Chess World Cup | Safety first as both semifinals end in draws, head to tie-breaks

At the Olympiad in 2022, Javokhir Sindrarov and Nodirbek Yakubboev played significant roles to take Uzbekistan to a stunning title, after starting out as the 14th seed at Mamallapuram, near Chennai. Three years later, in another Indian coastal town, the two are making waves in another major event.

They have ensured that there would be one player from Uzbekistan in the final of the Chess World Cup. The world will have to wait for another day to find out who that would be.

For the second time in as many days, Sindarov and Yakubboev played out a quiet draw at Resort Rio. The two young men not only know each other so well, they also work with the same coach. So it wasn’t surprising that neither wanted to stretch too much in the classical games.

On this day it was a Four Knights Game, which reached an equal bishop-and-pawn ending. They split the point after 31 moves – and in just under an hour and a half — to set up Sunday’s tie-breaks.

The other semifinal, between China’s Wei Yi and Russia’s Andrey Esipenko will also be decided by the tie-breaks. As was the case in the first game, Wei and Esipenko fought out harder before they signed peace.

But it wasn’t as eventful as their first game, though. Wei, at No. 7 the highest seed left in the competition, adopted Petrov’s Defence, and once again handled the pressure put on his younger rival rather well. He may have had some trouble with time too, but the position was safe enough, and the game was drawn in 37 moves, by repetition.

The results (semifinals, game two): Andrey Esipenko (Rus) 1 drew with Wei Yi (Chn) 1; Javokhir Sindarov (Uzb) 1 drew with Nodirbek Yakubboev (Uzb) 1.