Hans Niemann Just Burned Down The Chess World

0:00 Ladies and gentlemen,

0:02 it has been a while since I have covered Hans Neman on this channel,

0:07 but today I am very excited to do so.

0:11 It's obviously been a crazy four years.

0:15 If you've been following chess for all those four

0:17 years or maybe just half of them or only recently,

0:21 you might have watched the documentary

0:23 on Netflix as it pertains to Magnus Carlson, Chlo, Hikaro, and Hans.

0:29 Well, Hans has played in some events over the years.

0:35 Most of those events feature Magnus Carlson, and Hans hasn't won those events.

0:41 But what I will be covering today is

0:44 arguably his biggest breakthrough in his career thus

0:47 far as Hans Neman in dominant fashion won

0:52 a Grand Chess Tour rapid and blitz event.

0:54 The Grand Chess Tour uh is an annual event.

0:57 It's held and organized by the folks at the St.

1:01 Louis Chess Club and generally you know

1:02 you've had Magnus playing in these things, Hikaro play in these things,

1:06 Fabiano Carowana and all the legends of chess of the past

1:09 101 15 years and they play rapid blitz in classical.

1:13 So Hans Neman won one of these events featuring Fabiano Caruana

1:17 featuring Wesley So Alireza Fuja Gesh the world champ the potential

1:23 next world champ the challenger to the world championship and I

1:27 will cover their matchups uh in uh in another video.

1:30 So, let me just take you through these games.

1:32 I mean, this was uh this was an incredible display.

1:35 Uh Hans very busy nowadays uh on social media, busy with his own projects,

1:41 but uh evidently putting in the work as well on his chess.

1:44 We're going to kick things off with this game

1:46 against the reigning champion of the world,

1:48 not in this format, but in classical.

1:51 Uh Gesh opened up with D4.

1:53 Hans went for a typical Queen's Gambit declined with knight F6, E6, and D5.

1:58 Then I will also show you a game against Fabi,

2:00 against Fuja, a game against Duda, a game against Wesley.

2:04 So, a game another game against Fabiano Caruana,

2:07 a game against MVL, and a game against Vayashik.

2:10 So, basically, it's the Hans Nean versus the world tour uh

2:13 where he tries to defeat every single player in the tournament.

2:16 Uh Gesh went for this line.

2:18 Very standard stuff.

2:19 Hans played C6, very solid closed Catalan.

2:23 Uh both guys are going to develop their pieces.

2:25 White could potentially break here with E4 or he could break with nothing.

2:30 Uh H4 is the move chosen from Gash.

2:33 Typical Catalan idea nowadays.

2:35 You just move your H pawn.

2:36 I know it looks a little bit ridiculous.

2:38 At some point the clash has to happen.

2:41 And here it goes.

2:42 C5 and E4.

2:45 So all the pawns in the middle of the board are smashing each other's face in.

2:50 You can take in either direction.

2:51 You could take here.

2:52 You could take here.

2:53 What you shouldn't do is you shouldn't take this way as that will

2:56 then grant white a lot of access in the center of the board.

2:59 Uh so Hans does this and now we have

3:02 E takes D5 and Hans throws in this pawn move.

3:04 The idea is to give away the pawn to the queen but put it

3:07 in the diagonal of the light squareed bishop on A6 which is why Gesh goes here.

3:11 Uh and uh well Hans recentizes his pieces and Gesh goes

3:16 for the bishop on E7 which Hans defends with rook E8.

3:20 very sharp position and in 25minute chess you don't have a lot of time to think

3:24 before you know it you've burned over half

3:26 your time which is exactly what has happened

3:28 to Hans here who plays back to F8 somehow he has a pawn here uh this pawn

3:32 on d5 though is looking like it's going to be captured any you know at any

3:36 second uh but it goes here and now knight e7 is an idea the bishops

3:41 are always seeing each other hans chops

3:43 this down chops down the rook and plays knight

3:45 to d5 maybe then his queen is going to activate as well on one of these files

3:49 The bishop has to move and we have queen E8 looking for a trade of queens.

3:53 You best believe that my man Gesh is never taking the simple option ever.

3:57 Ever ever ever ever.

3:59 Uh queen E6, queen F3.

4:01 Uh he's never looking for a draw.

4:03 5 minutes to one minute.

4:04 Hans Demon, this is one of his early games.

4:06 Remember, you're still kind of trying to settle into your form,

4:08 but now F6 G6 kicks out these knights.

4:12 And before you know it, we go from 530 to 122.

4:18 Gesh tanks all his time and has 18 seconds on the clock.

4:24 That is by all intents and purposes that that is not good time management.

