Will Magnus Carlsen play chess after this?

0:00 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the TP Sigman Chess Tournament 2026.

0:06 Uh, this is a tournament held in Sweden and Magnus Carlson is participating

0:10 a bunch a bunch he's participating a bunch with a bunch of other top players.

0:16 This is the third round recap out of seven and I will be covering the game

0:19 Magnus Carlson versus Noek Abdul Suturov as well

0:22 as the other uh interesting battles of the round.

0:24 So multiple storylines in this field such

0:29 as will Erdomous continue his climb up to 2720.

0:33 Uh will Andy Woodward make a statement?

0:36 Will Nobeck get to number two in the world?

0:38 Will Magnus win the tournament?

0:40 Will he cross 2850?

0:41 Whatever it is in this game, he is playing against Nobel.

0:46 They recently played a World Blitz championship final match.

0:49 That was very exciting.

0:50 That was about 5 months ago.

0:51 Uh, and Magnus opens up their classical encounter.

0:54 The last time these two played in a classical chess tournament.

1:00 I don't know.

1:01 Probably been like four years minimum.

1:04 No plays a Queen's Gambit declined.

1:07 Uh, and he doesn't respond with E6, but he declines it with C6.

1:13 He plays the Slav defense.

1:16 The idea of the Slav defense is to take on C4,

1:18 then play B5 very quickly or bishop F5 and E6.

1:23 Historically here, white can play knight C3.

1:25 That's the traditional line.

1:26 White can play E3 and bishop D3 and castle.

1:29 Uh, white can play the symmetrical,

1:32 although that's kind of not really what you play if you want to play for a win.

1:35 Or you can play queen C2.

1:38 Queen C2 is a very funny move because if

1:41 black takes now you take with a queen and then

1:44 later you prepare the central pawn advance and you get

1:46 two pawns in the center versus just one for black.

1:48 So while D takes C4 is completely reasonable uh it's not required and here

1:53 November plays G6 but G6 is kind of a mini win for white because you

2:03 force your opponent to develop the bishop this way and if you play E3

2:06 in the future the bishop is not really

2:08 going to break through the center anytime soon.

2:10 So you've kind of gotten your opponent to commit

2:12 to something they either they otherwise might have not done.

2:15 And then we get pawn takes pawn takes.

2:20 So now we have symmetry except we

2:23 have asymmetry because even though there's symmetry here,

2:25 black committed to this and this and this and white

2:28 will not be committing to those same things.

2:30 And this is the position that Magnus chooses to play.

2:33 He develops the knight.

2:34 No also he develops the bishop.

2:36 No also he develops the pawn.

2:38 No castles.

2:39 and white plays bishop E2 with the intention to play castles.

2:42 Bishop E2 also allows black uh to play something very provocative.

2:46 And I actually have a feeling that during this game

2:49 um Magnus was kind of baiting his opponent into playing this.

2:56 Um I think Magnus here could have played the move H3 which

3:02 is not just about preventing this and not getting back rank mated.

3:05 your bishop gets away.

3:07 And in the game by going here, I think he was baiting Noerbeck to play the move

3:12 knight H5 immediately chasing this bishop where it would not escape.

3:17 I think Magnus wanted a position where he would kind of do

3:20 something like this and potentially get something like this on the board,

3:23 which is very combative, very double-edged.

3:26 Uh, black gets a bishop pair, but a potentially weak king.

3:30 But Nerbach did not play how I thought he would.

3:35 He played a waiting move, so he didn't play knight H5.

3:40 And white now gets kind of the best possible setup,

3:43 which is this is no longer a problem.

3:47 Uh, and uh, maybe in the future he can even

3:49 generate his own attack depending on where he puts the king.

3:52 So from the opening I thought well Magnus is doing

3:54 the typical Magnus stuff which is play a line deviate early force

4:00 the opponent into positions where every move there are different decisions

4:04 to make already he is getting to play in a kind of uncharacteristic

4:09 way of course is a very flexible player he's happy to adapt

4:12 to his surroundings but if not was playing a 25 uh

4:15 40 rated player he would have played knight h5 I think

4:19 regardless we have bishop f5 and now we have something Very funny.

