@Eric Rosen vs Sagar Shah | I'm Not a GM Speed Chess Championship

i'm guessing is just like uh it's it is the  the winner will they just divide the 250 by   amount of points right robert please do correct  me from wrong okay i'm trying to do the math here   it's a little too early for math so don't worry  we're going to cover the chest we don't have to   turn the mathematicians but yes if the rest the  second 250 will be split by win percentage so if   someone's eighty percent of their games they're uh  getting quite a payday i like to hear that i like   to hear that it's definitely very very exciting  i mean do you have any um predictions for today   we're asking the heart any questions first  i don't know what to expect honestly because   sagar doesn't play as much chess not nearly as  much as eric but saga is a very talented player   he's way better known these days for his  commentary and for his journalism and he's an   exceptional human being i have so much respect for  both of these players and i would love to give you   a prediction so i'm going to go with eric rosen  just based on the experience level in online chess   that definitely does sound right eric is also a  streamer i mean sagar does as well but i have seen   eric play a lot of games recently and um you know  whoever wins today will get to play the one and   only levy rosman also known as gotham chess um in  the round of eight so today's match is going to be   extremely extremely exciting i'm hyped i'm  hyped too because we get so much blitz chess and   players are going to be stressed out we get to  just casually talk about their games 75 minutes of   five minute plus one second blitz 45 of the three  plus one the final 25 minutes of bullet chest   nemo i've seen you be playing a lot of bullet on  stream lately so i'm guessing you're excited for   that oh for sure i mean i'm really excited to just  commentate too on one minute bullet just it's uh   it's one of the rarer experiences i think as a  commentator because you don't really get to see   that so i'm definitely very excited i mean the  five plus one blitz is also going to be very   intense i i'm going to make the wild assumption  that the five plus one blitz is going to be the   time format with the most um let's say let's say  you know most solid games let's put it that way   because as we all know as the time gets lower and  lower as we go into one minute bullet chess it's   games tend to you know pieces tend to fly across  the board so this will be very exciting although   you'd be surprised by how many time scrambles you  get in the five minute portion where people are   you know up plus 10 and then all of a sudden  they lose on time so anything can happen in   these formats i love commentating this nemo  i'm so excited to commentate today with you   i can't wait for the games to lift up that's what  i'm always waiting for it will remind everybody   of the prize fund here we were talking about that  at the top we're not gonna be mathematicians they   could figure out their prize funds but really what  they want to do is qualify for the quarterfinals   and keep moving on for sure i mean this is very  very exciting we've chess.com has put up a really   really big price pool and um you know we're having  a lot of fun here so i am super excited to see the   games and i personally much like you know what  robert said i think i do think that eric might be   the slight favorite here just in terms of online  uh chess playing experience so the games i'm sure   are going to be extremely exciting extremely  extremely and we all know how much eric loves   his opening traps um i've been caught in a few of  those myself you know so i do think we'll see some   very exciting games yeah and if we do not see a  stafford gambit today that's the ultimate do as i   say not as i do actually that's like yeah that's  really would be disappointing to many of the   fans who will be tuning in waiting for a stafford  gambit since that's been popularized by eric rosen yeah for sure i mean eric has made a lot of  openings very popular um through his amazing   youtube and twitch channels so a lot of you guys  might actually be getting um some inspiration   from today's games at least i definitely hope  some of you guys will get inspiration from   today's games oh of course i mean sagar op right  that's that's what we're it's all about right   now we got i am rosen who's been one of the most  instructive chess personalities for many years now   sagar who uh you know maybe newer to the scene  for some people but i like i said i have such   tremendous respect from he's been a journalist  for a long time he's like a great source of   information and reporting and he's also an amazing  chess player people sometimes forget about that   when you play less and end up talking or writing  more but sagar is an amazing amazing asset to   the chess community for sure i mean i've known  sagar uh personally for a few years now as well   he's he's definitely being at i think every  single you know world chess olympiad i've   been to and i'm sure robert is familiar as well  since you've been a coach at a lot of those events   so sagar is an um absolute amazing personality for  sure i'm so curious though the first game we'll be   telling because yesterday we had tanya sanchez  who doesn't play so much online blitz chess she   was quite slow in the early stages of the five  minute and she was saying that you know you get   into this sense of comfort that you have five  minutes rather than three minutes that's so much   extra time and then you kind of needlessly spend  time in the opening so i'm very curious to see   how much preparation these two players have done  and for sagar in particular will he be up to the   task of keeping up on the clock with eric rosen  yeah i mean i do also want to say that preparing   as eric rosen is a bit scary you know because  uh he's got a lot of openings he's got a lot of   things that will pop out at you and you have to  like prepare a lot of things a lot of lines a lot   of variations and i'm just you know for a blitz  game that's a lot of stuff to remember right so   this will be a very very tense match oh absolutely  and these kind of gambits even if they may not   work in a classical game you surprise one in your  opponent they spend half their time just trying   to figure out the first 10 moves in the game that  can work to your benefit it also also can backfire   let's be clear some of these gambits have risks  they are gambits you typically give a pawn or   some sort of material so i'm very curious to see  which eric rosen we get maybe we'll get a calm   air he is a very calm person overall but i  wouldn't be surprised if in the first few games   just to dip his toes in the water if he just  challenges sagar in sort of standard opening fair   i definitely do want to see what eric has prepared  for today i mean we're definitely expecting to see   some of his normal um and by normal i mean the  not so normal openings just to make it clear   whenever we think normal we're usually thinking  stereotypical spanish italians but with eric   you never really know um so by normal of course i  mean eric's normal openings which could be really   anything and of course we'll see how sagar um does  respond i'm not quite familiar with sagar's um   gameplay to be honest but i do think that he is  pretty meticulous so um i'm sure he's prepared   something and i want to see that well i think what  you're saying makes complete sense you've studied   a lot of chess and uh you know you don't really  are not really familiar with him and that makes   sense because he doesn't play so much anymore  and that goes to show that it's been a while   since sagar has dusted off those pieces and  played some of these serious matches but he is   really talented uh he's uh he's like some sharp  play he's a d4 player by trade if i'm not mistaken   so that's going to be an interesting clash of  styles yeah well this will be exciting i mean   he he's uh looking a little bit nervous there i  mean i think eric is still still getting fully set   up so this will be very very intense and i think  one of the things that i'm going to be looking for   today and this uh especially in the longer games  is really like internal gameplay style too because   eric is quite tactical he likes to sacrifice i  had quite a few queens um chucked at me when i   was playing a match against him myself so that  was definitely very exciting um but but you   know this is this is the kind of game play that  excites me you know the kind of sacrifices the   the attacks the aggression um so there's  going to be a lot of very very fun stuff   i'm looking at the chat already going wild let  us know who you're rooting for come on we want   to know who you are rooting for i'm guessing  there will be a lot of soccer fans in the chat   but eric rosen he's got his faithful as well  so i'm curious to see what the breakdown's like   i already see they oh no my  queen means coming through   okay okay oh they're hyped look at that yes let's  go chad this is the kind of energy we want to see   yes oh my gosh you know it's funny because  people accuse me of ignoring chat i'm always   keeping an eye on you what do you think  i'm looking this way for i'm always looking   at the chat but i see everybody there is it  feels pretty rose and heavy right now but   i'm sure on youtube the soccer fans will be loud  and proud for sure for sure um there are a lot   of sagar fans here as well and i'm really happy  to see that it's a lot of we got a good match   up coming and everybody seems to be getting very  pumped and i like this yeah this is going to be   a great battle of two of the best personalities  in chess two of the nicest people and they don't   have to be nice i hope they realize that today  it's not about being gentlemanly they can go and   destroy each other over the board that's what i'm  looking forward to because when you turn these you   know pretty soft-spoken humble people into just  competitive chess players they hold nothing back   that's the kind of atmosphere i like if people  you know always have this impression of chess   players you know like whatever they are in  person is kind of while they're on the board   but i have to admit when i played eric rosen his  personality reflected nothing off his chest and   i was shocked i was so shocked i was like because  for me i mean personally i'm i'm quite outspoken   in person in real life and on the board  i'm like very similar but then there's   eric who uh you know is very very polite very kind  very nice and then all of a sudden on the board   i'm just getting destroyed and i'm like oh so that  happened yep you know so this is going to be very   interesting for sure and we do have liftoff i  am seeing game one is underway sagar's rating   is lower than i would have expected 2224 that's  a sign of somebody who is not playing a lot of   blitz which means the increment will be helpful  and look we have already d3 on the second move   against the car con eric playing a quiet setup and  sagar taking over the center here with d5 and e5   yep this is um all right at least the opening  for this one is starting out fairly slow   whoa okay d forcing he goes d3 and then d4 what  is in his bag of tricks okay never mind i said   that and ignore what i said ignore what i said and  forget that he's breaking the opening principles   he went d3 then went d4 he put his knight in front  of his bishop he goes bishop d3 this move makes   sense to me he's protecting the pawn e4 he wants  to take with the knight on e4 but open the board   stayed up black's king is in the center so white's  castling here i think black's just continued the   development knight to e7 makes sense with bishop  g4 all right sagar is ready for a fight okay i'm   liking this he goes bishop g4 straight away i this  is this is this has become very aggressive i mean   the ponds already on d4 castle uh black needs to  probably castle really soon or he'll run into a   bit of trouble with his own king so yeah expect  97 castle because knight f6 everybody would be a   blunder e5 what happened and then you put a piece  in the e file when the bishop takes the pawn that   king is in the center that's not good so instead  we got 97 perfect response and now castling is   going to happen but look at eric just continuing  as if he's not down upon even material in his mind   but i think his point is after pawn takes d5 he  will win back this pawn on d4 and black will be   left with an isolated queen pawn honestly i think  i think eric is thinking right now ah just a pawn   you know that's not enough gotta give a little bit  more and i'm now looking to see if eric talks to   himself while he plays because he's so used to  streaming and just calmly telling everybody oh   well i've blown it upon you know i've seen so many  of his streams and his clips where he's just you   know even when he's blundering he's the nicest guy  in the world like he's the person you don't want   to beat in chess because chess players at least  at the you know this high level they often they   enjoy their opponent's suffering eric is just too  kind you know he's like oh well here my opponent   no they they blundered their queen and i'm gonna  checkmate them oh okay one of my favorite like you   know interactions with eric was one time when i  made a really good move and he was like your brain   is so big and me having never really interacted  with somebody quite so wholesome because my community is is a little bit you know  we're we're not we're not necessarily the   most wholesome i was just like in shock i was  like is he is he you know being sarcastic or is   he being completely honest and then everybody  of course explained to me that eric is very   very wholesome and he genuinely meant that so i  will until my deathbed i will remember my brain   is very big as my favorite ever compliment that's  awesome well you know both of these players still   they have you know nothing too tense has  happen at the moment there's been two pawns   uh traded off here bishop b8 well i think we  know what's planned here is bit queen to d6   let's go for an eventual checkmate  on this uh dark square diagonal here   but that doesn't look realistic right nemo there's  a knight on f3 a knight on d4 you'd have to   take both of these knights down and i think that  eric's gonna see this coming and on top of it i'm   sure g3 is also a fairly solid move uh in response  to queen d6 so i'm not quite sure what soccer's   plan is going to be in this position i think  i definitely prefer white just because black   i'm sorry about that is that you have your  attention please you have you have my attention that scared me honestly i thought you  were about to be taken by a ufo yeah i uh   wow oh well you know it's amazing i know  from experience you have my attention   sir you have all of our attention everyone  on twitch on youtube facebook i don't know   where you're watching this but you have our  attention and this game also has our attention   but that is one of those things that happens  you can't control that no need to be embarrassed i'm so sorry about that everybody i am i  guess apparently my apartment just loves to   wake people up and like at 10 a.m with a fire  alarm well i just want to make sure is everything   okay yeah everything's fine it's just a test okay  good because you never know when it's the real   deal and i want to make sure that you're prepared  and yeah for sure i mean if there was actual fire   don't worry i will i will go out of the building  oh well look at that that was that was funny well   here we see that cyrus queen has went from d6 to  f6 putting some pressure on this knight and f3 but   right now it's very compact for eric all his minor  pieces working together very well but it goes from   you know you need to be active and he goes knight  h2 because the position was solid but you need to   actually create threats and he wants to trade  bishops and in his up with his knight on g4 so   what do you think about this nemo um i i do like  white's position i think a lot more i think like   these these isolated pawn structures where black  does not get an attack in um are just end up being   very uncomfortable end games right as we know um  isolated pawns structures you kind of don't want   to exchange the minor pieces because if you go  into an end game well the major pieces the rook   and queens are really going to just double up on  the d-pawn and there's always the breakthrough   with the c pawn so um it's it's the long run it's  the end game that i'm worried about for sagar   in this position and i mean i mean that aside i  think i think knight to g4 looks very very good   here because we've got knight takes f5 and then  possibly queen takes d5 right after so that might   just be a free pawn or or even you know some  bishop takes h6 ideas because we've got a   potential we've got a fire drill that's what we  have we do have a fire drill i hope this one's   not real i at this point at this point if there's  an actual fire i'm just gonna ignore it so like   please it sounds like it sounds like a truck  is backing up onto stream right now that's what oh my gosh well this knight g4 move was important  because if the knight were on h2 this pawn h3   would be hanging so the knight g4 inclusion  was smart by eric he does win the d5 pawn   but sometimes actually black's position gets  easier to play even though you're down a pawn you   don't have to worry about that anymore you've lost  the pawn so you play a move like queen to g6 and   maybe at some point there will be a sacrifice on  g3 and this king will not be that safe so i think   that cyborg's life is made easier despite the fact  that he's down material yeah i actually do think   that instead of queen takes d5 he did miss the  very good opportunity of playing bishop takes h6   which would have been a move that i would have  maybe expected eric to see but it's also one of   those you know it's it's like the first game of  the match right i don't know if he's done tactics   for 30 minutes beforehand um the chances are he  has not so puzzle rush is not going to kick in   in the first game of the match but i'm definitely  um excited to see some tactics coming up i do like   this queen g6 move um i do think he's aware that  you know and games being down upon are one of the   most uncomfortable things you could possibly get  into yeah and look at eric he's like i don't even   want to calculate bishop takes g3 but look at  sarah he's picking up momentum in the position   h5 and kicking the knight back his queen can move  to f5 later in the game to keep an eye out on this   h3 pawn so i feel like white could be a  little bit stuck and if i'm eric i need   to find a concrete plan at this moment hmm  yeah i mean is the beast upon a free pawn   i i don't know if i'm so brave to  take that pawn but eric says yeah   me neither i i'm up one pawn i don't need to  be greedy and take a second but yeah that you   could have captured that pawn i i just see pot i  take pawn you know that that's that's my mental   i mean it makes it makes sense you should always  be aware when pieces are hanging and i think that   actually wow knight to d3 i was thinking knight  c6 to save the pawn and put pressure on this   bishop here and said knight into d3 he's just  trying to complicate the position maybe there   will be a sack on f2 a sack on g3 all this kind of  stuff that eric needs to keep his eyes on it for   you know what i really like here what queen  xb7 yes it just looks so cool because rick   takes e2 doesn't work since you could take  out okay well rick's ea is probably the much   more solid uh choice here instead of playing  queen takes piece oh he takes it though   he sees he eats but i'm looking at h4 this king  is a bit lonely over here and if you get h4 and   attacking the pawn on g3 and if i have to make  his move g4 this bishop is very happy on the   diagonal i want the f4 square for my knight  going forward so h4 feels like the right play   and look at the clock by the way eric is a minute  sagar down near 30 seconds so he needs to move and   he needs to play with the initiative i would  play h4 right now h4 is a quite an easy move   to make in these kinds of positions just because  there's really a lack of any other other thing oh   wait that was a very fast g4 from eric and i'm not  sure if i like that move is bishop takes h2 um you   could do either move right you could take on h2o  queen d6 played to go from mate but this knight   is coming to f4 and that's just what bothers me  because if this knight's here it's gonna sit here   and h3 is a problem yeah i mean here i think  i think white has to play knight f1 yeah right   knight of one is played with 13 seconds is uh  there's only a one second increment as a reminder   to everybody so it's it's almost 5-0 right  almost five oh just ensuring they do not flag   right and 92 check that means the bishop can't  move because the queen was defending the rook now   the queen isn't so i'm just trying to figure out  what white's moves are going to be i see that i'm   not getting checkmated sure but knight f4 checked  back what if i just keep going like 92 knight f4   or rookie 2 actually that could be strong cutting  the queen's protection of the rook i'm going for   this attack and only five seconds you gotta move  come on queen g6 yep clock yep clock indeed and   now queen g6 it feels a little bit too slow  maybe this knight can come into e3 there it   goes this thing come to f5 and it's eric who's  making progress we've solidified the position   as white and now it's going to be quite rough  yeah the knight comes in and now bishop e3 look   at that that's a pin that you can't get out of  just take a free knight