The Petroff Defense is a very popular choice among grandmasters, when a draw is a result that suits them well. And yet, it's also an opening system that can be quite poisonous and allow you to win the full point. A great example of this was Wei Yi's crucial victory against Arjun Erigaisi in game 2 of their rapid tiebreaks.
The first capture of the day, as Esipenko picks up the undefended pawn.
Generally, the Black side prefers to kick back the invader, before taking the central pawn. Though Hikaru Nakamura has shown in recent times that it's also possible to avoid this move and grab the pawn immediately.
Esipenko drops back
Now Wei Yi will be able to level the score.
Wei Yi resets the material balance.
A somewhat aggressive option!
Esipenko isn't looking to kill the game off on the spot, and indeed appears to instead be searching for a fight. This line often leads to the White side castling queenside, which sets up attacking chances for both players.
Wei Yi agrees to trading knights, since that's the fastest way for him to continue developing pieces.
Esipenko recaptures, with a key benefit being that he's now changed the structure a bit. He's left with four pawns on the queenside, something that might be useful if he wishes to castle to the left over the coming moves.
Both sides continue to develop
They each step their dark-squared bishops out, with Esipenko likely planning to follow up by bringing his bishop out next and in this way clearing the back rank on the left hand side.
Esipenko sets up the battery
He now has a bishop-queen battery along the diagonal, while his king is now ready to find refuge on the left hand side of the board. It's all pretty well-explored theory for now, so we can expect the players to continue playing at a fairly fast clip over the coming moves.
Wei Yi signals that he may mirror his opponent
Esipenko has made it clear that he's likely to castle to the left. But if Wei Yi wants to keep things balanced and risk to a minimum, he may well be pursuing the same strategy. That way, he'll avoid opposite side castling, something that tends to lead to hyper-aggressive positions.
Esipenko is the first to castle
Now the onus is on Wei Yi to decide if he wishes to follow suit, or if he wants to potentially weather a kingside attack from Esipenko on the right hand side. It's already quite easy for Esipenko to begin thinking about pushing pawns up the board on that flank.
Wei Yi stays flexible
All signs point to him leaning towards queenside castling, but for now nothing has been set in stone. Usually here, Esipenko might go for something like a king move to the left. Something solid, just improving his king safety, while he waits for Wei Yi to make his decision.
A rare choice
It's a quiet move, and not a particularly popular one. It's understandable that Esipenko may wish to go his own way to try to take the game into fresh terrain. But this move doesn't seem to carry any specific threat, so it's a bit strange to see him decide on this one after a long think.
Wei Yi keeps things safe
He does ultimately settle on queenside castling, since this is the way to avoid a messy fighting game right from the get-go.
Esipenko wants the bishop pair
It's a really natural move, threatening to play knight takes bishop next and get a small long-term advantage that way. Of course, Wei Yi can play bishop takes knight himself, but either way the effect is going to be that Esipenko will have the slight but significant two-bishop advantage.
There's no easy way for Wei Yi to avoid losing one or the other, so he gives up the dark-squared piece.
Esipenko takes back.
This is the reason why Wei Yi was happy to trade off the dark-squared bishop and not the light-squared one. Now he can easily arrange more pawns on dark squares, and this way he can be pretty well-balanced along both colors.
Esipenko drops back
Both sides have good reason to be satisfied with how things panned out. Wei Yi has a fairly solid position, with a draw being the most likely result. While Esipenko has a very slight edge, and relatively low risk.
I'm not too sure what Wei Yi's idea is with this move. It's hard to judge whether he wants to grab space and set up some chances to fight for the initiative on that flank of the board, or whether it's more so about stopping Esipenko from easily pushing his own pawns forward.
Esipenko blunts the battery
He lifts his pawn up one square, taking the sting out of Wei Yi's bishop along the diagonal.
Wei Yi brings his queen towards the right-hand flank
It's a cagey kind of battle so far, and it's hard to figure out exactly what either player seems to be planning. In fact, perhaps neither of them are too sure themselves. This is the stage where each side is just trying to find very slightly better squares for their pieces, rather than launch concrete operations.
