Magnus Carlsen Broke Computers With This Game

0:00 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Teepe Sigman Tournament,

0:05 an elite chess tournament held every year in Malmo in Sweden.

0:10 And this year, Magnus Carlson is participating,

0:14 which is a really rare occurrence.

0:16 And Magnus has not played a classical chess tournament in like a year.

0:21 Frankly, he doesn't play classical chess almost at all anymore.

0:24 He plays everything else, rapid blitz, freestyle,

0:27 and online events that end up becoming the esports world cup.

0:31 We're going to follow along.

0:32 It's always a treat to watch Magnus play.

0:34 This is basically like watching the best tennis

0:36 player in the world actually play five set matches,

0:40 which I know that sounds crazy, but it's true.

0:42 Uh it's always a delight.

0:44 And there's obviously a ton of other elite players there like no Abdul Satov,

0:48 uh like Yordan Van Farees, like uh you know, Erdomush and many others.

0:54 Uh, also, uh, real quick, I should just remind you.

0:57 I was going to do this, uh, yesterday.

0:59 I will just do it today.

1:00 I've been talking about pre-ordering my next book,

1:02 How to Win a Chess Next Level.

1:04 Pre-orders were available, signed copies in the US.

1:07 Shipping was very expensive to Europe.

1:09 But now, UK and Europe, you can order a signed copy, pre-order it at Water St.

1:17 should be a little bit more uh, reasonable.

1:18 I will put that in the top line of the description for you.

1:21 Uh signed copies at the moment are uh unfortunately still uh sold out in the US.

1:26 You can still maybe try to get it from Water St.

1:29 But uh yeah, appreciate your support.

1:31 Super excited for the book.

1:32 Can't wait for all of you to have it in your hands.

1:34 Uh we're going to open things up with, of course,

1:37 the game between uh Neil Scrillius,

1:39 who is one of those elite players playing in the tournament, and Magnus Carlson.

1:42 Uh I I'm really interested in this game because

1:44 in this game Magnus revives an opening that has

1:47 not been seen uh in 27 2800 level chess

1:50 with the black pieces in a meaningful amount of time.

1:55 And that opening is this the Benoni.

2:02 Magnus played knight F6 E6.

2:04 He also could have played C5 straight away and then gone for E6.

2:10 Maybe in that line he expected that white

2:12 would somehow delay the move knight C3.

2:14 But whatever he opted for, he did it like

2:18 this and he baits Grandilius into playing the move D5.

2:23 Take take D6 and black is going to develop with G6 and bishop G7.

2:29 In fact, we can actually look at this from Magnus' perspective

2:32 because this is a really good opening at many levels of chess.

2:36 Uh I would recommend this for 1500 plus.

2:39 Um, but uh it's a very fascinating opening.

2:42 What's weird about Magnus playing it is

2:44 that it's straight up bad according to modern engines.

2:48 Uh, you know, the computer already gives a massive advantage.

2:52 There's like lines you can memorize that are like

2:54 15 20 moves deep where you just go all out.

2:56 E4, F4, you just, you know, memorize and you get some sort of playable game.

3:00 This is a massive risk by Magnus.

3:02 I do think he played it against Niels because it was a little bit psychological.

3:07 Uh Niels played E4 G6 and then you know play develops like this.

3:11 It's a very easy position to play for black.

3:13 Uh black looks for E file pressure.

3:16 Black looks for the A6 B5 queen side expansion.

3:19 Black also looks to reposition this knight.

3:20 Sometimes like this, sometimes like this.

3:23 If white ever plays A4, that knight can get to the B4 square very comfortably.

3:27 Uh there's a lot of ideas.

3:28 Knight to G4 is always a concept.

3:29 So yeah, a lot of tricks and traps.

3:32 Niels plays like this.

3:33 Magnus goes for bishop g4 and Niels

3:36 makes him trade off his light squareed bishop.

3:38 Uh because here now after something like f3, knight c4 and a4 just looks like

3:42 white has a very comfortable positional advantage.

3:44 It's not easy for black to generate play at all.

3:47 Well, the guy playing with black is the best

3:50 guy that ever moved pieces on the 8 by8 grid.

3:53 So we should watch how he's going to do it.

3:55 He plays knight d7.

3:58 Just developing a piece.

3:59 Nothing complicated for now.

4:01 You're still looking at A6 B5 always.

4:03 Niels castles, right?

4:06 Magnus plays knight E8.

4:10 So he undevelops the knight, activates the bishop on the diagonal.

4:16 This knight might go to C7 to advance with B5.

4:20 But also there's another idea which is to play f7 f5 which

4:26 is a weird looking move because that move weakens a lot of squares.

