rights, it's not a big deal. His king can find safety by two-stepping to the square near his queen.
Yakubboev out of trouble
A great decision to trade the bishops, and now we're going to get a position where really you cannot argue that Sindarov has any edge. With limited material on the board, Yakubboev's healthier pawn structure is likely more significant than anything else.
Yakubboev sidesteps the check, as he looks to 'castle by hand', as is the term for when one side manually brings their king over to a similar place as after castling.
Sindarov offers a queen trade
He would love for Yakubboev to agree to it by playing queen takes queen here, as that would fix his doubled pawns.
Yakubboev defends his queen
A smart move. He cannot prevent a queen trade, but he's saying to Sindarov that if he wants to do so, then it's going to be on his terms.
Sindarov wants to force the trade
Javokhir's point is that now he's threatening to bring his rook forward. But if the bishop moves up to stop that, then Sindarov would be able to play queen takes pawn.
It's probably best, since Sindarov's threat of invading with the rook was something that needed to be stopped.
Sindarov gets to 'fix' his pawn structure, and now this game really appears to be heading towards another relatively quick draw, much like yesterday's encounter.
A surprising choice of square, in the sense that the bishop could have stepped out another square to a more active diagonal. But it looks like Yakubboev wants to trade rooks asap, hence his choice of move.
Sindarov makes space for the king to come forward.
Yakubboev offers the first rook trade
I really can't see this game lasting too much longer. It just feels like both players know it's a drawn position, and neither is going to be too eager to 'test the technique' of the other.
Sindarov slightly improves his king.
Yakubboev looks for the second rook trade
One pair of rooks is already off the board, now here comes the next one!
They're just beginning the process of locking down the structure here. The pawn chain will be made completely rigid over the next few moves, at least on the kingside.
The pyramidal structure is formed for both sides on the kingside, and now either we will get to move 30 and a draw will be agreed (since draw offers are banned before then) or we'll see a 3-fold repetition before that.
There was really very little to say about today's game. Sindarov tested Yakubboev in a rare line of the Four Knights opening, and for a minute it looked like perhaps he was going to be able to get a slight edge to work with.
But Yakubboev dug in and defended well, and before long he had solved the only real problem of his position, which was that his king was still stuck in the center.
Once that path was cleared, Sindarov knew that there was nothing really left to play for. In fact, long term he might even be the one that suffers the most, since he was the side with the less healthy pawn structure.
So Sindarov found a way to fix this problem by force, by coercing Yakubboev into trading queens. And once that happened, it was game over. Just a pure rook and bishop endgame that contained no venom for either side.
The two will return tomorrow, where hopefully we're going to be treated to an exciting duel. One Uzbek player is definitely going to be in the 2026 Candidates tournament 24 or so hours from now, but who?!
The last chance!
If either of these talented Uzbek grandmasters want to avoid placing their bets for Candidates qualification on a rapid tiebreaker, today is their final chance!
Yesterday, these two fighting players were unable to pose the opponent any serious problems, with a draw agreed as early as move 30.
Today, Sindarov is the one that is most likely to be ambitious. Not only is the higher rated player, he is also the one who has the advantage of the White pieces.
Yakubboev proved completely unable to trouble his opponent from the White side yesterday, and in general this has been a theme of this year's world cup. To paraphrase GM Dubov in an interview some days ago: "I simply cannot get any advantage as White".
Will Sindarov suffer the same fate today? Or will he be able to trouble Yakubboev early on? If not, we could find ourselves with a rapid tiebreak tomorrow to decide who wins a seat in the 2026 Candidates. That's a fun prospect for the fans, but a dreadfully nervewracking one for these two long-time friends!