Magnus Doing Magnus Things...

0:00 you rather just accept that it's a one

0:02 move blunder and that's how it's going to end.

0:05 Now Duda finds himself in a must-win game.

0:08 Magnus did deliver on a must-win game the very first

0:12 match that they played in order to send it to Armageddon.

0:15 That's exactly what Duda needs to do.

0:17 A reminder two games in the reset.

0:19 They started in that best of four.

0:21 This is now best of two.

0:22 So even a draw here is insufficient for Duda.

0:26 He does have the white pieces which is nice but clearly he has to go

0:31 back to all those ways that have been working before and just get a game.

0:36 What I will say is that in this match so far,

0:38 the first game now this one much more classical positions compared

0:43 to the first match that we saw today where it was wild.

0:46 The players were experimenting.

0:49 I feel that the first match and the positions we saw

0:51 favored Duda a little bit more than these these two games here.

0:55 Yeah.

0:55 No, in these classical positions, Magnus, it's like an Armageddon,

0:59 but it's an Armageddon without a time disadvantage for black.

1:03 So, he's just playing E5, playing positions he knows,

1:06 and it's whether it's blitz chess, rapid chess, classical chess.

1:11 E5 has been a great opening for 500 years.

1:15 It's been tough to crack and really curious what Duda uh will

1:19 will choose here to to imbalance it and give himself that type

1:22 of position that we've seen Magnus sometimes get frustrated with like

1:26 not not easy natural moves and and some lingering attacking chances here.

1:30 Not not not so easy.

1:32 It's a bit of a slow maneuvering game

1:35 and all these guys are really good at that.

1:37 But Magnus hasn't shown too many weaknesses in that.

1:40 Even the last game was a great example, right?

1:42 at the IQP position.

1:44 He was dominant there in in a position that's

1:47 been well studied and known for for a while.

1:50 Still still showing his understanding.

1:54 Absolutely.

1:54 Well, knight H7.

1:55 This is the last chance.

1:56 Yeah.

1:56 Knight H7 by Magnus.

1:58 He's he's not really looking uh to play this game in the most classical way.

2:02 Um G6 and Knight H7.

2:05 Of course, you think a little bit about the F

2:07 pawn moving up the board would require an additional move.

2:10 King G7 or King H8 for example.

2:13 But you also start to think about moves like

2:15 Knight G5 just to trade a few pieces off.

2:18 Maybe bishop E6 as well.

2:20 Uh so knight H7 is flexible and not entirely revealing.

2:25 Yeah.

2:25 Knight Knight H7.

2:27 Just just trading.

2:28 I don't play the lines too often with white

2:30 where you bring this dark squared bishop out early.

2:33 Uh they can be a little counterintuitive.

2:34 You're like my bishop is here aimed at E5.

2:38 What do I do to freeh free it open?

2:40 And sometimes that involves playing d4.

2:42 In the meantime, what you mentioned for black,

2:44 sometimes you move the king off G8 so that you can free up

2:47 the f pawn and you can envision bit of a pawn storm coming.

2:51 And so now f5 Magnus didn't play knight g5.

2:54 F5 is a threat.

2:55 You have to play d4.

2:56 I was going to say is bishop f6.

2:58 I I was wondering how we were going to handle d4

3:01 actually on the previous turn and here it's the same thing.

3:03 I mean, if you take on D4, it just feels silly that we played knight H7.

3:08 So, it's almost like a Kings Indian sort

3:10 of approach to the position where if white plays D5,

3:14 black is happy to play knight B8 or knight E7 and just,

3:17 you know, retreat the knight.

3:19 Eventually, you will spend the extra time to now move the king again,

3:23 move the bishop back to G7.

3:24 You've got a position that looks exactly like a Kings Indian,

3:28 but white has a bishop on G3,

3:30 a piece you almost never really want to have in a Kings

3:34 Indian because F5 F4 is just going to come with tempo.

3:36 Yeah, that'd be a better version for black,

3:38 which means a lot because the Kings Indian is is pretty tricky to play.

3:42 Uh, and I I think speaking about this bishop on G3, what you mentioned is right.

3:47 Black doesn't want to take on D4 unless it's very good because part

3:50 of your your play here is that this bishop on G3 isn't in the game yet.