4:31 Now if white just does any move like rook

4:34 b1 for example you can actually still play f5.

4:37 Now in the game Niels goes for f4 and Magnus responds with f5.

4:42 Indeed this is a very very risky position for black.

4:45 Uh this pawn is a weakness.

4:47 You know, the E6 square is just horrible.

4:50 Like, if one of these knights lands there, it's game over.

4:52 The problem is actually landing the knight there.

4:54 You don't have enough time to play knight F3,

4:56 knight G5, and knight E6 because Magnus will stop that probably.

4:59 I don't know.

4:59 He's not that good at chess.

5:00 He's good enough.

5:02 Uh, and also knight C7 will prevent knight E6.

5:05 We have pawn takes.

5:06 And now, not rook takes, but pawn takes on F5.

5:10 And Magnus goes for this type of pawn structure.

5:12 We have the D5 pawn restricting a lot of space.

5:15 This is an isolated pawn.

5:16 The e6 square is weak but overall material is quite balanced.

5:19 Bishop f2.

5:21 Okay, the move played by white uh bringing the bishop back.

5:25 Maybe the rook is going to come and help support the e file.

5:27 Maybe the bishop is going to reposition to this diagonal if the option is there.

5:30 Magnus plays knight c7.

5:31 So far everything in black's position is logical.

5:35 He's stopping queen e6, right?

5:37 He's protecting b5, pressuring the center.

5:40 Everything is looking good.

5:41 And knight f3.

5:42 Neil's obviously still looking at this opportunity.

5:45 He no longer needs to go to C4.

5:47 Incredibly, the position is already equal.

5:49 It's really tough to understand what the opponent even did wrong.

5:53 Like how it seems logical.

5:56 Okay, so now that Magnus has equalized, what's he going to do?

6:00 Well, again, in the Benoni,

6:01 you're always looking at the queen side expansion when it's possible.

6:03 Right now, it's not possible because white controls that square twice.

6:07 Uh, white is also looking for this.

6:09 So, Magnus plays knight f6.

6:12 Knight f6 adds two pieces to target that pawn here.

6:15 If white plays the move rook a d1, uh,

6:18 black is going to go queen to d7 and completely prepare b5.

6:22 And if white plays a4, you're going to bring the rook.

6:25 And now you've basically activated all of your pieces.

6:27 And maybe you're even looking to jump into the white position.

6:30 And I mean, I got to tell you,

6:32 black's position looks incredibly well coordinated.

6:34 It actually looks like white hasn't made

6:35 any progress since the beginning of the game.

6:37 Well, the opening, right?

6:39 So Niels goes here targeting F5, but the queen can't target F5, D5, and B5.

6:49 So Magnus plays B5.

6:53 He just This is He's giving it away.

6:56 Not quite because if you take it, I will push and win the D pawn.

7:00 But the position is incredibly sharp now.

7:03 So Neil's plays, knight takes B5, but he takes his eye off the center.

7:08 Knight takes.

7:08 Queen takes.

7:09 But wait a minute.

7:10 He can't even take this.

7:12 You can't take this pawn.

7:13 It's not a free pawn.

7:15 Why?

7:16 Queen C4 or queen B3.

7:18 You just you pin yourself.

7:20 You have to always consider if you have a piece that's unprotected,

7:25 what is on the other side of the diagonal?

7:28 It's bad news.

7:29 So, the idea actually was to play rook B8.

7:33 Magnus sacrifices a pawn not to win it back immediately

7:37 but actually to generate a vicious counterattack onto his opponent.

7:42 Neiels plays queen back to D3 which guards this.

7:45 And if rook B2 you're there's queen F5.

7:48 But now Magnus plays knight E4.

7:49 He's not interested in immediately winning anything back.

7:52 He's simply applying pressure to the other side of the board.

7:55 And Magnus is very good throughout the course

7:57 of a game identifying an enemy piece,

8:00 targeting that piece, and rendering it worse than any other piece on the board.

8:04 And that piece is this bishop.

8:05 That bishop is basically impersonating a pawn.

8:09 All it can do is go this way and attack the queen.

8:11 And the queen is already ready to go over there.

8:13 It's not doing anything on this diagonal.

8:15 And what's going to happen in the long run

8:17 is the queen side pressure is going to pay off.

8:20 Black is going to likely win one or both of those pawns.

8:22 And these pawns supported by this bishop could very well decide this game.

8:27 More on that later.

8:28 Niels plays rook B1 and Magnus doesn't even take.

8:31 These pawns are simply being hunted.

8:33 They are not being captured immediately because it's kind

8:36 of like fainting a punch in a boxing match.

8:38 You just try to gauge your reaction out of the opponent.

