The Boy from Tashkent: Nodirbek Abdusattorov

Illustration of Nodirbek Abdusattorov at a tournament, pressing the clock. This is not a real picture of him, and the opponent and the board shown are not from a real game.

Let us start with a puzzle. It is Black's move. White has a pawn on h7, one step from becoming a queen, and Black's queen on h8 is standing in its way. White's king has wandered all the way to c5, and White's queen on d3 is close to the black king on a2. Black can give a check with the queen, or push the pawn on b5 to b4. One of these keeps the game level and the other loses quickly. Keep it in mind: you will meet the answer in the game below.

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Black to move. White has a pawn on h7, one step from becoming a queen, and Black's queen on h8 is in its way. White's king is on c5 and White's queen is on d3, near the black king on a2. Black has a pawn on b5. Should Black check with the queen, or push the pawn to b4?

Analyze this position in the full game

The player with the white pieces was Nodirbek Abdusattorov, a 17-year-old from Uzbekistan. The player with Black was Magnus Carlsen, the world champion. In the rapid rating list Abdusattorov was rated 2593 and Carlsen 2842, almost 250 points higher.

A Boy from Tashkent

Nodirbek Abdusattorov was born on 18 September 2004 in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. He started playing chess in 2008. His first teacher was Ravshan Shukurov. From 2012 to 2016 he studied with the grandmaster Dmitry Kayumov, and at the start of his career he called Magnus Carlsen his idol.

He rose fast. The world chess federation, FIDE, made him a FIDE Master in 2012. He also won the under-8 World Youth Championship that year in Maribor, Slovenia. In 2014, at nine years old, he beat two grandmasters at a tournament in Tashkent.

A grandmaster holds the highest title a player can earn. On 29 October 2017, at 13 years, 1 month and 11 days, Abdusattorov finished the requirements for it, and FIDE confirmed the title in April 2018. In November 2018 he played first board for Uzbekistan at the World Youth Under-16 Olympiad in Konya, Turkey. The team won, and he became the first Olympiad champion of an Uzbek national team.

Climbing to the Top

• In July 2021, at the World Cup in Sochi, Russia, he beat Anish Giri in the tie-breaks.
• In December 2021 he played the World Rapid Championship in Warsaw, Poland. Rapid chess is a faster kind of chess, with less time on the clock. He started ranked 59th by rating, and he beat Carlsen, Levon Aronian, Fabiano Caruana and Radosław Wojtaszek.
• Four players finished tied on 9.5 points out of 13: Abdusattorov, Carlsen, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Caruana. Abdusattorov won the playoff against Nepomniachtchi, drawing the first game and winning the second. At 17 years and 3 months he was the youngest world champion ever, in any time format. The old record was Carlsen's.
• In August 2022 he played first board for Uzbekistan at the Chess Olympiad in Chennai, India. Uzbekistan won team gold, and he won the silver medal for his board.
• In January 2026 he won the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands, with 9 points out of 13. A win over Arjun Erigaisi in the last round clinched it.
• In September 2026 he played first board again, this time at the Olympiad in Samarkand, at home. He scored 8½ points out of 11 without a loss, and Uzbekistan won the gold.

The Game: Nodirbek Abdusattorov vs. Magnus Carlsen, Warsaw 2021

Nodirbek Abdusattorov 1-0 Magnus Carlsen World Rapid Championship, Warsaw, Poland, 2021 · Round 10 · 28 December 2021 White: Nodirbek Abdusattorov · Black: Magnus Carlsen

This was one of the wins that made him champion. It is also a lesson about queen endgames, where two queens and a few pawns are left. In those positions the safety of the kings matters more than anything.