oh no all right well   and sagar is lost on time unfortunately he had  a very very slim chance in that game um on that   one move exactly for one move he had a chance but  that just goes to show you know how strong that   uh both of these players are really i mean eric  played a very very good game and was completely   you know trying to demolish black so uh very well  played game by both of them however we're going to   round two and what is this opening well we have a  you know sort of catelyn style position with the   bishop and the long diagonal and that's why black  pushes through to d4 saying you're not getting it   knight to c3 you're not getting your pawn to d4  so this is somewhat standard fare but i would be   worried about eric's position in the long term you  take and after pawn takes you the semi-open file   you can try to open this bishop up on the long  diagonal i like white in these positions really   i actually really enjoy playing black in these  positions i like going 97 and then e5 and then   i always thought that black actually has a very  good control of the center but of course i mean   it can be very easily undermined right because  white basically has the entire queen side we   see the a3 b4 c5 pawn push uh b5 bomb push so yes  we do see 97 here from eric um probably expecting   an e5 coming up very soon yeah and i you know you  the way white can play is knight a3 maybe knight   c2 to go after this pawn you know okay he goes  knight to d2 still good but if e5 i go rookie one   so black does get this big center so i think  it's just a stylistic choice whereas i feel   like even though my opponent has the center  i'm just trying to hunt it down move after move   and you're like well i have my big center and  i'm going to proudly use that to my advantage   for sure um i mean this is this is gonna lead  to a very exciting position i predict that   yeah i i completely agree and i think  that eric's moves through like queen d6   pawn a5 knight c5 use those dark squares  and eventually this bishop which is stuck   that once that bishop gets to scroll like f5  then white can see yourself being in trouble um i mean here i just try to see what sagar  is going to play i'm not sure how familiar   he is with these positions but he is  letting his time run a little bit low   yeah in both of these matches and and that's  cool like it's got me a little bit more worried   yeah it could move like a3 that's a move he could  have played in five seconds but he's spending more   time than is needed to make a move like that and  there's so many ideas here for white one idea is   playing like knight h4 open this bishop up on the  long diagonal and then maybe if you allow me to   get my knight to f5 but i also have f4 ideas once  my knight's out the way your queen is on the same   line as my rook so knight h4 is a pretty standard  idea helping this bishop become more powerful but   he's trying to be perfect right now that's what i  think is going on he's not accustomed to playing   chess so much these days at least not online so  you start questioning yourself you try to be a   perfectionist and then you spend too much time so  you don't save it for later when the moments are   more complicated for sure um i mean here after 94  i would my first instinct would be to play f5 but   i don't know if that's a little bit too aggressive  for this moment but i i do think that f5 is one   of those thematic moves in this position you  know and black actually saves a move because   he doesn't have to play f6 first i mean there's no  threat on the e5 pawn he has two knights defending   that e5 pawn so yeah no f5 is one of those  moves that you enjoy in the meantime and then   like 15 moves later like can i play that pawn  back to f6 because my e5 pawn is so weak but   it's in the spirit of the position for  sure nemo to play f5 and i would not be   surprised if eric does that or if he plays me  like pawn a4 you often play a move like this   just to close down the queen side so both options  look very good to me i've always had the time to   be like yo can i push my pawns up can i just store  my paws off the board i'll do that but i do like   to see eric play a little bit more solid today  i think i think he he is warming up to his usual   style i do like f6 also very positional on a4 like  robert said also just stopping uh before ideas   but the thing is c5 happens so quickly here  and this could be a really big problem for   eric going forward this d6 square is this knights  for the taking there are some times where you play   b4 anyway so that your queen if ambassador  happens can get to this diagonal uh knight   h4 ideas still exist knight f to d2 i just know  these positions very well from the white side and   even if black is okay here i just think  it's so much easier to play for white and   it's again stylistic choice more than anything but  i i think eric you can tell by his time manager   right now he doesn't feel at home in this position  i i do think that he regrets not playing i was   okay he he played f5 okay as i was saying that i  was gonna say i do think he regrets not playing   f5 earlier because now i was gonna say the d6  square looks very strong for white tonight i mean   sagar puts it there with barely a moment's  hesitation and um the knight's gonna be comfy   because how do you kick it out really i'm i'm  like looking at the boar i'm trying to figure   out ways you can't move the c6 knight away because  uh white can take on d4 i mean i was looking maybe   thinking maybe rick a5 or take c5 just get it out  but even still it's um it's going to be very oh   yeah he so he he says i don't want to hear any  longer because the queen does defend but this is   still good for white you just take on c5 and it's  the problem with the e5 pawn persists so it takes   uh sorry takes takes and queens d2 for example  this e5 pawn remains a problem i can play queen   c4 check my bishop on g2 is very powerful so  even if this pawn is captured it's going to be   a long-term problem but he takes the bishop oh i  don't like that i don't like that decision oh wait   wait now this night on okay so we've actually  just reversed everything now black's knight on   c5 is going to be very strong not that it's on  an outpost or anything right now but there's   just realistically nothing to contest that night  and the knight is you know attacking both d3 and   you're also potentially threatening to play e4  in the near future after you move your queen   maybe to f6 oh well b6 first and then queen d6  or queen f6 so we do i do like this position a   lot for black i think i think eric is going  to be feeling a lot more comfortable here   yeah it's like now you're clearly a pawn down  before if you took back on c5 you had a direct   threat against this centralized pawn e5 but now  that pawn looks safer i don't see a clear path   forward for sagar and you can tell because he's  spending time he's like oh wait i took on c8 and   now where do i go from here and i get the decision  you take a bishop and so you have at least the   bishop for the cost of the pawn but what black  center it's too massive it's too well defended   so this is going to be a tough rest of the  game for sagar yeah for sure i mean i think   sagar is is feeling it he's down a whole  minute compared to eric right now and   i'm struggling to find a plan here for white  i'm not gonna lie what are you thinking here   yeah plans not finding those maybe like a rook  c2 rook e2 go after the e5 pawn but black can   just play a rook to e8 you know this rook to f8  to e8 or something and keep it defended uh this   knight can always be useful and depending upon  and as you said e4 is on the docket so even if   you get this rook to e2 i'll play e4 with my queen  on d6 or something like that and i'm just pushing   forward so i i don't know what to do and that's  why sagar is spending so much time he's feeling   the pressure of being down upon down one game in  the match and when am i going to get my victories   yeah for sure i okay queesy too i think it's these  kind of positions that are most difficult to play   in blitz where you don't really have tempo when  you don't really have a clear plan right because   if it wasn't over the board game it's a bit  of a different story because then you can sit   there for like 20 minutes and be like ah yes  let me go here here here reroute my pieces and   then decide on something but when it's blitz you  kind of you're kind of looking for plants that   are like two three moves you know and and there's  just nothing like that in this position for white   and i mean queen c2 is obviously hitting the c59  i'm sure i'm sure black can just play b6 here   yeah and b6 you might have to do well you don't  have to but you would drop the a4 pawn otherwise   but i can understand why you wouldn't want to  play b6 the knight feels a little bit looser on c6   and white would not be opposed to taking  that once the knight moves other way from f3   because then the e5 pawn is weaker so i would even  consider knight d2 and knight c4 getting ready to   take this to take this and black's position  looks a bit flimsy honestly yeah maybe maybe   so i actually think maybe now white has ideas to  play maybe knight d2 knight c4 uh hitting the oh   c4 okay so king has to go to h8 and then mcqueen  b5 is the idea going after the pawn with the   queen and the knight is a bit stuck because  the e5 pawn behind it but i'm with you this   looks like you're kind of going off to the side  needlessly and me to remember this knight and c5   is attacking this pawn on d3 so if the queen  never takes on d6 you drop this pawn on d3 with   a fork so queen d6 played to just emphasize that  you cannot take on b6 without dropping material so yeah this is um looking i first for like actually i mean in terms  of just the pure position right you wouldn't think   that white is doing that badly i mean it's you  know uh just down a pawn okay wait is the the   queen snapchat this queen no yeah i was like  okay and there's no knight takes d3 because   of queen takes d6 as well maybe the queen would  have been better than i was six in hindsight but   you know hindsight's always 20 20. it's not  never too late you can play queen fc or queen h6   that's a nice move hitting the knight now this  pawn d3 is under attack so bishop f1 i think   by default is the move time hang the piece  hanging a piece hangs the piece oh and sucker will yeah you know he had that the position he   he couldn't have asked for a better one when he  went pawn to c5 knight d6 he just didn't follow   up precisely and that's the nature of chess  where even if the engine says oh you're better   if you don't find accurate move after  accurate move it could result in   a good position for your opponent and well what  is this opening bishop see from queenie2 wait what huh like what's why would you put your queen  here that seems completely unnecessary after e5   now he's thinking so this seems like okay  that's why i'm going to play some kind of   delayed king's gambit the king's gambit  deferred i don't know this doesn't look   right from my point of view just knight  c6 bishop g4 all this stuff okay i have   actually never seen a king's gambit play this  way not that i play into a lot of king's gambits   but this is something interesting i'm  not sure if this is home preparation or   i think it's fine for white objectively  speaking the position is okay but there's no   benefit of having your queen on e2 it does defend  the pawn on e4 but a knight c3 would have done the   same and now you have to watch out for knight to  d4 just exploding this pin here maybe he wants to   go queen f2 queen g3 maybe but it feels like i  don't know it just feels like a long story here   but i'll trust eric i'll just say eric okay man  i don't understand your openings your gambits   but it works you know it works if it works  it works and that then we'll leave it at that   yeah and castle so both sides are castling but  now you see the benefit of having these pawns here   where they're more advanced and so you are the one  who can use your pawns as an attack maybe an f5 h3   g4 we all know how those positions go where white  just storms the pawns and the black king gets in   trouble yeah this is going to be one of the more  um oh well i mean after bishop takes f4 it's not   all too unsimilar from you know typical  italian and spanish positions i want to say um but every single move i'm watching is like i have  never seen something like this before my brain is   just trying to connect the dots you know i'm just  trying to associate this with something i've seen   before and it's just not happening yeah because  the pawn on the attack the italian and the spanish   is an f2 but it does look similar and this d5  idea that is one that you see in that opening   and i think that sagar timed it well and wait can  he just give eric an isolated pawn we saw eric   do that to sagar in the first game i think that  now yes take on here bishop c5 check is possible   i feel like black's pieces are coming to  life i do like this position for black i   am always very insecure about when my opponent has  a bishop no it's wait that's a wait oh no no no   no you can't move your rook from f8  when you're you can't do that this is   one of the very very typical um spanish  ideas actually with the bishop takes f7   yeah this is thematic this is very thematic and oh  and and eric sees that oh no and black was having   such a good position but now after king takes  f7 we have queen c4 um and not only can white   immediately take back on c5 but the king is  actually really weak and i think i think key f8 is   very likely oh there might already be checkmate  yeah i feel like there's a knight g5 because   there's a mate here the sack on h7  this i think the king has to go to g6   i i don't recommend this very often but  king g6 might be the move but you might   get checkmated there too your kids coming to h5  like what i don't think you survived that either   oh this is this is gonna be very rough kg6 knight  knight h4 um king fa knight g5 yeah bishop v6   all right here it comes here comes knight g5 here  goes the checkmate ideas from eric eric's gonna   snap on this we already know that the rook on f1  is so happy knight g5 you have to defend against   check me here you play queen to e7 let's say then  i can oh my gosh oh he he he didn't look at that   look at that checkmate that's what i'm looking  for it would have been very beautiful except   eric just took the bishop oh well now the king's  safe hey this actually isn't so bad you're down you're down one pawn but there's an  isolated pawn on e4 this queen can   soon go into the d3 square this isn't that  bad all things considered this is a pleasure   it could have been a lot worse it could have  been a lot worse i'm a little bit surprised   that eric let sagar um get off so easily you  know knowing him he would have been like ah yes   i can check my opponent let's do it i  mean i've seen him you know uh oh and now okay so i get it i get it like he's trying to  set up the smothered checkmate here but maybe   just move like you know queen d7 and you can  block the check with bishop e6 this these end   games won't be that bad for black but i see  the eval bar is really low so i'm guessing   there's like some kind of weird bishop e2 move to  take away the check is what should be played but   it looks strange believe bishop v2 i mean bishop  e2 is a very unnatural move i don't think sagar   will realistically play it so there's also queen  d3 though which is probably the more logical   kind of move because it serves the purpose of  bishop b2 you're stopping the opponent's queen   from going to c4 and you're also attacking you  know the rook on f1 and you're attacking the pawn   on e4 and you're connecting your rooks wow what  a great move however it's you know putting your   queen of so high on the board is very unnatural  it's not something people usually look for so   yeah i like queen e7 and the only reason i see  him with bishop is i'm getting used to this i   never like to use engines and be honest about  it but then i see why is it so good for black   the normal moves that i'm looking at they're  not don't look that good so then it must be   some ridiculous move that nobody's gonna play  so that's how it's a process of elimination at   this point but here you have to play bishop  e6 uh you do not put your king in the corn yes what were you saying about putting  the king in the corner robert would you   be as kind as to finish your sentence for the  30 000 people we have watching here um yeah i   don't think you should put your king in the corner  because some kind of knight f7 check looks scary   but i think what saga is relying on is this is  one check and once the king comes here if the   knight moves out the way the bishop will be able  to return and block the queen and attack it but   i see the eval bar skyrocket which means  yeah so it's like there must be something   that means e5 looks very strong as well  just like trying to kick this knight out   i want to get my knight to f7 this  bishop isn't exactly well defended either   oh that's it that's it so by playing e5 okay  let me just show this your knight moves away   somewhere let's say that here once i check you i  have knight h6 double check and your bishop falls   because that's a double check and the bishop's  no longer defended there yes this is um looking   most uncomfortable for black i mean honestly  every single move in this position just looks   very uncomfortable for black sigh of relief sigh  of relief knight d2 played you can now h6 the king   has the h7 square to run to cyrus position is all  right and he's well ahead of the clock by the way   i i i do think that e5 still works here i mean or  you can just play knight oh wait eric is playing   very very um timidly timidly yes yeah it does  feel that way can i even take this pawn now   and regain my material because if you pin me  i say ah it's not that big of a pin i'll take   your knight which attacks i i think he can i i'm  not sure i mean maybe maybe eric hasn't had his   you know his empowered tea yet but he is playing  very very timid and that shocks me a little bit   because i'm like i mean this is not that bad for  black at all you know you might be down a pawn but   rook comes onto the second fight and then you  bring the other wreck over and all of a sudden   black has a lot of counter play in this position  i was going to ask do you think that because he's   up two games to none that's why he's not taking  so much risk he just feels like hey i'm leading   this match if everything continues this way i  can just con you know keep that lead i don't   have to risk anything but i think that's a  risk in and of itself when you stop playing   as aggressively because you're trying to protect  your lead that could go wrong as well i think   people think solid play means safe play but  that's not always the case i i definitely agree   with you i think actually in blitz it's always  better to be on the aggressive side of things   and um the reason for this is quite simple right  like if you're the one attacking your opponent has   to be one defending it's always so much more  uncomfortable to be the one defending and if   you just constantly put pressure on your opponent  they're gonna start to like lose a little bit of   hope so um i definitely would say that eric should  be playing aggressive and that's not to even say   that eric is not aggressive he's a very aggressive  player and um him playing so solid is really quite   against like his normal gameplay style so that's  probably the more interesting aspect to me   because if he just played like he would normally  potentially um he might be finding these moves but   he's definitely holding back a little bit yeah  he's going to regret not when the king was on   f8 not playing knight g5 that is definitely  an er rosen type of vicious mating a check   attack excuse me but right now he still has an  extra pawn opposite-colored bishops and saga takes   on f3 he's going to trade and you say i'm down  a pawn but my rook is way better than your rook   in the corner so if you take the pawn will take  back we just see that happen that's powerful rook   keeping your king stuck it on the first  rank keeping your rook tied to the a pawn   so i think black is certainly fine here we'll see  though if black can even play for more somehow   yeah i think this is one of those positions where  it should be a draw but seeing how both players   are running quite low on time you know pieces  might start flying uh however f4 is very solid   choice i mean get you get your bishop out oh  this knight needs to get right here if that   knight gets to f3 black is just cruising in  this game but obviously that's very difficult   every single square going to f3 might be you  know defended but we can hope oh well now   that pawn is winning i think that's what i said  95 wait a second wait a second it's happening   it's happening now now 95 knight f3 is actually  happening that's that checkmating configuration   you know once this knight gets to f3 you just  want to take this pawn in h2 with your rook and   the king is caught so king g6 knight f3 these are  moves that cyrus you know just just go just go and   what does what do you do here because i'm going to  go knight f3 i'm going to go h5 i'm going to go h4   and i'm just going to keep your king locked in the  corner oh getting checkmated oh he just doesn't he   just ignores it here it goes here it goes here it  comes the pawn and oh my god you played g3 to cut   the bishop off so if you can get this to work h4  ah that was great move rook f1 though really good   move rook f1 i can show that after the game  but there was like