4:23 So the bishop attacks the queen and the queen

4:26 obviously can drop back to the home

4:27 square or you can proceed to move the queen four times in the next five moves.

4:37 So first we go here.

4:41 Self-explanatory.

4:43 Black goes here attacking the queen and defending the pawn.

4:48 We go here.

4:50 Self-explanatory.

4:51 We're targeting three different things, but none of them are actually hanging.

4:55 Black now plays rook E8.

4:56 Now, rook E8 looks like a very mysterious move.

4:58 What on earth does rook E8 accomplish?

5:00 You cannot push this pawn.

5:02 So, what are you trying to do with the move rook E8?

5:05 To understand rook E8, you have to have a very high IQ, not just chessilo.

5:09 You have to be very very sophisticated and intelligent.

5:12 The idea of rook E8 is to free the F8 square for the bishop to come

5:16 back and to target the queen for the pawn to move and attack the bishop.

5:20 And the queen actually doesn't have an easy way to get away.

5:23 It has to go to D1 and then all the way over here.

5:26 And so castles happens.

5:28 Node plays bishop F8.

5:30 Magnus plays queen A4 B5.

5:32 And the queen returns to the home square.

5:34 Now folks, let me be very clear with you.

5:36 If any of you play chess like

5:38 this and I was your coach immediately, absolutely not.

5:43 15 moves of this game, the queen has moved one, two, three, four, five times.

5:48 33% of the moves have been with the queen and it is on its home square.

5:52 It literally didn't move.

5:56 It figuratively metaphorically it literally moved but basically didn't.

6:01 It's as if black got five extra moves during this game.

6:07 But the thing about those moves is those moves are knight c6 knight a5 b5

6:11 which could be weakening bishop f5 which could

6:13 be a target and bishop back to f8.

6:16 So, five extra moves for Novak and yet no advantage,

6:19 which is kind of fascinating.

6:21 Now, he plays knight C4 trying to justify everything.

6:24 B3 and the knight goes to uh to A3 to camp out.

6:28 In this position, the the computer wants G4 first.

6:36 It wants to kick the bishop away and then go

6:39 B3 because if you play knight A3 in this version, I can overtake the diagonal,

6:44 try to lock away this piece uh and maybe try to move forward like this.

6:48 The computer is really obsessed with the concept of trying to play G4 here.

6:52 In a lot of symmetrical kingside uh

6:55 uh castle positions of Queen's Gambit declines,

6:57 there's these lines where you target the bishop on F5,

6:59 particularly when I can go there as a result of putting your pawn on G6.

7:03 Uh but all this happens B3 knight A3.

7:06 The the thing though about this position is black is completely fine.

7:10 His structure is very good.

7:11 You'll notice that black traded his light squareed bishop then put seven

7:14 pawns on light squares which means

7:16 the light squares are completely protected insulated.

7:19 Very tough for Magnus to actually do anything.

7:22 He plays rook C1 to try to take control of this file after moving his knight.

7:25 And then he obviously tries to move his knight.

7:28 And it's kind of like normal.

7:29 He's doing typical Magnus stuff.

7:30 The knight is on E5,

7:31 but black is ready to trade a rook and then trade the second rook.

7:34 And that's kind of that's going to be the idea.

7:37 Like everything that No has done is very nice.

7:38 The knight is planted there.

7:40 It's preventing white from making any progress.

7:42 This is a closed position.

7:44 How do you know if a chess position is closed or open?

7:47 Very simple.

7:48 Look at the number of pawns.

7:49 Pawns are like a fence.

7:50 Both sides have seven pawns.

7:51 That means both sides have built up a very formidable fence.

7:55 The only opening of the fence is here.

7:57 And in a closed position, you're looking at piece maneuvers and pawn breaks.

8:02 And that doesn't exist.

8:04 There's almost no way to maneuver your pieces anywhere.

8:07 And there's no way to trade pawns almost anywhere.

8:09 So Magnus is trying.

