Magnus Carlsen JUST ENDED CHESS.

0:00 Ladies and gentlemen,

0:01 welcome back to another video here on the Gotham Chess YouTube channel or as we

0:05 are more popularly known by the millions of chess fans around the globe,

0:11 the Magnus Carlsen PR channel.

0:14 Magnus Carlsen has done it again.

0:16 All right.

0:17 It's been a while since he's played in an elite tournament worth covering,

0:21 but he just did the Chess.com Open April 2026.

0:24 This is one of the qualification tournaments to the eSports

0:27 World Cup which will happen this year in August in 2026.

0:32 I would like to share something with you.

0:33 I would also like to show you about 10 different games that he played.

0:37 Magnus played an opening for the first time,

0:39 at least that I could see on his Chess.com account.

0:42 Magnus has also now won 15 tournaments that he has

0:46 played in and finished in a regular traditional chess format.

0:52 He has won every tournament that he has

0:54 played in outside of freestyle chess for 688 days.

1:01 The last time he played a regular format chess tournament, finished it,

1:05 and didn't win it, was Norway Chess 2024, which was June.

1:10 It has nearly been two full calendar years.

1:13 This is madness.

1:14 Of course, he plays in some silly random

1:16 title Tuesdays or freestyle and he doesn't win,

1:20 but regular chess bro has straight up

1:22 been running it now for two straight years.

1:24 More like 15 straight years, but yeah,

1:26 I mean, it it it's it's completely mind-blowing.

1:29 Um you can fact-check me.

1:31 I did a I did extensive research before I recorded this video.

1:34 I would like to show you a bunch of games.

1:36 Uh he played games against Shant Sargsyan.

1:39 Uh he played uh he played against Vincent Keymer.

1:43 I don't know I I don't know why the pop-up was there.

1:46 Uh he played against Dennis Lazavik.

1:48 I mean, he's he's going to win he's going to win most of these games.

1:52 And I would like to show them to you, okay?

1:55 Here we go.

1:56 Magnus opens with D4.

1:58 Uh then I'm going to show you a game where he

2:00 played uh this absurd variation of the Sicilian Defense one time.

2:03 He's playing Shawn Sar Gissian here.

2:04 These games are 10 minute and 0 second bonus,

2:06 the most popular uh time control in the world, actually.

2:10 Uh and in this game Magnus played a king side fianchetto.

2:14 He played knight of three like this.

2:16 He's looking for a short castle.

2:17 Black in this game uh tried to strike

2:19 in the center and take the pawn back like this.

2:22 And so white now generates a little bit of an initiative

2:26 against the queen cuz the queen had to move multiple times.

2:28 So he moves like this.

2:30 And now with his bishop pointed in this direction,

2:32 uh he begins advancing this A pawn because what

2:34 that A pawn will do is potentially go to A6 and pressure

2:38 or be traded off and then the rook and the knight

2:40 will activate and that A pawn could be a little bit weak.

2:43 So that's exactly how Magnus is going to play this.

2:45 Uh he pushes the pawn.

2:46 Black can stop it whenever he wants.

2:48 Uh he doesn't though.

2:49 He opts to just ignore the pawn completely.

2:52 And with Magnus now jumping into the square on D5,

2:55 should anything be traded here, white will look to establish the pawn on C3

2:59 because that will stop the black knight from coming forward.

3:01 It will also block the bishop.

3:02 Black might try to put this knight on C4 instead.

3:04 Uh and Magnus will try to utilize the bishop here.

3:06 He'll probably move the queen out of the way, put the bishop here,

3:09 uh and do the typical kind of Catalan bishop

3:13 diagonal pressure uh to that side of the board.

3:15 So bishop takes, pawn takes.

3:17 He now has the bishop pair.

3:18 There's the move C3 that I promised.

3:20 Uh I actually haven't looked at the game.

3:22 I'm just I'm just kind of winging it, but I I have a general sense.

3:26 Uh I I have seen the other eight games.

3:29 This game I did not see.

3:31 Uh Queen C4, Queen G1.

3:32 You see he's just stabilizing the queen side.

3:34 Black is getting a little bit of counterplay,

3:36 but Magnus is more than happy to trade

3:38 off a bishop that quite literally never moved.

3:40 It just slept the whole game for a knight that put

3:43 in a lot of work because now black has these ghost moves,

3:46 you know, that sort of never occurred.

3:48 Uh but then black did a nice job equalizing.

3:51 He grabbed a pawn and the game got very

3:53 tactical uh as black took the two queen side pawns.

3:56 Rook c2 was played, and now a pretty amazing sacrifice of queen takes d4.

4:00 If you take the queen with white, black will take your rook,

4:03 and black will have a rook and a knight and two pawns, which is a lot.

4:09 Or you could do this, and then you enter

4:12 an end game where you just dominate with your rooks.

4:15 And that is exactly what Magnus did.

4:17 Shah missed an opportunity to maybe equalize.

4:21 Magnus obviously, with an exchange up in a rook end game,

4:23 does not need any more chances.

4:26 Beautiful technique here.

4:27 He sacrifices the rook for the knight,

4:29 and the black rook now is just really sad.

4:31 It's going to be playing really sad defense.

4:33 The king and the pawns can come forward.