1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e5 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.e4 Bb4 5.d3 d6 6.a3 Bc5 7.b4 Bb6 8.Na4 Bg4 9.Nxb6 axb6 10.Bb2 Bxf3 11.Qxf3 Nd7 12.g3 Qf6 13.Qd1 Nf8 14.Bg2 Ne6 15.O-O g5 16.Bh3 h5 17.Bxe6 Qxe6 18.b5 Nb8 19.f4 gxf4 20.gxf4 Nd7 21.Kh1 Qg4 22.Qf3 f6 23.Qe3 O-O-O 24.f5 h4 25.Rg1 Qh5 26.Rg6 Rdg8 27.Rag1 Rxg6 28.fxg6 Rg8 29.g7 Qh7 30.Qh3 Rxg7 31.Rxg7 Qxg7

White's first move, c4, begins the English Opening, a quiet opening where White fights for the center from the side. Both sides developed their pieces, and White pushed pawns on the queenside with a3, b4 and b5. Then the kings went to opposite sides of the board. White castled short and played Kh1, and Black castled long with 23...O-O-O. When kings live on opposite sides, each player can attack the other's king. Black pushed pawns at the white king with ...g5, ...h5 and ...h4, and White answered with rooks on the g-file. By move 31 every rook had been traded.

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After 31...Qxg7, White to move. All the rooks are gone. White's king is on h1 and Black's king is on c8, on opposite sides of the board. Each side has a queen and one minor piece. Our engine calls the position about level.

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32.Qxh4 Nc5 33.Bc1 c6 34.bxc6 bxc6 35.Qh3+ Kb7 36.Qf3 Qh7 37.Bd2 Ka6 38.Kg2 Qg7+ 39.Kf1 Qh7 40.h3 d5 41.Qf5 Qg8 42.cxd5 cxd5 43.exd5 Qxd5 44.Ke2 Kb5 45.Be3 Qg2+ 46.Bf2 Ka4 47.h4 e4 48.dxe4 Nxe4 49.Qf3 Qg6 50.h5 Qe8 51.Be3 f5 52.h6 Qe5 53.Kf1 Qd5 54.Kg2 Qg8+ 55.Kh3 Ng5+ 56.Bxg5 Qxg5 57.Qc6+ Kxa3

White took the pawn on h4, and the pieces kept coming off the board. Black's king headed for the other side: it went from c8 to b7, a6, b5 and a4. Finally, with all the minor pieces traded, the game became a pure queen endgame. On move 57 Carlsen took a pawn on a3 with his king.

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After 57...Kxa3, White to move. Only the queens, the kings and a few pawns are left. Black's king has walked all the way to a3. White's pawn on h6 is two steps from h8. Our engine says the game is level.

Analyze this position in the full game

A king on a3 is far from its own pawns, but a king is hard to trap when it has room to step away from each check.

58.Qc3+ Ka4 59.Qc4+ Ka5 60.Qc3+ Ka4 61.Qg7 Qe3+ 62.Kh4 f4 63.Qd7+ b5 64.h7

White checked three times, with 58.Qc3+, 59.Qc4+ and 60.Qc3+, and the black king just stepped between a3, a4 and a5. Then White changed plans with 61.Qg7, a queen move that supports the h-pawn. By 64.h7 the pawn stood one step from becoming a queen.

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After 64.h7, Black to move. White's pawn on h7 is one step from h8, where it would become a queen. Black has to keep an eye on h8 or keep checking. Our engine's three best moves are 64...Qe1+, 64...Qg1 and 64...Qf2+.

Analyze this position in the full game

Here is where the game turned. White's h-pawn is a passed pawn: no black pawn can block it or capture it. When a passed pawn reaches the seventh row, it threatens promotion, which means turning into a queen, and the enemy queen has to stay close to stop it. Carlsen played 64...Qe5, and our own Stockfish 17.1 Lite check at depth 22 says that was the mistake. Before it the engine gave White an edge of about four tenths of a pawn. After it, White was ahead by more than three and a half pawns. At depth 24 the engine prefers 64...Qe1+, 64...Qg1 or 64...Qf2+.

64...Qe5 65.Kg4 f3 66.Kxf3 Qf6+ 67.Ke4 Qh4+ 68.Kd5 Qh5+ 69.Kc6 Qg6+ 70.Kc7 Qg3+ 71.Kb7 Qf3+ 72.Ka6 Qf6+ 73.Ka7 Qf2+ 74.Kb7 Qf3+ 75.Qc6 Qf7+ 76.Qc7 Qf3+ 77.Ka6 Qa8+ 78.Kb6 Qh8

Abdusattorov missed his chance too. Our engine says 65.Qd1+ was winning, and 65.Kg4 let Black back into the game. Then came the most dramatic part of the game. From 66...Qf6+ to 77...Qa8+ Black gave check twelve times in a row, and the white king walked across the board to get away from them, from f3 to e4, d5, c6 and c7, then to b7, a6 and a7, and finally to b6.

