The King's Pawn
Svane stays true to his typical repertoire, playing the same move as he did in his previous match. So, no early surprises for Gukesh!
Gukesh does not repeat his favored Caro-Kann Defense from the previous match-up, and instead goes for the more tactical waters of the Sicilian!
Svane steps his knight forward, preparing a pawn push in the center.
Gukesh steps his own knight forward, adding to his control over the central dark squares.
Svane rejects the sharp theory of the Open Sicilian (which happens after a queen's pawn push). Instead, he goes for the more positional approach of bringing his bishop out to pressure the knight. A trade would leave Gukesh with doubled pawns, though it would see him gaining the bishop pair advantage.
Gukesh ignores the pressure against his knight, readying to fianchetto his dark-squared piece.
Svane is happy to not resolve the tension between bishop and knight for now, instead rushing to bring his king to safety.
Gukesh follows through on his idea, bringing his bishop to the main diagonal and strengthening his control over the central squares.
Svane continues to ignore the piece tension, strengthening his central pawn and clearing the diagonal for his dark-squared bishop.
Gukesh does likewise, opening up the vision of his own light-squared piece.
A slow build-up
This game is unlikely to be played at a frenetic pace, with Svane seeking more simple strategic play. He now takes control over the key dark square in the center of the board.
Gukesh finishes his kingside minor piece development
So far, it's been a very classical style of play by the World Champion, as he readies himself to castle on the next move.
No time for Gukesh to castle, as his knight comes under fire immediately. He won't want to play pawn takes pawn here, since then Svane could throw in bishop takes knight check and leave Gukesh with a fractured pawn chain.
Gukesh jumps towards the center
The drawback of Svane's previous move is that it surrenders control over the central light square, so Gukesh immediately makes use of it and occupies it with his knight.
Svane goes for the early pawn trade, making use of the fact that Gukesh's king is still uncastled. This robs him of the possibility of playing pawn takes pawn, since then Svane would be able to give him an uncomfortable check along the central file.
Gukesh takes back with his queen, avoiding any checks though leaving her a little vulnerable to a fast attack from Svane.
Svane seeks to exploit Gukesh's misplaced queen
If he can carry out his threat of moving the knight to the center, the double attack would allow him to win Gukesh's pawn by force.
Gukesh covers against the threat
After some pause, he steps his knight out in order to meet the knight jump threatened by Svane. He's also now ready to bring his king to safety next.
Svane targets the enemy queen, while also opening up a possible knight jump to the center to pressure Gukesh's pinned piece.
Gukesh drops back
A big decision for Svane, as if he wants to try to inflict damage against Gukesh's structure then he needs to jump in immediately with his knight. Once Gukesh is castled this move will no longer be on the cards.
Svane does jump in
It's not a big surprise, since this is the only clear way of trying to cause problems for Gukesh. Now the World Champion has to accept a damaged structure, since blocking the pin with his bishop would allow Svane to pick up the bishop pair, which is too high a price to pay.
Gukesh allows his pawns to get doubled
The reason he castles instead of blocking the pin with his bishop is that in that case Svane would have been able to play knight takes bishop, and surrendering the bishop pair is a little too high of a price to pay.
Svane gives up his bishop, in order to inflict damage to Gukesh's pawn chain.
Gukesh takes back, with the position being close to equal since his bishop pair largely offset the hit that his structure has taken.
Svane consolidates
He has to be a little careful as his knights can easily come under fire, so for the time being he steps his rook into play in support of his most advanced piece.
Gukesh goes into the tank
He has a long think before making his move, a testament to how delicate the position is. It seems he's found the right idea however. Now, Svane could launch an immediate attack on his weak pawn. But if he does so, Gukesh is ready to target Svane's own weak pawn in return!
Svane pulls the trigger
A very long think, burning about half the time on his clock, but ultimately he settles on the forcing sequence where he'll win Gukesh's pawn at the cost of his own.
Gukesh replies instantly, targeting the central pawn as a way of indirectly guarding against the threat against his queenside.
Svane prepares to transition into a queenless middlegame, as he grabs Gukesh's weak pawn.
Gukesh trades queens, dragging Svane's knight away from the defense of his own central pawn.
Svane recaptures, netting a pawn for now, although Gukesh will immediately win it back.
Gukesh restores material equality.
Heading towards a draw?
The queens are now off the board, and the game might quieten further. The reason is that Gukesh now has to deal with the threat against his bishop, while Svane is also planning on chasing away his knight. High chance that this all leads to a forced sequence where a bunch more material gets traded off.
Gukesh challenges the invader knight, inviting the immediate trade of pieces after Svane pushes his pawn next.
Svane goes for the most natural choice, hitting both of Gukesh's pieces.
Gukesh must capture, reducing the material in order to keep the position roughly balanced.
Svane is now pushing back Gukesh's knight with his pawn, which means that he may be able to pick up one of Gukesh's pawns soon.