4:35 Uh you will reposition the rook.

4:37 There's the king moving forward, and Magnus breaks apart black's pawns.

4:41 Rook e6, bishop b5, d6.

4:43 Absolute and utter domination.

4:45 This pawn's going through.

4:47 This pawn's going through,

4:48 and maybe that pawn will go through as well if you win the g pawn.

4:51 And uh yeah, smooth sailing.

4:53 Something like a 96% accuracy game.

4:55 Uh and this is just your appetizer.

4:57 I'm going to give you a couple of more uh as we as we go on.

5:01 Magnus was playing the Sicilian defense in this tournament.

5:04 Always a pleasure uh to see him play elite competition.

5:08 Uh well, I was going to say and sort of lock in and try his hardest,

5:11 but he doesn't even have to lock in and try his hardest.

5:13 He's going to win the tournament playing on an iPad.

5:15 It looked like he was just at some sunny destination somewhere.

5:19 Um Yeah, good for him.

5:20 I really like getting in some sun.

5:22 Uh this is the Rossolimo Sicilian.

5:25 This is a variation where white damages black's pawn structure

5:28 and plays this very uh is esoteric the right word?

5:32 I don't know, but it's this very like alien-like type

5:34 of structure where you try to suppress black from, you know,

5:38 getting any sort of mobility.

5:40 Uh black plays like this and then gets a little bit of mobility.

5:43 Takes on d6.

5:44 The structure is kind of hideous,

5:45 but Magnus is able to establish the knight on D4.

5:48 Uh he is sacrificing a pawn because knight takes E2 is possible.

5:52 Black White doesn't like that very much,

5:53 although actually apparently that was the best way to proceed.

5:56 Bishop E6.

5:58 B3.

5:59 And now from here, Magnus solidifies his king, plays Bishop E6,

6:04 goes for a trade, and is sort of just waiting.

6:07 His opponent at some point needs to play for a win.

6:09 Very nice here.

6:10 Look at this.

6:10 The king side is ripped open for black,

6:12 but there's actually no way to attack cuz this rook is patrolling.

6:16 And not only patrolling, that king might be in more danger than this one.

6:21 Cuz when you move your pieces, I'm going to get to play a four.

6:25 I'm going to close out that side of the board, and well,

6:28 now you don't really have too much time to take

6:31 back as my pawns go to E3 and F3, and this rook is always sliding over to G7.

6:36 Uh and Magnus survives.

6:40 There is no mate here.

6:41 He's up a bishop.

6:43 He's going to get that queen all the way down,

6:45 and this is game over as Queen B1 will be mate,

6:48 and this will be a mate somewhere over here.

6:50 You just can't defend yourself.

6:51 Again, first game first game of the video.

6:53 We go through this quick.

6:54 Let's go Let's Let's pull up some big names.

6:57 Magnus Carlsen versus Vincent Keymer.

6:59 Fun fact, Vincent Keymer just won a tournament that Magnus Carlsen played in.

7:03 Now, I understand you're going to say I cherry-picked

7:05 the statistics because I am the number one glazer,

7:08 as the kids say, of Magnus Carlsen in the world.

7:11 I would argue that that is a valiant argument.

7:15 Yes.

7:15 I would also argue that freestyle hardly can

7:18 be considered as mainstream as classical, rapid, and blitz.

7:21 It is trying, but I somehow don't think that shuffling I I mean,

7:26 shuffling all these pieces at the beginning of every

7:29 single game definitely leads to some interesting chess,

7:31 but it's insanely unpredictable.

7:34 And yeah, those are the only tournaments that he hasn't won.

7:36 He hasn't won several of those, but he he has won the championship.

7:40 So, he is still the champion of that format,

7:42 although he lost an event in South Africa.

7:44 He you know, he just didn't win the one in Germany.

7:46 He got third place.

7:47 Vincent just won a tournament, I'm pretty sure.

7:49 So, yeah, Vincent playing well, but now he has to play 10-minute chess against

7:55 the guy who has run chess for 15 years.

7:58 G3 on the board.

8:00 Uh the same variation uh that was played on September 4th,

8:04 2022, which at this point was 3 and 1/2 years ago.

8:08 Uh but that was the famous Magnus Hans Niemann game.

8:10 The G3 Nimzo going for Bishop G2.

8:13 Black in this game playing one of my favorite lines.

8:15 I love this line.

8:16 You just put your two pawns, put your knights, you play E5.

8:19 Uh I absolutely adore this pawn structure for black.

8:22 I think it's excellent.

8:23 Although Vincent never actually plays the move E5.

8:27 He just plays like this and then he targets white's double pawn.

8:30 Very advanced play.

8:32 Uh and Magnus just sacks the pawn.

8:34 So, this is one of the key ideas of this opening

8:37 with white is that you can just give the pawn away.

8:39 Black can't really take it.

8:41 If black takes the pawn, he will give himself doubled isolated pawns.

8:44 White's bishop will immediately have a target.

8:47 Uh and that is why black just chooses to keep the structure like this.

8:50 Now, Magnus tries to trade and improve his structure.

8:53 And here even the move C6 was very strong, but he went Bishop G5.

8:58 And then he played C6.

8:59 And now that doubled pawn has walked all the way to C6 and is a major problem.