8:11 I mean, he's looking for E4, G4, trying to control the play a little bit.

8:14 Uh No, by the way, look at this maneuver.

8:16 He pushes the pawn and gets the knight out.

8:19 That is nice maneuvering.

8:20 Now, here's another maneuver as they try to go to C5.

8:23 They found some maneuvers here.

8:25 Okay, we have some rook trades coming up.

8:27 Solidifying his queen side is not with A5.

8:30 Magnus bringing his king in closed positions very often.

8:32 You can often play tennis.

8:34 You can just hit the ball back.

8:36 This is very much a move that changes nothing about the position.

8:39 F6 also doesn't change too much.

8:41 It does weaken this pawn, but there's no way to attack it.

8:44 And he's also generating his own pawn play.

8:46 That's another example of pawn play and maybe taking space for the future.

8:49 Okay, so Magnus is kind of trying to accomplish something,

8:53 but Noag does a nice maneuver here, rook,

8:55 and then puts the queen behind the rook.

8:57 And ultimately, you know,

8:58 even though Magnus is able to to break into the position over there,

9:01 there's not too much here.

9:03 And the pieces are sort of locked.

9:04 You've got it's like it's like a wrestling match.

9:06 You got the hands on the shoulders,

9:07 but nobody can really do anything, and uh the pieces get traded.

9:11 Magnus activates the queen, but in doing so, he leaves the king wide open,

9:15 and the game is simply going to end in a draw.

9:19 Now, you could even trade the queens here, but there is no need for this.

9:23 Sometimes you get into a pawn end game,

9:25 you might lose it by accident if white gets over here.

9:28 It's not going to happen, though.

9:29 Uh, I got to tell you, this was a great game from Nyberg.

9:32 Very effortless, it seemed.

9:33 Draw with the black pieces against Magnus.

9:35 Magnus did not have a strong opening idea here.

9:38 Uh, and uh, yeah, just a very chill game

9:41 from the potential future number two in the world.

9:44 also future number one if Magnus retires

9:46 in the next few years or stops playing in tournaments.

9:49 I don't think Magnus will lose 60 rating points,

9:51 but Nobeck is one of the best players in the world

9:53 for sure and they move up to two points, you know.

9:56 Um, now the other person who's leading this tournament is the 15-year-old,

10:01 he might be 16 at this point, 15year-old from Texas, Andy Woodward.

10:05 Uh, and in his spare time, he is driving the Ford F-150,

10:09 of course, and barbecuing and other American traditions.

10:13 Uh, and Jordan uh is uh yeah, I mean he's recently had a massive resurgence.

10:18 Very creative player in the opening.

10:20 And this game did not disappoint.

10:21 Andy started with D4.

10:23 Jordan baited him with D6.

10:25 D6 allows E4 at which point black either

10:28 has to play a period defense or a filidor.

10:31 Both of which are kind of suboptimal compared to the other mainline openings.

10:35 Uh, but Andy kind of gets well,

10:38 I don't know what the right word is, but like excited and goes rook G1.

10:44 Now, rook G1 um nowadays is completely playable in the filidor.

10:50 And basically, you take advantage of the fact

10:51 that black's bishop is out of the game.

10:53 So, you try to go G4 and G5 and you sacrifice the right to kingside castle.

10:58 Now, let me tell you something right now.

11:00 Uh, in my E4 course,

11:02 I recommend the line with H3 and G4 and the bishop going to G2.

11:05 In general, these pawns pawn kind of advancements versus

11:09 a passive setup work extremely well up to master level.

11:12 So, if you are looking for some sort of G pawn stuff in any

11:15 line really uh I highly recommend what you're going to see in this game.

11:19 The the thing is though,

11:20 his opponent who plays the filidor is very very well prepared.

11:25 Uh, he is very prepared for what's about to happen.

11:28 He goes for this G6 idea.

11:30 Uh he's still baiting G5, but Andy reconsiders here.

11:34 And because he reconsiders for so long

11:36 and like plays A3 after spending 20 minutes,

11:40 Jordan punishes his G4, he plays H5.