8:41 You download a little bit of information and maybe

8:43 later you will use that information to inflict more damage.

8:46 Now Niels goes knight to G5 looking to create some counterplay.

8:49 And the move here from Magnus is so chill.

8:52 It's so awesome.

8:53 There's a million possibilities.

8:55 You can maybe take this knight.

8:56 You can maybe take this pawn.

8:57 You can maybe take on B2.

8:58 You can maybe take the bishop and go for bishop D4.

9:00 No.

9:00 The best move is a queen trade where

9:04 if you trade queens with me, you get forked.

9:09 When have you ever seen a violent offer of a queen trade?

9:12 Like the queen is being threatened.

9:15 So, he has to go here.

9:16 But now Magnus plays knight takes, pawn takes because there was a mate there.

9:20 It's never too late to blunder.

9:22 And now rook takes B2.

9:23 This man has played like 12 perfect moves in a row.

9:31 Knight E8 was the top move of the engine.

9:33 F5 was the top move of the engine.

9:35 It's up there.

9:35 GF is the best move of the engine.

9:37 Knight C7.

9:38 Knight F6.

9:40 B5 was the top move.

9:42 This trade, rook B8 is the top move.

9:44 Knight E4 is the top move.

9:46 Queen A5 is the top move.

9:47 Queen D2 is the top move.

9:50 Queen H5 and does he take the second pawn or does he push?

9:54 I mean, it's literally like you're playing

9:56 a computer that like he's just suffocating you.

10:00 There is nothing you can do.

10:01 And by the way, he won your queen side

10:03 pawns and he's just going with his C and A.

10:06 And this is going down.

10:07 Guys, I want you to pay attention to white's setup.

10:10 D5 and the kingside castle.

10:14 This is the 26th move of the game.

10:20 White never made any progress.

10:26 None of this.

10:27 The second Niels tried to take space, he was met with counter.

10:31 Then he had to reposition his pieces.

10:32 And before he even could do that, Magnus struck.

10:35 Then he was wasting time moving his queen around.

10:37 All of a sudden, the only piece that he had being aggressive is traded.

10:41 And he's just immediately in a losing endame.

10:44 Now, black has to win this game by advancing the CNA pawns.

10:47 Obviously, a queen trade wins black the game virtually on the spot.

10:50 That's not going to happen.

10:52 A5.

10:52 You know, he's looking for some counterplay.

10:54 Magnus doesn't even care.

10:56 He gives this away completely because you always have queen B2 and A2 and A1.

11:00 Niels has to take the pawn, look for a little bit of aggression.

11:03 The king just comfortably sits on H8.

11:05 It has no legal moves, but there is no there's no threat here.

11:09 And the amazing thing about this position is Magnus

11:11 is actually sacrificing the rook with bishop takes F8.

11:16 The thing is if you take on F8,

11:20 it's a little tricky by the way, but there's queen D4 check.

11:24 The rook cannot block because then I would promote.

11:26 So I would walk my king here.

11:28 But the thing about that is there's queen H4,

11:30 king G1, and now the bishop comes in.

11:32 And if the bishop comes in, both of these pieces have to block.

11:34 And then I will queen and mate you.

11:37 I mean, it is incredibly brutal.

11:42 And for that reason, Niels goes here.

11:44 Magnus goes queen E5 check and gets that queen trade and simply moves the rook.

11:48 D5 hangs.

11:49 A1 queen is simply unstoppable.

11:52 The outside pass pawn supported by the Benoni bishop.

11:58 I mean, the man set up the opening which is designed

12:01 for play on the queen side and he won the game masterfully.

12:08 This is one of the most impressive Benoni wins I have ever seen.

12:14 Now I think Neils underperformed.

12:16 I think that is there is something to be said.

12:18 I think he didn't play to the best of his ability.

12:21 This man is a 2660 FA rated player.

12:24 He's a top 70 player in the world.

12:26 Top 60, maybe top 50.

12:28 And Magnus Carlson made it look like there

12:32 was a generational gap between the two of them.

12:34 I mean, this man is so good.

12:38 He needs to play classical chess more often.

12:40 I know there is no incentive like at all.

12:43 There's no prize money incentive.

12:45 There's no other incentives like it.

12:47 It's not like uh it's not like uh you know, football.

12:51 But yeah, um what a treat.

12:56 You know, every other game was also super exciting.

12:59 So, we have No, do versus Andy Woodward.

13:01 By the way, these guys are winning the tournament.

13:02 By the way, these guys are 2780 and 2635.

13:05 They are not 145 points apart in skill.

13:08 There is no chance.

13:09 It's probably closer to 100.

13:11 I would imagine Noc, I'm not going to take anything away from him.