Esipenko looks to cause some damage to Wei Yi's structure, by trading in his light-squared bishop at the right moment.
Wei Yi drops back, shutting down that possibility.
Activating the last of the pieces
The game is proceeding in fairly quiet fashion, with Esipenko bringing his least active piece into the game.
Wei Yi does likewise
The Chinese player may well be searching for opportunities to trade rooks at the right moment, and simplify the position. Though he has to be a little careful, since some endgames will be a bit dangerous for him due to Esipenko having the two bishops.
More quiet improvements
Steady play from the Russian grandmaster, as he uses his turn to improve his king position that bit further, and also stabilize his entire pawn chain on the left hand side.
Wei Yi kicks back the invading piece.
Esipenko drops back
He slots the bishop to its starting square, to avoid it getting in the way of any of his heavy pieces.
Wei Yi grabs a little space
A generally useful move, robbing Esipenko of a bit of freedom for his pieces. Plus, future pawn endgames are likely to be better for him with the pawn here.
Esipenko pushes his own pawn forward, to stop Wei Yi from marching it down the board any further.
The bishop has performed its job with covering against Esipenko's earlier threat of playing bishop takes knight, some moves ago. So now Wei Yi returns it to a more active diagonal.
Esipenko improves his structure, and also makes a little space for his bishop (or even queen) to maneuver along the dark squares on the right-hand flank.
Wei Yi connects his own pawns
He grabs a little more space himself, and sets his pawns up in a healthy chain. But if one side stands better, it remains Esipenko. What matters the most, at least for now, is the bishop pair.
A pawn break on the horizon?
One thing that Wei Yi has to watch out for is a well-timed pawn break, where one side's pawn connects with an enemy pawn. That's on the cards here for Esipenko at any moment, and it could damage Wei Yi's structure quite a bit.
It's kind of funny that Wei Yi keeps moving this bishop around, but this kind of flexibility of mind is the sign of a very strong grandmaster. The bishop is now ideally placed to target the only slightly vulnerable pawn in Esipenko's queenside.
Does Esipenko want a draw?!
This move feels like an "I don't know what to do to improve the position" moment. The rook sits no better than on the previous move, and so it might be a silent invitation to Wei Yi to look to repeat the position. For example, if Wei Yi now begins shuffling his own pieces back and forth.
The moment of truth
Will Esipenko find any sort of constructive move here, to try to make tangible progress from what is a microscopically better position for him? Or will he return his left-hand rook to its previous square, and quietly invite a 3-fold repetition?
Play on!
Esipenko advances his left-hand pawn, grabbing space and opening the door for a possible attack in the future. It seems that he's not looking for a fast draw, but wants to try to make something of his slight advantage.
Wei Yi activates his rook
It's a great square for the piece, as it is the strongest central point in his position. Importantly, he's now setting up to double rooks along the file. That could lead to simplifications and an easier equality for the Chinese player.
The quiet play continues, with the rook lift from Esipenko showing that he might be happy to trade off both sets of rooks along the file if Wei Yi wants to.
Wei Yi follows through and doubles the rooks up along the only open file of the position.
A stand-off!
I doubt that we're going to see Wei Yi agreeing to trade rooks, but rather I suspect he'll just lift his back-rank rook up one square and keep the tension. The point is that he will likely want Esipenko to be the one to make the trade, as that would allow him to take back in the center with either pawn or knight.
Wei Yi does indeed keep the tension, and now the problem for Esipenko is that there's just no clear way of making progress. Yes, he has the bishop pair. But he will need to make a pawn break either on the left or right flank, if he wants to try to make real progress. But these things carry risk without being overly promising...
Esipenko may be trying to break the deadlock and force Wei Yi's hand to be the side that trades rooks. To do so, he would have to bring his bishop to the right-hand side to target the rook.
Wei Yi prepares to liquidate along the open file.
Esipenko forces Wei Yi's hand.
The beginning of mass simplifications.
Esipenko takes back.
Wei Yi chops off the second set of rooks.
Esipenko keeps the queens on!
