Sindarov's Poisoned Queen at the Samarkand Olympiad

Here is a puzzle. It is your move, and the other player's queen is standing right next to yours, for the taking. The most powerful piece on the board, free.

Do you take it?

In round 2 of the 2026 Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, Diego Flores Quillas of Peru had that choice twice, on moves 30 and 32. The first time he left the queen alone, and taking it would have lost to checkmate in one move. The second time he took it, and lost anyway.

Diego Flores Quillas 0-1 Javokhir Sindarov 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad, Samarkand 2026 · Open Section, Round 2 · 17 September 2026 White: Flores Quillas, Peru (2398) · Black: Sindarov, Uzbekistan (2778) · Opening: Sicilian Defence

Sindarov is one of the highest-rated players in the world, and the rating gap here was 380 points. By the standard rating formula, the higher-rated player in that gap is expected to score about 90 points out of every 100. Uzbekistan beat Peru 3.5-0.5 in the match.

A quiet opening

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.b3 b6 4.Bb2 Bb7 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.g3 Nf6 7.Bg2 Be7 8.O-O O-O

This is a Sicilian Defence, which starts with 1...c5. White does not attack. Instead White builds a fianchetto, which means putting a bishop on the long diagonal with a pawn move like b3 or g3 to open the way. Black copies the idea with ...b6 and ...Bb7. Both sides tuck their kings away and wait.

9.d4 cxd4 10.Nxd4 Nxd4 11.Qxd4 Qc7 12.e5 Bxg2 13.Kxg2 Ne8 14.Ne4 Qc6 15.f3 Qxc2+

Pieces are traded, and White's king ends up on g2 after recapturing on move 13. Then Black wins a pawn.

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Position after 15...Qxc2+. Black has won a pawn, and Black's queen sits deep in White's side of the board.

Stockfish 17.1, a strong chess engine looking about ten moves ahead (a search depth of 20), had Black slightly better by move 15, by about 0.4 of a pawn. Black was a pawn up, but the engine still saw the game as fairly close.

The king takes a walk

Now watch White's king. It started on g1 after castling. Look at where it goes.

13.Kxg2 ... 22.Kh3 ... 30.Kh4 ... 31.Kg5

That is four king moves in one game. The first was the only way to recapture a bishop. The last two took the king away from its pawns and out into the open, where rooks and queens can check it from far away.

Here is the engine's view of the game after each of these moves. One pawn is roughly one hundred points.

• 20...Bg5: level
• 24.Qe4: Black ahead by about 0.8
• 27...f5: Black ahead by about 2.4
• 28.Qc2: Black ahead by about 5.0
• 30.Kh4: Black ahead by more than 10

At move 28, the engine's first choice for White was 28.Qe2, which keeps the game at about 2.7 pawns for Black. The move played, 28.Qc2, gave up about another two and a half pawns. (The numbers for moves that were not played come from a slightly deeper search, to depth 22.)

A queen with nowhere to hide, and nothing to fear

26.Rc7 Qf1+

Black's queen jumps from a6 all the way to f1, giving check to the white king on h3.

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Position after 26...Qf1+. White to move. Black's queen is deep in White's camp, and no white piece attacks it.

Look at that queen. It is deep in White's camp, close to the white king. Yet nothing in White's army can capture it. White has four legal replies to the check: Kh4, Kg4, Qg2 and Rg2. White played 27.Rg2, and Black kept building.

27...f5 28.Qc2 Rcd8 29.Qe2 Rf6

Now White's queen has come to e2, and it attacks the queen on f1. For the first time, Black's queen can be captured.

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Position after 29...Rf6. White to move. White's queen on e2 can take the queen on f1, but 30.Qxf1 Rh6# is checkmate.

Now it is White's turn, and taking the queen looks like a gift. But watch what happens.

30.Qxf1?? Rh6#

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A variation that was not played: 30.Qxf1 Rh6#. White's king on h3 is checkmated.

The rook slides to h6, and the white king has nowhere to go. The pawn on f5 guards g4, White's own pieces block g2, g3 and h2, and h4 is still on the rook's file. Nothing can block or capture. Checkmate. This is called a poisoned piece. It looks free, and it costs you the game.

The trap works anyway

White did not take the queen on move 30. White played 30.Kh4 instead, and Black answered with a check.

30...Rh6+

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Position after 30.Kh4 Rh6+. White is in check and has only two legal moves, Kg5 and Qh5.

White is in check and has only two legal moves. One is 31.Qh5, and the engine says that loses to checkmate in four. White played 31.Kg5, and the king was now standing in the middle of the board.

31...Kf7

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Position after 31...Kf7. White to move. The queen on f1 can be taken, and taking it loses to checkmate in three moves.

This quiet king move is the trap. The engine actually likes other moves even more, 31...Rg6+ and 31...Qa1, but 31...Kf7 also wins, and it makes taking the queen a mistake. White could not save the game by any route. The engine's best defence, 32.Rc5, still leaves Black about six pawns ahead.

White played 32.Qxf1. Black answered 32...Rh3.

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Position after 32...Rh3. White to move. The engine finds a forced checkmate in two moves.

White is about to be checkmated. The engine's main line goes 33.Rxd7+ Rxd7 34.g4 h6#, and the pawn on h6 finishes the king.

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A variation that was not played: 33.Rxd7+ Rxd7 34.g4 h6#. The pawn on h6 gives checkmate to the king on g5.

The game ended there with a win for Black.

What to take from this game

1. A piece you can capture is not always a piece you should capture. Before you take, ask what your move leaves behind. Here, taking the queen on move 30 would have allowed checkmate in one.
2. A king in the middle of the board is in danger. White's king walked from g1 to g2, h3, h4 and g5. The further the king went from its pawns, the fewer places it had to hide.
3. Checks can chase a king into a net. Rh6+ and Rh3 were not clever tricks. They were a rook on the h-file making one threat after another.
4. A small edge grows. Black was up a pawn from move 15, and the engine's numbers kept growing as White's mistakes added up.

Next time your opponent leaves a piece hanging next to your king, count the checks before you count the material.

More from the 2026 Chess Olympiad in Samarkand: Laohawirapap Beats Erigaisi at the Samarkand Olympiad from Round 1, Wesley So's Queen Offer at the Samarkand Olympiad from Round 3, and Wei Yi's Windmill at the Samarkand Olympiad from Round 4.