3:55 And yes, you can take on E5, but right now that's not only well defended,

3:58 but easy to add more defense on with rook E8 or queen E7.

4:04 Mhm.

4:03 But it is a big decision for Duda because knight B3 is

4:06 one way to deal with the fact that this pawn is loose.

4:09 The knight on B3 can often be misplaced.

4:11 In fact, Duda lost to Magnus uh in their first match,

4:15 not today, but when they played in the winners bracket.

4:17 Part of it was because he moved his knight to the wrong square in the queen

4:20 side and [clears throat] ended up getting

4:21 punished for that in that that earlier game.

4:25 So, it's interesting.

4:26 I'm seeing all the ideas for Magnus come together.

4:29 And I'm actually really impressed by how Duda's

4:31 handling it because queen C2 sort of temporarily,

4:34 you could say, even allowed the pawn on D4 to be taken.

4:38 What Magnus is trying to do is chip away at the defenders of the D pawn

4:42 with knight G5 and really encourage pawn takes

4:45 E5 or D5 and Duda's refusing to do it.

4:48 And that's the frustrating part is Magnus can't play a move like bishop E6.

4:52 There is D5 then and you'd win a piece.

4:54 So you can't really move the pieces to the squares that you want to.

4:58 You're stuck with just bishop D7.

5:00 Now for example, if you ever did play D5, it might be a little bit better.

5:05 E7's not available.

5:06 the knight would be kicked back to a square that really doesn't have a future.

5:10 So, I think Duda is doing the right thing and just waiting this out

5:13 because Magnus is going to start to feel extremely cramped in the position.

5:18 We have to talk about the obvious thing here.

5:20 Why can't black take on D4?

5:21 Why is Magnus not choosing to?

5:23 Because if white doesn't have to deal

5:24 with that, which is that's what Duda is arguing,

5:26 that makes the position quite a bit easier to play.

5:28 And the point is, I think if you take on D4 in any of these positions,

5:33 you can win a pawn or it looks like you win a pawn.

5:37 But after F4, this is a must-win game for Duda.

5:40 F4.

5:40 Knight swings back to F3.

5:43 White gets a massive initiative with the center here.

5:47 Feels like things are very loose.

5:48 Magnus isn't really a pawn grabber unless he

5:50 feels like it's an easy to play position.

5:52 And this position certainly isn't the play.

5:54 If you move your bishop here,

5:55 you lose your ability to have that bishop in the long diagonal.

5:57 something like bishop f6.

5:58 I go e5 and all of a sudden

6:00 all white's pieces are effective putting pressure here

6:03 and perfect for the match situation where he

6:05 needs an imbalance to try to beat Magnus.

6:08 And here we go.

6:09 Rook D8.

6:10 Still avoiding the capture.

6:12 Now white's played king H1.

6:13 White's played rook E1.

6:15 All of the pieces are almost on the squares that they'd like to be.

6:18 The only other improvement is maybe I'm looking at the bishop

6:21 on C4 thinking I might want to use that square for my knight.

6:24 So it could see a move like bishop A2, bishop B3, just dropping the bishop back.

6:29 However, knight H2 direct idea of perhaps just F4.

6:34 Look at the pawn on D4.

6:36 We talked about how it's been hanging and maybe it can't be taken.

6:39 I think this move it just I mean it proves exactly

6:42 that the pawn can be taken and it's what attacked three times here.

6:46 We don't care.

6:47 The idea is F4.

6:49 Kick that knight out and generate pressure with moves like knight F3 and E5.

6:55 Yeah, I I think I love the way Dudo is playing this.

6:57 I don't think Magnus is doing anything wrong, but mentalitywise,

7:01 this is what you need to do against Magnus.

7:03 Let him take the pawn.

7:05 Let him put his pieces on worse squares.

7:07 Force him to tactically be extremely aware,

7:09 which he hasn't been today for his standards.

7:12 F4 exclamation mark.

7:14 Yep.

7:14 And you can put Bishop H4 on the board.

7:18 Bishop takes uh H4.

7:20 Queen takes H4.

7:21 Knight F3.

7:22 Oh, yeah.

7:23 F5 directly.

7:24 Correct.

7:24 Yep.

7:24 I was going to put the queen back on E7 and say F5.

7:27 And just show similar ideas.

7:28 Knight on G4.

7:29 F5 threatening the knight threatening F6.