Gukesh creates a counter-threat
He cannot avoid knight takes pawn check, but instead he's going to bank on the pressure against Svane's fragile queenside.
Svane steps off the diagonal
He doesn't want to play knight takes pawn check, likely fearing that that would leave him with poor coordination. By stepping his rook away, he's now ready to defend his queenside pawn on the next move.
Gukesh quickly snaps up the pawn, before Svane had the chance to defend it.
Svane evicts the knight
He knows that there's no way for Gukesh to hang on to his extra pawn, so he first takes the time to push back the invader.
Not a fun endgame
In a sense, both sides can be happy with the outcome of the middlegame. On the one hand, Svane can be happy as he has some clear pressure with the healthier pawn structure. On the other, Gukesh will fancy his chances to guide this one towards a draw, a result which would leave him in good shape to try to win the match with the White pieces tomorrow.
This is a significant mistake, surrendering any claim to an advantage that Svane may have had. The point is that now Gukesh is able to push his pawn forward, which will immediately allow him to rid himself of his only problem: the weak pawn chain. It now seems almost certain to be heading towards a draw.
He'll be quite relieved to have had the opportunity to play this move, as now those pawns are for sure going to get traded off. It's true that he's going to lose the one in the center, but right now he's up a pawn so that is not a concern.
Svane wants to resolve the tension between the pawns, without allowing Gukesh's knight to jump into his half of the board.
Gukesh chops off the pawn, ridding himself of his major weakness.
Svane picks up one of his missing pawns with check.
No other legal moves in the position, so an easy one for Gukesh!
Svane restores the material balance
It's all even now on the pawn count, and even in terms of piece activity too. Given the simplified nature of the position, it's hard to believe that Svane will have any trouble holding the draw from here.
Gukesh brings his rook towards the center, away from the vision of Svane's bishop along the diagonal.
Svane looks to simplify the position, offering a rook trade.
Gukesh improves his bishop, making space for the king to get towards a better square while also pressuring the invader knight.
The play slows down, as Svane just seeks out slight improvements to his position.
Gukesh brings his king forward, as suggested by his previous move.
Svane does the same, as the sides may already find themselves in search of some way of simplifying the position and calling it a day as soon as possible.
Gukesh initiates further simplifications.
Svane takes back.
Gukesh seems to be looking for further trades as quickly as possible. The queenside pawns are likely to soon come off the board.
Svane moves forward with his bishop, targeting the knight.
Gukesh spots the cleanest forcing sequence, recognizing that if his knight gets taken then he can win back his piece right away.
Svane chops off, simplifying down further as he lets go of the vision over his own knight.
Gukesh wins back his piece.
More trades, as the players prepare to go down to a very simplified rook and bishop endgame.
Gukesh takes back.
Svane gives a check, inviting the bishop block.
Gukesh is happy to agree, as he seeks out more and more piece trades so that the players can leave the board as soon as possible.
Svane trades off another set of pieces.
The first game of the mini-match between Frederik Svane and Gukesh was not the most exciting of affairs, as the young German grandmaster opted for a relatively tame system against Gukesh's Sicilian Defense.
The opening variation, known as the Rossolimo, is known for favoring slower more strategic and often quieter positional play. And while today wasn't quite that, it did lead to early simplifications after Svane found nothing better than to enter a forcing sequence where a bunch of pawns and pieces were flashed off the board in the heart of the middlegame.
Gukesh, for his part, didn't really have much of a say in the matter. He needed to agree to the piece trades if he wanted to hold the balance, and in any case a draw with the Black pieces is generally a welcome result in this format.
Gukesh remains the clear favorite going into tomorrow's game, and no doubt that he will try his best to force the match home without going to tie-breaks.
See you tomorrow, when we'll see if Svane is able to ward off the World Champion's advances and push the match to tiebreaks. Or maybe, just maybe, if he himself is able to post what would be one of the biggest upsets of the tournament.
Until then!
Gukesh looking to continue his run!
The World Champion was one of 50 or so players who received a bye in the first round, meaning that he has only had to play one match at the World Cup so far.
But that match was not as easy as it may have looked. His opponent, Kazybek Nogerbek, played excellent chess in game 1 to hold him to a draw with the Black pieces. However, Gukesh was not to be denied in game 2, where he essayed the Caro-Kann and gradually struck up an initiative on the queenside before eventually breaking through in instructive fashion.
His opponent, Frederik Svane, will also be quite fresh as he too avoided going to tie-breaks in his match-up. The younger of the two Svane brothers showed a very high level of play as he eliminated Turkish phenom Ediz Gurel in round 2. Interestingly, much like Gukesh, his opponent went for the Caro-Kann against him in their second game, with Frederik showing excellent preparation to outwit Ediz in the opening and then smoothly converting his advantage.
Will Gukesh tempt fate and go for the Caro-Kann in today's clash? Or will he choose a more solid approach, perhaps going for a regular king's pawn game instead?
The stakes keep getting raised in Goa, India. We hope you enjoy live commentary of one of our featured boards of the day, and may the best man win!