He continues to harbor winning ambitions here, as seen by his decision to recapture with the bishop in order to keep the queens on the board.
Wei Yi has to manage his time carefully, as there are 11 more moves to go until the time control (when the players will each receive an extra 30 minutes on the clock). But it shouldn't be a big deal for him, since the position remains very solid and has now simplified considerably.
The most logical move, bringing the bishop into play while gaining time against Wei Yi's exposed queen.
Wei Yi drops back
It's not a big deal for him to 'waste time' by shuffling his queen around. The only risk of this slow play is if the position opens up, so what Wei Yi is monitoring at every turn are the possible pawn breaks available to Esipenko. So long as he's in position to react to these effectively, then he has nothing to worry about.
Esipenko returns the bishop to its former square, an admission that he sees no real way of making progress.
A silent draw offer
Wei Yi quickly returns his queen to the square she was previously occupying. It's a quiet way of saying to his opponent that he's open to a draw by repetition, should Esipenko want it.
The Russian grandmaster keeps the fight alive for now, shifting his bishop back to a more active diagonal. If someone stands better, it has to be Esipenko. But how to make progress, that is the big question that Andrei has yet to figure out.
Wei Yi continues to shuffle his pieces around, this time bringing his king forward onto a more central position.
Esipenko eyes up the pawn break
By bringing his bishop forward, he's hinting at pushing the pawn forward on the right hand side. He needs to break down Wei Yi's solid structure if he is to make inroads into the position.
Wei Yi improves his knight
He knows there's no good way to directly stop the pawn break, but he has rightly judged that if Esipenko goes for it, it's going to be a two-way street. Wei Yi will gain some targets of his own to latch on to.
Esipenko drops back, suggesting that he may have finally seen enough and is ready to make a draw by repetition.
Wei Yi has been on the defensive side for the whole game, so he is not going to object to ending things here and now.
The return to the central square is a strong indicator that Andrei has indeed seen enough, and that we're about to close out today's action.
Wei Yi returns his knight to the same square, hitting the enemy queen once again.
Andrei Esipenko got a very comfortable position out of the opening, against Wei Yi's super solid Petroff Defense.
The Russian grandmaster was able to turn his better opening position into the gain of the bishop pair early in the middlegame, after which it seemed that only he would have any chance to press for the full point.
But this was never really enough to trouble Wei Yi, who in a sense had wanted exactly this kind of dynamic. It allowed him to just slip into a mode where all he had to do was stay solid, and avoid creating any openings that Esipenko would be able to exploit.
Indeed, no mistakes were made by the Chinese player, who by the late middlegame had managed to trade off many pieces and had reached the point where he was largely just shuffling the pieces in wait.
Esipenko, for his part, did try to find a way to pose direct problems. But try as he might, there was never even a small window of opportunity for him to probe Wei Yi's defenses.
And, after some time of searching, Andrei gave up on any winning attempts and initiated a three-fold repetition shortly after move 30.
A hard-fought draw, and a very fair result. See you tomorrow, when we will finally know who the winners are of these two closely contested semi-finals!
The stakes cannot get any higher
Andrei Esipenko will likely be feeling a real surge of desire to try to win his match here and now against the Chinese no.1, Wei Yi.
Yesterday, he came extremely close from the Black side, and were it not for his opponent's superhuman tactical vision, he would have been almost certainly assured to bring home the full point.
While Wei Yi will be tremendously relieved that he managed to save such a complicated position, Esipenko might be feeling even more spurred on to try to secure a decisive victory today, having come so close to tasting victory in the first game.
Besides, it's hard to consider anyone the favorite versus Wei Yi, if it goes to tiebreaks. In the FIDE Rapid ratings list, the Chinese grandmaster currently sits in 4th place. And he's proven his proficiency in this format as recently as the quarterfinals, ousting Arjun Erigaisi in the first set of rapid games.
This game is the most important of the tournament for all of the four remaining participants. A win today, and you have a guaranteed seat in the 2026 Candidates tournament. A loss, and you might ultimately end up as the one player (of the four remaining) who narrowly misses out on the coveted spot.
30 minutes to go!