4:29 I I mean I'm just saying right not that I would have done any better.

4:33 I'm just saying you know you have to manage your time a bit better.

4:35 Gesh gives away the pawn and now Hans has to grind him down in this endgame.

4:39 Hans the only thing he has here is the split pawns by white.

4:44 If this pawn is here and the king is here you just agree to a draw.

4:47 Black has a more active king and potentially will be first

4:50 to uh get the knight into the game and he's going

4:52 to try to grind down Gesh the same way that uh you

4:55 know Magnus Carlson would try to grind down this position with black.

4:58 Black has a better knight and black has a better rook and white has worse pawns.

5:02 So you have microscopic advantages here.

5:05 Gesh is going to try to defend himself

5:06 nearly impossible with no time on the clock.

5:09 And Hans activates the pawn majority on the king side.

5:12 Splits the defense.

5:13 H3 H2 simply moves the rook and that's game over.

5:18 That was very instructive.

5:20 You'll notice here that Hans picked up this pawn on G4 like this.

5:23 And now because he has the threeon one,

5:25 he very quickly breaks through with the pawns

5:29 and makes sure to defend one of them.

5:30 And that gives him massive winning chances and he finds a way to promote.

5:34 The rook guards the knight, the knight guards the pawn,

5:36 the pawn's going to be guarded by the rook and he wins a very nice game.

5:40 And when you win a game like this early in a tournament, it really propels you,

5:44 you know, and what also propels you is bouncing back uh from bad positions.

5:50 Here we have a Najdorf Sicilian against none other than Fabiano Caruana.

5:53 You know, it's really difficult being a Fabiano Caruana fan,

5:56 and we're going to get into that a little bit later in this video.

5:59 Fabiano Caruana started this tournament uh in in in disastrous fashion.

6:04 not like disastrous in a in a in a bad way.

6:06 Just as a fan, you know,

6:07 you you want your favorite player or team uh to win and when they give

6:12 you these winning chances uh and then they

6:14 take them away uh well, it's really brutal.

6:17 So, here, you know, the game plan for white it it it looks very simple.

6:21 You just expand on the queen side and then you kind of break through over there.

6:25 Uh or you go to the middle and then you target it like this.

6:28 I I don't think this was this was the best

6:30 way to play uh because it generally in Sicilians

6:32 if black can get a pawn avalanche going like

6:34 this uh it's going to be really bad for white.

6:37 Uh we actually saw this type of game uh in the world

6:40 championship match in 2018 in London between Magnus Carlson and Fabiano Caruana.

6:46 Uh some of you weren't even alive then.

6:49 Some of you act like you weren't even alive then.

6:51 Uh and uh yeah, I mean in those positions, you know, black gets E5 F5.

6:55 attacking possibilities galore and and and really really nice

6:59 position and that's what's going to happen in this game.

7:02 Hans played relatively quickly uh to land himself

7:06 in this position and even though black is not checkmating,

7:09 beautiful king positioning in the middle of the board.

7:11 Excellent understanding from Fabiano, white just doesn't have anything here.

7:16 Uh and it's going to get a lot worse.

7:17 I mean Hans playing really fast trying to put

7:20 Fabi under clock pressure and there are the pawns.

7:23 And I mean, Fabi is playing this game like a robot.

7:26 The rook takes control of the open file.

7:28 The H pawn is looking strong.

7:30 Hans goes for counterplay, but in the process weakens his queen side,

7:33 and the advantage absolutely balloons.

7:35 Rook D4 is a very fancy move.

7:37 You can't take it cuz you're pinned.

7:39 Uh, but it doesn't really matter because black is going to infiltrate.

7:42 And I think at this point was the biggest advantage of the entire game.

7:45 So Fabi now has to play knight F6.

7:48 And there's ideas to jump in with the knight in the future.

7:51 Like after you play knight f6, it's kind of difficult for white to make a move.

7:55 You're always threatening some sort of rook g1 ideas as well.

7:58 Uh if this knight ever moves, the rook goes to d4 and maybe d3.

8:02 So the knight kind of has to stay there.

8:04 But I mean, you know, he goes rook g1 right away.

8:07 And Hans finds knight a7.

8:12 And knight a7 is absolutely brutal to get hit with.

8:15 And and the difference is if knight f6 was

8:18 played and then knight a7 looking for knight c6.

8:20 Uh black has the option to play a4 check.

8:24 And this is extremely important because you have rook a8 in all lines.

8:27 And and that one resource now uh will

8:30 not only get Hans back in the game somehow,

8:32 but his king walks out onto the queen side.

