The King Walks In: How Nodirbek Abdusattorov Beat Fabiano Caruana at the Samarkand Olympiad

Black to move. Black can take the pawn on b3 and be a pawn ahead. Or Black can give a check with the rook on h3 and push the white king away. One of these keeps the game close. The other one loses. Fabiano Caruana was down to his last minute on the clock.

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Position after 40.Re7, with Black to move. The white king is on h5, far up the board. The black rook on d3 can take on b3, or check on h3.

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Nodirbek Abdusattorov 1-0 Fabiano Caruana 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad, Samarkand 2026 · Open Section, Round 9 · 25 September 2026 White: Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Uzbekistan (2762) · Black: Fabiano Caruana, United States (2789)

This was the top board of the biggest match of the round. Uzbekistan beat the United States 2.5-1.5. Abdusattorov's win here and Nodirbek Yakubboev's win over Hans Niemann outweighed Wesley So's win over Javokhir Sindarov, and Mukhiddin Madaminov drew with Levon Aronian.

This article is about one idea: in an endgame, the king is a fighting piece.

Why the king changes jobs

In the opening and middlegame, you hide your king. There are queens and many pieces on the board, and a king in the open gets attacked.

In an endgame, the last stage of the game when most pieces have been traded, that danger shrinks. Now the king is a strong piece that can attack pawns, support its own pawns, and even help trap the enemy king. Strong players start walking their king forward as soon as it is safe.

A level rook endgame

The opening was a Bishop's Opening, where White plays 2.Bc4 early. After a long middlegame the queens came off on move 27, and by move 34 this was left:

32.Nxe2 Rxd5 33.g4 Bxe2 34.Rxe2 Rxd4

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Position after 34...Rxd4, with White to move. Each side has two rooks and four pawns. Our Stockfish 16 check rates this as level.

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Each side had two rooks and four pawns. Our own Stockfish 16 check rates the position as dead level. Nothing here should decide a game between two of the best players in the world.

The king takes a walk

Look at where the white king goes next.

35.Kg3 Rfd8 36.h4 gxh4+ 37.Kxh4

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Position after 37.Kxh4, with Black to move. The white king has come from f2 to h4 in two king moves, capturing a pawn on the second one.

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The king went from f2 to g3 to h4. Two moves later it stepped to h5:

37...Rd3 38.Rfe3 Kf8 39.Kh5 a5

Now the white king stands right next to its own pawns on f5 and g4, close to the black king. It is ready to help those pawns move forward. The black king, on f8, is still sitting on its back row.

To be fair to Caruana, the game was still level after 39.Kh5. Our engine did not even rate it as White's best move. A walking king is strong, but it can also be chased. That is exactly what the next move was about.

The choice: check, or grab?

40.Re7

White's rook lands on e7, on Black's second row, where it attacks the pawns on b7 and g7. Now go back to the first diagram at the top of this article.

• 40...Rh3+ gives a check. The white king can only go to g5 or g6. Our engine's main line gives a second check, 41.Kg6 Rh6+, and the king has to step back to g5. Our Stockfish 16 check rates this as only a small edge for White.
• 40...Rxb3 takes a pawn. Black is now a pawn ahead. But it gives no check, so White gets a free move.

Caruana took the pawn. The broadcast clock shows 40 seconds left for him after the move.

40...Rxb3

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Position after 40...Rxb3, with White to move. Black is a pawn ahead. But the black king on f8 has only one square to go to, g8. The rook on e7 and the pawns are closing in.

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Our engine's number jumps here from about half a pawn for White to about five pawns for White. That is the size of one extra rook. Why is a pawn-up position suddenly lost?

Count the black king's squares. It stands on f8. The white rook on e7 covers e8 and f7, and the king cannot take that rook because the other white rook on e2 guards it. Black's own pawn sits on g7. The only square left is g8. And White's king and two pawns are coming.

The pawns march

41.g5 Rb6 42.g6

The g-pawn walks forward twice, with the white king right behind it on h5. Now the pawns on f5 and g6 are a wall right in front of the black king.

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Position after 42.g6, with Black to move. The white pawns on f5 and g6 and the rook on e7 surround the black king. If Black could pass here, our engine finds that White wins easily, starting with Rf7+.

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42...Rf6 43.Kg5 Kg8

Black put a rook on f6 to block the pawns. The white king stepped up to g5 and attacked that rook. It is guarded only by the pawn on g7.

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Position after 43...Kg8, with White to move. The white king on g5 attacks the rook on f6. The only thing guarding that rook is the pawn on g7.

Analyze this position in the full game

Remove the guard

44.Rxg7+ Kxg7 45.Re7+ Kg8 46.Kxf6

This is a trick every young player should know: remove the guard. The rook on f6 is protected by just one pawn. So White gives up a whole rook to take that pawn, with check. After 44...Kxg7, the second white rook checks from e7. After 45...Kg8, nothing guards the rook on f6 any more, and the white king takes it.

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Position after 46.Kxf6, with Black to move. Material is level again: one rook and two pawns each. But White's king is on f6, and the pawns on f5 and g6 are close to promoting.

Analyze this position in the full game

Count the material now: one rook and two pawns each. Level again. But look at the difference. White's king is on f6, in the middle of the action. White's two pawns are connected passed pawns, which means they stand side by side and no black pawn can stop them. Black's king is stuck near the corner.

46...a4 47.Rg7+ Kh8 48.Rxb7 Ra8 49.Kg5

The official game record ends here with White's win. Our Stockfish 16 check finds a forced mate for White in this final position.

What you can learn from this game

1. In the endgame, bring your king forward. Abdusattorov's king walked from g1 all the way to h5, and later to g5 and f6. It captured a pawn, supported its own pawns, and finally took a rook.
2. When the enemy king is active, check it. A king in the middle of the board can be chased with rook checks. The check 40...Rh3+ kept the game close. The pawn grab gave White a free move.
3. Count the enemy king's squares. After 40...Rxb3, the black king had one square. When a king has almost no squares, pawn-grabbing is dangerous.
4. Remove the guard. If an important piece is protected only once, look for a way to take away that protection, even if it costs material for a moment.
5. Connected passed pawns plus an active king are hard to stop. Even with level material, they won the game.

Next time you reach an endgame, before you move anything else, ask yourself: where does my king want to go?