a really sick mating net   okay but this is winning for black completely  winning for black this king is caught   friendly reminder to everybody that just  because it's the end game does not wait   wait wait that that the pawn oh he dropped  the pod and that's such an important pawn   and this bishop is now protecting me  the rook take the rock it's hanging   oh my gosh what a turn of events there i laughed  my brain hasn't even finished processing the   fact that the pawn dropped and the rook was  already dropped and i'm like yeah i'm laughing   out of like nervousness for both players more  than anything i'm just like what's happening   but now black is up a rook so sagar is going to  get his first victory and after the game i'll show   you that checkmate that we didn't see but that  eric prevented so oh easy 14 points for sagar   all right let's put the analysis board  here so you'll see the live position but   right around where was it around here before rook  f1 if you played some kind of move like rook to b1   h4 bishop c7 and g3 it cuts off the bishop  so if pawn takes pawn rook h2 that's the   exact check mini pattern that we were looking  for is the knight takes away the square and   the rook would land in with checkmate  so that's what we uh we're looking at   yeah i mean it's an end game but as a reminder you  can still get checkmated end game and this is more   of a reminder to myself for all the times when i  just ignore my opponent straight b-lighting for my   king in an end game where there's only like three  pawns left and i just get checkmated and i'm like   so what happened you know and it goes to show that  in the end game the king can be used as a weapon   that's what sagar did he brought his king forward  and he could have kept doing that unfortunately he   moved his pawn too soon dropped the pawn he  still won the game so it's two to one oh we   have one of these fashionable lines look at that  bishop nemo that's a great piece and even though   white is down upon i've seen the likes of mickey  adams and others reminds me of a grenfell reversed   yeah no that's a that's a good call it's a good  call but look at this this bishop is so strong   and i always enjoy these positions from  white's perspective because the pawn is   irrelevant in the current position you can play  f4 there it is protect this knight in the center   your bishop is so powerful keeping the bish1c8  stuck in place i really could not recommend   this position for black but maybe eric is more  familiar than i am and knows how to deal with this   yes i mean i i don't think this is eric's style  position you know we talked a little bit about   how eric has been playing very timid chess um  in his past three games but he's not a timid   player by any you know standard and i think  getting into these positions um unless it's   unless he planned this you know i don't know that  this can't be too comfortable for black because   i i definitely feel like white is going to be  always on the the plus side here i really like   e4 here actually um as i was saying this i like e4  here for white because you can't play d takes e3   you get another amazing pawn to the center i mean  you're blocking off your bishop a little bit but   your knight can always move and you always have  e5 um wow i like that move a lot the e4 allows   you to sacrifice your knight because you want to  put your pawn on the e5 square so that was a cool   tactic there instead sagar i think we understand  his decision making he wants to play brook did   he won and get his pawn back and say my bishop  my knight i have the better pieces on the sport here um got rook f2d1 yeah  that looks like a juicy one   that's a juicer right there yeah that's a juicer  exactly let me just take my pawn back why not   um i think the position you know you see the  evaluation bar i'm looking at now off the side   here that it says about level slightly better  for white but from a practical point of view   these positions are always difficult for black  to play because this bishop is so strong and if   you ever play bishop c6 you ruin your queenside  pawn structure so it's just about the quality   of the pieces not the quantity at this point  for sure yeah quality quality over quantity yeah it's even material if you play bishop  b5 and take this knight then you're left   facing off against this bishop for the rest  of the game so he's going for that i guess   it just felt like the right thing to do but i  don't know i still think white retains the edge   the bishop is stronger than this knight  here yeah i i think that this is one of   those positions where being white is just awesome  because you know you have very active pieces but   um if white doesn't play carefully black can um  snap back and take some control of the center   again with work to da and whatever the the b7 pawn  is actually protected now so you also have like   chess play rook c8 so i'm actually kind of curious  to see what sagar is going to do in this position   um because there's not like a clear plan  for white so it's kind of one of those   positions where you sort of have to wait  around and not make your position any worse   yeah that's true because you know if you move  the knight too quickly you can drop his pawn e2   and queen d6 saying all right now if we trade  queens my knight is happy to move out the way   because i fork your rook and your bishop and also  hit this b7 pawn so i actually really like this   move queen d6 and now the question is for eric do  i want to trade queens i have no choice so how am   i going to trade queens the black queen can't  move anywhere to avoid it yeah um i mean here   queen takes a seven not pretty natural i would say  yep i'm actually really curious as to where like i   think bishop to f3 after and then just finding  a nice spot for the knight there's quite a few   right we have e5 we have uh potentially b6 all  those squares are potential for the knight but   you do have to protect your e2 pawn yeah good good  reminder because we would like to move our knight   to a5 or something like that which is playable  in fact because the b7 pawn is weak but i like   as you said bishop f3 or rookie one some  kind of move that just defends this pawn   and then our knight is free to go i like bishop f3  though you're right because i want my rook is tied   down to this rook so bishop f3 says in the event  the rooks get traded my e2 pawn is still defended   yep for sure uh that being said knight a5 does  also look really good okay bishop f3 is is very   natural of course just defending the pawn then  we want to go knight a5 next potentially and that   bishop's so powerful it defends it attacks not a5  coming as we keep talking about and how does black   play here if i gave like two free moves they're  not just like stealing pieces you know what's   the actual strategy for black and okay knight d5  does make sense i would play king f2 no i don't   even want to see a knight get in the e3 square  it may not join we could also play uh d1 um just   pinning the knight which might be really strong  because you know we have some e4 ideas coming and   black does have to respond to that and then you  can't move you can't just move the rook away well   actually okay you just move the work away now this  is this is the part where like end games are so   confusing because you just move the rock away i  guess you can take and then take on e2 right um   that's that's good catch by you though because a  lot of people would think they can't move the rook   because you dropped the pawn but the e2 pawn  loses defender when the bishop takes on d5 so   you're right the rook can move but where to right  if you move your rook say to here my knight comes   into d6 potentially hitting your rook hitting your  bishop i want to trade one pair of rooks for white   so i think 95 now get that night out the way this  looks like very unpleasant position for black yeah this um does not look very comfortable i think 95 right  now we've been preparing to play 95 by defending   the the e pawn and um you know perfect spot for  the knight the rook can pretty much only go to d6   and can i take on i'm wondering if i can take on  d5 because there's background checkmates and if   you take with the pawn on d5 you get stuck with  an isolated pawn and a knight against a bishop so   it's a little deep but like in some event like  this where you try to trade trade you can can't   take with the rook because the background  checkmate you have to take with the pawn   and hey that's an isolated pawn and i'm happy  to play against that c7 all this good stuff very   true but what about you know afterward d6 i mean  the knight can't go anywhere right because like   you said there is the background check made  so what if you could put more pressure on it   in in some way that's a really good call that  if this knight were to move i would take in   background checkmate you but e4 the knight  would go to square like e7 or b6 to stop the   the mate so e4 is tempting but  perhaps not entirely accurate   we could try to undermine the notes okay well he  played e5 i was supposed to just f5 maybe but um   i mean e4 is very natural move too i think he  first perfectly fine yeah knight b6 sort of   force because after the trade rook c7 is the movie  you want to play and if the knight was on e7 it'd   be under attack and the b7 pawn now at least the  knight is safer but rook c7 actually still might   just win material your rook gets to the seventh  rank and how do you protect both f7 and b7   uh i think the call is you don't i guess you play  f6 that's at least true yeah that's and then where   does this knight go so this could get kind of  awkward very quickly for white but i think rookies   is objectively a good decision it just becomes  hard because it's tactical you might make it   stuck on the f7 square if you put your knight in  there so he does it i like it eric is up a minute yeah i would prefer to have the white pieces in  this position for sure but that minute on the   clock that's getting me a bit nervous knight f7 is  my knight ever going to get out of there because   look at that doesn't have any square to  get to from f7 no safe squares there that   could be too much of a risk and he's  thinking well can i get away with it yeah i think after f7 knight f7 rd7 uh rook takes  c7 special takes seven i maybe this knight d8 yeah   or 96 i think the knight does get out but sagar  is spending a lot of time on this move and that   makes me nice he doesn't wow he does it he's brave  and he goes for it because as you said if the rook   trade happens b7 is defended but the knight gets  out to d6 and if not for the rook trade this b7   pawn is hanging this bishop maybe go to g4 to  hit the e6 pawn hey this is uh looking pretty   interesting here for sure and where else can  you rook d3 there's bishop e2 think about what   changes with every move played your rook gets  in your bishop's way i will trade bishops and   i think bishop v2 look looks good yeah bishop  g4 also but okay here he goes he's gonna take   he's gonna bring his knight out and then watch out  for this king getting checkmated this is going to   be intense i'm going to see uh potentially rick  d7 maybe just trying to keep things complicated   yeah trading the rooks off makes you feel a bit  safer this rook is very strong here but white   is still better as you were saying you know the  knight gets back out to the d6 square or to d8   honestly both look pretty tempting and i feel like  white might even win a pawn in some of these lines   yeah i think that's what i'm like mostly worried  about is that also bishop takes b4 and then you   suddenly get double pawns on the b file and on  top of that the b7 pawn is still hanging you know   yeah and i guess you know rook takes a3 is the  obvious move in quotes but rook d7 he does go for   it but now knight d8 hits both pawns and there he  goes bishop g4 i think which wins this pawn on e6 this oh no you're not strapped wait the knight is  fully knight's trapped okay f5 saves the knight   for the moment but just you can take and then play  king e7 and at best you uh oh oh i mean there was   e5 and then that yeah so you win a pump but this  is still good for black yeah it's still so quite   a comfortable especially now now white's actually  the one with the um isolated pawn on e4 right i   mean not that it matters that much because it's a  minor piece end game but you know white will still   be tied down to protecting that pawn for a while  wasn't it wait wait what ah wait he just moved the   king the king just won the pawn time trouble does  bad things to people but he was trying to get his   bishop to b7 i understand his plan but you know i  think that sauger's like lack of online experience   is coming back to haunt him here this is paul  was hanging for quite a few moves too so i was   huh okay should be two knight c7 yeah or knight  c3 that's even more active than start pushing   this one f4 okay yeah this is gonna be a win in  the bag for eric just push it push him quite and   yeah it's a very straightforward position um  for for white for black to play sorry let's   be a bit careful because this b5 pawn if i  get to capture that then maybe i have some   chances to draw this but i'm already looking  at sacrificing it i know that i shouldn't but   i'm tempted to so 96 is a way better move king  e4 but can i get this pawns up king g3 king e3   no knight check and then pawn push yeah all right  94 oh pom po straight away also works yeah 94   it's like almost soup small oh that's it   okay it would have been stalemate if not for that  h-pawn but oh he's going for checkmate yeah wow   wow wow wow that's really sad turn of events there  for sagar because he was playing extremely well   and this uh will be our final game before taking  the halfway break it's a halftime in the five plus   one portion but it just must be upsetting for him  because he was out playing eric he pushed him back   he traded those final pair of rooks he was  having a nightmare d attacking two pawns   and then he just slipped for one turn he moved  his king which he wanted to do in the end game   but he didn't seize the moment and that allowed  eric to take a two-game lead yeah for sure i mean   sagar was playing really well he's definitely  picking it up after the last two after the two   losses he had at the start and you know this is  this is pretty much he's he's getting warmed up i   think he's getting warmed up i think he's ready to  go and in my opinion eric needs to maybe play less   timid play like his normal self and just really  just be himself you know he's uh he's a very   aggressive player he can be extremely powerful in  tactics and there's no reason to not show that off   in this match currently i mean the last game  he played well for sure but he missed a lot of   tactical potential yeah um in the opening and then  sagar played the rest of the game really well so   definitely a lot of chances a lot of exciting  chess coming from both for sure we're gonna   take our quick break and return we'll get  back to this match between two of the finest   ambassadors the game of chess has stay tuned  everybody you will not want to miss the action all right and we are back and i'm glad to see  that there is an amazing meme oh we got pulled   up here i actually hadn't i didn't notice this  as we were going live but yeah this is this is   basically me right now i'm casting as my apartment  is is on fire um so yep yep this is a moon   i'm actually gonna make sure that this shows  up on twitter i will make sure that is amazing   shout out to our producer for getting that  up in front of you all that is so funny but   you know it happens i've been commenting a long  time you never know what sounds what sirens   coming from new york city you'll get so i feel  your pain i feel you it's okay i mean nothing   nothing serious happened it was just you know a  practice drill so we're okay we're fine but i am   at least awake now and i'm sure that these players  are very much awake now too after having played   four games already i never realized quite how  slowly five plus one goes you know as somebody who   almost exclusively plays one minute bullet  just i think we've we we've watched already   we i mean it was just a half time so half of 75  is uh you do your math again are you struggling   with your math 37 wait 37.5 okay i'm sure  that was not 37.5 i'm not sure how old it was   okay um anyways there were only four games played  um in quite a long period of time so that is   the conclusion i've arrived at and there's still  going to be a few more games played in the next   30 minutes so um it'll be very very exciting oh  wow i not listen learn never ask nemo for help   uh calculating anything got it except for chess  except for chess but the math you know we're gonna   say that's too much effort no no no i dropped out  of school not gonna lie two days ago so you know   i can no people can no longer make fun of me for  having a math minor because i am no longer doing   my math minor it's okay i don't have math skills  either but i don't even try see that you know   sometimes you just pass that point and we see eric  is playing a more principle it's just like a you   know spanish we got here so this is your bread  and butter nemo right yeah spanish you're happy   central control for white black brings the  bishop out to g4 because white didn't play h3   what do you see in this position um i mean i've  always wondered in these positions if um knight   takes e4 works and the answer is no it does not  work basically because of bishop to d5 so guys   it's not a free pawn okay don't take that  pawn it's it's very very much poisoned   yeah just showing that quick you can't protect  both knights in the diagonal so that would be a   blunder and yeah people ask that all the time  and it's good to show it just that a bishop   hitting the two nights like that wins material  and i mean this is a very very stereotypical   um spanish position and i am obviously you  know quite quite a fan of the spanish so   i am liking i'm enjoying this position a lot  for white i would say i don't think this is   too comfortable like too much of an issue for  white at all honestly probably not one of the   uh more critical eyes for black yes and you know  the center does look well defended right now and   i just in being formed we got a raid from anna  chess so good to see you hope you're doing well   thank you so much for bringing everybody here we  have a great match ahead it's already four games   in it is between international master eric rosen  and international master sagrasha in the i'm not a   gym speech championship four games in three to one  eric rosen right now we like his setup here with   pawns on e4 and d4 but nemo what next right you  have the good looking position but how do you turn   this into something more well um i mean typical  ideas in the spanish or of course you either find   a way to attack on the king side after closing the  center so we might say d5 i always like the idea   of d5 and then h3 or um h3 and then d5 both ideas  work maybe and and the idea of course is to always   push g4 but you usually want to push g4 when the  position when the center is already closed and   uh or you've already set up you know all your  pieces for the attack so you're not just weakening   your king so i'm definitely hoping that this  bishop c2 move means we'll see some excitement   but also having oh there's your there's the  answer there's the excitement you look for   we have pawns staring each other down we've got  the x in the center here and which pawn do you   take do you take any of the pawns or what's going  on with this tension that's always a question you   have to ask yourself i don't mind your move g4  here i yeah i like g4 but then i'm expecting   knight takes g4 i think you know it's probably  after g4 negative g4 is probably not the not   not not like a solid choice or anything like that  and it won't be played in classical but i think in   blitz it's always very effective to um make the  position more complicated yes because there's a   drawback to taking either pawn if you take on  d5 when the knight captures on d5 this bishop   is under attack and black is happy to give up the  knight on f6 and imagine this bishop on e3 if you   take on e5 my knight captures back and there was a  pin so g4 was played and now all eyes are on this   g4 score will there be a capture i feel like sagar  is a solid player more so than a you know he's not   trying to go for tactical flare when it doesn't  exist so knight takes g4 i believe has too much   risk but he does have time he's up half a minute  on the clock will he play knight takes g4 um i think actually with the mount he's thinking  i'm probably gonna say no i think he takes d4   is probably more solid and wait look at you  calling his shots here and now after knight   takes d4 we can trade some knights in the  center this bishop can end up on g6 and   i don't mind black's position because i see  the eval bar saying oh white is slightly better   but that's right now and it's these types of  positions where white's king gets under fire   later in the game so what has to be very  careful even though i like eric's position   i'm of the opinion that like these kind of like  once white gets c takes d4 in and the bishop g6   and then you get e5 in oh white's pawn like  push on the king side is so scary you know   i mean there's not a lot of pieces like left well  not a lot of pieces that's the only two minor   pieces that really will be swapped off but um it's  still a very very scary kind of middle game end   game potentially for for black because now yeah  we see e5 white has amazing control of the center   um after knight kicks e4 bishop takes c4 