11:43 So Jordan catches the young Woodward in some sort of like

11:47 I don't know back alley under uh under the canal water,

11:52 you know, uh coffee shop wink wink in Amsterdam uh type of preparation.

11:58 Uh and uh yeah, like he gets Andy playing some crazy stuff like rook to G5.

12:04 You can bet that this position has never

12:06 happened ever in professional chess or in amateur chess.

12:10 This is wild stuff.

12:11 I don't know what is going on here.

12:12 He's offering him a trade of rooks.

12:14 Uh the thing is you got to think on your own.

12:15 The computer doesn't like this because after

12:17 this trade uh it thinks that the ensuing position

12:20 with knight to H5 is very strong

12:21 and Jordan actually continued this way targeting the knight.

12:24 And now you have to play H4 and effectively sacrifice a pawn.

12:29 That's what Andy's doing.

12:31 So he's basically like, Jordan, go take my pawn.

12:34 Then I'm going to come back.

12:35 I'm going to long castle.

12:36 I'm going to have two bishops and more open space.

12:38 Very enginelike thinking.

12:40 I have to tell you, back in the day, the masters of the 20th century and early

12:44 2000s would have never played like this ever.

12:48 Nobody plays like this.

12:49 But nowadays, like the cost of a pawn when the tradeoff is losing

12:54 the bishop pair and potentially having

12:57 to play a position like this is substantial.

12:59 Now in this particular position uh if

13:02 black plays energetically and white gets to castle

13:05 and black continues to play with energy

13:07 the computer still thinks that the position

13:09 here is very very reasonable for black even though you are a pawn uh

13:12 up but a little passive uh and it

13:14 doesn't think that white has sufficient compensation.

13:17 There is a way potentially to take a pawn back.

13:19 That is what you shouldn't blunder but the computer is not trying to do that.

13:22 I'm sure there are even lines where it would happily put its

13:24 king in the middle of the board and this is totally normal.

13:28 Jordan, for whatever reason, doesn't do that.

13:30 He plays knight E5, which gives white enough time to defend himself.

13:33 And even though he generates some initiative,

13:35 uh, this counterattack is very nice,

13:38 he ends up kicking out the knight and trading.

13:40 And as utterly stupid as this pawn structure looks,

13:44 and let me tell you, it is extremely ugly and extremely stupid.

13:48 Um, somehow it's okay.

13:50 Somehow it's survivable.

13:51 It's very difficult for black to actually

13:53 push anything forward because these pawns will

13:55 be weak and that means the knight and the king are going to be weak.

13:58 Jordan ultimately settles for this type of position and he undoubles

14:01 his structure and now it doesn't even look bad at all.

14:03 This is just going to be weaknesses, these two and maybe these three.

14:06 The bishop's weak.

14:08 H5 long castle.

14:10 I actually like white's position now.

14:12 And uh quite soon you can trade the the bishops and the queen

14:14 comes off the board and now we have an endgame and um yeah,

14:20 nothing really happens here.

14:21 We just get opposite colored bishops.

14:22 Four pawns versus five.

14:24 This is a draw with eyes closed, preferably with eyes open.

14:27 And uh yeah, no neither side can make any progress

14:31 here because your pawns are all on the wrong color.

14:34 The bishops will defend or counterattack.

14:36 And Andy draws as well and he maintains first place.

14:39 It was a very exciting game,

14:40 but it was only a very exciting game for like 15 moves.

14:43 Uh now this game uh was quite interesting.

14:46 Uh, Jujin, she clearly came with an opening

14:48 idea here to try to surprise uh Erdomush,

14:51 who's the strongest 14-year-old in the history of chess,

14:56 stronger than Magnus at the same age.

14:58 She went for knight f3 and e3 and b3 and he developed his bishop.

15:04 Kind of crazy.

15:05 He spent 5 minutes on the third move obviously surprised by the opening.

15:09 Uh, but the good thing about this setup for black

15:11 is that there's really nothing that can go wrong here.

15:13 Uh, Juju, she played like this.

15:15 She played H3, D3, knight BD2, uh, and then she went for C4.