9:03 It's taking away a lot of important squares.

9:05 It's not easy to get rid of it.

9:07 Uh white can always play A4 A5.

9:09 White can always play knight D2.

9:10 And white will play E4 and E5 at some point.

9:12 So, white is threatening a million different

9:14 things as that pawn is taking away space.

9:17 It doesn't even matter.

9:17 You can trade your bishop for the knight.

9:20 These pieces are very poorly coordinated as well.

9:22 White can play A4 and Bishop F1.

9:24 And then you can't move the knight or the bishop because they have to defend.

9:27 Right?

9:27 They just They cannot move.

9:28 The knight has to keep the bishop blocked.

9:30 The bishop has to defend the knight.

9:32 So, it's an extremely unpleasant position.

9:34 Vincent goes for some counterplay,

9:36 and he actually gets the counterplay and has a better position though.

9:39 But the time, it's 10 minutes 0 second bonus,

9:42 and it is one of the most unforgiving formats that there is.

9:45 Vincent does equalize ultimately and gets to a position where he has

9:49 3 to 4 minutes and has to play this rook end game.

9:52 Plays rook b8, Magnus plays king f3.

9:54 But Magnus, I mean, he's not just tricky in middle games,

9:56 he's tricky in end games.

9:57 Look at this, he's giving away a two.

9:59 Cuz he wants to infiltrate with his rook.

10:01 Vincent doesn't take it, Magnus is like, go win my pawn.

10:03 Vincent goes rook b3.

10:05 Rook c1.

10:06 G4.

10:06 I mean, there's no way Magnus is

10:07 actually going to create winning chances here, right?

10:09 Complete symmetry, totally locked position.

10:12 Rook c2, and there's the move g5.

10:14 And there's our winning chance.

10:15 We're looking to break open the side of the board and go rook g2.

10:18 But if you stop us from going rook g2, I'm going to go rook b2,

10:20 rook b5, or rook b7, or rook b8, or rook c8, or rook g8.

10:23 Rap god.

10:24 Pawn takes.

10:25 Now we go rook g2.

10:26 Now he goes rook e1, the king runs back,

10:28 the pawns are traded, and apparently black is black is lost.

10:30 Apparently black is lost.

10:32 I have no idea how this freaking Norwegian wizard

10:35 comes up with this way to win end games, which is rooks and six pawns each.

10:38 How the Like The position There is literally no pawn left to move.

10:43 There is nothing left to move.

10:44 If anything, black has the better rook.

10:46 Black is threatening to take some pawns, you have to play passive.

10:49 He has one pawn remaining.

10:50 He is a literal anime villain.

10:51 Like it doesn't make any sense.

10:53 Or protagonist, or hero.

10:55 I don't know how you describe it.

10:56 This man has one pawn.

10:58 One pawn.

10:59 One punch man, you know?

11:02 And this little motif is good enough

11:04 to break in, cause a little bit of confusion, and he sacrifices the rook.

11:10 Not to deliver mate, not to win back a queen, not to attack the king.

11:14 No.

11:15 He sacrifices the rook because if you take it, the pawn promotes,

11:18 and this rook can't stop it, and the king can't stop it.

11:20 Bro is sacrificing rooks to promote pawns in the end game.

11:23 This man is redefining what a rook sacrifice is.

11:25 Guys, I can't do this.

11:26 I mean, I really can't do this, and yet I

11:27 have the pleasure and the honor of continuing to do this.

11:31 The way that this man beats people from these positions that are innocuous,

11:35 that are ridiculous to lose.

11:37 He had only one thing he could push,

11:39 and it turned out to actually cause legitimate problems to black,

11:43 and Vincent Keymer goes down.

11:45 Um I'm going to show you one more game cuz they

11:47 they had a they had a they had a good match.

11:49 It was very high level.

11:50 Um they had another game that was a Nimzo-Indian.

11:53 This time Magnus did not double his pawns.

11:55 Um the last game, the way he just like took over

11:59 the game completely just from an end game was was ridiculous.

12:02 In this game, he has what are called hanging pawns, D and C versus E and B.

12:07 He has the bishop pair.

12:09 White will try to advance these pawns and maybe start a king side attack.

12:12 Maybe play A4 A5 if black allows, but probably you know,

12:15 probably Vincent is going to put the knight on A5 himself.

12:18 Rook C8.

12:19 Okay, he goes knight E7, also possible.

12:21 And there we see the exact plan, right?

12:23 So, we we have these bishops.

12:25 Now we trade one of them, and this is very very nice technique for Magnus.

12:29 Now these pawns are rolling, they have the support of the pawns,

12:31 and the bishop is out of the game.

12:33 This little maneuver really makes things difficult

12:35 for black because now white can put whatever

12:37 piece they want on D4 and exert pressure either on F5 or on the queen side.

12:43 And this is still a possibility,

12:44 and then you break that, and if you get this pawn to take,

12:46 these two pawns will walk up together,

12:48 and I'm just going to keep clicking the forward arrow uh because uh yeah,

12:51 the way Magnus continues to apply pressure here is very nice.

12:55 Vincent goes for the counter play,

12:57 but at the worst possible moment cuz the pawn just goes through.