i i  really want to see a like you know an f4 as well   even though that's a little bit ambitious but i'm  enjoying this position as white for sure yeah and   one of the key themes of this is pawn on c7 is  not a good pawn so if you can even simplify rather   than uh pressing four which i like those ideas  with you know an eventual f4 and pushing on the   king side if you can play some simple moves like  rook c1 and keep that pawn stuck because black's   main idea is to say i don't that's a knight  position c5 i want to rush my pawn forward   to chisel at your center because if i get d4 e5  becomes weak i'm opening up the board and only   one of us has an overextended kingside position  so that's what i would be looking to stop if i'm   eric and he's spending time he's down a minute on  the clock so that's concerning me about the future   of his position here i just want eric to play  like he normally does you know i mean uh he is   a very aggressive intuitive player if he just  kind of lets it all flow he just like you know   plays like he normally does i think the moves will  come a lot easier to him i think you know he he's   got his hoodie up a little bit he's uh looking a  little bit nervous there is definitely quite wow   because now you have to take on poisson you have  no choice because if you allow this pawn up to f5   you are in big trouble so i do think we'll just  see e takes f3 i know that people think that's   illegal but when your pawn moves two squares  and you can capture right now as if it moved   one hombus on e takes yep i always forget about  this when i do puzzles always every single time i   it's it's just like but the thing is when you  see ampa song on the board you're like i see on   poisson i take compass on you know because it's  so rare but then when you're doing a puzzle you   never see the amphisong it's true and look we  have this pre-moved bishop takes g6 he expected   the episode to come take with the h pawn you want  to capture towards the center keep your pawn on   f7 which also covers white's pass pawn you know on  the e file and i'm worried about this dynamic with   these pawns here i like white's position again  for now i like it but c5 just what i was talking   about this e5 pawn is the target this center is  collapsing which is bad news for white's king   yeah i'm not too sure about that f4 move  i think i would have preferred something   maybe a little bit more solid because that palm  wasn't realistically going to go anywhere so   a lot of pressure could be put on it but now now  white's king is looking a little bit weak the c   pawn is looking a little bit weak um and you know  black black has a lot of chances to just pile up   pieces on the e file and the d file yeah this  c pawn is either a great pass pawn or something   that black is just going to target and try to win  and actually if you trade off pieces of bishop f2   you know i have to calculate i'd use bishop takes  c5 and all that stuff but i don't think bishop   takes c5 works because this queen is overloaded  defending the rook well both works i should say   and so bishop c5 there's rook takes e5 and once  your queen lands on e5 my queen steals your rook   in the corner so this would just win material  for white so that's sad news for uh sagar who   would like to take that pawn and if you can't  take that pawn well that's a healthy past pawn   yep this is um definitely definitely a  very complicated end game and i'm i'm like   starting to like these complicated end games  because they take us out of our comfort zone   um they give us something very exciting to look  at and and here i think rick da is probably my go-to choice just because that rook hasn't  done anything okay we do see the rook d8 yes   you're playing tactically and i really  like it because rook takes d8 will actually   lose this pawn on c5 by force rook d8 rookie one  check bishop e1 i'm not gonna take your rook i'm   going to take your pawn first you always want to  look can i get that inter mezzo that's a check i   will take your rook next and then black steals  a pawn so there are plenty of tactical lines   in this variation i like rook d8 a lot and we  see that eric trying to figure out he takes on   e5 okay that makes sense rook takes d1 the  c5 pawn remains and this is going to be um   the battle between is the pawn is the password  more powerful or is white's king weaker   really like like that that is what this entire  position is going to end up coming to i mean   the position bar the engine says is equal  um because for the past one white has   a weak king right and if you play c6 that's  the clearest illustration bishop b6 stops   your past pawn while helping a checkmate idea or  maybe it's not checkmate but it's an attack so   i i practically like black's position even  though i should like white position if it's   a classical game i'm taking white i'm saying  okay i'm gonna avoid your checkmates and all   your checks but right now look at this king  move here i saw the eval bar dip queen d5 check   good looking move and you can even just go  back and forth a bit or queen c6 to block   it but i don't want to be passive that's the  thing i don't want to sit in front of the pond wow well that is very aggressive king move  yeah i don't buy that because even with the   king on g3 if you ever go c6 the bishop  would come out here so i'm not enjoying   this king marching forward i don't i think it's  going back this time ah it's gonna be a draw   wow okay i i would have played on if i was cyber  and this is where the inexperience online comes   in you're up six seconds there's a king on  g3 out in the open i would have tried to win   that game and use time up six seconds when it  when it comes down to these time scrambles um   any amount of time really really helps you so as  a avid bullet player myself that those six seconds   oh yeah you know you already know  that i'm going to prefer this up those   those few precious seconds right and it's not  the position was not winning for black was even   better for black i think it was just kind of a  double-edged position where either side could win   that passport could promote or white's king could  get checkmated but with an extra time if you're a   bullet player you know i need to make the most  of my chances i'm down two points in this match   that could have been a game to cut the lead or  the deficit in half but i like this line that   sagar keeps going back to the knight on c4  and knight f3 we saw this a couple games ago   he did get his knight trapped which was a  sad thing for him but his position was good   for sure i mean i think sagar is playing these  positions uh very confidently which i like i'm   sure he's already thought a little bit about what  he should have done better like what he should   have improved on from last time so we're actually  going to a position we've seen before and um if   you missed the first game between eric and sagar  in this position well sagar really popped off   so that's actually where he got his his one point  so and queen d2 played this time instead of queen   d3 so that's a a little of a nuance here the  queen on d3 may be more susceptible to a bishop   d7 to b5 so let's just park the queen on d2 and  actually that allows rook c4 to be played maybe   that's the biggest difference of all is that rook  c4 if he wanted to win the pawn in this manner   could have been played and there would  have been no pin on the queen on d3 so but okay he goes rook to d1 and we're back  to where we came from in the other yeah this is   looking very very familiar yes it is indeed and  actually i wonder what eric did during the break   and we can ask in the post-match interviews  because i would have looked at the opening   i i don't think he felt truly comfortable here  but he's going right back to it so i i'm curious   if he actually looked at this at all or if he  just said i i was able to hold him off as best   i could let's just go back to it yep this just  looks amazing for white this knight this rook   this bishop this rook coming to c7 this pawn  on b7 is a problem this pawn on f7 is a target   you couldn't ask for a better position nearly 20  moves into the game yeah and i do think you know   it's actually very interesting that  eric got back into this opening   despite how the first game went because i'm  sure it wasn't very comfortable for him and   we can see how sagar is um using has only used 30  seconds for his first 20 moves you know and that's   that's definitely great okay a little bit of a  deviation here right am i yeah yeah the queens   came off in a different manner it's sort of the  same but yes it's not exactly the same and you   made a point earlier the pawn e2 is under attack  maybe just bishop f3 looks strong king can come   to f2 protect that pawn first and then continue  your path forward in a bit but uh something you   just said there about how cyber had only spent 30  seconds that's the biggest thing to me is i cyrus   shown that he's not that comfortable in the blitz  format not yet maybe he's getting it under himself   or maybe he's finally finding his form but i would  try to use the clock as a weapon as best i can   if i'm eric and by going right into sagar's pet  line you allow him to make these 20 moves quickly   and then now when he's thinking he has plenty of  time remaining to figure out how to proceed wait   is there not just bishop takes e2 here there  is but then rook d8 check this b7 pawn hangs   oh rookie a that's that's probably what was missed  and that's you know it's like you take this pawn   rook dhx you assume oh i have to take first  but you're right rookie eight first makes sense   and if i take you take back b7 is defended and  even here white can play rook c1 rook c7 and   i don't think white's any worse but you're  right that that pod can indeed be captured   i mean i think i think eric's now thinking can  i or can i not yeah it's it's one of those moves   where it's probably fine right now but you want  to think where that takes us in the game because   you do not want to win this pawn if it costs you  this pawn on b7 because the queen side majority   will be easier to push the king is close to the  pawns in the center and that's why eric ultimately   decided on king to f8 but he's just going to have  to suffer for the foreseeable future i think rook   d.a here too um is very very similar to the rook  d8 we would have looked at after bishop takes e2   yes and well i think you can do the same thing  take rook c1 try to get this rook to c7 that's   where my eyes are taking me and once your rook  gets to c7 black's in big trouble for sure we   might see king takes e8 here and then if rook  c1 oh okay we're just securing the e2 pawn first   i mean white's seeing no rush right like he he  has all the time in the world to um play roxy one   rook c7 yeah and even actually if the knights and  the rooks come off the board white is still much   better so for example if you play knight d7 and  i trade your bishop takes so this is what might   happen and the rook comes to c1 and you'll rook c8  we trade everything white still is better because   this bishop is an active piece your bishop will  be on c is a defensive piece so i wouldn't be   surprised if we see all that but i guess cyrus  says hey actually i have a tempo to use your   brook can't move yet the pawn on b7 is hanging so  i like the way he's playing this yeah oh what what   whoa whoa whoa that's a pawn that's right here  rook c3 but there's rook to d3 yeah rook d3 just   blocks i'm trying to look at eric's face here the  guy is so stoked he doesn't respond to anything   like he's not even he just is acting as if it's  just another move in a normal game of chess but   he did just drop a pawn but sagar on the other  side he just kind of perked up in his chair   there he's like yeah okay we're gonna get a win  we're gonna go oh yeah let's go let's go i see   i see him yeah yeah he's he's ready to go all  right this is a match we're in the thick of   this thing here and that was a big oversight  by eric but it wasn't a one-move blunder   i don't want to call it i think the pressure got  to him and the pressure not of the match overall   but this specific position i think he needs to  change this if i were his coach i definitely   agree we went to the quicker time controls i  would say eric maybe don't play this line or   just here's something you can do within this line  that makes your life easier but eric right now   eric's probably thinking oh no my pawn in his head   but actually like oh no my pawn for real oh no  not the [ __ ] this this check here would win the   a3 pawn if not for rook to d3 and all right we're  gonna see rook d3 played and i think sagar is just   going to convert this end game it doesn't seem  like it's one where black has too many chances but   weirder things have happened and he is only  one pawn so it's uh not came over just yet   yeah i mean these are the kind of end games that  you actually have to play a little bit accurately   in order to win it's uh the the the d-pawn is not  a pass spawn it's actually an isolated pawn so   now the plan will be to you know potentially  create the past pawn uh on the queen side   because you do have a palm majority there  while at the same time not losing your d-pawn yeah it takes care of both right your d-pawn  is not protected the bishop can come to c4 and   once this happens the b-pawn is a pass pawn but  it's also a decoy oh i like okay now it's just a   pass pop not even a decoy you're going to put your  pawn to b6 the king will have to sit in front and   then white's king will just march over to the king  side and that's sort of what i meant by decoys you   don't even need your b-pawn to stay on the board  forever as long as it distracts black's king long   enough for white's king to dart over to the king  side yeah this is um one of the positions that i   think sagar is going to pick up and you know the  success of this opening just goes to show that   maybe eric does need to choose another opening um  and as we're going to go into an even faster time   control i think that'll be even more crucial  because sagar having being up two minutes at   40 seconds against eric wow yeah that speaks for  itself doesn't it that definitely does itself and   i'm i'm one of those kind of people who whenever  i play somebody i'm looking at their clock like   the first thing i see is their clock because  uh you know the position is a lot of things but   if you lose on time you lose the game as well  and this is maybe not the best kind of way to   introduce chess to perhaps newer people  but the clock is definitely very important   well that's true in most sports as well right  if you're down a bit you know you you might run   out of time and you can't catch up so i mean look  at this this king is caught king e7 king f8 this   king is going to just hunt down and win all these  pawns this seems like a very straightforward win   and what you're saying about the clock though it's  true that i think eric needs a more double-edged   opening to try to take advantage of the fact that  sucker does not play that much online chess and   that he may find himself in time trouble and may  not be able to play that high caliber chest but   in time trouble that is but sagar wins it's  now three and a half two and a half we have   ourselves a very close match and soccer now gets  the black pieces and just to look at the clock   this might be our last five minute game so if  this game goes as long as the others have this   will be our final game in the longest time patrol  i'm so perplexed by this queenie too move yeah i   don't like i feel like there's a lot of better  ways you know to get the style of a position   um and then queenie two just feels like one of  those moves where it doesn't really do anything   apart from defend e4 but even then i would have  preferred to have just the pawn d3 to protect   e4 so right and if i'm eric i'm thinking about  this because he's playing the same openings   and there was that break i'm like wait did vidit  call up sagar and just like give him some opening   advice like that's what would be in the back of  my head is you know he's got some powerful friends   and if he just gets a phone call hey uh you know  maybe you should look into this line that's what   would concern me so i would be playing kind of i  would dodge i'd be dodging whatever preparation   he might be doing and sar confidently goes  back to the same exact line and he did have   a good position in the previous game before he  blundered this pawn and f7 with check that was   the biggest problem for him yeah i um this is he's  learned his lesson for sure i'm actually really   interested in knowing um like what what exactly  is eric's plan for this entire match because we've   seen the same opening a few times now right like  we've seen them repeat the same stealth opening um   so surely something must change at some point it's  just a matter of i think when but so far this this   this doesn't seem to be causing white any issue  surprisingly this queen e2 move which is very   very funny to me a very perplexing move and eric  sort of got the ideal setup that he was aiming for   he would like to push his pawns over here on the  king side and say i have an attack and that's why   cyro reacted with e takes at f4 he knew that was  coming and with a closed position the attack would   feel even more powerful because black's pieces  were restricted and couldn't fight back so look at   this d4 e4 this is the king's gambit come to life  but even stronger the king is safe and castled   f4 is falling and once that falls the open f file  the bishop on c4 aiming at the f7 upon the black   king i would be very concerned right now for cyrus  something went wrong here and i don't know exactly   what so these people are tricky we're all just  confused about what what to do under queenie too   yeah it's somehow catching everybody off guard  and eric is the one who's well had in the clock so   he's coming up with this tricky opening that sagar  is struggling to meet yeah and this is just one   of those things where it's like he already knows  what didn't work last time so he's not gonna do it   however how do you improve on the spot you know  that's very difficult because it's not like you   have time to just go off and prepare a whole new  repertoire against eric's e4 bishop c4 queen e2   so he's probably here just as confused as we are  95 was a great move though because when you're   getting attacked a lot of people think i just need  to put up a defensive wall and i need to deal with   it directly sometimes you can defend by attacking  your opponent so what sagar is doing is he's   striking in the center first c5 now he takes d4  hello moves like queen b6 knight c6 all this kind   of stuff to go after bl white's pawns and this  gives him the counter play needed so that white   doesn't have the free reign on the king side so i  really like what cyber did knight a5 knight on the   rims often are dim but here it actually dimmed  white's attacking chances and look bishop e3 a   retreating move now you can play knight to b4 go  after this bishop and all of a sudden black is   creating threats and now white doesn't have that  sufficient time to go for a check mining attack   um the pair bishops in this position are  great for eric you know at some point the   e palm will probably move up and then all  of a sudden your paws are just aimed at   okay well as i'm saying that uh sargart knows  he's got to step off those bishops and this is   now all of a sudden black's king feels very safe  right name right now yeah a couple moves ago i was   like wait that pawn enough seven is pinned the  piece in the f file and he's doing everything   right sagar is playing this perfectly to say i was  worse and now i think i'm completely fine i put my   pawn on light square if e5 my knight comes into  the e4 square and it's even material no attack   for white i'm not trying to claim that black is  better in this position but black is definitely   more comfortable so the trajectory of the game has  been in sagar's favor for sure i mean here 94 okay   um knight c3 is pr pretty natural we still have to  develop that night it's almost we're 17 moves and   we haven't developed the night on b1 so it's about  time right next week it's about time it's about   time i mean i always like to tell people and you  know as coach and pakchan i'm sure you tell them   a lot too try to get all your pieces developed  before move 10 or something but here we are   all right move 18 knight finally moved and it's  immediately gone well it's important to note why   sucker took the knight rather than the bishop  if he took this bishop note that this pawn on   d5 is on a light square this bishop cannot on  e7 can't defend this pawn on d5 so in the event   that is a knight against a bishop this knight  would try to eventually come to c3 a queen to f3   and attack the pawn so this is why it's easier  for black to defend queen d7 now just connect   your rooks maybe rook c6 i think that black is  completely fine and there could be a future where   actually soccer takes over the initiative because  this bishop on e3 on the dark squares is defensive   covering the pawns later in the game the bishop  on e7 could be used as an aggressive piece yeah   i mean this is one of those positions where it's  like super super solid um we both have the same   color bishop so uh going into end game that would  just mean that it's realistically a draw because   there's not no significant weaknesses anywhere  however that being said it is you know a blitz   game so there's gonna be probably some action  coming up soon as players run a little bit   lower on time eric is up a whole minute and a  little bit more so