13:14 I think Andy Woodward is much closer to 2700

13:16 than to 2600 in terms of his playing strength.

13:18 You just don't have a lot of opportunities to play chess.

13:20 Remember what I just said about the tournament system

13:22 not making sense and incentivizing Magnus to come back.

13:24 It also doesn't really allow for players like Woodward

13:27 to have a chance to play players like Nurebec.

13:30 So, uh, yeah, chess is completely, you know, messed up.

13:33 Um, but credit to them for inviting Andy.

13:35 That's an amazing thing that they did.

13:37 Andy does not play a Benoni defense because he's not a psycho.

13:40 Uh, but he plays the reggoen, which is one of the most interesting lines.

13:43 No plays queen A4 check.

13:45 Black blocks, doesn't lose the bishop.

13:47 Uh, queen C2 back.

13:48 This is all theory.

13:49 All of this has been played before.

13:51 The bishop undeveloping itself, so it's not targeted by pawns.

13:54 Also, the knight can go to B4,

13:56 throwing off the coordination of the white position very slightly.

13:59 And uh yeah, here we have this fascinating thing

14:01 where the knight is an anchor for the bishop trade.

14:04 Uh no goes back.

14:06 Andy actually in my opinion seemed to have outpreared his opponent.

14:10 Uh he actually made him think.

14:11 No no normal no dearbe is the one making his opponents think.

14:17 Uh and in this game he chooses the wrong approach.

14:20 He needs to be a little bit more chill.

14:22 But Nobeck doesn't have any chill.

14:24 Generally the Usuzbcks like Nojbeck and Javak

14:26 here uh they are crazy with their chess

14:30 like they will deliberately instigate complicate

14:33 make the position as dynamic as possible.

14:35 Uh I mean no at this point already thinks

14:37 his young opponent just doesn't even see checkmate which is crazy.

14:40 Uh the knight blocks the mate and he's just going for it.

14:43 He could have castled.

14:43 He could have kept the position very chill.

14:45 He's just looking to take his head off.

14:46 H4 H5.

14:48 Bishop E7 targets the knight.

14:51 F4 defends the knight.

14:53 and he chops down the knight but voluntarily opens up the rook to his king.

14:56 The problem is white is not going to get G4 and F5.

14:59 If white gets G4 and F5, black can probably resign the game.

15:02 The most principled way to meet somebody who was trying to attack you

15:05 on the side of the board is to strike them down the center.

15:09 C5.

15:10 Nowbeck has something to think about because after pawn takes,

15:12 the knight will activate and the queen will activate and white will lose.

15:15 Suddenly sitting there like, wait a minute, what have I done to the position?

15:19 And before you know it, yeah, he is worse, but not by much.

15:23 But he is worse.

15:23 His freaking king is on F2 now.

15:25 No, only No can play chess like this.

15:27 I don't know how this man plays like he

15:29 You have to be young to play chess like this.

15:31 Uh you got to be born past 20,000.

15:33 Magnus is an old man.

15:34 Okay, but he plays the Benoni still.

15:35 It's a very positional opening.

15:37 B4, knight A4, and knight back to E2.

15:41 Now, at this point, Andy has to finish the journey with his knight.

15:44 He needs to trade this knight for this knight.

15:46 Put the rook on C3.

15:47 apparently has a very good position.

15:49 Then he plays queen D7, rook C8.

15:50 This knight will reposition itself to one of these light squares.

15:53 And in the long run, it's actually white who's going to have problems.

15:56 But he goes here.

15:57 Uh he makes the wrong decision.

15:59 He instead brings his rook to target the pawn.

16:01 And he does B5.

16:03 Uh but this allows Nbeck a little bit more

16:05 time to fight back and make the right trades.

16:08 Remember, we were looking to trade the knight for the knight.

16:12 But by trading like this, it's a very different story now.

16:16 And the position is incredibly sharp and white

16:19 still maintains the option to launch this attack.

16:21 We thought this attack was finished.

16:23 We thought that was Nbeck's first idea and now

16:25 he will evolve and move on to the next idea.

16:27 We forgot that this man uh is a little bit crazy and he will continue to attack.

16:31 Now Andy can trade queens.

16:32 He doesn't want to trade queens which is a completely uh reasonable decision.

16:36 But putting the queen on A4 is not really sensing the danger of the position.

16:42 And no will regenerate an attack here.

16:45 Like the heads of uh Medusa, you know, is that was that correct?

16:48 The heads of No, the the arms, not the heads.

16:52 The heads is a different thing, right?

16:54 One of those fictional characters.

16:56 Anyway, queen A7, F6.

16:58 I mean, the computer is saying the position is equal,

17:00 but black's king is suddenly gasping for air.