13:00 Magnus will probably, you know, if he watches this, he will be like, "Oh,

13:03 I could have done a lot better." Uh he could have, by his standards, absolutely.

13:06 Uh here, the much better move was knight to H4.

13:09 It's a very instructive move.

13:10 It's just impossible for black to protect this pawn.

13:13 Um because if you go queen D7, you take your eye off the knight.

13:17 At a minimum, I have this tactic.

13:19 At a maximum, I have bishop D4,

13:20 forcing the knight to go to H5, and the knight is just awful.

13:24 I mean, it has to be protected like this, and then you

13:26 go here and attack this, and then you go here and attack this.

13:29 I mean, it's like the board is is like a video game where every move is a combo.

13:35 It's a multiple punch combination.

13:38 And it's just just amazing, you know, the queen has to play defense.

13:40 Now it's passive, then you go bishop b2 queen c3,

13:43 and you and you threaten a mate like if the knight would gets removed.

13:45 Very instructive.

13:46 By his standards, he probably does not do as good of a job as he would like,

13:50 but Vincent accidentally blunders a piece.

13:53 And uh well, uh yeah, Magnus is good and he's even better when he's up material.

13:58 Um queen h5, queen f5, rook d6.

14:01 This is the end of the game.

14:03 Uh and yeah, Magnus uh Magnus won.

14:06 Now, again, this is just a video of of like I said,

14:09 this is the number one home uh in the world of chess

14:12 uh for positive uh PR uh for the for Magnus Carlsen.

14:16 Um he played Dennis Lazavik who who is the third best speed player in the world,

14:20 it seems, by all, you know, all intents and purposes.

14:23 It looks like now it's Carlsen-Ferouza uh Dennis Lazavik

14:27 because Dennis Lazavik beat Hikaru in the speed chess championship.

14:29 Now, 10 plus 0 is a different format, uh but it is what it is.

14:33 I was unbelievably impressed with this game.

14:35 Really just uh just an amazing game of chess.

14:39 This is a Spanish.

14:41 It's a line where white plays a4 and plays kind of peculiar

14:45 like and then plays knight c3 applying pressure to the queen side.

14:49 Voluntarily does this to his own bishop.

14:53 Right?

14:54 And then and then just breaks out of the position like this.

14:56 Then now he reactivates his bishop and puts it on b5.

14:59 And basically, Magnus will try in this game to break

15:03 apart the queen side cuz he has more pawns there,

15:06 and that's called a queen side majority when

15:08 the pawn structure has transformed in a way

15:10 uh that you have more pawns than they do on a side of the board.

15:14 The most common one by far is called a queen side uh queen side majority.

15:18 When you have castled over here and the pawns are on that side of the board.

15:22 Um now, uh one thing to consider here

15:26 is what happens if white manages to break through.

15:28 Well, I'm going to now click the forward arrow a bunch.

15:31 Magnus traded those pieces.

15:33 He does this.

15:34 Now, he has an outside pass pawn.

15:36 That's literally all he needs.

15:37 It makes no difference that the position is 0.05.

15:41 He plays Queen B3.

15:42 Black is equalizing.

15:43 Like, his position is not bad at all, but knight G6 was the wrong move.

15:47 He had to go rook A8 immediately.

15:49 Uh I don't really understand why,

15:50 like rook A1, probably he's going to, you know,

15:52 rook A like here, here, and something like this.

15:55 Um obviously, there was a reason he didn't go rook A8.

15:57 Didn't like something about that move.

15:59 Instead, he opts for this, and he loses this pawn.

16:03 And well, then this bishop completely blocks this knight out of the game.

16:09 The knight was brought here for counterplay, or maybe to come back.

16:12 Or maybe mate.

16:15 Well, just watch as this bishop is put on a square that does

16:20 not let the knight cross the center of the board at all.

16:25 The pawn will go here to protect.

16:26 The pawn will go there.

16:27 The black rook will be completely stuck on the back rank.

16:30 Then the second pawn will come.

16:31 Black has absolutely nothing.

16:33 It's not even that Magnus is able to win games

16:35 and end games where he doesn't have any business winning them,

16:38 and it's just one pawn that he advances, and somehow the position is winning.

16:42 He just like he makes people look ridiculous.

16:44 Like, black black's position here is already resignable.

16:47 He played a couple of symbolic moves.

16:50 And he just surrendered.

16:52 He just like he he cannot move any pieces.

16:56 The only thing he can do is to move the rook back and forth along the last rank.

17:00 Okay, of course he can push, but he doesn't have enough time.

17:02 He plays G5, black plays B5.

17:03 You can't even take the bishop.

17:04 H5, B6.

17:06 G4, B7.

17:07 Like, you just lose.

17:10 And he beat Dennis Lazavik.

17:12 Now, the person who he ended up facing

17:15 uh in the grand finals was Jan-Krzysztof Duda.

17:19 All right?

17:19 And he beat him.

17:21 He beat Sorry, Magnus he he made it to the final.

17:25 He He beat everybody that he needed to beat.

17:28 He beat Lazavik, etc.

17:30 He beat Shakhriyar Mamedyarov,

17:32 he beat And then as you know in the e-sports format or maybe you don't know,

17:37 there is something called a grand final and a grand final reset.

17:40 So, the person that wins every match makes it straight to the grand final.