8:35 Like his king when you come up with defensive resources like this, it

8:39 is a it is a wind in your sales at this point.

8:42 You know, when white plays king A4, king B5 with black, you're panicking.

8:45 you are just panicking because you're like, "Wait a minute,

8:47 I might even lose this position." And lo and behold,

8:50 like I said, it's tough being a fan of Fabiano Caruana.

8:53 Out of nowhere, Hans Neman has broken through on this side

8:56 of the board against all odds and straight up wins this game.

9:00 He doesn't even save a losing position.

9:02 He promotes the pawn and wins the game.

9:05 Knight F4.

9:06 He's going to get this if E1.

9:08 Knight to D3.

9:08 And the game ends with Hans up nearly 7, no 7 and 12 minutes up on the clock.

9:15 I thought it was 7:22 to 55 seconds.

9:17 It's 22 seconds to 755.

9:20 I mean, Hans plays at such a ridiculous pace.

9:24 You know, he was worse, but when you play rapid,

9:26 the clock is part of the game and and that's the way it goes.

9:29 And you can't really blame Fabi here.

9:31 He was better, but it's not like he was completely winning at any point.

9:36 And to find this idea to walk in with the king like this is just it's absurd.

9:41 Now a guy who struggled in this tournament a lot is Ali Resa Fuja.

9:45 In this game I'm not going to analyze too much.

9:47 Why?

9:47 Because it was total symmetry.

9:49 It was a Queen's Gambit type of position.

9:52 Mhm.

9:55 Hans played very intelligently in the beginning.

9:57 It was quite clear early on like Hans was uh was in great shape.

10:01 The boys traded all their pieces.

10:03 Ali versus Fuja had a two-on-one which if it simplifies down the pawn

10:07 would end up pushing and black would need to dedicate resources to stopping it.

10:11 Honestly, it doesn't even matter.

10:12 Like this position is extremely equal and it was a queen endgame.

10:17 It was a rook endame.

10:18 This endame actually reminds me of the candidates game.

10:20 You remember the game Hikaro way when the king was hunted out of the corner?

10:25 Hikaru got both his rooks into the corner which is not supposed to happen.

10:29 And like Hans here is setting crazy checkmate traps.

10:33 Uh you know and black plays king G6

10:35 and then plays rook here and it's looking really dangerous.

10:38 So white has to you know use his G pawn to try

10:40 to escape and he does win his pawn here on H3.

10:44 But the position is still a draw but it's

10:46 it's very tricky because white is sort of running

10:48 out of space and you cannot play rook

10:51 takes F6 here because if rook F1 check, right?

10:58 Yes.

10:58 But there's four hanging rooks.

11:01 Oh, and then there's rook FH1.

11:03 That's why.

11:04 And this rook is stuck.

11:05 And if the rook moves, there's uh check and then check.

11:09 And then you I mean, yeah, this this really reminds me of that game.

11:12 It was a double rook end game.

11:13 Anyway, Alireza goes here and just loses on the spot.

11:15 I I He could have went rook C8.

11:18 That was apparently the move that saved

11:19 everything because you're always threatening this.

11:21 And if rook F1, uh I guess you go king

11:24 uh G2 and you threaten the rook or king E2 even.

11:27 and I think it threatens the rook.

11:28 Anyway, uh Alireza just loses because he thinks

11:31 that this is a draw endame, but it's not.

11:33 Uh, black is winning here.

11:35 You can't push these pawns.

11:36 King G3.

11:37 My pawns are way faster.

11:38 Uh, and Hans beats Fuja.

11:39 So, Hans beats Fabi.

11:41 He beats Fuja.

11:42 He beats Gesh in the rapid.

11:45 And, uh, you know, as a little bonus,

11:47 a little bit for dessert, uh, he beats the local hero in Warsaw.

11:51 This one is Damiano defense.

11:52 This is a line where you capture symmetrically.

11:55 Uh it looks like a beginner's mistake because after the knight moves,

11:58 you win the you win the queen on C6.

12:00 Uh but black has a way to play this position where he goes down a pawn.

12:04 This is all engines.

12:05 Uh computers have basically just uh have shown that you can play this line.

12:09 So here's an example of two 2700 level grand masters.

12:12 Han's rapid rapid rating is ridiculous.

12:15 Uh top players just don't play enough rapid.

12:17 There's just not enough rapid tournaments.

12:18 So their rapid ratings are are really stupid.

12:20 Um yeah, this is just uh two guys that memorized uh 18 moves of theory each.

12:29 Yeah.

12:31 So up to this point everything has been memorized.

12:34 Here black has to play rook f8 and now black plays c6 and Hans plays h4

12:38 which is the best move actually and duda

12:40 plays king c7 which is not the best move.