15:20 So she, you know, both players were out of their preparation,

15:25 but instead of going the more positional way,

15:27 which would have been something like castles, um,

15:31 she immediately forced the trade of bishops, which he declined.

15:37 And already black is better.

15:40 Black is better because the way that white advanced was incorrect.

15:43 Instead of C4, white should have actually went for E4.

15:47 And by going C4, you've weakened this pawn and you've

15:50 actually limited the mobility of your pieces going forward.

15:53 Here, you actually had a chance to liberate your pieces,

15:55 this pawn could get to E5.

15:57 This pawn can't really get anywhere.

16:00 Which is probably why in this position,

16:01 instead of castling and maybe just having a slightly worse position,

16:05 um she she uh she goes for G4.

16:11 and G4 is uh is a is a very very aggressive move here.

16:16 White is not going to castle.

16:18 White is going to go rook G1, H4, G5, H5, and maybe long castle.

16:24 So now he's going to have to deal with an attack.

16:25 He ends up spending 24 minutes being like,

16:28 I don't think that there's any attack here.

16:30 I'm just going to short castle.

16:31 That's how I'm going to handle this.

16:33 And she goes rook G1.

16:35 And so the idea is obviously H4, G5, H5.

16:37 Now, let me tell you, for Blitz, I would love this.

16:40 This would be fantastic for blitz.

16:42 Uh but in classical often times you put your pieces on squares.

16:46 This is my experience.

16:47 Then your opponent makes moves like e5 and you do this and then you sit

16:50 there and go I kind of wish chess had takebacks because now you cannot castle.

16:58 You have this but you're not ever opening up the bishop.

17:02 And Erdomos is just like chilling.

17:03 I mean he's just kind of sitting there.

17:07 Maybe he'll play B5, A5, A4.

17:09 Maybe he's just going to trade this bishop.

17:11 Like he is waiting for white to prove there is something here.

17:15 She goes A3, which stops the bishop from coming down that diagonal.

17:19 He stops B4, so he limits the play over there.

17:22 And also, he's looking at B5 potentially the C6 pawn supporting both pawns.

17:27 White plays queen C2, kind of another waiting move.

17:29 He also plays a waiting move just stabilizing the center.

17:33 And at some point, white will run out of moves.

17:37 White has done everything, but there are no more moves,

17:41 which is why white plays bishop f3.

17:44 There are no more moves.

17:45 You can only now make moves back and forth.

17:48 And only black can make progress with moves like knight c5, dc, d4, e4, b5, b4.

17:53 So he goes here, she goes e4.

17:56 And now the a big mistake here for black would be pushing.

18:00 Not a huge huge huge mistake,

18:02 but if you lock the position like this, you severely restrict your pieces

18:07 for the duration of the game and then you have to rely on stuff like this.

18:09 You're going to make the position very closed.

18:12 This also makes the position a bit closed,

18:14 but it forces a decision out of white who takes with the D pawn.

18:18 And now at least you have some openings.

18:20 The D file is open.

18:21 The D4 square is open.

18:22 You can maneuver a bishop there.

18:24 And uh black at least has some play.

18:25 Knight H7, knight G5.

18:27 Like I said, in closed positions, you're looking for backwards reroutes.

18:30 You're looking for pawn play and white's bishops just aren't strong here.

18:33 So now rook D8 from Erdomush, bishop back to E2.

18:37 He moves the king off of the G line completely

18:40 and now he actually starts fighting back on the G file.

18:43 So the exact flank that white has established

18:45 a potential attack on, he is now countering.

18:50 That's bad.

18:52 She plays rook F3.

18:53 He plays knight D7, bringing the knight back

18:55 and trying to put the bishop on this diagonal instead.

18:57 Knight back to F1.

18:58 Now the knight goes to H5.

18:59 The bishop lost touch with the diagonal.

19:01 So, the knight immediately jumps in.

19:02 It's like every move for black is

19:04 a punishment in response to what white is doing.

19:07 She goes knight e3.

19:08 Knight f4.

19:09 That's a very annoying knight.

19:10 And the white king is just in the middle.