17:44 And then there is a loser's bracket, okay?

17:47 And from the loser's bracket emerges the person

17:49 who then challenges for the grand final.

17:51 Now, if the guy that's been winning everything wins already,

17:54 there is no grand final You don't reset anything.

17:56 But if the guy from the loser's bracket beats the guy that hasn't lost yet,

18:00 then they play a grand final reset.

18:02 I'm explaining e-sports formats to the people who are probably like 30 and up.

18:07 I had to learn what this format was.

18:08 I think most people below that know what it is.

18:10 Maybe if you're like in your 40s and 50s and love e-sports,

18:12 you also know what it Um but uh yeah, just in case.

18:15 Anyway, so we show up uh to the grand final.

18:19 I'm like, "Okay, uh Magnus is going to beat Duda."

18:22 Duda straight up gave an interview where he said like,

18:24 "My chances to beat Magnus are very are like not there.

18:27 I don't expect to win." I don't know.

18:33 I mean I I Anyway, uh and then Magnus plays this.

18:36 Now, knight A3 Sicilian.

18:40 Like, we got a Sicilian defense and knight A3.

18:46 The guy has to nerf himself actively and deliberately play

18:52 absurd stuff on the board to challenge and stimulate his neurons.

18:58 If he straight up just played normal chess, nobody would have a chance.

19:03 Nobody has had a chance for 15 years.

19:06 And I have no idea how many years he has left, but keep that man in sunlight,

19:11 eating good, good protein levels, you know, good sleep,

19:15 good air quality, playing a lot of golf, low cortisol.

19:19 He could do this for another 5 to 10 years, for all I care.

19:23 Um now, Duda uh did set up a nice defense.

19:28 You see Magnus still manages to get a completely playable position,

19:31 and actually there's some lines where the king could come here,

19:33 get off of this diagonal,

19:35 get off of any, you know, well, that would actually would make that worse,

19:38 but uh get off of any diagonal threats, and maybe even start a king-side attack.

19:41 There are some lines where this happens.

19:43 Uh so, I think Magnus has maybe played this line before,

19:47 but like on another account, or maybe even over the board like sometime ago.

19:51 Uh gets a completely amazing position from the opening,

19:53 has the bishop pair, he can start an attack now.

19:56 Like rook h3 queen h4 is screaming to be played.

19:59 He plays queen h4, he plays queen f2 back.

20:02 He could have went queen h6.

20:03 Duda gets a little bit of counterplay here,

20:05 and Magnus immediately shuts down that side of the board,

20:08 but his counterplay is still there.

20:10 And so, uh sadly, despite playing this really exotic opening,

20:14 uh the boys actually make a repetition here with d5 check, knight back to f6,

20:21 uh and uh Magnus here can play rook c3 and rook c5,

20:25 and actually just has a better position,

20:28 but they repeat the position and make a draw.

20:30 Now, the reason the video is still going,

20:32 and Magnus just doesn't win immediately,

20:34 is cuz despite Duda's best attempt at uh dropping

20:38 that interview and sounding like he has no shot, he had plenty of a shot.

20:43 So, they play uh another game.

20:46 Magnus here plays whatever on earth this is.

20:49 Like really, this is just nonsense.

20:52 Uh then he puts his knight on e7.

20:53 If you are watching at home, do not play chess like this.

20:56 He is able to, you are not.

20:58 That is not how you should be developing your pieces, please.

21:02 And then Duda sacrifices a pawn.

21:04 I I he's had enough of the disrespect.

21:07 This man throws a pawn forward because no matter how black takes,

21:10 Mag Duda is going to strike back in the middle.

21:12 Like Magnus can take either way and then Duda is going to play like this.

21:15 That's exactly what he goes for.

21:17 Game gets insane immediately.

21:18 Black spends a minute to castle.

21:20 Duda spends a minute to move his bishop.

21:22 Black spends another 25 seconds sacrificing a b pawn to put

21:25 both bishops on the b file where they would be attacked.

21:27 White develops a knight defending the bishop.

21:29 Knight to g6, rook b1.

21:31 Magnus here This is the most ridiculous move.

21:34 He just grabs this pawn because he doesn't see any reason he shouldn't.

21:38 That allows Duda enough time to play d5.

21:41 And now black is in a lot of trouble.

21:42 Magnus has to go c4 trying to go c3.

21:45 Duda plays queen d4.

21:47 That's a mate.

21:48 So black goes c3 sacrificing the pawn trying to win the knight.

21:52 The bishop goes and takes.

21:53 This is hanging.

21:55 Knight takes, queen takes,

21:57 and it looks like in this position black is actually doing kind of all right.

21:59 He's going to activate his light squared bishop.

22:02 Apparently it was better for him to go

22:03 a5 and try to immediately put his bishop on b4, but he does it like this.

22:07 Knight c4.

22:09 Duda plays queen d4.

22:10 The position is still insanely complicated.

22:12 Two queens are are hanging.

22:14 You can take the queen, I will take yours back.

22:15 Magnus goes back to d3.

22:17 Both guys have 3 and 1/2 minutes for the remainder of the game.

22:19 There is no bonus time in the eSports World Cup format.

22:21 Magnus lashes out with f5 and now he's taking over the game.