12:42 Here with black you have to play f5 followed by rook e8.

12:45 So this is chess.

12:46 I mean both guys memorize 18 moves of theory.

12:49 Uh, white has a little bit

12:50 of an advantage here because he has quicker development.

12:52 His king is safer.

12:53 He's also going to be first to attack the structure here by black.

12:56 Very instructive.

12:57 Uh, Duda allows this and now the rook

13:00 is able to immediately go target this pawn.

13:02 So basically because uh, black gave up a pawn uh, he was uh,

13:06 trying to win the pawn back and then white was trying to give

13:08 away the pawn at an opportune moment to seize the initiative because

13:11 black drained so much time winning the pawn back and and and now

13:14 you see this is this is going to be a real problem here.

13:17 This is a position with a lot of difficulties for black.

13:20 Uh Duda tries his best to defend himself.

13:22 He actually has to end up just giving away a pawn.

13:24 F2 is hanging by white.

13:26 But after this, both these pawns are hanging.

13:27 You cannot defend them both at the same time.

13:30 So you go here.

13:31 I take.

13:31 I try to hunt your king out like this.

13:33 Uh but Hans is just up a pawn.

13:35 And here with white,

13:36 you are either going to defend yourself or you're going to crash and burn.

13:39 Very instructive by Hans here.

13:40 Very instructive.

13:41 He trades off one rook.

13:43 If you want to win a rook end game,

13:45 it's better to have one rook on the board than two rooks on the board.

13:47 The two rooks can create a lot of counterplay.

13:49 One rook, you stabilize the position.

13:51 Uh, practically speaking, it's still holdable for black,

13:55 but it's extremely unpleasant.

13:57 Uh, it's really difficult to defend an endame like this.

13:59 Can I just quickly draw your attention to something?

14:01 Hans Nean is up 17 minutes now.

14:05 They start the game with 25.

14:06 I don't know how he plays like this.

14:08 I I really don't have any idea.

14:10 I I I don't I mean we I I think

14:11 he's the fastest player in the world except maybe Yani Pomnishi.

14:16 Uh and the two of them will be playing

14:18 a match against each other uh I think in Serbia.

14:20 I think that's one of the things that Hans was setting up.

14:23 Um yeah and uh well this is how he converts.

14:27 He trades the knight for the bishop.

14:28 It's actually very instructive repositioning the knight

14:31 and then like this and then

14:33 knight takes F5 and yeah bishop versus knight is a dominant endgame.

14:38 Why is it dominant?

14:38 Because the rook and the bishop are extremely quick.

14:41 They work really well together.

14:42 They're long distance pieces.

14:44 And the knight is just standing there.

14:45 It's It's not moving.

14:46 It finally moves, but it's too late.

14:49 This is the losing endame.

14:50 This is very instructive.

14:52 The king cannot cross.

14:53 The rook is defending the pawn, and this pawn's going to go.

14:57 You're going to walk with the king and the pawn together,

15:00 and black cannot defend it.

15:02 See, look at this.

15:03 Very instructive.

15:04 I think actually here this is a mistake from Hans

15:08 but instead he should have played well here he could

15:11 have just probably played king B3 and walk with the pawn

15:14 but if you play king B3 black has this idea

15:17 rook F4 and suddenly this is going to be

15:19 an issue so it's not so easy uh but this is

15:23 wrong because black has to go rook a8 apparently and uh

15:29 I mean that that looks rook a8 rook c4 four,

15:34 king E6, and you get back to the pawn in time, I guess.

15:38 I Yeah, but this is not right.

15:40 You have to go king D5.

15:42 Yeah, I mean, very tough practically to understand.

15:45 Duda doesn't understand it.

15:47 And uh this is losing.

15:48 Uh when you're dominated like this, I mean,

15:50 h Hans won this game like it was child's play.

15:54 I mean, the guy plays a dynamic opening with black.

15:57 He gives away a pawn.

15:58 pawns just just maneuvers the pieces beautifully,

16:03 understands the position, targets the pawns, wins a pawn,

16:06 gets the knight versus bishop endgame, and makes one inaccuracy because he has

16:11 a 16-minute lead on the clock and and wins.

16:13 I like I I Yeah, just total domination.

16:17 Um, now one thing I would like to show

16:19 you is uh the blitz was not smooth sailing.

16:21 Hans dominated the rampid, but the blitz is 18 games.

16:25 18 games of blitz.

16:26 Anything can happen.

16:27 somebody can get hot.

16:28 And historically, when Carlson was playing in these tournaments,

16:32 uh there have been days Carlson sat down and won every game.

