The game that made Magnus Carlsen give his Player of the Match trophy to Vidit Gujrathi

Welcome everyone to the game between Vidit Gujarati and Daniel Dubov at the Global Chess League 2026. Vidit has the white pieces against Daniel and he already beat him with the black pieces. That was a game in the Scotch Opening and now Vidit has a very important game to play here so that his team Alpine APL Pipers can qualify to the top 2. पॉन्ट तू ई फोर बाय विदित, ई फाइव बाय डैनियल, नाइट कम्स आउट टू एफ थ्री, नाइट सी सिक्स, और नाउ विदित, विल ही प्ले द रुई लोपेस, द इटालियन और द स्कॉट्च। विदित थिंक्स फॉर अ बिट एंड गोस फॉर द रुई लोपेस, ए सिक्स प्लेड, द बिशप ड्रॉप्स बैक, नाइट टू एफ सिक्स अटैकिं He plays bishop e7. Now the main move is rook e1 to defend the pawn here, but Vidit goes for the move d3, which is also quite a positional move to defend the pawn b5, striking the bishop. Bishop comes to b3, now looking at the f7 point. Black castles, and white can go knight c3.

Knight c3.

Pawn to a3, a4 also possible, many possibilities. Yes, he goes knight to c3. Now this line is looking very positional, you know, very calm, cool, collected. In fact, the Sindarov-Magnus game also went this way, but it's just that the black bishop was on c5. Now h6 played, and with it can go for the d4 break at the right time. He first goes bishop e3, keeping things simple. We have rook e8 eyeing the pawn on e4 in case d4 is played, and with it now jumps knight d5. This is a very well-known way of putting pressure, getting rid of your c3 knight, also attacking the bishop and the knight here. Bishop goes back to f8. And knight comes back to d2. And Vidit, in fact, is going for the plan of f4, it seems, to put pressure on the f-file. Take on d5, bishop takes d5, and now knight to e7 makes a lot of sense because the same knight is going to jump around to g6 and stop the move f4. Yeah, that's right. From coming, Vidit is thinking whether to put the bishop on b3 or a2. He goes bishop b3. He's already taken more time on the clock, four minutes more. And now Daniel goes knight g6, stopping the move f4. I mean, f4 can still be played, but after take take, you have to give up your important bishop. So a4 played here by Vidit. Playing on the queenside and bishop to e6. Daniel Dubov is trying to trade off the bishops. I think the position is roundabout even, but it does feel like white has something to play for. Why? Because white has the open file here. White also has the possibilities to break with f4 and Meanwhile, black does feel a bit passive. Vidit goes queen g4. However, to solve that problem, Daniel can go d5. He can immediately break in the center, opening up the bishop. He does play it. Excellent move by Daniel Dubov. And now Vidit plays knight to f3. He eyes the pawn on e5. We have rook to c6 attacking the pawn on c2, and rook c1 played defending the pawn on c2. Dubov Goes bishop to c5, and with this, maybe there are some chances that Vidit has gotten now. He can first start with e takes d5, a very good move, playing in the center. And after queen takes d5, the best move now is this very little tricky move, c4. Not so simple to play. But I think very logical, and he plays it. Excellent chess by Vidit, because if you take here, queen takes c4, and there's a pin, a nasty pin along the c-file. So Dubov rightly takes the pawn here on d3, and now c takes b5. So Vidit has lost a pawn, but in the process, he's got this very nice pin going for him. Take on b5, and now the only move to keep the pressure going is Queen a4. Nice move, Queen to a4, and Knight jumps into f4. Dubov is looking to hit here. On the e2 square, first with it takes the queen, rook takes b5, and now I guess capturing the knight makes a lot of sense. There's also knight takes e5, but then knight e2 check is the issue. So takes, e takes, and now b4, rook takes b4, and knight e5 is the move. He does find it. Vidit playing really well. Excellent chess. Rook takes b4, knight e5 played, and now the rook has to move and you're losing the bishop. The only way for Daniel to keep a balance here is bishop takes pawn so that he wins another pawn with a check. So Vidit gets the piece. Now these 2 rooks can get into the game. Check here. Check. King f3. And king takes f4 is hanging. Dubov gives a check. He's like, if you take here, then I have rook f6 check, and my position will get very interesting because of my 2 rooks. So Vidit tries to keep it Calm. He has 2 minutes. Dubov has just 1 minute. King f1 played, and with it trying to look at other games, but where's the time? He has to make 8 moves in a minute and a half. Rook e6 played. Rook e1. And now pawn to g5 goes. Rook c1 attacks the pawn on c7, and believe it or not, the position is not totally winning for Vidit in spite of that extra piece because opponent has 3 pawns You can see Vidit is under pressure and the game has become super important because, by the way, Daniel Dubov has to rush here. He has 9 seconds to make his 3 moves. Check, king here, check, and he's going to reach move 40. And then you see Rook b5. He's reached move 40, but he makes an error. Now 2-second increment per move. Rook c6. Whoever wins this game actually clinches this. If Vidit draws, then the opposing team will win this match. So he needs to win, play for a win. Knight f6, h4 played, and now knight to e4, keeping an eye on the g5 pawn. King h7 and rook to f6, but that's a mistake because now rook b2 played, and if you take here, then king g6. So king f1 and rook a2, he keeps the rook on the 7th rank. How should Vidit make progress? Is Dubov going to get the draw here? Rook b6 brings the rook back, and now a check here. King f2, he starts moving forward. Rook a3 check, king to g7, and knight e4 attacking the pawn check. King comes to f3. And now he has to go back, but it's very natural to go front, but that's a mistake. He quickly plays rook a2, but f3 was a draw. Takes f5 takes and rook takes f3, but he misses it. So rook a2, knight g5, rook g2, king f4, and rook g3. He goes king takes f4, rook g3 played, and now Vidit plays King to f5. He gets his king up. Rook goes to a3 and Rook b7, a good move. Now take with the king or the knight is danger— rook or the knight is dangerous. But Knight e6, he's doing it now in style. He's going to defend the pawn, he's going to win the other pawns. Takes on f6, King g5, and takes the other pawn as well. Daniel Dubov is now lost. Vidit is going to score a very important win for his team. Rook goes to a1 and h4. Check. King goes up. Check. These 2 seconds are super important for the white player to win the game. Now Vidit just carefully has to convert this. He has 9 seconds, but I'm sure that there's a lot of pressure on him. I don't think he knows that he needs the victory. He's the only one going on right now, but still, I think you can sense it. King h8, king e5, knight to f4. Step by step, king comes back to g5. And rook to f3 played. The knight comes to d5, and he goes knight b6, and now rook d6. Well, the rook—it's somehow getting a bit tricky to win this, but there's a mate coming up. He waits with it, just making sure that he's able to convert this. Rook d5, and now knight d6 check. King goes to e7. Knight e4, and now knight g5. So nice move, King f8 played. Check, check, Knight to h7, and King g6 with the idea of Rook f7. It's an unstoppable mate that we have over here, and Dubov resigns. With it, Gujarati scores a very important win for his team.