17:03 And as we shuffle around here, all of a sudden,

17:06 Andy Woodward, I mean, this this is completely horrible looking.

17:10 Two pawns are fighting off a queen and a rook.

17:13 I don't know how this happened.

17:14 These pieces are not participating at all.

17:16 At all.

17:17 They are at least one or two moves away from delivering a fatal blow.

17:21 G6 looks vicious.

17:22 Obviously Woodward is trying to hit him with rook C4.

17:24 The pawn takes G7 appears.

17:26 Rook C4 comes in.

17:27 The queen, the knight goes to block.

17:29 No here could have played queen F3.

17:30 That was apparently the better move.

17:32 But he goes knight D4.

17:34 And he manages to restabilize the position only briefly.

17:37 Now they cross the 40th move.

17:38 We're not going to get a repetition of moves and Woodward blunders.

17:42 King takes G7 allows white to re-establish

17:45 an attack and you are still passively defending yourself.

17:48 The position is extremely dangerous.

17:49 I don't know how black is not just mated.

17:51 Rook takes A3.

17:52 Woodward equalizing the pawns.

17:54 It feels like he's down like seven of them.

17:56 Rook G4 is played.

17:57 Rook A8.

17:58 You have to defend queen G7, queen G8, all these different moves.

18:01 But it's just a matter of time before somebody makes a mistake.

18:04 And it's not the first mistake.

18:06 It's the second one.

18:08 Rook G7 and now you are winning.

18:10 You are winning because after rook G7 and queen to D3,

18:15 king to H2 is the move and the move is trying

18:20 to get knight F3 to then knight G5 and knight F7.

18:24 You have to calculate that you actually survive

18:26 here and there is no counterattack to your king.

18:30 But Nbeck plays knight F3 first and allows rook G8.

18:35 He needed to go king H2 here.

18:38 The difference is king H2, rook G8 is impossible because then you would play

18:42 queen G5 and black actually doesn't have a move here.

18:45 Black is actually in a tuk.

18:47 That's the point.

18:50 So he misses the win.

18:53 But what's crazy is he's about to get

18:55 the win again because Woodward goes rook C8.

19:01 And now white is winning.

19:03 White is winning because he needs to get the knight to G5.

19:05 That is his winning idea.

19:08 And to do that, you have to play the completely otherworldly queen.

19:13 Uh I actually think I'm missing something.

19:19 No, knight G5 is one of the ideas.

19:22 He also can play queen to G5 and then king to G3

19:26 and escape all the checks from the queen and the rook.

19:29 Knight G5 is going to happen in a moment.

19:31 So he goes queen G5.

19:32 He he actually plays for the win here.

19:34 Knight E3 is a nice idea.

19:35 You can't take it because rook C2 check.

19:37 Now king G3 or king G1 are winning.

19:39 King G1 is winning.

19:40 The knight goes back.

19:41 Now he needs to walk the king to H2.

19:43 He does all of that.

19:44 And now if he plays queen G3 and knight G5, he wins the game on the spot.

19:52 So Nobbeck just needs to go here and knight G5.

19:58 Queen G3.

19:59 Knight G Knight G5.

20:02 Instead, he goes here and suddenly the queen trade

20:08 leads to an endame where black is actually surviving.

20:12 Unbelievable.

20:14 And Andy Woodward, the young man from Texas,

20:18 2635 against the monster Usuzbck Phenom, saves the day.

20:24 That is a massive hold for him.

20:26 I mean, I don't really I don't really know what to say beyond that.

20:28 That is incredible.

20:29 And and no, if he won this game,

20:31 would have been like three or four points away from number two in the world.

20:35 That's a brutal game for him.

20:37 Absolutely brutal.

20:38 Uh not much else to say.

20:40 Uh he is going to be very disappointed I think with himself.

20:43 Uh but he's a monster and he's going to bounce back.

20:45 This was another totally shocking game.

20:48 So this game starts with a London.

20:50 Jordan is very very good at playing very

20:54 random openings and knowing a lot about them.

20:56 He just played the Catalan in the previous round against Erdomush.

20:59 He defeated Vincent Kimer with an incredible uh London game.

21:05 Now in this game, uh Juju plays the one of the most cutting edge lines,

21:10 knight D2, and she goes knight H5.

21:13 So she's looking to take the bishop, and white grabs a pawn.

21:17 In the meantime, white is up a pawn, but black has the bishop pair,

21:21 and white also has two sets of doubled pawns.

21:24 Uh, white can now play e6 or queen a5 to try to win the pawn back immediately

21:28 or play very dynamic like this and wait to win the pawn back for a little while.

21:35 So, knight to b3 is played.