16:34 He won nine and0 in the blitz.

16:36 Uh no, sorry.

16:39 Yes, nine-0 in the blitz.

16:42 Cuz I think this tournament is uh 10 players,

16:45 so you you you play nine games against everybody.

16:47 I'm pretty sure.

16:48 Uh it's not eight players with seven rounds.

16:50 I think it's 10 players with nine rounds.

16:51 Anyway, um Wesley also was doing really well in this tournament.

16:58 Uh and uh in the first uh early rounds of the blitz, you know,

17:02 you got to restabilize from 5 minutes to from 25 minutes to three.

17:05 It's not sounds so simple, you know,

17:08 and Wesley is one of the best chess players in the world,

17:12 particularly in a slow format.

17:13 Hans gets very aggressive here,

17:16 but it's actually Wesley who has two minutes up on the clock.

17:21 Wesley could be a great poker player.

17:23 All right, because I think Wesley is very ice cold in these time controls.

17:27 Uh very very good, very consistent.

17:30 Wesley is also uh he is uh going to be

17:35 a prominent character uh in the uh and there's an upcoming documentary.

17:40 It's going to be featured at the Tribeca Film Festival.

17:42 Uh and I think I'm I'm I'm in it as as kind of a kind of a narrator,

17:46 the glue guy to explain the story.

17:48 Uh, it was the big story of of the freestyle

17:50 tournaments in 2025 and kind of how chess is changing.

17:54 Uh, and yeah, I I can't wait.

17:55 I haven't seen it, but I I you know, Wesley's going to be prominently featured,

17:59 so I can't wait to see what that's going to be like.

18:01 Yeah, Hans, I mean, goes a little crazy here.

18:03 G5, C5, D4, just all the pawns forward.

18:07 Wesley's really good at just like dealing with BS.

18:11 Uh, and he just, you know, he chops down the position, smart with his defenses.

18:16 Bishop F3.

18:17 Hans gets an opportunity here.

18:19 Uh here there's just a winning line.

18:22 Bishop takes and knight E3.

18:24 Um I I don't really know what Wesley missed here.

18:31 Um No, I think I do know.

18:32 I think he probably saw take take knight E3, bishop D3.

18:37 Uh but you win because the rook uh has to move and then you have rook D1.

18:42 Maybe Wesley saw rook D4, but this doesn't work because of bishop B5.

18:46 But there was rook D1 and uh this is just an this is just a pin skewer pin.

18:51 Anyway, it doesn't matter.

18:52 Wesley misses a chance.

18:54 Then he completely breaks through on this side of the board.

18:56 You know, pushes the pieces down and it's an opposite colored bishop endgame.

19:00 But the reason why this is totally winning for white is cuz he's

19:02 up two pawns and one of the pawns is a square away from queening.

19:05 So now he's up three pawns and three pawns are promoting.

19:09 This was the worst game that Hans had in the whole tournament.

19:12 Probably just absolute domination from Wesley.

19:15 four pass pawns actually if we move the rook out of the way and it

19:18 looked like all right Wesley has been at the top of his game for like

19:21 10 years he he's he's in the top three of the Grand Chess Tour

19:25 all the time Hans is probably going to lose his lead in the blitz because

19:29 it's Hans it's also hard being a Hans Neman fan not just for reasons

19:33 to playing in the tournaments uh you know it's like he also gets hot and then

19:38 he doesn't cross the finish line you

19:39 know like for this documentary that came out

19:43 on Netflix I I I I I feel like they were rooting for the moment.

19:46 Like we've been waiting for the moment that Hans is going to win

19:49 an elite tournament where Magnus is playing and he's not even in this one,

19:52 which is like, you know, but that's what we've been waiting for.

19:55 The speed chess championship something where the the World Blitz,

19:59 they played in the World Blitz.

20:00 They played in the quarterfinals and Hans had

20:02 a lead and he blew that lead, you know.

20:04 So, you're kind of like, is this it?

20:06 Is he going to blow this lead?

20:09 Well, you know what?

20:12 In the blitz, it was Hans and Fabi that that was the show.

20:17 Once again, I'm gonna I'm gonna go.

20:18 We got another Najdorf just like the last one.

20:21 And in the last one,

20:22 Fabi got the kingside attack and he had a great position, right?

20:26 In this game, we went for actually a similar looking structure.

20:30 Fabi A5.

20:32 Hans king H1 and F4.

20:33 So before Fabi can attack, Hams chooses a totally different plan.

20:37 He does not allow Fabi to get anything going.

20:39 He forces Fabi to play more on the queen

20:41 side and the position is a little bit more chill.

