Sindarov Wins Clutch Chess After a Dramatic Last Round

Photo: TheBoburshokh / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

Javokhir Sindarov began the last round of Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown 1.5 points behind Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu. He ended it 1.5 points ahead. Sindarov won the Saint Louis event with 20.5 points out of a possible 36, Praggnanandhaa finished second on 19, Fabiano Caruana third on 16.5, and Hikaru Nakamura fourth on 12.

Sindarov won three games and drew three on Thursday and lost none. He now takes the Champion's Jackpot, the prize money from drawn games that only the tournament winner receives. Next month he plays Gukesh Dommaraju for the World Championship in Geneva.

The final table

Remember the rule from our preview: on Day 3 a win was worth 3 points and a draw was worth 1. That is why one good round could change the whole table.

How the lead changed hands

Praggnanandhaa began the day in front with 11 points, after the four wins we described in our Day 2 report. Here is how the four players stood after every round of the last day.

In round 7 Sindarov drew the first game with Praggnanandhaa and won the second in 32 moves, which put him half a point in front. Caruana and Nakamura each won one game with the black pieces.

Round 8 belonged to Praggnanandhaa. He beat Nakamura twice, in 43 moves with Black and in 55 moves with White, and jumped to 18 points. Sindarov beat Caruana in 56 moves and drew the return game, so he was 1.5 points behind going into the last round.

In round 9 Sindarov beat Nakamura in 38 moves in the first game, and Praggnanandhaa drew a 100-move game with Caruana. Sindarov then led by half a point. In the last pair of games he drew with Nakamura in 34 moves, and Caruana beat Praggnanandhaa in 48 moves. That is how a 1.5 point gap turned into a 1.5 point lead.

Nakamura led after Day 1, but he lost four of his six games on Thursday, to Caruana, Sindarov and twice to Praggnanandhaa, and finished fourth.

All 12 games of Day 3

The game that decided it: Nakamura against Sindarov

Hikaru Nakamura 0-1 Javokhir Sindarov Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown, Saint Louis · Day 3, round 9, first game White: Nakamura (2738) · Black: Sindarov (2747) · FIDE rapid ratings

Each player had 10 minutes for the whole game, plus 5 seconds after every move.

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f3 O-O 6.Bg5 c5 7.d5 a6 8.a4 e6 9.Qd2 exd5 10.cxd5 Re8

Nakamura built a big pawn centre with his pawns on e4 and d5. Sindarov let him have it and set up his pieces to attack it from the sides. Positions with this pawn shape are called Benoni positions, and Black usually plays on the wings, here with the c-pawn and the h-pawn.

11.Nge2 Nbd7 12.Ng3 Qc7 13.Be2 c4 14.O-O Rb8 15.Be3 h5 16.Rfc1 h4 17.Nh1 h3 18.g4

Watch the black pawn on the h-file. It went h5, h4, h3. On h4 it attacked the white knight on g3, and the knight went to the corner on h1. On h3 it attacked the pawn on g2, and Nakamura answered by pushing that pawn to g4. The pawn on h3 was never captured. It stayed there for the rest of the game, and you will see why it mattered at the end.

18...b5 19.axb5 axb5 20.b4 cxb3

Sindarov took a pawn with a special rule. Nakamura's b-pawn jumped two squares from b2 to b4 and landed right beside the black pawn on c4. When that happens, the black pawn may capture it as if it had moved only one square, but only on the very next move. That is called en passant, which means "in passing". Sindarov did it with 20...cxb3.

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

After 20...cxb3, White to move. Look at the black pawn on b3. White has no pawns on the a, b or c files, so no white pawn can capture it. A pawn like that is called a passed pawn, and it can walk all the way to the last row and become a queen. That is called promotion.

Analyze this position in the full game

21.Nxb5 Qd8 22.Rab1 Ne5 23.Nd4 Bxg4 24.fxg4 Nxe4

Now Sindarov gave up a piece. He took the pawn on g4 with his bishop, White took the bishop back, and then Black's knight took the pawn on e4. In the end Black had given a bishop for two pawns.

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

After 24.fxg4, Black to move. Look at the white queen on d2 and the white pawn on e4. Black's knight on f6 can take that pawn, and from e4 it attacks the queen.

Analyze this position in the full game

That is the point of the sacrifice. 24...Nxe4 took a pawn and attacked the white queen at the same time, and White had to spend a move saving it. Our Stockfish run (version 17.1 Lite, depth 20) picked 24...Nxe4 as Black's best move and had Black clearly better from here.

25.Qd1 b2 26.Rc2 Qh4 27.Bf2 Nxf2 28.Nxf2 Rb4 29.Nf3 Rxg4+ 30.Kf1 Nxf3 31.Nxg4 Rxe2 32.Rxe2 Qxg4

The passed pawn now took a big step, 25...b2.

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

After 25...b2, White to move. The pawn on b2 attacks the rook on c1. White's rook on b1 stands right in front of it, and Black's rook on b8 guards it from the other end of the file.

Analyze this position in the full game

The pawn attacked the rook on c1, so a white rook had to move at once, and the pawn stayed on b2 until the very last move of the game. A pawn that close to the end of the board keeps the other side's pieces busy. By move 32 our engine had Black ahead by more than six pawns.

33.Rf2 Qg1+ 34.Ke2 Nd4+ 35.Ke3 Bh6+ 36.Kxd4 Qxf2+ 37.Kc4 Qxh2 38.Kb5 Bc1

Black now chased the white king with check after check. The king walked from f1 to e2, e3, d4, c4 and finally b5, far away from its own pieces.

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

After 37...Qxh2, White to move. Black has two pawns that can become queens: the one on b2 and the one on h3, the pawn that started its walk on move 15. White's king is on c4, and its rook on b1 stands right in front of the b-pawn.

Analyze this position in the full game

The last move, 38...Bc1, guards the b-pawn. If White takes the bishop with 39.Rxc1, the pawn takes back with 39...bxc1=R and becomes a rook, and the h-pawn is still waiting. The game ended there with a win for Sindarov.

What to learn

1. Learn en passant. It is easy to forget, and here it gave Sindarov the passed pawn that decided the game.
2. A pawn one step from the end is stronger than it looks. The pawn on b2 attacked a rook and kept White's pieces busy for 13 moves.
3. A sacrifice is worth it when it comes with a threat. Sindarov gave a bishop for two pawns, and his knight attacked the queen on its first move.
4. Plan on both sides of the board. Sindarov's h-pawn walked up the board early, and it was still there, two steps from queening, at the end.

The rest of the day

Caruana finished third. He won twice on Thursday, beating Nakamura with the black pieces and Praggnanandhaa in the last game of the event, and lost twice. Praggnanandhaa won twice, drew twice and lost twice on Thursday and scored 8 points, the same as Caruana. Only Sindarov, with 12, scored more on Day 3.

For the story of how we got here, read our Day 1 report and our Day 2 report.

Read next

Sindarov became a grandmaster at 12 and won the Candidates earlier this year: read the story of how he got here.