7:31 And he can do it right away.

7:34 Exactly.

7:34 It's Magnus today.

7:35 This is exactly how you want to play.

7:36 Let's take a look at the current position.

7:39 He's played it.

7:40 So F5 is Magnus sacrificing his queen.

7:45 And I I think I think that's the best line.

7:48 That's the best line.

7:49 And that's I don't know if it's a blunder or Magnus saw it,

7:53 but it's not the worst queen sacrifice all things considered.

7:57 It's not like, oh, it's game over right now.

7:59 Uh because black gets the dark squares and some stability here,

8:04 even though Magnus doesn't really believe in fortresses, but for sure

8:08 it's a question of I mean, you don't really have an option, right?

8:13 Yeah, you have to do this.

8:15 Queen takes, knight takes, and I was saying you have the dark squares.

8:18 I'm not taking here.

8:20 I'm taking here.

8:20 I have two pieces and two pawns for a queen.

8:23 But really good.

8:24 I don't know.

8:25 It's an imbalance.

8:25 It's a very unique imbalance,

8:27 but Magnus usually has a very good feeling for material sacrifices.

8:32 I I will say it's it's really one of the best possible

8:36 versions because the worst thing that you can have uh you know speaking

8:40 from from the perspective of someone who's given up a queen for a couple

8:43 pieces a few times in his career uh the worst thing that you

8:47 can have are pawn breaks and white has a4 c3 and will have

8:51 an isolated e pawn so there's not a lot of ways you can

8:55 break the position there so I think it was a reasonable option

8:59 and not just a desperation I actually think you could really hold that position,

9:03 but maybe Magnus still believing there's a a little

9:07 bit of a fight left in this one.

9:09 Well, this knight C5 doesn't change what we looked

9:13 at in the sense of the imbalance because if I go knight F3,

9:18 you're probably still taking here.

9:19 You don't want to You'd rather give up your queen for two pieces and two pawns.

9:22 Bishop F6

9:23 then then play bishop F6.

9:26 And if you put lose a full bishop, correct?

9:28 Losing a full bishop.

9:29 Not okay.

9:30 Bishop F6 on the board.

9:32 Then you know what's the most devastating path forward?

9:37 Queen C1.

9:37 Let's target this.

9:39 Let's just play rook H8.

9:42 And there's an E5 move and everything is collapsing.

9:47 The queen is just misplaced here.

9:49 You can just lose the game on the spot.

9:52 Yep.

9:51 That's the risk with Magnus keeping material.

9:53 So let's take a look at what happened.

9:55 Knight C5.

9:56 Knight F.

9:57 Oh, he took on H4.

9:59 unusual.

9:59 It's still good.

10:00 It's still good, I think.

10:02 I mean, it's it's a great position.

10:04 There's there's no doubt Magnus is on the run here, but knight F3.

10:08 Maybe he was lacking the confidence in that queen for two pieces position.

10:12 It's easy to look at that for white and think

10:14 what the like I can't even make progress there.

10:18 Yeah.

10:18 Rook D5.

10:19 We see the blue arrow.

10:21 Best move only move here for for the advantage.

10:26 And it's not easy to find a move for maybe this is what he was planning.

10:29 Is this what he looked at?

10:30 He's like this is a better version.

10:32 It's a cleaner way of let's say trapping the queen, right?

10:36 I mean he's the blue arrow is is is

10:38 very important I feel like to find right now.

10:42 Also looking Eric at Duda's camera.

10:44 He's he's had to move actually further and further back

10:47 from the screen I think so that the sun isn't actually set up.

10:52 Yeah.

10:53 He's got [laughter]

10:55 he's got to put some face paint on him on like the like the football players,

10:58 the baseball guys that remove the glare a little bit.

11:01 It's It's in a specific area as well.

11:03 See, when he leans in, he he really gets the full

11:06 Yeah, he's got to lean back into the darkness.

11:08 Look, Duda is like he's like a full arms length away from the computer here.

11:13 Yeah, he's like Bane is is born in the dark.

11:15 Yeah, he's got to fight in the dark here.

11:17 [laughter] Rook D5.

11:20 What do you play as as black?

11:22 because f6 is such a threat.

11:25 I mean, if f6 is such a threat, then black has to play f6

11:31 and it feels like the queen is so close to being trapped,

11:33 but we still need that move to trap the queen.