that's what that's what's   got me a little bit more concerned i think  i think sagar is like really trying to find   his footing in this position not that's like  a very difficult position to play but whenever   somebody uses a lot of time to spend on the on  any position just it just goes to show you know um   they either have something amazing planned or it's  just not one of the most comfortable positions   yes and you know he plays rooks  what bishop before no oh whoa whoa rook c3 i get the intention you're trying to  double the c file but let's see eric's face   his even react how's that possible oh no my rook yeah how is it  possible that he doesn't even react like that was that's he walked into a pin he's so casual about he's like  ah well that happened i guess   yeah it's like it's as if this didn't even  happen to him it's like somebody else is   playing this game and he just happens to be on  screen but i mean amazing composure he dropped   his rook and now sagar he's ready to convert  this win this game and even up the match score wow what a turn of events in this game here   and credit to sagar because he could have  just fallen victim to some kind of checkmate   instead he fended eric off and he did tenaciously  struck in the center he got counter play and now   i would play rook to g6 in the near future to say  let's trade rooks you're never going to attack me   and yeah rook g6 now yep i think this will be a  very uh easy pickup bye stacker and then that's   that's absolutely incredible he played a very  solid game nothing major particularly happened   and you know sometimes it's all chess needs  to be right you just wait for your opponent   to make a mistake you catch them out on  that mistake and then all of a sudden it's   gg yep and the reason why this is so easy now is  because once the rooks get traded black will play   queen a1 and this c3 pawn is gone so bishop g5  that's a good response by eric he's in trouble   no matter what at least keep it a bit complicated  sagar under a minute on the clock making movie h5   is a bit risky so it attacks the rook but that  could backfire you just need to find several   accurate moves to put this game away i think i  would play h6 here just to uh trade the rooks off   and there we go rotates g4 it's hard to make a  mistake in this position it's black it's very   difficult that's true just do not touch this pawn  on g7 yeah that would be the only mistake you can   make is giving up the dark squares on the king  side but with the pawn on g7 nice centralization   pawn on g4 zone attack this rook can do what the  other rook did rook c6 over to g6 perhaps yeah   sagar is going to convert this one yup for sure uh  this is one of those things where it's just like   ah i mean eric is just you know playing along he's  a little he's he's still up a minute on the clock   so you know he hopes that he loses chances but he  knows we all know there's very little chance in   this position for white however it is the last  game of the five plus one anyway so it's not   like he's missing out on anything by finishing  the game right that's good to talk about match   strategy because sometimes let's say there were  30 seconds left in the 5 minute portion you might   just resign to get one final game if you feel  that that's your best chance but for eric no no   he thinks the bullet the quicker time controls  because sagar has been moving more deliberately   throughout this match but right now sagar hasn't  won yet he's down to 28 seconds counting down if   he gets into a bullet scramble with no time left  that's how things go wrong but i love this move   queen a2 rook c4 win this pawn all right no more  i don't even have to worry at first i'm saying you   know 26 seconds 25 it's doesn't he just feel so  bad playing these there's just zero counter play   now the bishop can't even move and like there's  literally nowhere you could go like oh i just   feel bad for eric you know but like soccer just  played such an amazing game so i really really   really respect that and i really respect how he  just like got that advantage just crushed eric   positionally being up the exchange it's just it's  just incredible to see for sure yes and i often   believe that mistakes like the one that eric made  by blundering the exchange walking to a pin it's   caused by something earlier because of course he  sees that bishop before it can be a response but   i feel like he didn't get what he wanted out of  the opening and that may have been weighing on him   a little bit just do not allow by the way there  we go so sarge goes back because you don't allow   any sort of draw here so the queen is coming to  safety this a4 pawn can push the b-pawn can push   and i think soccer's doing everything perfectly  at this point yeah for sure b4 yeah breaking down   the pawn chain d4 is now weak as well that's a  pass pawn just a matter of time that's free yeah   perfect play by soccer yeah absolutely amazing  i mean sagar looks like he's woken up fully i don't know what else to say because you know   eric was leading the match to to to oh at some  point and then all of a sudden um sakura like   was fighting back and and now and now the match  will be tied after this game and this is the part   where we talked about in terms of strategies at  the start right robert we were talking about how   uh while you're playing this maybe maybe  eric thinks that he can just kind of like   play solid stall out the match he's already  up two points and everything will be fine but   i guess what he didn't expect his sucker to  suddenly be like yes i'm gonna be the one   winning i know i'm down points but i will win  and that is part of the part of chess that um   we all really like because there's always  chances and this this is this is just incredible   well if i'm stuck i'm happy to get this experience  or he's playing in time trouble and he's looking   like a true bullet player he's spending almost  no time for his moves it is a completely winning   position but when you don't play much online  bullet all of a sudden you get to 10 seconds   wait wait and then you blunder things everywhere  so uh sagar he's very confident at this point his   king is coming in he's going to promote  his pawn and he's going to be up rook brook c3 and then take this bishop and then  get the queen and i know some people like   oh eric should resign why is he not resigning  eric rosen doesn't resign and he actually has   been able to get stalemates because he doesn't  resign yeah there's all those positions but   i'm actually you know if there was queen to f1  that i feel like it's still my trick but i'm sure   sucker would not be falling for that so always  worth the effort you know to try to get stalemated   you never know what happens i mean i can confirm  that there have been games where i should have   resigned like in world championships and it's  just been like i'm not gonna resign and you just   swindle your opponent so it's actually a very very  um important lesson to learn as well from eric to   just you know play the game yeah i mean if you  resign you get zero points if you end up losing   by checkmate you get zero points you can't score  if you resign so i think that eric did the right   thing and speaking of score it is three and a half  three and a half we're gonna take a break and when   we return we'll get to the three minute plus one  second increment time patrol it's excitement here   between sagrasha and eric rosen in this i'm  not gm speeches championship brought to you by chess.com all right and welcome back everybody before we  dive into another really exciting portion of the   match between eric and sagar let's talk a little  bit about pogchamps 3 which i know every single   one of you guys is extremely hyped for so here  we can see all the participants in pogchamps 3   and let us know in the chat who you are  cheering for i mean i personally have been   loki following a lot of these people playing  it's so exciting to see like you know people   getting into chess it's such an exciting  thing i've played chess for 18 years of   my life and i haven't probably seen this  much hype um from like the public audience   so i'm personally just like this is like a big  deal for me this is a big big deal for me um but   yeah so i mean i've personally coached michelle  carrey already um robert have you coached anybody   i have indeed and you know i gotta say if i had  to pick a favorite it's ludwig oh yes ludwig i   mean ludwig we we've we're familiar with ryan  we've seen ludwig not only play in pogchamps   we've also seen him cast pog champs we see him  cast he he is an absolutely amazing streamer and   he's you know put in the work for chess as well so  i'm definitely definitely excited to see his game   play this time and i do actually want to point  out that um there's some people including maybe   maybe sir dosh is going to be a very very very  strong player you know not not not saying that   ludwig might doesn't have very good chances of  winning pogchamps um i have seen sir dash spend   hours and hours and hours playing chess and i  think he's personally said he was aiming to go for   like 1500 um by in by by the seventh of february  and uh i i when does pogchamps three start exactly   i need the 14th if i'm not mistaken so around  valentine's day all right around valentine's day   you know awesome none of us have anything to do on  valentine's day anyways perfect um so yeah i mean   there's people with very big aspirations in [ __  ] chimps and i'm just so excited about it yeah you   know i won't name any names or anything but some  people are working offline so you know of course   people are streaming a lot of chess but i know you  know from first-hand experience some people may be   working really hard behind the scenes to try to  win pogchamps so you know they're they're people   putting in their work it's a lot of fun to see all  these people play but we're here today for this   matchup between eric rosen and sagrasha i don't  know who's gonna win this match at first i said   eric when we did pre-match predictions but the  last couple games sagar has been finding his form   he's looked excellent he's has really technical  precision and he doesn't give eric chances when he   gets the upper hand so eric needs to find his  footing here we have liftoff in this next game and   knight f3 are we going to get this same line again  nemo ah we might oh i think we're going to get it   we're i think we're getting it guys  um it is three plus one this time   eric is thinking a little bit here so maybe he  doesn't want to repeat it i mean if i was him i   definitely would not want to repeat it however  you know that choice is mine not his so   i think we're gonna get it yeah the problem  is if this is your normal rep oh queen a4 we   have a different line but if this is your normal  repertoire it's hard to like say on the fly i'm   going away from this and he's playing a6 if queen  takes c4 b5 this way the bishop gets to compete   with white's bishop so it's not a one-way street  now both bishops are happy in the long diagonal   but the concession is this is a backwards c pawn  so if i can keep your pawn from getting to c5   white can claim a long-term advantage so black  is going to be looking to get this pawn break   yeah i mean this is also i think the main line  of the catalog wait wait no no that was wrong it   was a blunder you do not allow this the bishop  is under attack it's night it's knight takes   f6 right yes god okay now that the light square  bishop has been traded off okay so first of all   you don't really want to take on a6 because that  bishop will get trapped but that light square   bishop is now going to be an absolute monster and  we already saw how much of a monster the light   squared bishop was uh when black actually had a  light squared bishop right in the previous two   uh times they've played the catalan already now  that there's no more light square bishop for black   that bishop has no contest and it's going to  be a pain for eric to deal with for the rest   of the game yeah and if your sire what you want  to do is leave black with this bishop on g5 it   doesn't necessarily mean that you trade knights  you could trade these two pieces the knight in   the bishop but as long as you leave black with  this dark square bishop that doesn't have targets   you're pretty happy so i would just play knight d2  maybe knight to e4 knight f3 one of these squares   here get my knight over the king side and i think  that white is has the most promising position   out of the opening we've seen all match yep this  is definitely something else i mean we're gonna   see the knight possibly travel to c5 it doesn't  necessarily have to go there but that is a very   very nice square for i mean it is an outpost um  is just you know square ware no pawn can attack   it right so he did step one knight e4 but now he  now he goes step two knight c5 i was waiting for   it but he might be thinking do i really want to  allow that bishop to cash her the answer is yes   because the c7 pawn is so weak you put a work  on c1 do not trade queens on d6 don't do that   do not trade queens here that fixes black's pawn  structure you are playing against this pawn on c7 this is um you know we got we can see either  rick c1 or queen c2 i i kind of like quincy   two more maybe here because if you swap off pieces  it tends to ease up the pressure for your opponent   right because oh well we saw roxy one okay well  it's fine i would have personally preferred to   play queen c2 after a second thought but nothing  wrong with roxy one of course i mean it's a very   natural move to make it's just now i like if you  if queen takes c5 d takes c5 then you no longer   have the pressure on the c file i don't really i  kind of missed my pressure on the c file and now   there's even less pressure on the cfl because you  don't have a c7 pawn anymore so right i think this   has traded a little bit more into equality that is  not to say that white's position is you know it's   not not good anymore but it's just uh probably  queen c2 was the more accurate choice from sagar   yeah this knight c4 there's like a tactic which  seemed unexpected and it was a really good move   by eric a good find but white can still play rook  c2 rook c1 there's only one open file and white   can be first to it so i think that what will  remain better but you're right it doesn't feel   quite as powerful as it oh i like this too because  if you play rook to c8 i can take and try to get   my bishop to b7 where i'll hit a rook and hit  the pawn so bishop f3 was actually quite clever   and this rook would of course love to land on the  c6 square yeah well rook fca is going to be oh   yeah the problem with the bishop b7 lines where  you know you could play rook after ch to show   very quickly but if you take back with the rook  here there's bishop b7 which hits the rook and   the pawn maybe this is okay but it's hard to play  this in a blitz game for sure i do think directly   too and then i mean i'm not gonna try to like you  know contest the line but rick c2 it's also very   interesting end game where you just down a pawn  but you can probably hold it because the rook's   tied down to a2 but of course it's very difficult  to spot these ideas um on the fly so yeah i'd say   the hardest part is evaluating like i know that i  have compensation there my rook is active europe   is passive but is it enough and in a split second  when you're now your white is down to a minute   black is just a minute 15 seconds you you  don't assess it necessarily even if you see   it yeah it's always easier to go for the lines  that where you're just not down material right   i think as humans we are or as the way we've  learned chess it's always easier to just be like   ah i'm not down material therefore i'm fine  right um nothing wrong with that mindset of   course but there's a lot of things outside  of material in chess that impacts the game   absolutely and i'm worried about speaking  of material this pawn on d4 it's on a dark   square it can be attacked and this type of  position where a knight can actually be better   than a bishop as okay i play e5 without even a  second thought and try to use the dark squares   this could be a problem for sagar i love the way  the opening went he had a big advantage but now   things are turning in eric's favor yeah i mean e5  here um i would still say that like you know d5 is   a past pawn however we all know that knights are  the best blockaders of past bonds because it just   sits there yet it still controls all the squares  around it you know so um eric definitely has   a pretty solid chance of actually maybe  turning this end game around in his   favor i mean that the eval bar does say it's  still fairly equal but a few raw moves from   two to remove from sagar and all of a sudden  he could could be completely in black's favor   and if you get too aggressive for black let's say  moving f5 which is probably good in this position   you have to watch out for your other pawn the  pawn chain is only as strong as the base pawn   so this is a pawn chain here and the f7 pawn is  defended but as soon as you make a move like f5   your pawn on g6 could be weak but king see  that the engine did not like that move one bit   so i'm wondering it seems like both players are  missing something but it's hard to figure out   what because the position is pretty locked up not  too many pieces remaining oh okay rookie hey check   you have to because otherwise you're okay i don't  forget they both only have 20 seconds so we can't   really you know expect to see perfection now yeah  perfection definitely go perfection here where i   rookie wait nights yeah that rook is in danger  that is that is one very unhappy looking rook   yeah you can play d6 at some moment to keep it  safe but you lose a pawn maybe g4 but takes takes   his f5 to block the diagonal uh oh it's gonna be  hard to find this with six seconds on the clock   you just gotta go a4 that's a reasonable move  we're gonna try to go a5 to kick this rook away   and look at eric down to 11 seconds he doesn't  want to take on a4 because bishop e2 within   take on b5 actually that frees the rook he made  the move i said which is a blunder now the rook's   trapped king b7 oh no a takes b5 was needed uh  and i mean with that little time on the clock   yeah it's gonna be difficult to find  these accurate moves you know i mean   it's hard enough finding them with in  classical time control that's going to be   near impossible to find them the one time control  so yeah and that move at the end there you know a5   attacking the rook had a clear purpose but if he  was able to take on b5 the rook would have been   free and now we see eric play c4 going away from  this e4 bishops for queen e2 stuff that we kept   questioning oh we're getting a sharper game from  the very beginning so black gets this f5 e4 set   up but whenever you push your pawns like this the  light squares become more vulnerable but for now   it's just uh the opening stage neither side is  unhappy this is um very exciting i mean soccer   seems to be quite well versed in this opening  otherwise i there will be very little reason to   push up your pawns like this as black so i'm going  to assume he knows what he's doing i'm also going   to assume that eric that's what he's doing so  this is going to become a very interesting fight   i i really like these more aggressive openings it  really leads to a lot of excitement on the board   yes and look at this h4 making intentions clear  i'm gonna attack your king but what i don't like   for white is these doubled pawns it's not the  biggest deal right now but i feel and you can   disagree with me it's just maybe a personal  opinion that in blitz having double pawns is   really hard to deal with because you'd like worry  am i gonna lose the pawn for instance pawn c4   can black play b6 c5 bishop a6 very quickly and go  after the pawn these are like the worries that i   have at least and why i try to give my opponents  double pawns even if it causes me to give up   the bishop pair yeah for sure i i definitely  would imagine that um you know this is just   not the best position i i'm not that there's  anything wrong with wise position but it just   feels like where's your king gonna go it feels  very unnatural to play this position as white   in in in blitz because you don't have easy plans  right i mean your one plan would be to possibly   attack on the king's side but at the same time  your king's still in the middle of the board   your dark square bishop is always gonna suffer and  this is like okay well c5 is a very good idea just   trying to open up that dark sword bishop right but  at the cost of the pawn structure you may undouble   your pawns because you may continue taking here  but then you have the split pawns on the queen   side so you're going to have a long term issue  regardless queen e7 is also a interesting move   saying you can't move your pawn your pawn is  pinned to the bishop so you can trade queens   you can play queen e7 i would keep the queens in  the board because white's king is in the center   yeah this is just one of those  positions where i'm like huh   king's in the center let's go queen seventh  let's baby play with the a i mean at this point   even if you potentially um well not that not that  black's at risk of losing a pawn or anything but   you're willing to give up a little bit more  just to keep white's k in the center and white   is still at least two moves from castling on  the king side at this point i don't even know   if he wants the castle looking inside because  he's made the very aggressive choice of playing   h4 but that pawn will become a weakness  if the rook ever moves from h1 right