22:24 Queen back to g3.

22:25 Bishop d5 required by black.

22:27 He doesn't play it.

22:28 Allows the repositioning to the b3 square or allows this move.

22:32 I mean, the position is completely nuts.

22:34 2 and 1/2 minutes to navigate the most unbalanced position.

22:37 This is there.

22:38 That's there That's there.

22:40 These guys are staring at each other.

22:41 d7's just hanging.

22:43 You could take it with either of the pieces.

22:44 That would be a triple fork basically.

22:46 Black goes rook takes b1.

22:47 That was not the best move and suddenly Duda

22:50 is better and Magnus is down a whole minute.

22:52 The bishop goes back to e6.

22:54 Duda plays rook d1 centralizing and defending his pawn on d6.

22:56 Queen b7.

22:57 Now we have h4.

22:58 The king can get off the back rank and you also have an attack.

23:00 But the time is back to where it was.

23:02 Queen to C3 attacking the bishop.

23:04 Magnus plays rook C8 defending himself.

23:06 Duda is just repositioning his pieces looking for some sort of attack.

23:09 Position is insanely complicated.

23:12 But, knight takes E6 wins the game on the spot.

23:15 Black's position is going to get totally destroyed here.

23:17 There is knight E6, then you sack the queen, then you come back to D7.

23:22 And Duda does not need much time to spot this.

23:25 Chops it up and is going to win.

23:28 He's going to win.

23:30 He spent a little bit of time.

23:32 I think he couldn't quite believe himself.

23:33 He spent a whole 1.8 seconds.

23:35 Chop, chop, chop, chop, chop, chop, chop, chop.

23:37 Spotted that instantly.

23:38 Wins the game.

23:40 Okay.

23:41 Magnus has finally lost.

23:44 And he's trailing in a match.

23:46 So, let's see what happens.

23:47 Can he do it a second time?

23:49 Magnus goes E3.

23:52 Okay.

23:53 And then he plays the English.

23:55 And we have just a very going to chill position D5.

23:59 Duda trades the knights, develops, and castles.

24:03 Magnus now has to develop as well.

24:04 He plays bishop B2, knight F3, and bishop D3.

24:07 There is no E4 because of queen G7 mate.

24:10 Black develops and develops with a very interesting position after 12 moves.

24:14 Super imbalanced.

24:15 White can try to put pressure here with D4, put the rooks in the middle.

24:19 Black is kind of sitting and waiting to see what white is going to do.

24:21 Black has a great position.

24:23 He can play H6 and literally play king H8, king G8 the rest of the game.

24:27 White kind of has to figure out what to do here.

24:29 Rook E7, D3, rook D8.

24:31 He's bringing the rooks.

24:32 Rook C1.

24:33 Both guys are just making moves.

24:34 And now we see white is going for something.

24:37 He's He's trying to do something with his knight.

24:41 Duda goes queen E6.

24:43 Magnus plays knight C4.

24:44 And there's the counterplay.

24:45 This is very thematic.

24:46 Black just can't sit around and do nothing.

24:49 Queen F7 back looking to bring the light squared bishop

24:51 and also to maybe advance with E4 in some lines.

24:55 Rook F8.

24:56 All normal.

24:56 Both guys are very much feeling the other uh out, not up.

25:02 King h8, h3, still kind of waiting.

25:04 Queen e2, still kind of waiting.

25:06 And now Magnus grabs the bishop here and goes for something on the queen side.

25:09 Except he goes for something on the queen

25:11 side and black can take and just defend himself.

25:15 And I think Magnus maybe wanted bishop b7, but a4 hangs in all the lines.

25:19 And not just a4 hanging, like okay, a4 is obviously the cleanest.

25:23 There's also some positions where like you get your bishop

25:26 locked out like this and it could be really bad.

25:28 Uh here black can get a massive attack going.

25:31 Uh and that obviously is very unpleasant.

25:33 So Duda is going to do exactly that.

25:35 He's going to start taking over this game.

25:37 Magnus down on time again.

25:40 Uh we go to an end game,

25:41 but Duda still has a lot of winning chances because he has an extra pawn.

25:44 Never mind, he no longer has an extra pawn.

25:47 But we're going to get in a little scramble mode here.

25:49 Right here, uh Magnus could have put away the tournament with a fork.

25:53 Clearly not playing his best at the moment.

25:56 Duda sacrificing material, launches an attack, and Magnus blunders a one-mover.

26:03 Well, it's kind of a two-mover.

26:04 Queen g5 threatened rook takes bishop.

26:08 It doesn't look like it,

26:09 but it does cuz after queen g2, you have queen h4 check.

26:13 So white here needed to play rook e2.

26:15 And the best player in the world spent 20 seconds,

26:17 blundered it, and didn't just blunder.

26:20 This just completely loses the game.

26:22 Because after this, you can even trade the queen.

26:25 So it's not just a blunder a little bit, it's a blunder a lot a bit.

26:28 King here, king here, g5 here, king g6.

26:31 This is a losing end game for white.

26:33 You simply will not be able to both defend your pawn and stop me from promoting.

26:37 It's just not possible.

26:39 So Duda actually ended up winning the match.

26:42 So he wins and we have a grand final reset.