11:36 And it's not easy to find in like 3 minutes.

11:38 Duda is falling behind on the clock

11:41 because the position he probably feels is winning.

11:44 We felt it was winning.

11:46 Not it's harder to play than how we're talking about it.

11:49 And just the clock, the pressure, it's all accumulating.

11:54 Yep.

11:54 Because there's rook D5 after this.

11:58 G5.

11:59 Yes, exactly.

12:00 So, this is a bit of a forcing line.

12:04 And I mean, you want to play E5 check.

12:06 That's I mean, it makes so much sense.

12:09 There might be queen G6 available there.

12:12 Um,

12:13 yeah, it's almost like you'd like to play rook C5.

12:16 Yes.

12:16 Yes.

12:16 And then E5 because you can meet it with that but it doesn't

12:20 then black will move the king.

12:21 Yes.

12:22 Black won't block with the queen.

12:23 It's How is the queen surviving on H5?

12:25 What's the breakthrough here?

12:26 Not to mention bishop takes G4 is going to win a piece.

12:29 So surprisingly Magnus is hanging on for dear life but it's working right now.

12:38 So, do you think that there's some kind of like ultra

12:43 direct sacrificial path forward or is it something a lot more tame?

12:48 Because we see E5.

12:49 Okay, king H8.

12:50 I was expecting [clears throat] queen G6.

12:54 King G1, Eric, these these moves are not intuitive.

12:57 Oh, king G1 is that's a crazy move to play

13:01 to play like the the more aggressive E5 followed by the timid king G1.

13:07 Duda is shaking his head.

13:09 He probably feels here, Eric, genuinely that he has a good position,

13:12 but that the path forward is just not obvious.

13:15 And it's so frustrating when you know you have a good position,

13:18 but you also know that you can't find that path that you need.

13:21 You want to trap the queen.

13:22 You're like, Magnus is queen H5.

13:24 Yes, I should be better.

13:24 I love this Son, by the way.

13:26 Giving up the material.

13:27 It's a must-win game.

13:28 Now, it's a long imbalance.

13:30 You don't have the same pressure anymore on yourself.

13:33 Mhm.

13:33 Duda can say, "I'm not trapping the queen,

13:35 but I have a protected pass pawn on F6.

13:38 That's a threat.

13:39 It weakens black's king side.

13:41 My knights are coordinated."

13:43 It's just practically a good decision because at some point, you have to admit,

13:47 I'm not trapping my opponent's queen or I'm

13:48 going to just lose on time calculating.

13:50 This is a shift that is playable.

13:53 And Magnus doesn't like being up material.

13:55 If you think about this move, rook D5,

13:57 I was trying to understand it and I was thinking queen takes B7,

14:00 there might be knight E5.

14:03 with a queen d1 move at the end

14:05 of this line that's really annoying to deal with.

14:10 Yeah, I was thinking rook I guess rook takes e5.

14:13 Rook e5.

14:13 Yep.

14:14 And then and then you're just winning on f4 at the end.

14:17 Oh, that's very forcing.

14:18 That's exactly what Duda has to avoid.

14:21 Oh man, they played a bunch of moves here.

14:23 And they had a lot of time.

14:25 So these are some quick moves.

14:26 Rook E8 from Magnus.

14:27 Every single By the way, did he just lose four pawns?

14:31 Four pawns in 10 seconds.

14:32 It's a record.

14:33 You wouldn't analyze so heavily if they were in time trouble,

14:35 but they just like played immediately here.

14:38 I mean, a minute and a half.

14:40 It feels like Magnus has just altered his strategy from hunting for the best

14:44 moves to appreciating that he doesn't enjoy his position and he's just trying

14:48 to put clock pressure uh on on Duda because there's no explanation for losing

14:54 four pawns on the queen side in in a span of 10 to 15 seconds.

14:58 No, no, that was like both guys got really hyper for a moment.

15:04 G4.

15:10 Okay,

15:09 you know what?

15:10 I'm on this move, king G1.

15:12 Maybe now we play it.

15:15 Yep.

15:14 Move the king.

15:15 Maybe reroute the knight to G3.

15:17 Find some stability.

15:18 And that stability to me is the knight on E4.

