Magnus Carlsen's shocking opening choice against Javokhir Sindarov

We have Grandmaster Nihal Sareen, Sara Khadem, Daniel Dubov, Mark Andrea Morizzi and finally Jaokir Sindarov coming to the game. It's Sindarov versus Magnus Carlsen and there you see Bivisara Saubhayeva coming. The team is the Fires American Gambits. We are at the Tech Mahindra Global Chess and there you see the Alpine APL Pipers coming in with Magnus, Anish, Vidit and they are listening to all the chants that are happening in the background. Fans are there. Magnus is interacting with the fans saying hi to all of them. He seems in good spirits. He managed to win against Vishy Anand earlier in the day and he's looking for his second victory but it's not going to be easy as he faces the world championship challenger Sindarov with the black pieces. Magnus gets down and usually Magnus does not sign autographs before the game. He does it only after the game but here you can see he's doing it before the game as well and he's in good spirits. Behind him is Kogi who is the manager of the Alpine APL Pipers and Magnus has developed a very good relationship with him and the team. They go to play golf in the morning and then come to the games. There you see Magnus coming and he moves after Sindarov's team and he's still signing a few more chess boards and finally entering into the arena. The players are ready. 20 minutes with no increment until move 40 and then two seconds increment per move. The arbiter looks at his watch and begins the game. A handshake and Javakir Sindarov opens with e4. Magnus plays the Sicilian like he did against Vishy. Knight to f3, knight c6 and now we have the Rosolimo. Now remember the Rosolimo has been played 12,000 times and look at what Magnus does. He plays f6. It feels like a mouse slip. It has been played only two times before. That's just insane. It feels like a terrible move. The knight on g8 is saying what about my square on f6. The bishop that could potentially develop on this diagonal saying what's wrong but I think Magnus wants to just play pawn to e5. He goes a6. He asks a question to the bishop and Sindarov already has a very good opening position. Now why would Magnus play something like this is an open question. Does he want to take Sindarov out of prep? That could be one reason. The other reason could be that he just wants an entertaining game where you know he believes that he can beat Sindarov beyond the opening prep. Now e5 seems like a possible move. Magnus' plan is bishop g4, e5, control the d4 square. And so Javokir rightly takes his time here and plays pawn to a4. Magnus plays e5, grabbing space in the center but allowing the move a5 to fix the entire queenside structure and Sindarov does it. He plays a5. Now you can never play b5. There will be en passant and then you can go knight a3, knight c4. This looks very promising for white. Pawn to c4. Magnus just pushes the pawn and says yeah this might be a weakness but I can defend it with bishop e6 and it looks fine. Pawn to d4 played and I guess en passant makes sense. Takes, pawn takes. I love white's position actually. The a5 pawn is just clamping down three of black's pawns. Magnus hasn't developed a single piece. He goes knight to e7 and I think bishop e3 with the idea of bishop b6 makes sense. He plays bishop e3. Knight comes to g6. Now bishop b6, there's queen d6, bishop e7, bishop e6, castles. That's how black would like to play. So he plays queen to b3. He puts pressure on b7 and also on this diagonal, long diagonal here. Queen to e7 preparing bishop e6. Magnus if he gets a good position here would be insane. He goes d4 and I love it. I love the move because bishop e6 will be met with d5 and if you take, I take back with my knight. My knight is well positioned. Knight c3, rook d1, rook e1, loving it. Magnus thinks and takes the pawn. Full risk, full risk because knight takes d4. Is he even going to grab the central pawn? That would be too much. That would be too much. I would suggest him to play c5 here because if queen takes e4, already knight c3 hits the queen. So first c5, he pushes the pawn, attacks the knight. The knight can go to e2, the knight can go back to f3. Many possible moves. He goes knight f3 back and now Magnus must be very careful because his position is bad. His only move is queen takes e4 to keep equality and he plays it. Magnus so brave, so brave but he's so right. He understands what's going on and the main point is that he's going to