Gukesh vs Praggnanandhaa: A Dramatic Chess Comeback

C6 played. Wow. Now these two pawns are so strong, they are actually limiting the bishops.

But on the other hand, Gukesh feels that this bishop is open, while the other bishop has possibilities on the other side.

So that's, I think, why he's so fine in this position.

I mean, at least psychologically, he feels okay.

F6 played. Black looks cramped, but there's potential.

Knight C4. Prag is playing brilliant positional chess.

What an amazing game between these two youngsters. Bishop to F7.

He's eyeing the pawn push to E5 and to attack the knight.

The queen comes back to E2, defending the knight on C4, so no E5 immediately.

Queen G8, doubling as like kind of having this double power on the diagonal.

He goes rook C1, defends it, but look at the pawn. It's a bit loose.

The knight is the only one defending it.

Rook eight improves his position of the rook.

It's basically the calm before the storm.

Every piece is being properly positioned.

Rook D2, and somewhere E5 will come. He goes rook E8, lining up the rook against the queen, threatening E5.

Knight comes back to C3. And now pawn to E5. Boom, he goes for it.

And maybe Prag has D5 on his mind. I think that makes sense because otherwise he would lose a piece.

He plays it, but isn't he losing a pawn here? E takes F4.

Gukesh takes it. Look at the time. Prag has only five minutes. Gukesh has 13 minutes. They are on move 33.

Queen goes to F2, attacking here, but also somewhere looking to sacrifice material. G5 played.

And is Prag going to sack a knight? Oh, he takes it.

Knight takes B6. Brillante. Takes here. And now D6, he's winning. Prag is winning the game.

Pawn to D6 with four minutes on the clock.

Look at these two pawns. They are insanely strong.

Bishop F8. And Gukesh, go C7. Go D7. Everything is actually very powerful. These two pawns are so good.

How is Gukesh going to even recover from this position?

No, he goes queen B6. It's a bit risky, but now Gukesh can create his play. He goes on the king side.

G4 is what he does. And he takes. That's a huge blunder because queen G5 is a winning move here attacking this way.

Queen takes G4, also not bad. Gukesh thinks here. He has three minutes.

Prag has two minutes, 26 seconds. Why did Prag take here?

Queen takes G4. Queen comes back to F2. Maybe a better move was king G1. Gukesh looks up.

One second increment per move is kicking in from next one.

It's move 39. Pawn to F3 may be possible because then you have something...

Oh, rook E3 played. This is not the best move.

Pawn to F3 was much better, just opening up the position.

But rook E3, C7, need to push the pawn. That's important.

Keep that pawn closer to the queening square.

But he goes rook D4. And now... Well, things have 10 second increment per move will begin, but that's just rapid play. You know, bishop takes D6 is a move that can be played to get the other rook into the game.

No, he goes queen E5. That's a decent move.

But can we take queen F4? No, he plays queen D2. He wants to keep this alive.

The threat to be alive. But now F3, Gukesh goes in.

Pawn to F3. 51 seconds to Gukesh, 47 for Prag.

C7 is the only move. He goes king F2, and that's a blunder.

That is a blunder because bishop D6 is a killer blow that Gukesh has now.

Has Prag missed it? Gukesh, boom, takes it with just nine seconds.

Rook takes D6, but the point of this play was to get the final piece into the attack, and Prag's king is toasted. G takes F3, but rook takes F3.

He's over. He takes it. King takes bishop H5, and queen G3, it's a checkmate coming in.

And look at Gukesh there. He knows that was an insane game. And Praggnanandhaa, well, he played so well throughout.