20:44 Very dynamic.

20:45 Sicilian is such an incredibly complicated opening to understand.

20:48 And Hans sacrifices the rook.

20:50 It's a positional sacrifice.

20:52 All right.

20:53 He opens up the black king.

20:54 Black also loses all pawn mobility.

20:57 Nothing can move now.

20:58 So, it's going to be a maneuvering game by black.

21:00 Also, with white, you can take this pawn.

21:01 It targets the rook, but mostly it's just an extra pawn.

21:04 Hans takes it and moves the queen and now has a position

21:08 where he has a bishop and a pawn for the rook.

21:10 But Fab's taking over.

21:12 Fabi doesn't need any pawn mobility.

21:13 He has rook E1 and the advantage once again is going to plummet into the pit.

21:18 And Fabi is dominating.

21:20 And this is not a domination in the previous game.

21:22 Rooks and knights a little bit of a mercurial, is that a word?

21:26 Position.

21:27 This one is Fabi needs to convert this position and probably checkmate Hans.

21:31 But he chooses the wrong move.

21:32 He goes here and now there's no attack after you trade the bishops

21:37 and you actually can trade the queen because Hans will go here,

21:42 activate the knight, activate the rook and this rook is so passive

21:46 and isn't able to enter the game easily at all.

21:49 You're going to need three moves.

21:51 So we have F6 and A4 is apparently

21:54 a double question mark blunder, but it's blitz.

21:56 I mean here you were just supposed to play

21:57 queen E4 and knight H4, but he goes A4.

22:00 A4 is a total bluff.

22:02 A4 is like, I want to go A5, A6, A7, and then,

22:04 you know, you're kind of panicking because you can't stop the promotion square.

22:07 With 20 seconds on the clock, Fabi,

22:08 Faby's biggest weakness in chess is time trouble by far.

22:12 Like, of any weakness, I mean, he might disagree with me,

22:15 but in time travel, Fabi is not 2,800 level.

22:18 I'm not even sure he's 2700.

22:20 And again, I I don't like to say these things about top players,

22:23 but if you want to if you want a chance to be Fabiano Caruana,

22:25 you got to you got to get below like 20 seconds on the clock.

22:27 But the thing is, it happens to everybody.

22:29 Everybody.

22:30 We've seen Magnus throw games in time trouble.

22:31 Hikaro, all these players in their 30s and above.

22:34 They're dinosaurs, man.

22:35 You lose a little bit of control in the game.

22:37 Fabi in this game for a while was surviving and doing well.

22:40 And then he went here.

22:41 He went back to D3.

22:42 Hans got knight H4.

22:43 The queen's hanging, but there's knight F5.

22:45 You can still maybe hold your nerves with knight F2.

22:48 But with 8 seconds on the clock, he goes here.

22:50 That's wrong.

22:51 And now, not only is Hans Nean uh back

22:53 in the game in just a few short moves, Hans Neman wins.

22:57 How does he win?

22:58 Fabiano Caruana loses the game on time.

23:00 In this position, he had six seconds on the clock and he had a choice.

23:06 King E8, king G7, king F8, King E7.

23:08 Obviously, there's a fork.

23:10 It's It's actually a position that's okay for white because this knight is good,

23:13 but the rook can't activate at all.

23:15 Poppy lost on time, and Hans got a major win.

23:18 Fabi lost several winning positions to Hans.

23:22 And this will come back to bite when we talk about the end of the recap.

23:25 Here's another victim of the uh

23:28 the the the moy train getting moked in this tournament.

23:32 It was a Spanish, you know,

23:34 typical anti-Marshall variation where black cannot play the move D7 D5 D3.

23:39 Hans's results in blitz were topsy turvy.

23:41 He was winning games, losing games,

23:42 but as long as you win a little bit more than you lose from the rapid portion,

23:46 uh that's going to be good enough.

23:48 This one was equal for a while.

23:49 A lot of pieces got traded.

23:51 I mean, it doesn't look like anything should happen here.

23:53 Bishop E3.

23:54 The queen goes back.

23:55 We have an endgame.

23:56 I think honestly MVL a little bit was raining it in.

23:58 Four pawns, rooks and bishops.

24:00 Like let's just call it a day.

24:02 G3, you know, rook E1.

24:04 Uh and then all of a sudden the pawn got here and all of a sudden the pawn

24:10 was stabilized and all of a sudden the king

24:12 made it to the middle and black is lost.

24:13 Uh black is winning like out of nowhere.

24:16 And often times in blitz chess it can happen really fast.

24:21 Uh here with white you needed to activate the king immediately.