21:36 She goes bishop g7 which is already a bad sign because

21:40 on the ninth move of the g 10th move of the game

21:43 with black you play a line where you sacrifice a pawn

21:45 for activity and suddenly you are thinking for 30 minutes.

21:49 That's definitely not a good sign uh for anybody.

21:52 I mean, it's not a good sign.

21:53 And we see it in many of these games like these players,

21:56 especially in the candidates,

21:57 they play really sharp stuff and then they're like,

21:58 "Wait a minute." And they got to think now.

22:00 So far, everything is fine, but that's not that's that's a dangerous sign.

22:03 She plays bishop H3.

22:04 Excellent move.

22:05 Jordan can't castle.

22:06 Knight G5 kicks the bishop out and Jordan goes for the kingside attack,

22:10 which as I have been talking about already,

22:13 the best way to meet is to strike straight down the middle.

22:17 Now, the position gets really sharp.

22:19 Bishop takes C6.

22:21 Black takes and for a moment white is two pawns

22:24 up and suddenly you're like should D4 have been played?

22:30 No.

22:30 Apparently the best move instead of D4 was E5 which

22:34 is still following the philosophy of striking back in the middle.

22:36 This would have made the game very messy.

22:39 Yes, black would have still been down a pawn,

22:41 but at least in this version of the position,

22:43 black has a lot of a lot more pieces

22:44 and there's a lot less symmetry in the position.

22:47 Whereas what happens in the game is Jordan is

22:49 able to establish some degree of stability which is this.

22:52 And now he's just simply up a pawn.

22:55 Now what does black have?

22:56 Black has a similar bishop like Magnus had

22:58 open lines on the queen side with the rooks.

23:00 And basically it's going to come down

23:01 to can white convert this threeon two position.

23:05 All right here we go.

23:06 Jordan is going to try to improve his position.

23:08 He's looking for a trade of pieces.

23:10 Jujer is obviously activating everything very nicely here.

23:13 Uh, but at some point you activate your rook.

23:15 You activate the knight and you're going to start bringing your king.

23:17 King F1.

23:18 Okay.

23:18 King there.

23:20 King F3 maybe.

23:21 Yep.

23:21 Rook E2.

23:22 Yep.

23:22 Knight A5.

23:23 Knight to C4.

23:24 But at some point you're like, all right, I got to I got to do something, right?

23:28 Like I have to find a way through in the position.

23:30 So Yordan is going to do it like this.

23:32 He's going to position position and play H5.

23:34 And this is correct.

23:36 It's very often in these types of end games you can sacrifice an outside

23:39 pawn and immediately go to win it back because that damages the black structure.

23:43 And uh yeah, in this moment, Jujuner is trying to create counterplay on D2.

23:48 Here with white, you play knight C4.

23:49 The problem with knight C4 is you allow rook D5.

23:52 Still apparently that's completely fine.

23:54 And that position is really bad.

23:55 And after knight C4,

23:56 you can maybe continue to try to improve your rook uh and slowly,

24:00 you know, win the pawn back.

24:02 What ends up happening in this game is after rook D2, B3,

24:05 rook B2, this is coming and stopping it is kind of unpleasant.

24:10 Now, the best way to do this with white

24:12 is to take and bring the rook back to H2.

24:15 Not that because all of a sudden there's this, this, and this.

24:22 And by forcing the white king to G2,

24:30 you actually really struggle to make progress here.

24:34 You can no longer go knight E3 because I'm always threatening to take it.

24:37 since you can't really move your knight anywhere,

24:39 you can't move your rook anywhere.

24:41 So even though white is actually going to win this pawn back,

24:43 black is always going to be winning this pawn back and creating some chances.

24:47 And that's exactly what happened.

24:50 Like even though Jordan continued to try to break out of the position,

24:53 black simply had too much activity.

24:56 This is a perfect example how in the endame material doesn't

24:59 mean as much as king safety and the activity of your pieces.

25:01 This is a horrible rook.

25:04 Horrible.

25:04 you you can barely take this pawn because I'm going to get to rook C2.

25:07 And even though Jordan is basically up a pawn throughout this entire game,

25:11 the white king cannot cross off the first rank.

25:14 And since you can't cross off of it,

25:16 seven out of the eight ranks are unavailable.

25:20 So, white is going to try and try and try

25:23 and he's going to push a pawn really far.

25:24 And the reason Jordan's not pushing a pawn here is cuz mate is being threatened.

25:28 And Jordan ultimately tries his hardest,

25:30 but the game is drawn after some 80 moves.

25:33 uh because there is nothing to be done.

25:35 White cannot make any progress.

25:37 Black cannot make any progress.

25:38 The black uh king is obviously fighting the white king for positioning.