so   cyber thinking but this is i don't think you can  afford to spend this much time here he is now down   over half a minute and he plays queen e7 but if  he was really feeling the position he would just   make that move queen e7 just like you know what  the king in the center like we're talking about   play this move and i'm not saying that's how you  should play chess generally when you're playing   classical time girls don't just rush a move of  course not but in this format you're playing three   minute blitz you just gotta go sometimes for sure  for sure i mean this is intuition is everything in   blitz right you don't have the time to sit down  evaluate calculate and i mean we've we've talked   about how sagar hasn't really played that much  online chess um but he is still very very well   known and he he he is around chess all the time  so at least some of these ideas are coming to him   for sure and queenie five look he did exactly  return my queen default great response by   eric rookie you do not take that queen and help  white's pawn structure so rookie eight saves the   rook from danger on the diagonal it protects the  queen that's a move that you can comfortably play   pretty quickly he did so in what 10 seconds he  can't afford to spend 10 seconds look at the clock   right now he's under a minute eric is a minute and  a half so these little moments they really add up   and i'm not trying to be overly critical of  course not cyber's a fantastic player and   he just isn't used to playing in these quick time  controls and that's what could hurt him but his   position is absolutely fine for sure i think here  maybe we just go knight c6 yeah i like it just   kick the queen away yeah i mean you definitely  don't want to play queen takes e5 because knight   takes e5 and that's just going to be uh a very  very strong knight on a very nice square yes yeah   this is look at white's piece of the bishop on  a3 it's not really everything i feel so scattered   like i i got like my rooks are not connected  we know we like the rook bros my king's still   in the middle of the board my knight is chilling  on f4 i mean that night's actually fine but like   none of the pieces are doing something for the  position like they're just there you know we   don't have a clear plan for white so it's  it must be quite difficult to play this um   okay well now we have h96 there's cheese watch  out for the cheese dude if you take the queen on   d4 you get mated i'm sure that very quickly bring  up the analysis board here because knight takes d4   knight g6 check takes takes the bishop covers  the mate uh the escape score on g8 the rook   will take the knight when it moves and then that  is checkmate so there is cheese do not fall for   it he doesn't he's still thinking queen takes f4  is a good move because there it is and take the   queen now but he spent so much time he spent  so much time to get here but he's much better   because of the light square control the knight is  way better than the dark sword bishop i mean this   is one of those end games where i think zagar can  actually like play pretty well with 12 seconds the   ideas become very simple right i mean if the live  square bishop comes out he would just okay well   that was a good choice but the moment the light  square bishop comes out that night is going to   become a monster on d5 and there will be nothing  that white can do about that night so i mean   black now has a very clear plan and rook d1 played  the a2 pawn can be captured by like what sagar   does he's like i'm not concerning myself with  pawns over there can't i really get away with   it let's just play simple moves that look strong  the 95 is also good because this bishop will never   get the full length of diagonal movie rook rook b8  just do it let's go now you can even play b5 b4 if   you want the position is getting better and better  this pawn's under attack obstacle bishop end game   simplistic but good for black yeah and look  actually eric's down to 15 seconds himself i   don't even notice that oh rook b2 clock moment  knight c3 first that's great rook b2 now bring   your rook in oh my god this position is so oh  now bishop c4 92 check maybe maybe 92 checks okay   well both are very similar yeah so you can play 92  take on d4 put a bishop on d3 it's good for black   but the clock what are you doing three i would  have preferred e3 but yeah oh e3 would have been   e3 would have been sick okay bishop d3  i would just do it two seconds you gotta   move you gotta move come on oh my gosh  point six second move ah i lost some time   oh look at him ah he sits back just oh he  can't believe it he played so well there too oh   that's just heartbreaking because that would  have even up the match and now it's a two-game   lead for eric rosen it's so hard to play with a  plus one increment i mean the plus one increment   exists but you know you still gotta pretty  much pre-move right every single move yeah   wow oh my god that was an intense game i mean  sagar is on form he is actually on form and and   that is very very exciting to see i mean played  an amazing game which is very unfortunate that the   time is part of the game and you do have to worry  about the clock sometimes yeah that game was about   what five seconds away from evening the score  and uh sagar just took a moment there we saw him   he was frustrated he calmed himself down he's  clearly in this match right this match is not   away from him but what we have been seeing is  as we creep closer close to the bullet portion   that's where eric will probably be at his best  and sagar has looked a bit shaky however there's   several more games left in the three plus one  this is sagar's time to make the most of it   and let me just position right now solid all  right we have a typical c4 d4 setup where you   control a lot of the board but it's it's closed  the position is really locked up right now yeah this is one of those um it reminds me a  little bit of the kohli which is what i play   and it's very very solid and it doesn't really  give white an advantage but it's definitely not   a bad choice for blitz because you have very very  simple moves to make you know you go for this e4   plan you start putting your rooks towards the  center of the board you maybe look at a d5 pawn   break the ideas are not difficult and that's  sometimes all you really need in blitz because   time but time exists and we we we  found that out from the last game   we're not seeing a philosophical discussion  if time exists or if it's just a construct but   we see that sauer didn't need to waste any  more time to jump his knight in the center   but i don't like this because after pawn  takes bishop c5 now both of black's bishops   are going to be excellent the rook on d8  is well placed so i think that night jump   was really a problem for him now he's going to  have to fend off the initiative that eric has and chad is like time exists forehead true oh well i love you know riling  up the chat a little bit there so   let's see what's going on bishop d4 maybe i could  see a queen sack happening i would think about   sacrificing my queen for the bishop and the rook  but still that's something i would never do but   yeah for sure well look at the resulting position  right now black is just marching forward so maybe   objectively it still was good for black but this  at least practically speaking doesn't look very   fun yeah i'm not sure if i like this position  uh as late it just feels like everything is on   the background you know we actually don't have  a piece above the second rank that's beautiful   and you have that one pawn that's about to be  lost so that's not going to be very good news yeah   yeah i think there's raw in this game it was  going fine and then it just wasn't going fine   in like two moves yeah that 95 move it opened  the position up but in favorable terms for   black and black's pieces were situated perfectly  for it so that cyber needed to time it better   speaking of time he needed to put a rook on d1  and being able to counter instead he's in this   position where he's losing on time he's losing his  pawn e5 it looks like so he's in some big trouble   yeah he is taking his time to think in this  position um i mean it's hard it's i don't think   the choice of playing bishop takes d4 is the hard  one i think it's a realization that your position   is not amazing that's the hard thing to come to  terms with and realizing you have to either play   queen to g5 or queen e3 to protect your e-pawn um  and queen e3 just looks absolutely awful because   queen takes e3 and he has to play it  because otherwise you just lose that and   it's really more like putting a bandage on a  bleeding wound because like man those pawns are   you talked about last game how double pawns are  just so unfun in blitz games because you're always   worried about losing them and these are quite  possibly one of the worst double pawns i've ever   seen yeah the only good news and this is a small  bit of good news is that you can't actually attack   them the pawn e5 it's isolated it's weak but how  do you attack it you need your rook somehow to get   to the fifth rank which isn't quite possible so  i like what sagar has done all things considered   his position has been bad but the last bunch of  moves have been beneficial for him uh the rook's   probably gonna come to g2 i mean the rook on a1 is  tied down to the eight oh oh look at that tactical   fine no i was thinking the same thing i was  like wait how do i deal with rook d2 but rookie   one is so clever because once the rook takes the  bishop will capture back and then the rook trade   is offered and the a2 pawn is defended so this  might be sire getting out of the woods because   this e5 pawn it's weak but it can't be attacked  especially not in a king and pawn ending yeah i think after rick takes d1 or kicks you one  bishop takes two i mean we're taking one bishop 61   sorry uh we have roxy one just trying to keep up  the pressure but soccer is like slowly easing his   way out of this and we can see erica's is like you  know biting his lip uh trying to think of ways to   keep his advantage up but this is actually  not that bad anymore right too bad for white   i mean black is still a little bit better but  yeah if you trade rooks you're not going to   win the game because your pawns are hard to  get so rook c3 makes sense but king d2 now   your king just comes right to the center attacks  protects the pawn if rook d3 just king over to e2   and you keep your pawns defended so i i really  believe that sagar has made his way out of this i think his position is actually quite comfortable  and the one big problem i would say is these pawns   are on light squares so if you're not careful at  some moment some kind of bishop b1 bishop a2 and   just cutting down the pawns could happen but he  plays rook e2 instead which feels more passive   yep and here we're gonna see that king to e7  um i mean it's just going to become an end game   which will probably lead to a drop i mean time  is the one thing i'm going to be looking at now   we know uh sagar just lost the time the previous  game so he's probably well aware of his own clock   i would play f6 i would say i you know your  pawns look ugly but i want to get my king   up into the center of the board so f6 is what  i'm looking at in the near future for eric okay   i do think they're gonna go for the draw here  though they're gonna go for the repetition here   you think so eric's up so much  time i would play on if i were him   i would play on as eric too honestly um but eric  has well maybe maybe now we'll see something like   beef maybe b5 yeah i like that too just trying to  advance your pawns yep b5 and then if c takes b   c c takes b5 c takes b5 then you actually have  rook b5 and we can actually go for the e5 pawn   that's a great point so g4 well i like this  too because you're creating another advanced   pawn which could backfire for what look at this  rook h8 coming soon watch out for your h3 pawn   this looks very dangerous and you have 13 seconds  yeah i'm not sure about the bishop takes g6 move   oh that's a good move rick h2  you can at least save your pawn   and this e5 pawn is somehow still here like it  should have been captured it feels like eight   moves ago somehow but you could never get to it  so king up bring the king up yes king d2 is good   king d3 king e4 okay king c3 nice  oh direct is coming oh great move h5   take it over the pawn and then just try to  trade the pawns and then the rook might even   get around if you're not careful this row can  come to h8 into b8 so don't drop your a2 pawn okay now he's dropping the eyes dropping e3 and e5  or is the rook i don't like this way of defending   it's so passive it's so passive king c3 give your  a2 one thing about rook end games what's the first   thing you learn about rook end games robert you  don't want to be defending passively yeah you   don't you want your pieces active a king d3 here  he actually might hold on qc3 back the king is   just going back and forth okay shade go over kj  go bring that rook around honestly white could   somehow win this game if black's not careful i  mean he he's been playing very active maybe we   might see yeah king to d7 and rook the e8 then  king c7 and rook f8 you just keep attacking   keep going okay okay that's also good okay rick  faye now yeah yep now king d4 do not allow the   black unison oh no he made he okay well black  didn't play king to c5d4 okay don't take him   oh yeah that's the issue now rook takes e5 oh okay  well i mean he'll do it soon it came before now   oh he's not taking on e5 i mean i guess he  really doesn't want to give up the f-bomb   oh oh oh no and sagar is just like i've had  enough of this right now but it's fortunate   for him that it's a time for a break they're  midway through the three plus one portion but   for a sagar you gotta feel for the guy he's  playing really well and credit to eric because   he kept up the pressure throughout that whole  game sure there were some moments where maybe   there was something to be done but he couldn't  break through he realized i'm not winning your   pawns but he kept creating weaknesses in sagar's  position and he didn't have enough time to hold   on for sure i mean part of chess is just annoying  your opponent enough until they eventually aren't   able to keep protecting everything right so you  know eric played a very very good game and sagar   almost held on all the way to the very end  but sally time is not on his side today so   yeah well it is time for us to go to our  break we'll be back soon with more action from   this saga shot eric rosen i'm not jim speech's  championship match brought to you by chess.com all right and we are back for the second half of  the three plus one um and we just saw some very   very very exciting games between eric and sagar  and all i want to say is maybe after this break   maybe sagar has like freshened up his mind he's  gonna be very aware of his time because he's had   pretty decent positions the last couple of games  unfortunately he has lost to the clock and that is   a very very unfortunate way in a way to sort  of like lose in blitz but of course we all know   that's part of the game right so however we are  expecting to see um some pretty exciting things   what are you predicting well it's just very  difficult to know like how much time you use in   certain decisions because sagar is playing great  chess as is eric but i was spending too much time   and some moments you just need to be practical  that a good move played quickly is better than   the best move played slowly and we say this  every single time it's hard to internalize that   especially as somebody who you know studies the  game their entire life you're like wait i want to   always find the best move but when the situation  arises where you don't have time remaining to   find the best moves when you're winning or when  you have a good position then you're like okay   now i just need to play quickly and sometimes not  overthinking is producing the best chess for sure   definitely i hear you there um i mean honestly  in terms of playing blitz and like these   longer time control strategies all of these things  classical making the switch from classical or even   rapid into faster time controls is quite difficult  because as chess players right like robert said we   all want to find really good moves but sometimes  you realize hey sometimes i just need to find a   move and that may be what sagar needs to realize  in this moment i i have no doubt at all that his   intuition is amazing maybe he just needs to trust  himself a little bit more yes yeah we're about to   see the next game get underway and we'll see  how he handles this because he is down three   points he's still in this match and i hope he  doesn't just start sacrificing pieces for no   reason but he does need to get winning that's for  sure get winning i like i like the way you put it   i you know it's what else can be said he needs  to win games because he's down three and eric   is the favorite in the bullet portion but sagar  is playing very well so he has his chances   yeah for sure i'm excited um and we'll get  the games in just a moment now and here we go   d4 played by eric so we saw airplane c4 and now he  plays d4 we also hit e4 earlier and we're getting   a london system of course now if  you don't know about eric's london   then you've probably been living under a rock  um this is definitely one of eric's you know   favorite lines it's something that you've  definitely seen before play by him okay this is   actually a line i've not seen before i've never  seen when london where the queen gets onto c5   yeah there are some lines where the queen gets  here but usually it's when uh white wins material   because it's like a known blunderline it's not  this this is perfectly good for black look at this   you've established your center with d5 and e5 your  queen is absolutely fine being on the c5 square   and you can castle but if you cancel kingside  you lost the benefit of doubling your pawns which   is the open file so i think sagar's handled this  perfectly you know i might actually start playing   this line myself as black this is looking quite  exciting it looks great i mean there's nothing   to complain about in this position and for  sure you can just develop your knight to c6   or to d7 i'm not sure which is better square  he chooses d7 i guess to give the queen more   returning space to use the c file potentially  at some point so i just prefer black's position   uh very very comfortable stuff this is um we're  gonna see the rook come out i actually prefer   maybe work to d8 just because i kind of want to  push d4 at some point however i don't even know   if my idea is gonna work and yeah and i think in  part knight d7 i now that i'm thinking about it   the knight on c6 would be dominated by the pawn on  c3 the knight on d7 has a future on the c5 square   of the queen is to move out the way all right um  we do see white just relieving a little bit of   pressure in the center with e takes d5 i'm liking  knight takes d5 here or maybe even queen takes d5   i like queen 65 just because i don't want to give  up control over the e4 square i know that it won't   amount to anything but just that thought of the  queen of the bishop lining up and turned checking   my king makes me feel a little bit more cozy but  i also understand there's bishop c4 at some moment   so there are going to be tactics all right knight  e4 um this position is just so unfamiliar to   me i'm like trying to wrap my head around how  everything this position is going to work out   maybe maybe we play knight takes e4 feels like  an easier way out where you just like ah let's   just start swapping pieces going to that end game  um but i'm not sure if black actually maybe wants   to keep up the pressure in this position because  i definitely feel like black is the one with a   little bit of an edge you know he's the one with a  little bit more initiative yeah i think this pawn   e5 is the best situation and i see the evaluation  bar go crazy and then it goes back down so there   might be something available here but there's some  maybe tactics involving a knight takes e5 so if   you take on f6 first that's probably what it was  and i'm only helped by i see the evil bar going   up and down otherwise i mean rook 81 looks like  a perfectly normal move and that's the biggest   difference when the players are playing they have  no idea if they miss something unless they spot it   but they're not informed that there's something  available the biggest difference between seeing   an eval bar or knowing it's a tactic is well you  have to know it's a tactic before you can play it   definitely and here i mean we're just going  for a solid gameplay i kind of like this choice   coming from um you know this this opening  choice from soccer has been absolutely great he   is however still using quite a lot of time but i  mean eric sees a lot of time here too just white   doesn't really feel it doesn't feel like white has  a lot to do in this position so that's probably   where all the thought is going into i mean how do  you how do you improve your position here right   i do like that last move but black can just move  this knight out the way knight c5 was the choice   hitting the bishop protecting the pawn on b7  and i don't know i feel like both sides can be   comfortable in this position bishop  b5 looks reasonable this rook can come   to say d8 or something like that i'm not  sure who's better yeah rook aca here maybe sorry i just had that cough there uh rook c8 is  possible for sure and yeah that makes sense you   protect over protect the knight and if  this pawn ever thinks