A huge congratulations to the team. Vidhuti, we have to start with you. Those moments, and finally when you got to your dugout, that yes, the celebration that we saw. Talk us through it.

Yeah, I, I think it was a very close match. Um, I did not see the results, but when I'd seen the positions, it looked very unclear. So it was not obvious that we are like clearly better on any of the boards. So I knew that I had to, you know, push. I had a very comfortable position, but, um, I'm glad actually I played a good game in my opinion.

Okay.

I mean, one always thinks like that before they check with engine, but I felt like I played good and it was very rewarding for the team to You know, win this. It was a really crucial match.

You know, the first time you won the player of the match, uh, right here, you told me coming into this contest, coming into this tournament, I did not have a lot of expectations. And the way that you played in the first game impressed yourself. Now when you're here and the kind of wins that your team has been going through, what do you feel now?

Yeah, there are no expectations when you're at home, but when you have to play the next day, suddenly you start like, you know, expecting, um, From yourself, and you don't want to let the team down, so you put in, uh, the work. Uh, so, but yeah, I still try not to, you know, take it too much to heart, um, especially the losses which I had like, um, yesterday. So I was like, okay, let's move on. I think that helps in recovery. Um, but yeah, I can say everything that I want to say, but all that matters is to play good chess at the end.

Absolutely.

I will say though that as much as I'm happy with the game and happy with the win, uh, I do not deserve this player of the match as much as, uh, the, um, the man who, who won us the match. So I would like to— Respectfully pass on the trophy to Vidit.

Vidit, one last question now that you have the trophy in your hand. Number 3, number 4?

I mean, first of all, I'm just like, um, like honored that Magnus thought, um, so highly of my game, and it was really a nice gesture, so I really appreciate it. Thank you.

How do you feel? Thank you so much. Congratulations! Give it up for the Alpine APL finalists!

Thank you.

That is it from the post-match presentation ceremony. Casters, back to you.

कमजोर बता के ले रहा हूँ। अच्छा, नहीं। हाय सॉरी। ओके। वही वाला करना है? नहीं नहीं। देखो। हाय सॉरी। यार तो किया यार। हाय सॉरी। यार पहले अंदर थोड़ा। अंदर पहले। हाँ चलो हमें अंदर ही देखो।