25:42 Yeah, Jordan is also going to be quite unhappy.

25:44 I think is going to be much more unhappy.

25:47 But I mean Jordan had just an extra pawn and a knight

25:49 for a bishop and up 30 minutes on the clock.

25:51 Like I I but he did not convert this.

25:54 So there's going to be a couple of disappointed individuals after this round.

25:57 Uh Erdom versus Arjun Erici was also a barn burner.

26:03 A very exciting game in the first round.

26:04 Uh, Erdomos drew against uh, Vanforest and uh, Erici drew against Magnus.

26:11 In this game, we had a Spanish Aru Lopez.

26:14 Bishop E7, D3 chosen, one of the classical lines, sorry,

26:18 one of the modern lines instead of playing for C3 and D4.

26:22 B5.

26:23 All of this has been played.

26:24 Castles knight D2.

26:26 And this type of setup with knight A5 and C5.

26:28 Very normal.

26:29 White now will try to decide.

26:30 Will he play for A4, B4, C4, D4?

26:33 Like which of these pawn moves is he going to go for?

26:35 He goes for D4 and the center locks.

26:38 Arjun then plays bishop and puts it on H5.

26:42 And from there it is quite clear Eric is focused on the queen side.

26:47 And we're going to see what our DOS can come up with.

26:49 He plays this absurd looking move, bishop to B1.

26:52 And now he's going to try to reposition his knights.

26:55 Or he's going to push the bishop and then reposition his knights.

26:58 Looking for knight E3, knight G3, maybe H4, H5 ideas,

27:01 maybe knight F5, knight F5, maybe eliminating that bishop.

27:06 And he has a good position from the opening, but he goes wrong.

27:09 So he goes knight G3 and king G2 and makes a lot of improving moves.

27:13 But right here, he ends up taking a wrong turn.

27:16 He goes a little passive.

27:17 He actually here could have just committed completely to the attack.

27:20 There was this insane line.

27:21 H4.

27:22 Knight to B3.

27:24 A B3.

27:25 Sacrifice the rook in the corner and play bishop G5.

27:29 And white is doing very well.

27:31 The attack is looking strong.

27:33 The queen is terrible.

27:35 There's no counterplay at all cuz white is covering everything.

27:37 It's actually a fascinating position.

27:39 Uh but he goes passive and you don't really want to go passive against Erici.

27:44 He is very good at kind of rolling the dice like this.

27:46 And uh he can establish a very nice blockade with bishop H4.

27:49 And now white is not going to generate that type of attack.

27:52 So Erdomos needs to come up with another plan.

27:55 So he goes for queen E3 and knight F3.

27:57 Now Arjun takes the knight.

27:58 The knight was an important piece there for any sort of attack in the future.

28:01 And now B4 for black would be very good.

28:04 But he doesn't play B4.

28:05 B4 and B3.

28:06 That would have been the follow-up.

28:07 Instead, he makes a waiting move and the game completely goes

28:10 back into being in white's favor as he stabilizes the center.

28:13 Arjun trying to improve his position.

28:15 And now Erdom goes a little bit wrong, starts playing a bit passively.

28:18 Arjun has an opportunity to take over the game and then suddenly

28:22 with black there's a mistake with bishop f7 and here comes b4.

28:25 So this game's very top turvy.

28:27 Neither guy really understanding fully the the elements

28:30 of the position and also getting into time trouble which is I mean they're

28:33 not they're not not understanding an easy position.

28:36 It's a very tough position.

28:37 So Erdom now may be slightly better.

28:39 He needs to trade the queens and enter the endgame.

28:41 But he does it like this and Archin declines the queen trade

28:45 and within a few moves the simplifications

28:48 are incorrect and the game is rebalanced.

28:51 Bishop back to E8 from Aragi.

28:53 Position very very messy.

28:54 Obviously it's clear something is going to break through on the queen

28:57 side and if not we're going to maybe have something over here.

28:59 We have bishop C2 targeting the rook.

29:02 Okay, now we have no rooks on the board.

29:04 Maybe a check from black to activate the queen or bring in the knight like that.

29:06 Yeah, that's looking really nice.

29:08 Erdomish has a minute on the clock.

29:11 His time management is suspicious.

29:14 It is very very tough to play a game of chess when you are given

29:19 30 minutes and within a few moves you have again a minute on the clock.

29:22 Like he gets into time trouble so much and he has to play

29:26 every game with 50 seconds on the clock and it's going to go bad.

29:30 We are now in a queen and knight versus queen and bishop endgame.

29:32 It's insanely sharp.

29:35 Insanely sharp.

29:36 F4 is hanging.

29:36 D6 is hanging.