19:12 The white king cannot castle.

19:13 Knight f6 is a problem as well.

19:16 White can't castle because that pawn on a3 uh

19:19 is potentially just going to be captured if that happens.

19:21 So, he go So, now yeah, he, you know, is taking over.

19:25 She ends up sacrificing a pawn.

19:26 She's trying to do this to activate the queen a little bit and the C4 square.

19:30 Knight C4, but I mean,

19:32 and she finally gets to castle on the 28th move, but you're a pawn down.

19:36 And black has all of the initiative.

19:38 Knight to D5.

19:39 Total domination here.

19:41 Queen is going to come into F6.

19:43 B5 finally hitting the knight.

19:45 You probably shouldn't take on A5.

19:47 Knight E3 was played.

19:48 Uh, and knight E3, she played with two seconds,

19:50 but knight C3 is simply a blunder of a queen.

19:54 uh because the rook no longer covers that square and you know

19:58 she saw like knight a5 is there but then there's rook a8 uh

20:01 and she didn't like that also knight a5 of course there's queen f5

20:04 and b4 and all sorts of ideas um and yeah wins a nice game

20:10 but I think for the second time uh jujer she's she's underperforming like

20:15 the like the same with nils nils grandilas he's 0 out of two

20:18 and I'm about to show you his game against Arjun Erici the thing

20:21 is if you feel if you feel a bit uneasy from the beginning.

20:25 And she's definitely the underdog of the field, bad things can happen, you know.

20:30 Um, and uh, that's she's going to have to bounce back.

20:33 And often times, sometimes, same happens with Magnus,

20:36 you got to get punched in the mouth a couple

20:38 times and that like wakes you up a little bit.

20:41 Not actually, I don't think they're actually

20:42 punching each other over there in Sweden.

20:44 Um, now in the game, uh, Erici Grandilius.

20:48 Eric with the white pieces.

20:50 Eric Icy is a 2600 grand masters and lower rated than that.

20:54 He's their worst nightmare.

20:56 He is probably by far the worst matchup for any player below 2650.

21:03 Niels is 2662 but he has lost rating

21:05 in this tournament because Eric Gy comes to fight.

21:08 He is either ready to blow you off the board in some

21:10 ridiculous opening or he is ready to complicate matters with you.

21:14 You're going to have to get into it.

21:15 He's like Arjun Eric Gy is like the Carlos Pras.

21:19 okay, of chess.

21:21 I'm not sure if he's technical and refined enough to become a champion

21:25 with the grappling and the jiujitsu and all that type of stuff.

21:29 But as far as spinning and stepping elbows

21:31 and heel kicks and and the striking, I mean,

21:35 goodness me, this means nothing to you if you're

21:36 not if you're not a mixed martial arts fan.

21:38 Carlos Pace smokes multiple cigarettes before fights.

21:41 I think Arjent Gi in his hotel room is

21:44 smoking a cigar and preparing for his games and then

21:48 he puts on like battle paint and he just

21:50 goes to fight like this dude this dude is crazy.

21:53 He his nickname is the madman I think.

21:55 So in this game Niels does he he he he it's really bold of him.

22:02 He plays into a dragon Sicilian.

22:05 Eric Icy plays the most principled way in the dragon which is develop

22:09 the bishop f3 queen d e d e d e d e d e d e d e d e d e d e2 and long

22:11 castle and the move here for black that tries to equalize is d5.

22:17 The point of this move is that white now has to play takes takes.

22:22 And the best move in this position is a very cutting edge modern idea.

22:26 Bishop c4.

22:27 We actually saw this in the candidates tournament.

22:30 Uh, and the idea of bishop C4 is to put

22:32 the bishop on B3 after black reinforces the middle like this.

22:36 And you normally don't get the bishop here.

22:39 And it also can be a target for an attack.

22:41 But it does a nice job layering the defenses against the king.

22:45 And then you start your own attack potentially.

22:47 And if black is not careful, you will just crush them or you potentially get

22:51 an advantageous endgame as black is forced to take on E4.