about going to b4   your rook's on a good line with this pawn on  c3 so rook c8 definitely makes sense to me yeah and uh oh wait e4 this is very aggressive   that's a pin so if you move the knight you lose  the rook but perhaps there's like a counter pin   with queen c4 the e4 pawn captures an f3 you  lose your knight your bishop on g4 rather so   or you could also play b4 which attacks them  that's yes that's true that knight is very   important yeah pretending because you can't  actually take on f3 right since um like robert   said they're nice yeah nice i honestly wasn't even  looking at the rook and the eight but now that you   suggested and then the move happened  like oh e takes f3 isn't the threat   it's a pit yeah it's a bit that means e4 was never  a good move to begin with yes for sure uh this is   a last pawn for black sadly yeah i think you  just have to accept that fact you can't keep   spending time though look at this it's you're  losing a pawn and you're down 35 seconds so just   play knight d7 or something i'm not sure if  that's good but you play the move and hope   that you can you know gather enough strength in  the position to fend off white's position oh what i'm looking at sauger's face nope he shakes  his head he didn't see who was hanging   he's like me don't play like me don't do that  yeah he just didn't see the rook was hanging i mean to be fair to be fair it's not very obvious  um the queen is on a very odd square on b5 i mean   you would hardly ever have a pin pawn on e4 right  like i this is probably one of the first time i've   ever seen a 10 pawn on e4 but oh that was a puzzle  rush room in there for sure it was and it's a full   extra rook if you're cyber you need to resign you  need to get more games going yeah you need this is   one of the strategies as well for these kind of  formats where there's still 15 minutes left in   the bank for games you got to play as many games  as you can or at least try to get those games in   that's true and he's back to his bishop g2 lines  getting the bishop on the longest diagonal and   eric spending a little time before playing knight  f6 so let's see if cyrus can whoa b5 stopping any   kind of c4 this is still it's a true opening  players like vladimir kramnik played it so you   know that it's i play this line as black i like  it a lot you you basically say no to the catalan   you say no c4 for you but at the same time by  extending your pawns so far they could become   targets but i do think this is a good strategy by  eric because sagar has been way too comfortable   in those catalan lines for sure and c3 this is  a good way of playing against this a5 protecting   the pawn now you can just play knight to d2 he  takes on v4 which gives you the outside pass pawn   and if you can get your knight to b3 you stop  black from playing c5 black would like to play   c5 so you don't have this backward pawn i really  like your explanations of all these openings i'm   learning too just like i hope everybody in chat is  learning how to play all these different openings   honestly eric's openings have been um maybe apart  from apart from his e4 bishop c4 queen e2 line   but that that one that one is a little bit  unique all of these other openings i feel   like have been super instructional today yeah and  i would say that sagar is handling it very well   uh for the most part i think he's been doing  uh he's holding his own in the opening stage   but he just spends too much time in critical  moments and that's what's holding him back and   bishop c4 closing down the c file  it makes sense i can just move   oh i can't go knight to d2 i dropped  my e2 pawn so i should not do that   just rookie one to defend the pawn i thought  the rook could also go to c1 to try to say   if i kick your bishop down goes this c7 pawn but  either way we're getting a tactical position now   i actually really like bishop takes b3 before  knight e4 because then i can just get c5 in so now   i'm wondering if like i think it's very important  to keep control of that c5 square right i mean c5   is always a very thematic palm push in the catalan  even if this is not quite the catalan um yes yeah   no you're not getting it right this bishop and  g2 is going to open up this knight's under attack   this bishop is under attack and now knight takes  b3 of course i would have preferred knight takes   d2 yeah he didn't want to give up that bishop and  now like especially because black is never ever   ever going to get c5 hand as long as white you  know kind of just plays rookie to c1 knight knight   c5 maybe and that c pawn is looking really weak of  course be careful you don't want to take c7 here   because your queen will be trapped after work to  c8 i'm going to show that really quickly because   it looks like a free pawn to most but where  does that queen go and no squares are available   to your queen over here so the queen is trapped  in the spot that's kind of crazy honestly yeah knight c5 played the point i think  is that white will play for e4   if you take on c5 i can just take back but there  is a moment i can play e4 and help my bishop   and alternatively i can say wait i have an outside  pass pawn and i don't mind pushing it up the board   yeah this is um looking pretty comfy for white  honestly this is this did not go very much in   the favor of eric and i also think this is just  one of those positions that nobody really wants   to play as black because you're out here  defending you know you only got one minute   o'clock defending is always more difficult  than attacking in blitz games just because   you don't have natural moves to make you have  to always think about what your opponent's doing   you're always trying to respond to them  so that's very difficult yeah knight c4   that makes sense you say you're like you don't  want to sit passively you don't want to defend   but here that's what i was hinting at earlier e4  the knight needs the defense of the pawn so you're   just trying to take on d5 and remove the guard  but i guess he'll play you can still play e4 like   you can just go and try to open up this bishop  the bishop can also reroute to f1 eventually to   use the new diagonal but instead we see b3 which  is also a very good move yeah um here knight a5   we're going to eric should be trying to  get that c5 pawn push at some point and   you know we all have the saying that knights on  the rim are a little bit paper so that knight is   not happy on a5 we have also talked about however  about how knights are the best blockaders however   you kind of have to combine those two and be  like do i would i rather have my nine on the   rim while blockading or should it just be you  know somewhere more active right and i and this   is one of those moments where i wanted to be a  little bit more active right but you do make a   great point about the knight blockade is a great  block hitter because it still attacks over the   pieces so the b3 pawn needs to have an eye kept  on it and right now eric he's down on time he's   trying to figure out where does the queen trade  want to happen i didn't want to take on c5 to   allow the rook in and for white is it time for e4  is it finally time to do it no e3 which does make   sense though he's trying to keep the position  a bit tamer and now the king is on e7 i would   try to keep the queens on the board if i'm white  i would bring my queen back that king is in the   center here and it's not going to get checkmated  but it could fall victim to some kind of attack   yes for sure and i think these palm pushes are  we're just trying to get all the moves out you   know before before somebody has to commit to  something what does they call like in chess when   you when you just don't want to make your position  worse so you're just trying to like find those   moves that that are like potentially beneficial  don't really do much but most importantly they   just don't make your position worse yeah just  those kind of waiting moves yeah the waiting   moves exactly and those are hard to do it i think  black is taking over all of a sudden because   you can play for e5 you can play for knight b7  pawn c5 you finally get that pawn break and it's   not that black is that much better you have to  be careful but the position is favoring black the   trajectory here and look at the time it's about  even it's getting a little better for black i oh   and we get the c5 that we wanted yes and the thing  is a lot you can't take on d4 so there is a pin   to look out for with this rook on c8 so you  need to figure out how to move forward here   for black maybe it's rook c7 rook c8 but i guess  not because the palm is captured immediately   yeah i mean here for sure there is going  to be you know a bit of like key f1 move   the king over oh that knight is going to look  absolutely amazing on c3 i just realized that   yeah this is not pleasant but the thing about the  knight c3 is then the b3 pawn feels safer because   now it can't be attacked so even though that's  a great knight you're not attacking the pawn   anymore so move this bishop away i think bishop f3  i don't even want to give that up anymore and then   later in the game i'll think about pushing this  a pump but of course don't allow e4 check yeah   oh i i don't think i love that because it seems  committal now you're gonna have a harder time   pushing d4 but maybe this king comes to e5 you  push for d4 anyway and look at how quickly eric   is taking over this game yeah there's definitely  a lot of um pawns on light square so pause on   light squares when your opponent has lights where  bishop can go either can go in two ways you either   completely shut down the light square bishop  because all the pawns on that color or the light   square pawns become really really weak because  they're on the color flight skirt bishop you know   all right so um this is one of those moments when  i mean the position is objectively speaking fairly   very equal but i do think white has to be fairly  oh time clock clock clock clock there was 55 there   uh rook if i would have been nice but bishop you  made a good point these pawns watch out 0-7 give   me one free move and i get through pawns so king  can go back to f6 but look at white keeping the   opposition do not take that knight you hang your  rook oh he lost some time he lost some time no oh   he was fending it off so well it was going so  it was a draw and this is not the first time   this has happened oh no sorry oh no no no yeah  the time is not his friend it's not on his side   and these games have been very close but eric has  been moving more quickly and he's been finding the   resources necessary in the ensuing time trouble  so well done by eric and for sagar it's just   that's the kind of day it is maybe with some  more practice he'd be able to speed up and   manage his time better but right now it's been  all eric rosen yeah for sure i mean eric eric   is definitely popping off today with um his  his control of the position really i mean   summer was having these great positions but he  wasn't able to convert them and that part is   very unfortunate especially when you're playing so  well but i mean i i just hope that this motivates   sagar you know he's a very very strong player and  we've talked about how eric plays every day sagar   on the other hand we're a little less unfamiliar  uh with his history of online blitz chess so   honestly he's doing absolutely amazing yes and  you can tell that he hasn't played much given that   his rating is like 20 50. oh he's way underrated  he's so underrated for sure and what's happened   though in the last it was three and a half three  and a half in the last five games eric has won   all of them in the three plus one time control  because you start with less time when cyrus   goes in those deeper things he doesn't have  time remaining to figure out the rest and   that's been the tale of the match right now again  i like sagar's position with the black pieces   he's got his knight on d4 hitting this pawn on e2  that's already a really devastating tactic you can   put c6 you can play bishop h3 you have a nice  bishop on g7 the opening has gone sagar's way i think black is going to enjoy this  position however he is down 30 seconds   oh no yeah foreshadowing what we could see oh yeah  it's a very good position for black i mean you   have everything set up for yourself bishop takes  you too necessary here yep 96 f5 things like that   you know the thematic moves we see   i like black's position there's also some ideas  with knight g5 and queen h3 if you're not careful   so already eric should be on the lookout  for that and find a way to counter it   the thing is f5 though it's so easy to play like  f5 knight g5 ideas he's spending a lot of time   on moves that um i feel like intuitively he could  be playing a lot faster but i think i think what   he's doing subconsciously is double checking and  double checking you know but it's people who have   played a lot of blitz we just instantly go because  you know that's that's kind of just what you do   and that's what happens when you don't play  regularly i mean i play some blitz online of   course but when i play in classical tournaments  longer times i spent so much time thinking if i   move that pawn is that going to create a permanent  weakness for me or is that just a good move   and then as you said you're triple checking the  position and spending too much time so f5 great   move he is now ahead on the clock we'll see if he  can score a victory from a good position right now   he can play d5 he can play g5 he can at some point  play h5 he has choices here i like it great yeah   just go forward here the major downside of playing  f4 is the e4 square becomes white but then you   have the d-pad going to d5 so i do like sagar's  position here he's playing quickly he's been   confidently and let's see if he can take it all  right i mean here we have so many possible moves   for for black kind of i kind of want to start  playing this like it's a king's indian maybe go   reckon 7 or a cafe and just start storming white's  kingside i think that's honestly the best um   wait for black to play just very natural moves  you know you potentially have this open open fo   that is wow okay i mean he's going for the attack  yeah he's going for the attack he's being very   aggressive just just take take on g3 how do i  where's that knockout you know like i could take   on g3 you take back my rook is in the right place  but then how do i actually go and checkmate you   that's right yeah this is a very very important  question i mean now the c5 could potentially be   leaked too so you could play like throw in a  rook c8 at some moment yeah that makes sense   queen c6 actually just attacks something  like that no nice little double attack here   hmm it's funny because i want to check with you  along the f file but sometimes the best attack   is creating a second avenue of attack instead of  just tunneling on the f-file let me make a move   like as you said rook c8 or queen c6 or something  of that nature that could benefit black's chances so cigar thinking here sorry he's down under 45  seconds suddenly he has half the time of eric and   this we've seen this one before oh yeah we've  seen this one we know the story however i hope   the ending of this story is a little different  from the previous ones because i think cigar just   you know really deserves to get a good game  off unfortunately we've already mentioned this   clock the time is part of the game so uh having  good time usage is obviously going to impact yes   yeah in rook f7 it makes sense right protect b7  rook f8 coming and this is a move that he spent   45 seconds on he can't afford to spend 45 seconds  look at his clock so it just that's the tale of   this match is uh spending copious amounts of times  in positions that he understands very well and   for eric and he's really just giving a very few  chances like he's pouncing in opportune moments   he's playing some really exciting chess but he's  benefiting from cyber's mismanagement on the clock queen g4 okay so objectively speaking i don't  think this is a very good move for white just   because they will double up the pawns and  you know and then that end game is going   to be looking pretty good for black especially  because it's going to be bishop versus knight   however sucker is spending so much time on this oh  my god he's being a bit of a perfectionist queen   six is a good move okay that's an amazing move  right it saves the queens attacks c5 it gives a   discovery with d4 check at some point but he spent  17 seconds and now he's down to 12 and a half   he needs to play moves with that more quickly but  let's see he has a promising position right now   eric is the one who's unsafe he could take on  f7 the rook will just replace the first rook   and then now the f files blacks for the taking so  i like cyber's position he just needs to keep up   the pace okay here we go rook f1 take maybe but i  know my queen just stayed protecting the g6 bomb okay so d4 e4 okay i like that move king h7  instead of committing to any choice he puts his   king to safety he protects the pawn c5 is under  attack d4 i'll take it then i'll go queen a4 at   the end your pawn on d4 is weak so queen b4 i like  it bishop fa just go for the pawn just do it just   go come on bishop of eight there we go 3.9 seconds  left take that pawn okay queen is gonna be three   watch out for queen of seven oh just make a move  i know good move though queen f7 queen is gonna   oh no just go okay 2.3 seconds he needs to move  he's got two bars yes yes yes oh oh we're going   on the offensive now take on d3 remove that  take it take it okay two and a half seconds   pre-move it queen e3 check that's what you have  to learn how to do is pre-move here queen e3   it won't be a bad move no matter what happens g3  oh oh yeah he didn't have enough time but queenie   uh queen three was good fujitsu is winning  oh he's gonna lose g6 pawn no oh my gosh oh no he got checked no ah and the time is up both  in this game and in the three plus one portion   how in the world that was such a good game  my soccer hurt it was such a good game   he if he just had like two more seconds two more  seconds maybe you know i just think he could have   oh my god and eric blanked him in that  section it was six nothing eric rosen   in the three minute plus one  second increment time patrol i mean i mean even though the result is in the  in the in the three plus one time control is a   six zero that is not an accurate representation  of sagar's chess skills because as we all saw   he's playing absolute phenomenon phenomenal chess   time is just something he's probably not used  to um he's probably not used to playing three   plus one but he's playing absolutely amazing he  really is and that's why i tend not to focus too   much on the score like the result because they  didn't tell you how they played however this is   an elimination match so he needs to score we'll  see if he can right the ship it feels like it's   getting too little too late but we have the bullet  ahead stay tuned everybody we'll be right back   with this matchup between international master  eric rosen and international master segar shah all right and we're back and we're going to be  diving into the bullet portion really really soon   i mean oh it's been a very very intense match so  far honestly like my heart rate is just sky high   um watching watching them battle it out with such  high quality games is honestly very exciting and   you know even though it's three plus one you  might think that the games are not very high   quality they indeed are um and it's just being  very unfortunate for sagar honestly that that   time is just ah some days it just it is just like  that right robert i'm sure we all have those days   we certainly do i know them very well not  that today is that day but kind of every   day is that day for me but uh you know it  has been very good chess you can see it from   uh from sagar he's playing well he's just playing  slowly and for eric he's also playing very well   and he has the lead on the clock so it's been sort  of balanced on the board throughout most of it   but that's what blitz is blitz isn't just about  oh let me find good moves every move no no let   me find good moves and do it so quickly so eric  deserves the all the credit in the world we do   feel sorry for soccer it doesn't feel nice to  lose on time a bunch of games like this but   eric has deserved every single game that  he's been winning he is pouncing and he's   opportunistic and in that last game there  he was able to survive in a way that most   people couldn't even dream of just to then  lay the checkmate and a win on the clock   and before we dive in the bullet portion i mean i  just want everybody to you know show support for   both players eric and sagar who are both playing  absolutely stellar chess we've talked plenty about   how sagar is very very prominent in the chess  community however he is most likely not playing   as much blitz and bullet as eric is you know so  um he is however putting up an absolutely amazing   fight and it's been an absolute pleasure to see  him play very very solid chess today and the real   question is are we going to see the stafford  gambit i guess he can't really play it because   sagar isn't playing e4 but when will we see those  vintage eric rosen gambit lines that's what i am   anticipating in the bullet and for sagar we'll  see if he just can play freely the stress of the   match can sometimes force your hand to shiver and  you won't play as fast as possible but with sort   of the match result it's you know looking like  it's out of hand maybe he can just move freely   yeah and uh this is not strict bullet this  is one