29:37 This pawn is going to promote.

29:40 But maybe one of Aragis's pawns is going to promote.

29:43 He goes here defending.

29:44 Now we have queen takes F4.

29:46 The queen can activate this C4.

29:48 The bishop is hanging.

29:50 He moves the bishop.

29:51 No, he he moves the queen back to protect the bishop.

29:53 Arjun takes on F3.

29:54 Now the king takes.

29:55 The king should not be this active.

29:57 And white loses their active pawn.

29:59 And Eric is now up a pawn in a knight for bishop endgame.

30:03 Probably objectively speaking, the position is a draw.

30:06 But it's still super super complicated.

30:08 Bishop B3 check.

30:09 The king goes to F8 and now H5 looking to shred open the king's position.

30:13 Arjun plays king E7.

30:15 King F4 is a mistake apparently.

30:17 But I mean I it's very tough to understand how exactly that's a mistake.

30:20 And Arjun probably Magnus would have never gone knight E6 here.

30:25 Magnus would have never like given such an easy opportunity to liquidate.

30:30 He couldn't play queen B6.

30:31 The game needs to go on and on and on.

30:34 And obviously there was something Arjun

30:36 didn't like with some sort of counterplay.

30:38 But we have knight E6 and we have a queen endame.

30:39 And obviously Arjun thinks that having more pawns

30:41 in a queen endame means that he is going to win.

30:44 Queen A2 check.

30:45 Queen C4.

30:46 You can trade queens here.

30:48 I think Arjun thought this was simply a winning queen endame.

30:52 Pawn endame rather.

30:53 I have more pawns.

30:54 How am I not winning?

30:56 You're not winning.

30:58 You're actually not winning which is which is brutal.

31:01 Arjun had he known was not winning would have never done this ever.

31:06 He blitzed into this endgame trading the knight and the queen

31:09 because he was completely certain that he was going to win.

31:11 But it's not winning.

31:13 Why not?

31:14 Because after takes takes, white pushes.

31:16 And probably Arjun saw this and was like, "Well,

31:19 that's it." Because if he takes me, I'm close to this pawn.

31:23 If he doesn't take me, my pawns are promoting.

31:29 But white can go here.

31:34 And now black has no move.

31:39 What I mean by that is in the previous position if pawn takes,

31:43 king takes happen and B6, I would simply go to stop the pawn.

31:46 I wouldn't push my pawn anymore.

31:49 But now in this version of the endgame, I take, sorry, I can take.

31:54 Both are actually okay.

31:57 And you're not stopping my pawn.

31:58 And what's going to happen in this endgame is that we go

32:02 here and we both queen and black's king is simply too exposed.

32:08 It's simply too exposed.

32:09 There is still a chance here to potentially play this for a win.

32:13 You have to play queen D2 check, but he goes queen D1.

32:17 And apparently that's incorrect.

32:18 You had to go queen D2, king C4,

32:22 queen E2, king D4, and then maybe take this pawn.

32:25 But it's probably still a draw.

32:27 It's probably still a draw because he does it like this.

32:31 But because the king is less exposed on E3,

32:35 the game will probably be a draw as long as you don't trade pieces.

32:38 Don't trade the queens.

32:39 E5 is a very nice move.

32:41 And black simply has nowhere to hide from the checks

32:44 and the players make a draw after 78 moves.

32:48 Very hard-fought and complicated game.

32:50 This game itself could have taken 33 minutes to analyze.

32:53 Um, the real critical moment though was here.

32:58 I mean, Arjun, like if this was the candidates,

33:01 knight E6 and queen C4 would have been an insane decision.

33:04 Obviously, it's not, but he quickly trades his only two

33:08 pieces into an endame where if you miscalculate, that's the end of the game.

33:12 It's the difference between a win and a draw.

33:15 Um, and even though this was very hard fought, he does not get the win.

33:20 Everybody is now on the scoreboard.

33:22 Uh, nope.

33:22 Never mind.

33:23 I forgot about Nils.

33:25 I thought Nils drew in the first round.

33:26 So, uh, Jujinire, she has half out of two.

33:29 Uh, she made a draw against Vanforest.

33:32 I never I I really struggle to dutify his name

33:35 or say it the way it's supposed to be said.

33:37 Nobody has two.

33:38 Tomorrow, Carlson versus Nobbeck.

33:41 Oh, goodness.

33:41 That is a delightful game for a Sunday.

33:45 That is all I have for you today.

33:47 Uh, signed copies are now available in the UK and Europe,

33:50 as well as tickets to the Europe tour 2026 in October and November.

33:55 Can't wait to see you all there.

33:57 Uh, and you know the drill at this point.

33:59 Get out of here.