22:54 Say Levy, that was a lot of mumbo jumbo.

22:56 What are you talking about?

22:57 If black doesn't immediately take here and open the position.

23:00 If black thinks that they can get into a battle with you, they can't.

23:04 Your attack is much faster.

23:05 If black plays knight takes H5, you have G4.

23:08 The knight goes back to F6.

23:09 And this position, black can already resign.

23:12 Because white is going to go E5 and the game is over.

23:14 This attack is nothing.

23:16 That's why this extra layer of defense is very nice.

23:18 A4 is not a problem.

23:19 You can take it.

23:20 You can even ignore it.

23:20 It it doesn't matter because by the time they get here, this is mate.

23:24 So having said all that, the way that black has to play this is like this.

23:28 And this sucks because these pawns are very weak in the long run.

23:32 Uh and after queen f2, queen c7, this structure is a delight to play for white.

23:37 I'm not even sure that after queen c7 this was necessarily all.

23:41 I think both players knew everything very well.

23:43 So I think here maybe could have went for bishop h6.

23:46 I think h4 was inaccurate.

23:48 H4 was a move out of theory.

23:49 There's some lines here with bishop h6 or knight

23:51 a4 trying to put the knight on c5.

23:53 But this position is very nice to play for white um because

23:58 practically speaking look practically speaking um black has to take on e4.

24:05 So the line here for for for the engine is to take and lose this completely.

24:10 Uh the point is that after bishop f8 rook

24:12 f8 the position is actually just equal which is nuts.

24:16 It's a rook for a bishop, but the position is equal.

24:20 I don't know how that's possible.

24:22 Um, but that's the truth.

24:24 Now, unless you know that with an engine and you've played practice games,

24:27 you're probably going to save your rook and Eric

24:30 is going to take both of your pawns.

24:31 So, Arjun calls the bluff,

24:32 takes absolutely all your pawns, and has three passed pawns.

24:37 So, this game cannot cannot make it to an endame.

24:42 The game must end with blood.

24:43 Blood must be spilled.

24:44 The king must be hunted out of where he stands.

24:48 And then you have right like that's that's what you have to do.

24:51 There's no alternative.

24:53 So queen E5.

24:57 That's mate.

24:58 Erici goes C3.

24:59 Queen takes C4.

25:00 A pawn has been won back.

25:02 Still I have three pass pawns.

25:03 If we trade queens and rooks, the game is over.

25:05 Erici trades one pair of rooks and brings rook E1,

25:09 baiting the opponent into a queen trade.

25:11 And that is what happens.

25:13 So, this is just about the best case scenario for black.

25:16 Why?

25:18 He's in an endame where both guys are going to push all of their pawns

25:24 except one pawn is surviving and will slow down a little bit of the action here.

25:29 Otherwise, I'm just going to advance.

25:31 Can Erici win a sharp endame?

25:33 Yes, we know he can win a lot of different positions,

25:35 but can he win a sharp endame?

25:37 A4.

25:38 Rook A8.

25:39 Bishop B6.

25:40 Apparently, rook A8 was the wrong move.

25:41 Apparently, black needed to get a head start and then

25:44 try to bring the bishop back and win this pawn.

25:46 He goes here.

25:47 He makes his rook more passive.

25:49 And this is a lesson for the endgame.

25:51 You generally should not move your rook to the outside edge of the board.

25:55 It's just not going to work.

25:56 It's like there's nothing concrete about this yet, but objectively speaking,

26:00 you probably need the rook a little bit more active.

26:03 One of the sample lines here is H5.

26:05 And if A5 were to be played, bishop F6, you would try to win this back.

26:08 There would be bishop B6, but the rook can be here and prevent the pawn

26:12 from advancing on a little bit more of an active square.

26:15 When Neiels plays rook A8, you know, he puts the rook in a corner

26:18 and even though that that counterplay is still possible,

26:21 those pawns are now doubled and bishop C2 comes back.

26:24 He's going to try to trade and defend actively.

26:27 He's not going to try to be passive.

26:29 He also can't.

26:29 He would literally lose the rook.

26:31 King B1.