15:21 If we can get the knight's tethered, it supports F6 long term.

15:24 You can always argue that the position is easier to play even

15:27 though you're down the exchange because with the queens on the board,

15:30 Magnus' queen has to be nearby to avoid

15:32 some sort of queen penetration and mating ideas.

15:36 So yes, E5.

15:39 I mean, knight E5 guards everything.

15:41 So immediately tempting.

15:43 Magnus is calculating.

15:44 He's saying it's okay, Aman.

15:45 If you move your knight out of the way, rook C5 holds everything together.

15:50 It's one of those positions that you almost laugh as white like,

15:53 how is everything being held together?

15:55 But it it just is.

15:59 Okay, G3 being the best move.

16:02 Let's see what kind of form Magnus is in today.

16:05 That's not easy to find.

16:07 This knight B7 questions the rook.

16:09 Rook D5.

16:10 Maybe you play C4.

16:11 Magnus gives back the material.

16:13 Doesn't spot G3.

16:14 And all of a sudden, material equality for that extra seven seconds.

16:20 Eric, it's all about the time.

16:21 I think Magnus has made this decision since a while back

16:24 that he's focused on the clock and he's just going to say,

16:28 you know, it's one thing to win material back.

16:30 It's another thing to actually beat me with 35 seconds.

16:32 He can't even find a move here.

16:34 And yeah, and he's threatening G3.

16:35 So dude has to find a move.

16:37 This is a crazy good find him on G3.

16:40 He's going to play queen F4 and say that he's not getting mated.

16:47 I mean, this is this is a wild position.

16:50 But you know what?

16:51 He wants to hang on to the F5.

16:53 Queen F4 or queen here.

16:58 Okay.

16:58 Is he does have checks now?

17:00 26 seconds, but he's got some checks on the back rank with that F6 pawn as well.

17:04 Not to mention queen H6.

17:08 If you check everywhere, there's no queen G7 mate.

17:11 So that could be the difference maker.

17:13 Queen H5.

17:13 There would be checkmate on G7.

17:16 That's right.

17:16 That's right.

17:17 The G7 square.

17:20 Wow.

17:20 What a fine by Magnus.

17:21 Duda can't perpetual here.

17:24 There's mate on the board if he doesn't do it.

17:26 Well, he he might, but it's effectively a Yeah, he's going to offer

17:32 the queens, but Magnus is he he he has actually lose this game.

17:36 his opponent with 12.4 seconds.

17:39 He's going to need to lose.

17:40 Duda knows this is uh the longest shot uh and just almost impossible.

17:47 This has been a crazy game because we were looking at some queen

17:49 sacrifices and Duda is going to be thinking about this for a while.

17:54 It felt like Magnus was was dead for a few moments.

17:57 Yeah, it certainly did.

17:58 And it would be so interesting to see that imbalance play out.

18:01 Queen for a couple of pieces.

18:03 He I think elected not to do it.

18:06 Maybe he didn't like it even for himself,

18:08 but I wonder how confident Magnus would have been in that position

18:12 because I think it was clear he didn't mean to get there,

18:14 but he wasn't that upset with the prospect.

18:17 Now, what do we need to do for Judah?

18:19 He needs to win to tie the match.

18:20 He's got to premove everything and win the rook.

18:23 Somehow premove everything cuz he's only got 8.4 seconds,

18:26 84 moves, and somehow win the rook at the same time.

18:31 Yeah, it's starting with premoveable.

18:33 Well, almost premove.

18:35 Semi premove.

18:36 He's hovering.

18:38 Hovering.

18:41 And probably not going to be enough, but he's trying.

18:44 Yep.

18:45 As he should.

18:46 There's the premove.

18:51 2.6 seconds.

18:54 Yeah, Magnus would have to selfmate.

18:56 That's just not enough here.

19:01 A win on time.

19:02 He's got that smirk on his face getting it done on the clock.

19:06 But that was that was an exciting game, a combative game.

19:09 And I I think Eric Duda just kind of lost some steam at at the end there.

19:12 His calculation.

19:13 He wanted to trap that queen.

19:15 He wanted to get it done tactically.

19:17 He just could not find a way.

19:19 So frustrating.

19:21 That is what Grandmaster Magnus Carlson for Team Liquid does to his opponents.

19:26 It frustrates them and he wins in the grand final.