24:24 you needed not to move the rook.

24:26 I mean, rook E3 is kind of a crazy move because the guy wants to go D4 anyway.

24:30 So, you could have went rook D1 here.

24:33 He didn't because the king would come, but he went here allowing this.

24:37 And this was maybe the final moment you needed to run the king out to F3.

24:42 And if you go king F3, now there's king here.

24:46 So, you need to play rook f3, king d5 or king e5, sure, and king d3.

24:50 This is what you have to do.

24:52 He doesn't do that.

24:54 And whether the position is dynamic and complicated or not,

24:56 Hans Nean in this tournament has been unbelievably sharp at his conversion.

25:00 That pawn will go to D3 at some point or you're just going to win the pawns.

25:04 But trust me, the pawn is going to go to D3 at some point or not.

25:09 If you go here, it's going to go to D3 and you lose.

25:12 You cannot go here because this is mate.

25:14 So you have to go to the first rank and then D3 and this is mate.

25:18 Or you can walk to the rook.

25:19 It doesn't matter.

25:20 This is D3.

25:21 It's not mate, but this is D2 and D1.

25:23 Hans Demon beats MVL in a totally symmetrical pawn structure.

25:26 Everything good.

25:27 Here's the problem.

25:29 This is the last round of the Blitz Championship.

25:31 This is the last round of the tournament.

25:33 Fabiano Caruana has now won five games in a row.

25:36 And this is what I was alluding to.

25:38 It is impossible being a Fabiano Caruana fan.

25:40 The amount of times that this man breaks your heart.

25:44 He wins five games in a row in the Blitz.

25:47 Generally speaking, if you win five games in a row, you're up there.

25:49 Especially if it's two, three games.

25:50 Everybody's winning and losing.

25:51 So Hans Demon, black pieces last round.

25:54 He wins.

25:54 He wins the tournament.

25:55 He draws.

25:56 Fabi wins.

25:56 We have a playoff.

25:58 We have a tie for first.

25:59 All right.

26:00 He loses and Fabby wins.

26:02 Well, then uh yeah, then Fabi wins the tournament.

26:05 So Faby's over there playing.

26:07 He's playing his game.

26:08 Uh Hans Vitasik, the other Polish hero.

26:11 Uh we have an exchange.

26:12 Queen's Gambit decline.

26:13 Regosen.

26:14 This is what this is called.

26:15 Queen A4 check.

26:16 Knight blocks.

26:16 Bishop pins.

26:17 You go here.

26:18 And it was quite clear Vitasik was like last round of the tournament.

26:20 Let's let's keep it very chill.

26:22 So we're going to keep everything stable.

26:24 Hans puts the bishop all the way back here because

26:27 otherwise it would have been in the way of the pieces.

26:29 And the knight wants to go to E7.

26:30 The pawn wants to go to C6.

26:32 This is the way you play the reggoen.

26:33 And then the knight can reposition itself this way to D6 or to G6.

26:37 And then the bishop goes to D6.

26:38 And then black gets queen side counterplay.

26:40 The reggoen honestly is one of these lines like it's it's it's so

26:44 fascinating uh because black can maneuver the pieces in a variety of ways.

26:48 He does choose knight g6, bishop d6, but vitasic has queen side pressure.

26:52 That pawn is awful on c6 after after I mean I don't

26:55 know why he didn't go knight a4 just immediately targeting the pawn.

26:59 Uh yeah, I'm not sure.

27:00 But he goes rook b1 which is a move

27:02 I don't understand because there's no threat to this move.

27:07 Knight a4 looked much much more natural to me.

27:10 Uh Hans meanwhile here bishop a3 would

27:13 have apparently been a really good move because

27:14 after rook c2 there's bishop f5 and you

27:18 don't necessarily win win win these pieces.

27:19 Wait a minute.

27:20 Yes, you necessarily do win these pieces.

27:22 What am I talking about?

27:22 Because if bishop d3 is played, you have takes takes and then you win this pawn.

27:26 Okay, I have no idea.

27:27 But apparently bishop a3 and bishop f5 was winning on the spot for Hans Neiman.

27:31 Uh and there would have been a material loss.

27:33 He very quickly played rook b8.

27:35 Actually, he spent 32 seconds on this move.

27:37 I don't know what was missed.

27:39 Takes.

27:39 Takes.

27:40 And white is like, "Okay,

27:41 I'm never getting mated." Hans went here and went here.

27:46 And it's looking like maybe we're going to make a draw, but Hans is like, "Nope,

27:49 I want to play for a win because if I win this game,

27:51 I win the tournament." Bishop D7 takes takes knight A4.