26:32 And there's Arag.

26:33 Apparently, bishop E4 is the wrong move, but it makes a lot of sense to me.

26:36 before bishop Bishop E4.

26:37 The engine wants B4.

26:39 So it wants B4 H3 and now B5 to sacrifice the pawn to to to do this.

26:48 That's the idea.

26:49 Okay.

26:49 To hit both bishops and one of them you're going to take with a check.

26:52 Eric does it like this.

26:53 His rook is more active than black's rook.

26:56 H3.

26:57 He plays king C2.

26:58 Very sharp endame here.

27:00 H2 is totally reasonable.

27:02 The rook is defending.

27:03 This rook still can't really make any space.

27:05 It can't get off the back rank at all.

27:07 If this pawn gets to A7, the end game is probably just

27:09 over cuz the rook won't be able to move to any square.

27:12 Bishop F4.

27:13 Very sharp.

27:13 Four pawns on one side of the board, three on the other.

27:16 Here comes B4.

27:19 And apparently this is a bad move.

27:22 Here you have to play king G7, King G6, King G5, King G4, King H3, and King G2.

27:30 I am not exaggerating.

27:32 Look at the top line of the computer.

27:34 King G7.

27:35 B5.

27:36 King G6.

27:37 C4.

27:38 King G5.

27:39 A6.

27:40 King G4.

27:41 C5.

27:42 King G3.

27:44 C6.

27:45 King G2.

27:46 C7.

27:47 And now H5.

27:50 Obviously, you morons.

27:51 How did you not expect that?

27:54 So, the point is that you want to queen

27:56 this and then have the second one as backup immediately.

27:58 I mean, that's Yeah,

28:03 it's hard to come up with these concepts when you don't have a lot of time.

28:06 He goes here, but this approach is wrong.

28:08 Pushing the E pawn is incorrect.

28:10 It's too close to the king.

28:11 He never got his rook in the game.

28:13 And by the time he activated the rook and the king,

28:16 you're just not breaking through here.

28:17 And Eric's pawns are too strong, too fast, very classy end to this game.

28:22 You can take the queen and then I would take your bishop.

28:24 He promotes to a knight, which is very funny.

28:27 But then he takes.

28:29 You can take the queen, then I will take your bishop.

28:31 You can take my bishop, then I will take your rook or play queen G2 check.

28:35 And that's it.

28:36 Erici wins another game.

28:38 Uh he has uh two, I think.

28:40 Yep, he's tied for first now.

28:42 And uh the results are as follows.

28:44 It's a massive tie with two.

28:46 Jordan is having a decent tournament with one and a half.

28:49 This is a tale of six individuals that are having a decent tournament

28:53 and two individuals who absolutely everybody is now going to try to defeat.

28:58 When you start 0 and3 or half out of three,

29:02 no one's going to try to draw you anymore

29:03 and it could be very very rough for them.

29:06 And everybody else beating everybody else will be fascinating.

29:08 I'm kind of sad this tournament is already half over.

29:11 Um I mean I wish we got to see Magnus play much more against Erdomush,

29:14 Erici, Kimer, Abdul Satarov, Sindarov.

29:18 Yeah, it's kind of sucks in chess that like

29:21 this is a this is such a temporary thing.

29:23 Um, that's all I have for you today.

29:26 If you made it this far, couple of things are ongoing.

29:29 Of course, I have the pre-orders for my next book,

29:30 How to Win a Chess Next Level.

29:32 Uh, there are now signed pre-orders available in Canada, UK, and Europe.

29:35 That is always linked in the description.

29:37 And the tour has been announced.

29:38 Europe tour 2026 be in Cologne, Amsterdam, Zurich, Paris, uh, and London.

29:44 So, tickets for all that is in the description.

29:47 Uh, we are making also big changes on Chesley.

29:49 We've got a mobile app coming.

29:51 You didn't ask for all these updates, but I'm going to give them to you anyway.

29:54 Uh, and we uh, yeah, it's going to be fun.

29:56 It's going to be a fun time.

29:58 That's all.

29:58 Get out of here.