26:46 And for the however manyeth time that Magnus Carlsen has been playing chess

26:50 and losing at random moments in a match and you think, "Oh, there we go.

26:55 Finally, he's losing some games." He did the thing.

26:59 He He did the thing.

27:00 He He's like the guy sitting in front of the TV.

27:05 And then he leaned in.

27:09 Yeah, I told you.

27:10 If he starts playing regular chess,

27:11 it's basically a wrap for everybody, and that's exactly what happened.

27:16 So, uh Magnus in this game played a completely normal opening.

27:20 Okay, he played like a symmetrical Queen's Pawn.

27:22 This is a line that has been played many times in classical chess,

27:25 and we have we have the following structure from the opening.

27:28 White's ideas include Queen E2, Rook D1, or Rook E1,

27:31 and then putting something on E5, and some various attacking ideas.

27:34 You can also drop the bishop back and play Queen D3.

27:37 So, Magnus in this game chooses Rook E1, Bishop C2,

27:39 dropping back the bishop to maybe move the queen.

27:41 Black goes for counterplay with his B pawn.

27:43 Magnus plays Queen D3 anyway,

27:46 because he's threatening to take the knight and then checkmate his opponent.

27:49 G6.

27:50 Puts the knight on A4, clearly looking to exploit some dark squares,

27:52 maybe take, maybe knight C5, and Rook to D1.

27:56 Black goes takes, takes, plays knight D5.

27:59 And Magnus plays Bishop H6, because now he gets the initiative.

28:03 Something called the initiative in chess is this mysterious term,

28:06 but initiative is basically a series of moves that create threats,

28:11 but simultaneously improve your position.

28:13 It's like when you generate momentum, right?

28:15 So, here you get this and this.

28:17 Now, Black has a difficult decision.

28:18 Does he give away his light-squared bishop,

28:20 or does he trade the bishop the dark-squared bishop for the knight?

28:22 He goes here.

28:23 Magnus plays Rook C1.

28:24 Now, there's a queen on the C file and a rook on the C file,

28:27 and he's going to move his light-squared bishop,

28:29 and when he moves it to A4, he's threatening knight B7.

28:32 So, Black has to play like this, and now he moves

28:34 the bishop to A4 threatening all sorts of knight takes pawn,

28:36 knight takes bishop, this type of business.

28:38 Rook D8.

28:38 Now, he plays H4.

28:40 While Black has committed all the forces defend defending over here,

28:43 H4 H5 is still there looking to soften up this position,

28:45 or maybe play G3 and knight g5.

28:48 We have knight back to b6,

28:49 removing a knight from the center of the board, but hitting the bishop.

28:53 Bishop b3.

28:53 Actually was winning there.

28:55 He could have went knight takes e6.

28:57 Completely vicious move.

28:59 Knight e6, and the overwhelming piece majority here would

29:02 have caused this position to be fatal for black.

29:04 Black just doesn't have the resources.

29:06 After bishop to f8, you can win the game with rook takes e6, bishop takes e6,

29:11 and uh actually I thought maybe bishop takes e6, but then this is hanging.

29:15 So, rook takes e6.

29:16 And now you win cuz you have two extra pieces.

29:18 Uh you have one extra piece,

29:19 and queen b3 check is always there to win the second one.

29:22 If black does something like this, king h8,

29:24 you can take, you can take, and you win.

29:26 Um anyway, he went here,

29:28 and uh it's not going to get any easier as the attack just simply rages on.

29:32 Duda finally does this, but the rook is hitting everything.

29:34 Black is struggling.

29:35 Magnus takes, locks the center of the board,

29:38 plays queen e3, still looking to attack.

29:40 The bishop is still butt cheeks.

29:41 Rook b6 hits the pawn, hits the knight.

29:44 Black is scrambling here, and he ends up just simply blundering.

29:49 I mean, this was of all the games I showed you,

29:53 this was really the game where the sensei kind

29:55 of chuckles after getting struck in a sparring session, and is like, I mean,

30:02 it kind of reminds me of like all that for a drop of blood, right?

30:04 Like that's the it that's like the Thanos thing, you know?

30:07 It's just I mean, the dude played a a complete positional masterpiece.

30:14 And I have covered like thousands of his games.

30:17 The ability to like find this move, force a weakness on the dark squares,

30:21 infiltrate that weakness, then put the rook,

30:23 then pressure the queen side as black is scrambling to defend the queen side,

30:26 you make some weaknesses on the other side of the board.

30:29 As you do that, you then still go back and target that bishop.

30:31 You make your opponent tie their shoes together, and you simply win the game.

30:34 I mean, it's just this is the same guy who won a game with one pawn.

30:38 This guy just like it's it's like a superpower.

30:41 He just eyes glow and all the pieces suddenly turn really

30:44 sharp and pointed at you and they just fly or he's

30:48 like wounded on the battlefield taking his last breath and then

30:51 he just summons like one thing and and that's it.

30:54 I mean, and of course the second game just you know,

30:59 um here he needed to defend himself.

31:01 His opponent was attacking him.

31:03 Duda he played a very aggressive Italian game.

31:06 Uh Magnus played very solidly.

31:08 He just has to kind of stabilize.

31:09 He played solid and then here he played very creative.

