1. d2d4  1... g8f6  2. g1f3  2... d7d5  3. c2c3  3... c7c6  4. d1c2 A curious little move that Nihal has played before. The idea is to avoid the development of Black's bishop on f5. 4... g7g6 Preparing the to develop the bishop on f5 anyway. The problem is that Black's dark-squared bishop won't be so well placed on g7. To be honest, developing the light-squared bishop to f5 is not such a great idea either since there's a pawn on g6. That said, the move is still perfectly playable. 5. c1f4  5... f8g7  6. e2e3  6... c8f5  7. c2b3  7... d8b6  8. c3c4 A new move. 8... b8d7  9. b1c3  9... e8g8  10. h2h3  10... h7h5 A natural reaction, trying to take the sting out of the g2-g4 push. There was a better move, however. 11. f1e2  11... b6b3 [%c_effect b3;square;b3;type;Inaccuracy;persistent;true] A positional mistake. It's better to capture on c4 before exchanging queens. 12. a2b3 Now White has a more comfortable position. The a-file is open for White's rook, and Black cannot capture on c4 since it leaves White with a much better pawn structure. 12... a7a6  13. e1g1  13... f8c8  14. f1c1 White's moves are natural and easy. 14... f5e6 A strange move and proof that it's not easy for Black to find a plan. 15. c4c5 A natural reaction in a blitz game. Nihal has a clear plan now: he wants to play b3-b4, followed by the Nd2-Nb3-Na5 maneuver, all very thematic in these types of positions. 15... d7f8  16. b3b4  16... f6d7  17. f3d2 Black's last moves look a bit passive, but there's a way to make sense of them: he should now play 17...f6, followed by Bf7 and e7-e5. 17... e6f5 [%c_effect f5;square;f5;type;Mistake;persistent;true] This move loses precious time.