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After 71...Qf3+, White to move. White's king on b7 is in check from the queen on f3. The king has walked from g4 across the board to escape the checks. White's queen on d7 and pawn on h7 have stayed where they are.

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The king walk worked. When the checks ran out, Black put the queen back on h8 with 78...Qh8 to stop the pawn. The position was almost level again, and then the game was decided by one quick move.

79.Qc2+ Ka3 80.Qd3+ Ka2 81.Kc5 b4 82.Qd2+ Ka1 83.Qd4+

This is the position from the puzzle at the top. Black could keep the game level with a queen check, 81...Qc8+ or 81...Qf8+. Carlsen pushed his pawn instead, 81...b4, and our engine says that loses. After 81...b4 it gave White an edge of more than six pawns. Abdusattorov's queen checked on d2, and Black's king had no shelter left.

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After 81...b4, White to move. White's queen on d3 can check the king on a2 along the second row with 82.Qd2+. The black queen is still stuck on h8, guarding against the pawn on h7.

Analyze this position in the full game

The game score ends after 83.Qd4+ with 1-0 to Abdusattorov.

What to Learn from This Game

• A pawn on the seventh row is a big weapon. The h-pawn never became a queen, but from move 64 to the end Carlsen's queen had to keep watching it. A pawn like that keeps your opponent's queen busy.
• In a queen endgame, your king is your most important piece. Abdusattorov's king walked across the whole board to escape twelve checks in a row. When you are being checked, do not panic. Look for a square where the checks run out.
• Look at checks before you push a pawn. When Carlsen pushed 81...b4, a quick check was the safe move. Ask yourself: what are my checks, what are my captures, and what are my opponent's threats?

Five More Games to Study

• Nodirbek Abdusattorov vs. Fabiano Caruana, World Rapid Championship, Warsaw 2021 (1-0). Played two days before the Carlsen game. In the English Opening, 16.Qxb7 and 17.Qxc6 took pawns with the queen. Our engine had Abdusattorov ahead by about a pawn and three quarters by move 20 and winning by move 45. Caruana's 40...Ke6 was the mistake our engine marks.
• Nodirbek Abdusattorov vs. Anish Giri, World Cup, Sochi 2021 (1-0). A long fight in a tie-break. Abdusattorov was worse for about 20 moves, by as much as two and a half pawns on our engine's count. Then Giri played 36...Kf8 and 56...Rh1, which our engine marks as mistakes, and Abdusattorov won in 68 moves.
• Fabiano Caruana vs. Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Chess Olympiad, Chennai 2022 (0-1). Abdusattorov had the black pieces. Our engine had Black slightly better from move 15, nearly two pawns ahead by move 45 and more than five pawns ahead by move 60. The game ended in a rook endgame where his a-pawn reached a3.
• Nodirbek Abdusattorov vs. D Gukesh, Tata Steel Masters, Wijk aan Zee 2026 (1-0). Gukesh is the reigning world champion. Our engine had Abdusattorov slightly worse for more than 20 moves, then the game turned level. Gukesh's 36...Rg5 let 37.Qxf6+ win the game. You can try that position below.
• Nodirbek Abdusattorov vs. Ding Liren, Chess Olympiad, Samarkand 2026 (1-0). Ding Liren was world champion in 2023 and 2024. Abdusattorov pushed his c-pawn step by step, 34.c5, 36.c6 and 42.c7, and our engine had White winning by move 37.

A Position to Try

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Abdusattorov vs. Gukesh, Tata Steel 2026, after 36...Rg5. White to move. A queen check wins a rook. Find it.

Analyze this positionReview the full game

The answer is 37.Qxf6+. The black king cannot take the queen, because the pawn on e5 guards f6, so it has only one legal move, 37...Kg8. Then 38.Qxg5+ wins the rook on g5, with check.

A Champion Still Growing

On 18 September 2026 Nodirbek Abdusattorov turned 22. He started chess as a small boy in Tashkent, finished the requirements for grandmaster at 13, became a world champion at 17, and in September 2026 played first board as Uzbekistan won Olympiad gold at home.