31:12 So he played knight h7, bishop f6, knight g5.

31:15 Definitely took some liberties.

31:17 No longer playing solid.

31:18 No longer, you know, e4 e5 and kind of boring and wait the opponent out.

31:22 Really baiting Duda to come forward.

31:25 And come forward he did because in this game he took in the middle,

31:28 allowed the move f4, went back with his knight.

31:31 Duda re-centralized the knight and now is threatening f5 ideas and e5 ideas.

31:35 Magnus went d takes c3 because he has

31:37 to grab another pawn just to like not be lost.

31:39 And then he went bishop h4.

31:41 And the move bishop h4 is extremely underrated.

31:44 And if you have the patience and the attention

31:46 span to watch 32 minutes of a chess video,

31:48 you will now be rewarded because this man

31:50 Magnus doesn't even have to win this game.

31:52 He already has a one game lead in this match.

31:55 He invited Duda to play the move f5.

32:00 And the reason why this move is so cool is because black

32:06 can play this and this and then take and get a pawn,

32:13 a bishop, and a knight for a queen which is not a lot of material.

32:18 But when you play against the queen having a lot of pieces really helps.

32:23 There is no way to attack this king.

32:24 It will go here.

32:26 And then black will go here and just solidify every

32:30 part of the position and the queen is not useful.

32:34 Magnus could have done that.

32:36 He could have done it now.

32:37 He He He sets it up for one more move, but here Duda didn't know what to do.

32:43 He He could have played knight F3.

32:44 If knight F3, there would have been takes.

32:46 And that that would have happened.

32:48 He would have forced Magnus into this position

32:50 down a queen and yet with a better position.

32:52 And that would have been a really amazing way to go out.

32:55 Instead of that, Duda actually plays quite well despite,

32:58 you know, not entering this line, but he mismanages his time.

33:01 2 minutes on this move, doesn't choose the best way,

33:03 but then he regains his composure,

33:05 continues to launch devastating intentions at the black king.

33:08 Knight back to H2, sacrifices material, creates a pass pawn,

33:12 weakens Magnus's queen side, but his time His time is ticking to zero.

33:18 And because of that, even though he actually

33:20 gets a very good position, Magnus fights back, makes it complicated,

33:24 creates a little bit of counterplay against the white king somehow.

33:26 Rook A8, knight E5.

33:28 The thing about being the best player in the world is you

33:29 don't just win with a pawn up in game or positional masterpiece.

33:32 You don't lose.

33:35 All the best athletes, when they're having bad days,

33:38 they still find a way to not lose.

33:39 And in chess, what happens when you don't lose is you win.

33:43 Uh because here, maybe there are some chances for white to make a draw,

33:47 but he can't, you know, he has to keep playing.

33:50 He actually ends up getting some chances in this end game, but he has 8 seconds.

33:54 And his time runs out.

33:55 Magnus wins the Chess.com Open.

33:58 And I'm about to read you a list, and if I got this wrong, I do apologize.

34:02 But I did try to do some research before I made this video.

34:05 Norway Chess, June 2024,

34:09 was the last time Magnus played the regular chess format of standard pieces,

34:14 not freestyle, and he finished the tournament.

34:17 And I say finished the tournament because in 2024 World Rapid Championship,

34:22 he didn't play enough games.

34:24 That was Jeans Gate.

34:25 Now, you could argue I'm cherry-picking, and I like I already said,

34:29 I I I would respect that argument.

34:33 He won the SpeeChess Championship 2024.

34:36 He won the next online tournament Julius Baer Generation Cup.

34:39 He won the Champions Chess Tour.

34:40 He won He He didn't win the World Rapid Championship,

34:43 but he won the World Blitz Championship.

34:44 Then he won the Chessable Masters.

34:45 He won the Chess.com Classic.

34:47 He won Norway Chess.

34:48 He won the Super United Croatia Rapid and Blitz.

34:50 He won the entire Esports World Cup.

34:51 He won Clutch Chess.

34:52 He won the World Rapid.

34:53 He won the World Blitz.

34:54 He won the SpeeChess Championship 2026 finale.

34:56 And he won this tournament.

34:57 Yo, this man has won every tournament

34:59 that he has played and finished for 688 days.

35:03 This is a very underrated streak.

35:06 [laughter] Like in a time of online offline he's

35:08 winning the three and one and five minute tournament, the 10 minute tournament.

35:10 When he really wants he'll win the long tournament.

35:12 The only tournaments he's not winning is when they scramble his pieces.

35:15 That's the only tournament that he cannot consistently win.

35:17 And he still won.

35:18 He is still the world champion.

35:20 He didn't win some of those tournaments, but he won the world championship.

35:23 Like the literal world championship that happened in February of this year.

35:25 Yo, I This is bananas.

35:32 And uh he has more tournaments coming up.

35:34 He's playing another one.

35:35 He's playing in Malmö.

35:36 Malmö.

35:38 Sweden.

35:38 Hey.

35:39 Uh and then he's going to play Norway Chess.

35:42 And then hopefully he just keeps playing because it's fantastic.

35:46 Uh this dude is too good.

35:48 Too freaking good.

35:50 That's all I have for you today.

35:53 And the number one destination for Magnus Carlsen PR is signing off.

35:58 Get out of here.