Is This the Move of the Year? | Sindarov vs Nakamura

Round 9, game 1 of the 2026 Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown in Saint Louis (October 29, day three, rapid, 10 min + 5 s), event game 17 of 18. Javokhir Sindarov, the World Championship challenger, started the last round a point and a half behind R Praggnanandhaa, with a win now worth three points. He had Black against Hikaru Nakamura. On move 23 Sindarov takes the g4 pawn with his bishop, Stockfish's first choice. 24.fxg4 is a blunder by Stockfish's count (24.Nc6 was its choice), and 24...Nxe4 hits the queen. Later Sindarov sacrifices the exchange twice, 29...Rxg4+ and 31...Rxe2, and the white king ends up on b5. Stockfish marks no error from Sindarov, and flags eight of his moves as only moves. The win put him half a point ahead of Pragg with one game left, on the way to the title. Move by move, with Stockfish 19, the clocks, and both players' own words. Chapters 0:00 Intro 0:53 Sindarov, Nakamura and the stakes 2:02 Opening: King's Indian into a Benoni 3:13 The h-pawn march and 20.b4 4:23 23...Bxg4 4:51 24.fxg4 and Stockfish's 24.Nc6 5:18 24...Nxe4 and 25...b2 6:07 28...Rb4 6:36 29...Rxg4+: the first exchange sacrifice 7:07 31...Rxe2: the second 7:42 The white king walks 8:21 38...Bc1 8:47 Final standings, scorecard, lessons The game: https://lichess.org/broadcast/2026-cl... PGN: https://lichess.org/api/study/Ghpkcma... Sources Regulations: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/... Results: the official Lichess broadcast, https://lichess.org/broadcast/2026-cl... Day 3 report, with the official final standings and Sindarov's quotes: Chess.com, https://www.chess.com/news/view/sinda... Day 2 report (standings after day two): Chess.com, https://www.chess.com/news/view/2026-... Javokhir Sindarov's interview, Saint Louis Chess Club:    • "His Position Was Completely Losing!" 😤Sin...   (1:40, 2:09, 3:18) Hikaru Nakamura's interview, Saint Louis Chess Club:    • "I Just Could Not Keep It Together" 😤 Hika...   (1:20) World Championship 2026: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_C... Standings computed from the official broadcast results with the event's scoring. Photos "Hikaru Nakamura at the 2026 Naroditsky Memorial Rapid and Blitz (v2).jpg" by ChessKelly, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... "Javokhir Sindarov at the 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad (1).jpg" by TheBoburshokh, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Chess pieces: cburnett set by Colin M.L. Burnett (BSD licence). Engine: Stockfish 19. Narration: synthetic voice. Music: original.