gain a tempo with bishop e6 and he's protecting the b7 pawn from being attacked. Knight to c3 and now the only move, bishop e6. Very important. Magnus of course finds it, bishop e6. If you take my queen, I take your queen. Should be around equal. Knight e4, bishop b3, bishop c5 but Jaokir wants to play on. He goes queen b6, queen to c6, takes, pawn takes, doubling the pawns and knight a4 attacking the pawn on c5 and now he can push the pawn to c4. Yes, he pushes his pawn to c4. Count the number of pawns. Black is a pawn up but these pawns are terribly weak. So rook fc1 played by Sindarov keeping an eye on the c4 pawn and now Magnus goes rook b8. He also keeps an eye on the b2 pawn. Maybe knight d2, knight c4 could be an idea. He jumps in, knight to b6 blocking the rook but now bishop b4. I like this move. Bishop to b4, he goes pawn to c5. It's also interesting and Magnus looks up. He's seeing other games. Koneru Hampi has already won her game against Sarasadat Khademal Sharia. Knight d2, you can see Magnus down to 2 minutes 56 seconds. Sindarov down to 3 minutes 34 seconds. Bishop f4, remember they have to reach move 40 otherwise there's no increment. They could lose on time and this one does feel a bit scary because 18 moves you have to make in 2 minutes 50 seconds. Bishop comes out to d6 and Magnus has managed to finish his development. Knight to e4 attacking the bishop and the best move is either to go back bishop e7 or king e7. Magnus going for the bishop. He needs to speed up. Bishop e7 played and Sindarov now can take on e5. He takes it, he keeps a steady square for the knight on e4. No one can kick it away. Now black cad castle finally. Castle connects the rooks, puts the rook on an open f-file. Knight d2, he attacks the c4 pawn. Bishop to f6. Well, positionally you can get outplayed if you're not careful. Sindarov plays rook e2 defending this way. Now rook d8 takes on c4 is the plan. So rook e2. Let's see what Magnus does. He brings his rook to d8 and now you can take on c4. But I feel like black has enough play like even take, take and rook b4 should be good enough. He plays pawn to e4. Magnus trying to mix up things. If you play rook takes e4 maybe take on c4 and then take on b2. That could be an idea. He plays pawn to h3 just doing away with the backrank weakness and asking Magnus what is your plan. Well, Magnus jumps in rook d4. Rook comes to c1 to defend the knight. Rook d8 doubling on the d-file and now knight to e3. The c5 pawn is hanging. He goes bishop e7 defends it. Who's better right now? I think the position is so even. The two knights have good squares. So they are not too bad against the bishops. h5 but the bishop pair is something that Magnus also got against Vichy in game one and now also against Sindarov. Knight e5. Look at Jaokir how he's using his knights. Rook to d2. He plays rook c2, take on e2, take on e2 and bishop f6. Already the position looks dangerous. Knight c4. Rook comes into d3. Excellent play by Magnus and also he has 26 seconds, 30 seconds for Sindarov. It's going down the wire. They need three more moves to get two second increment per move. King f1, rook b3. He goes king e2 and now Magnus goes bishop to d7. He wants to bring his bishop to b5 to pin here. Knight d2. Magnus goes for the check. He's already better. King d1. Not a move you play happily. Rook takes b2 is a mistake. He should have played rook d3 and he was completely tying up the white pieces. Takes, takes. Knight e4 taken and Magnus can go, goes bishop a3 defending this pawn. Knight to d5. The knights are very very tricky in these endgames. Bishop check. King d2 and now king f7. The king moves forward. Knight g5. Look at these two knights. They are insane. f4, a big error. Bishop b3 and Magnus is better but he goes bishop b5. Allows Jaokir to come back. g4 takes, takes c4. Are the pawns on g4 and f4 stronger or is this one lone pawn stronger here? Knight e5 check. King h7 and he goes king c3. g5 played to destabilize the knight on e5. He takes on c4. Bishop takes, king takes. Pawn takes pawn. King d3. The king coming up and a draw has been agreed here between the two players. Jaokir Sindarov defends this very very well. In the end, he could have lost. Magnus as always plays any sorts of opening and Sindarov asking Magnus like what is f6 I guess. Well, it was just played for fun and Magnus once again proved that he is the best player in the world as Jaokir wasn't to punish the opening. In fact, was lost at some point.