27:54 And uh well, we have another threat of a draw.

27:57 And Hans is like, "I need to advance

27:58 on this side of the board." Two minutes on the clock.

28:00 Vitasic trying to defend himself.

28:02 If anything, he has a better position.

28:04 Knight back to D3.

28:05 You can also play bishop D3 here.

28:08 Hans maybe looking for rook B2 infiltration spots.

28:11 Rook B6.

28:12 White also doing very well on the clock.

28:14 H4.

28:14 And I mean the rooks are going to get traded.

28:16 I don't know how Hans Nean is going to possibly win this game.

28:19 Queen and two bishops.

28:20 Queen, bishop, knight.

28:20 What is his name?

28:21 Magnus.

28:21 What is he a Norwegian guy?

28:23 Bishop E2.

28:25 And then the queen went here.

28:27 And now there are serious questions because

28:29 the queen is going to go here as well.

28:31 And with white here, you are not comfortable.

28:34 You are not feeling good about your position.

28:36 You're walking the king over because you don't really know what else to do.

28:39 The other guy's just pushing random pawns.

28:41 Queen B1.

28:42 Do you have the nervous system to to survive this position?

28:44 Suddenly, you give this square to the queen

28:46 and now it's difficult to defend your pawn.

28:48 You go knight C5 and you've simply lost the pawn.

28:52 There was no need to play like that.

28:53 Uh instead, you could have went king G1, king F1 for the remainder of the game.

28:56 I But he goes here.

28:58 Knight goes to C5 and Hans up a pawn.

29:01 And it's going to get a whole lot worse because

29:03 F4 drastically weakens the squares over here and this pawn.

29:06 You could have maybe went F3.

29:07 You could have went king G1.

29:09 Vitachic is undoing the position.

29:11 Queen B2.

29:12 Hans, that is an excellent move.

29:15 Excellent.

29:16 Understanding that if the queen trade were to happen, you simply go A4.

29:21 And even though white can stop this, he can't stop it forever.

29:25 And I think even A3 is winning because you have bishop B1 or bishop E6.

29:30 And if bishop here, there's bishop e6 and this.

29:33 And even though you will go here,

29:35 this endame is still winning because queen d4, queen f4, etc.

29:40 And ladies and gentlemen, Hans Neman despite six wins in the last seven games.

29:46 Yes, I'm not just saying that to continue the meme.

29:48 That's old as hell at this point.

29:51 Hans Nean wins the last game of the tournament,

29:53 and that is the most important game.

29:54 and he wins the tournament.

29:58 22 and a half points.

30:01 22 for Fabi.

30:02 Fabi loses the tournament by half a point despite

30:04 six out of his last seven games being wins.

30:06 And Wesley So had a great event.

30:07 Wesley's always top three in these men.

30:09 He Wesley is easily a top five Rapid and Blitz player in the world.

30:13 Number one being Magnus.

30:14 Uh number two, it's not even clear.

30:17 It is really not even clear.

30:18 I feel like if we organized a rapid and blitz event with Hans Neman, he would,

30:20 you know, with with like, you know,

30:21 30 of the world's elite players, he would finish top five.

30:24 Uh, he had a very good World Rapid.

30:26 He had a very bad World Blitz 2025.

30:28 He had a very good World Blitz 2024.

30:31 But that's what I mean like Hans has not had a big breakthrough tournament.

30:34 This is a massive tournament.

30:36 This is a massive tournament for Hans Nean uh

30:39 to win against the the elite of the elite.

30:42 Now, of course, in this field, uh, we're missing Magnus.

30:46 We're missing Hikaro.

30:47 TBD how Hikaro would do in a field like this.

30:50 He he he had a rough speech championship and a candidates.

30:53 But uh I mean I want to see Hans Neman play in a tournament with Huja,

30:58 Gash, Sundarov, No Deerbeck, Kimer, Erici.

31:02 That is what we need.

31:03 We need to organize an elite competition

31:06 of the youngest like 20 players in the world.

31:08 Erdomous and watch them all go to battle.

31:11 Hey, maybe I'll organize it.

31:13 How about that?

31:13 Maybe I'll organize it.

31:15 next generation tournament.

31:19 I might have just birthed an idea.

31:21 All right, that's all I have for you today.

31:23 As always, if you want to take your chess to the next level,

31:25 you know where to find me.

31:26 Uh, I've got I've got my educational platform, Chesley.

31:30 Signed copies of my next book are out in Canada, UK.

31:33 They're sold out in the US, but you can pre-order it.

31:35 Blah blah blah.

31:36 European tour 2026.

31:37 I'll see you in the next video.

31:38 Get out of here.