plus one which is still very very   fast wait why is he spending so much time  i think his connection is struggling oh no   yeah uh he's got one bar that i see but he's  still moving and also his bullet rating is very   high his blitz rating was 22 something his bullet  rings near 2500 so maybe he's better bull than we   thought maybe i i love the way we put it i mean  i definitely think that maybe the connection is   causing a lot of issues for him at the start but  but we're off now we're we're we're doing okay now   uh he's making fast moves we're getting to  a very comfortable position for white here   structure yeah the b4 a4 b5 palm push is coming  in and these are the players we need to see in   bullet because it's so easy you know these five  move plans that you can make and there's not   really much your opponent can do it's just  easy moves to make while keeping your time   up eric however has only spent four seconds  and sagar is actually down to 30 seconds so   yeah i think you know sorry here he knows what  to do but he's trying to be perfect taking on   c6 at some point going rook after c1 you just go  after this pawn on c6 but he made a big decision   there because after f takes watch out for bishop  f5 hitting the queen and the rook on the diagonal   i definitely do like black's position a little bit  more now just because he has the pair of bishops   i think that can be very very strong and can be  you know quite literally game changing and get   wait wait wait 99 yeah hitting the queen hitting  the bishop oh that problem was pinned see that   oh no remember to always look for captures  right guys checks captures threats and that   capture is still possible but it's not as strong  because the end of it the bishop takes f3 so   queen h4 coming in for a checkmate watch out for  h2 don't play h3 the bishop will sacrifice itself   g3 look at those light squares though it's  not so pleasant but no checkmate for now   so rook fc1 and it feels like black should  have an attack but if you don't attack quickly   then white is just strategically  and structurally much better yeah this is um rook takes f2 i think he  probably could have taken on f2 there all   the time and the time difference is just  crazy yeah ten seconds for white but he's   he's playing some good moves lately the  queen gets ready to start whatever best free only way take this bishop off but there's going to  be a sack on g3 yeah we already know i mean queen   xg6 holds it for a little bit longer but this is  okay well the bishop takes g3 very very natural   mate checkmate oh no yeah this is a a brutal  finish but that's actually how the game was   going because eric you know he kept playing  with purpose there and sagar missed that   knight takes d5 that one little tactic and  after that the game was clearly in black's   favor yeah we're definitely seeing some very very  aggressive um gameplay from eric and this is the   kind of gameplay we we associ associate him with  usually so it's definitely very nice also i just   realized this is the karo khan breyer variation  i didn't realize there's another briar variation   uh i only know the one from the spanish  but chess.com is telling me that this is   another briar well i guess he was very flexible  as the chess player going through uh different   variations and here it it doesn't really look like  a caracon at all it looks like uh you know some   just solid positional game it looks like a briar  yeah and now knight takes e4 just take back if the   d takes we trade queens and bishop takes now i can  play f5 at some moment to challenge your bishop   on e4 but all right cigar is not uh he's not  committing anything so sagar goes knight to d7 and   he's moved knight to f6 he's playing casually  you know he's taking his his leisurely base um all right he takes knight all right   okay so what now what now bishop e6 looks  reasonable the thing is i like i wanted   the long castle actually i was really cheering  for a long castle there you know so you can go   for an attack yeah that's that's why i cut away  you know we go on castle we play f4 we play f5 life is simple when you just push your pawns  up it's true it's simple in either direction   either you just go and checkmate or you know you  lose the game but either way it's true it's okay   yeah it's simple right like i'm with you and well  speaking of simple we've simplified the queens are   off the board this pawn on a2 didn't was that  not a free pawn am i um there could have been   some c4 stuff so oh true yeah it's it's yeah  you're right it's getting sneaky over here but   white's pawn structure is compromised with  these double pawns but you also have an open b   file that you can use to your advantage so i  would try to put a rook on b1 in the near future   for sure i mean here you know you just it's a very  solid position i i think this end game should be   objectively speaking of draw i don't see a wave  i don't like b5 because it undoubles the pawns   yep but it does give you a an eventual  attack on the c2 pawn right if you can   coordinate well enough rook c8 comes and that  could run but i like that move a4 really good move   and we're just trading everything off on the queen  side so your assessment of oh it should probably   be a draw that looks pretty accurate but i'm  looking at the clock situation we're getting into   time trouble and we know how those games have gone  yep okay so we have just a sort of clamp for both   sides the c2 pawn is stuck in place the b5 pawn  was under attack and brooke here i'm i'm wondering   nemo at some point there's like a rook b7 and i  take over the seventh rank and black's king can   be in big trouble i honestly don't really think so  um i think white's a little bit too tied down now   with with defending his his own pawns i do like  black's position here i think it's quite active   but maybe now rook b7 because oh nice look at that  like see eric is finding these moments where that   was hanging for one move it just happened but he  noted the difference in the position and he just   takes that pawn and now he's up and you know  i think eric did a lot of puzzle rush recently   it seems to be time time i i mean it's  it's objective oh his rating was still   um provisionary right because i just saw a minus  42 for sagar so he doesn't really play that much   yeah bullet but um i mean black could potentially  hold this end game i don't think it's fully   lost yet it's just very very difficult for  sure right but time went out so now it is   lost and well eric keeps on winning his bullet  rating is above 2600 so he's thriving in this   match it's funny because he started off on fire he  was three and a half one and a half ahead and then   sagar went two games in a row okay wait a sec  this is a match and eric said no no it's not   like i'm gonna just take all the next bunch of  games so he's won eight games in a row for sagar   the time control the time trouble he's never  been his friend and also the internet troubles   is also not his friend yeah and i think that's  why the clock is paused for a moment we're just   trying to resolve the lag uh for sagar because  yeah it has been a struggle with his connection   um so you know this match still has nearly 18  minutes left is it possible for sarah to win the   match still he'd have to win eight games in a row  there's probably not enough time mathematically   speaking uh if you know the games go in normal  distance so yeah it seems that eric rosen will   take this match and if that happens or when that  happens i should say nemo in the bracket it means   that he goes on to face levy rosman so what do  you think of that matchup of gotham chess versus   international master rosen i think that this is  a matchup that all the fans have been waiting for   i think i mean obviously you know gotham  chess versus uh uh eric yeah this is gonna   be really exciting because not only you know  are they really big personalities on twitch   and youtube they also have very interesting  game styles right yeah no it's it's going to   be a matchup of fan bases that's what i'm really  interested in to see how loud the fan bases cheer   for their respective parties there's definitely  overlap you know of course people can like more   than one person but when it's a match of just  two players somebody has to win and eric rosen   versus levy rosman that would be a fun one this  is one that i'm definitely going to be following   yes indeed so we think we're about to resume  the play here hopefully the connection issues   have been resolved that the lag is minimized and  for sagar let's hope that he can get a few good   bullet games in before the end of the match just  to feel like you end on a good note it has not   been going his way since the five minute portion  he probably wishes that hey can we just play   that 5-1 over and over again let's keep with  that he definitely wants to buy one back yes   and this is exactly what happens  when you're not an online player so   while we have a moment i just want to remind  everybody of a great upcoming event it is the fee   day online world corporate chess championship and  there's still time to register so if you're part   of a company and you have a bunch of players that  want to take part do get involved get register   just do a quick google search find out the how  to do so but it will be february 19th to 21st   wait if i'm part of just.com am i allowed to  do it too i don't think that chess companies   are taking part i think this is more for other  types of companies okay yeah i think the chess   companies would win those kind of competitions but  i do know i do know that companies are allowed to   have a ringer they're allowed to bring on one  player and the maximum rating for that player   is uh one player over 2500 i should say so you  can bring on a player so nemo if you find a   company that needs a player you can go ahead and  slide you guys already know what i'm gonna do are you gonna start your own  company like yeah i'll just start my you're gonna have employees you know somehow  i'm one of your employees yeah yeah wait i'm   thinking now i'm thinking i i have things planned  the uh the bow test sister is part of it nemo llc   yeah exactly i'm here for it so yes  if you're you do like chess if your uh   your company wants to get involved you  can register i think the registrations   are still available for a few more days but  there will be some strong teams out there because   in the new york city corporate chess league there  are teams like a couple international masters on   them i know google of course well they're a huge  company they have many strong players but it's   going to be a good event this is going to be very  exciting i'm excited to watch this and it's going   to be like there's going to be podcasts this oh  my god so much amazing chess content coming up   for sure well while we resolve  these issues i think we're going   to take a quick break just to allow the players  to figure this out and when we return we will have   the finale of this bullet portion of this  matchup between eric rosen and cyber shot all right and we are back the game has  already started and this is uh uh an   opening that sagar is pretty familiar with right  we've seen this already twice happen at least   and yeah eric plays this d4 line so it's a  long time since we've seen this but we like   the position that sagar was able to get although  you like initially black setup which i can buy   but in that game something went wrong for  eric along the way and then white got that   c5 like knight into the d6 square so we'll  see how eric hansel handles it this time   i mean i definitely think oh wait this is a  tactic but does the tactic work let's see okay   so this is wilds if you castle he'll take on c6  and then take on e5 but black may be down a pawn   but a ton of compensation thanks to this light  square bishop here we go we have liftoff here wow   this is this has become very complex i mean sagar  came back from the break and just suddenly started   playing super aggressive openings i like this yeah  he's down eight points he needs to win the games   and he's won upon his knights coming to e4 what  attack does black have right you need to attack   black has well i mean the the the a8 to h1  diagonal might be a little weak but yeah   just get that bishop there but he moved his bishop  to f5 did eric and so now the knight just gladly   stepped into e4 the queen can come to well not to  f3 anymore because the b2 pawn is hanging but at   some point that queen could consider going there  or hey why not let's trade queens i'm open pawn   this looks great for white definitely very  solid position i mean this is one of the first   times i think in the match when we've seen eric  actually lower on time so he's definitely sweating   a little bit and i think c5 here is extremely  strong because then you get your knight to d6   we've already seen the knight to d6 um theme  before but this one's gonna be even stronger   yeah i'm looking at f5 as well to try to go  after this bishop on g6 but i dropped my c5   so queen c4 let's be wise about this there  it is protect the pawn on c5 attack the   pawn on d4 maybe this rook can come to e7  pawn to f5 white's attack is really quick yup definitely very very nice position queen  takes d4 also possible queen xb2 sure okay i mean   we don't really care too much about the pawns at  this point i mean when you're going for checkmate   pawns are uh secondary you know i'm with you  there and rook be that's a good move by eric   eric has done a really good job staying in this  game queen c3 offering the queen trade so that the   king feels safer on h8 and white does have plenty  of time here but look at that advantage slipping   i saw the eval bar just jump down there watch out  for rook to b2 and check me along the second rank   think rook to b2 yeah we're just gonna queen e2 is  forced here or or i mean rookie two is also pretty   okay king g2 maybe yeah queen e2 though i like  your move just retreat oh no wait no one would go there's no way we're drawing this right i mean  this is the one chance you have for winning and   there's no we can't draw this and eric played  for a win he went queen c2 instead of queen   d2 so if he loses it's unintended back  to e2 e7 e2 then you win this bishop oh   nope okay i said we're gonna hear your trade wait  wait it's a free road take it okay finally sagar   gets this one wait wait wait what wait what's like  are you doing some meat oh my god oh okay it was   it was just lag it was just like okay oh my god i  was so stressed there for a moment oh my gosh and   eric put up great defense in that game like that  the fact that he lost the pawn but then drummed up   all of his counter play with his queen and his  rook yeah that was really well done but seller   had the time to calculate that's why time is  so important that was a very very clean game   and by the way look at cyrus rating he went from  23.80 whatever to gotta love that provisional   rating yeah it has not stabilized because he  hasn't played enough games and he's stabilized   his position right now for black is very solid  here white though doing well with the bishop on   c4 a little bit more active and moves like h6  you think what has changed the g6 f5 squares at   some point knight coming into the game on this  side but queen b1 queen a2 is eric's first stop okay so queen a2 go for the pawn in 95. this is  a very very easy easy um i was just there for a   moment i was thinking about 95 and i realized the  queen protects f7 anyways yeah and the knight at   c5 is nice because at some point you can just  put a piece on e6 and you can start trading off   d5 getting sharp is there going to be some kind  of sack here whoa we have cyber shot ready to   play queen f4 bishop d6 let's go for that what  happened during that break i'm sorry what did i   miss yeah what has he been fed like what kind of  food has he been eating during the break he's like   had a couple of protein bars and he's just ready  for all ready to go like like he like we went we   before the break sagar was you know using so much  time playing like slow chess and now it's just wow like this is a beautiful chest like it's  just so aggressive every move is with purpose   mm-hmm giving up all these pawns in the queen side   the dark squares are more important to me wait are  we should we get the names swapped or something   you know we're good here queen b6  bishop's e5 to follow if king to h1   there might be knight h5 into the g3 square  eventually you have to watch out for rook 66 no i i saw it coming the rook won't follow and the  king is in trouble no matter where the queen goes   this rook can either take this knight  with check or the rook and go elsewhere   to win the queen so as that's called the  casters jinx or the commentators curse you know   um you know we won't praise the players anymore  the players are really just not doing anything   special it's just him it's kind of blah yeah  they're they just they're just you know playing   normal chess this is stuff you would see every  single day on chess.com yeah you know moves are   being made the bishop is a bishop the knight  is a knight oh the queen is a queen and that   queen is going to be a little bit gone yeah no  rook takes d5 but sadly you get part two now   you take the knight that was in the way and now  the rook moves again and the king is in check   oh gosh this is no this is that was what a good  game though it was going great until it didn't go   that great and credit to eric he was super alert  he had a bad position he knew that sagar was had   the upper hand and was playing really well and  yet he stayed focused and he saw rook takes e6   and he pounced as soon as available i've used that  word pounced many times but that's because i feel   like that's what eric is doing here he is getting  some good positions where he just puts sagger away   and then other times when it's complicated  and stressful he's ready for the tactics when   they become available to him yeah eric is playing  absolutely um phenomenon phenomenal chess for sure   wow english is very difficult i've been like  trying to conjugate english words and for some   reason i'm struggling i just say the base form  of it and i'm like wait that is not quite correct   you know nobody nobody can tell the difference  just don't bring any attention to it you're good   you're good yeah it's fine it's fine okay well we  have a situation where black is a pawn ahead but   i would be very nervous about this bishop on g2  hitting the pawn on c6 threatening a takes b5 the   rook is undefended so some kind of like white's  position is so good it's like sagar is getting   into such good positions and i'm just like oh my  god i'm so happy for him you know yeah and he does   have time right now 41 seconds to 31 at this point  he's up 10 seconds knight 64 is a free pawn the   rook protected b5 but the rook is not defended you  want to look whenever their pieces in a row with   each other what happens when the piece in between  them moves out the way unfortunately soccer plays   e4 which is a great move very tempting takes c6 oh  my gosh an e5 i see you i see you with the tactics   but this is not what sucker wanted because queen  d6 can be played trying to fix the pawn structure   and get a past pawn but if black doesn't take then  white remains down a pawn yeah there's just so   many like you know exciting tactical moves that  can happen in these positions um i mean here's c5   or rookie it's also reasonable but this bishop  on g2 anymore that's yeah that's the sag bishop   very do not take on f5 do not take on f5 although  f6 becomes scary so you have to be on the lookout   for f6 in a quick attack oh no you took on f5  that bishop is now a bishop again it's regained   its former glory yeah now it's a bishop again it  was going to be a tall pawn but now it's a bishop   we have four watch out for e6 f6 the rook on b8  is not defended so i like the queen of four it's   trying to play for tricks 24 is also good hitting  c6 f6 still possibly eight seconds barely got that   move off e6 is possible f6 is possible even what's  going on here a lot of things is happening i mean   eric is being super aggressive he has three  seconds twenty five quid four age four yeah that's   mate and the queen's hanging yeah oh he realizes  that immediately and just has to go i mean   sagar is going to check mate black into moves  oh my god eric was playing really well i mean   he he had a bad position coming out of the  opening and he he was like holding it but man   i love that i love it he smiles too he knows  what he's doing yeah he's just he's having a   good time and eric is like he's a comedian at  the board and he's one of those like he he just   it doesn't seem like he's joking and even when  he makes jokes he just has this i don't even   know how to put he's just i wish i had the  word it's a very high brow sense of humor   but eric is awesome and sagar he's a natural he  is he is and sagar is you know he's great you know   he's getting back some some wins here he's gonna  feel better about things watch out for e4 okay the   knights under attack with e4 is a typical tactic  to win the knight in c3 but when analyzing like   with commentating bullet games all i'm looking  at is can he take here can you take that you know   it's just like it just becomes constant  tactics it's like doing mini puzzle rush   yes and there it is i see them to deadpan  here that's what i was looking for it is very   difficult everybody to talk chess try to come up  with vocabulary words but thank you deadpan humor   i really like eric's sense of humor i've known him  for a long time he's actually a great photographer   for those who may not know that and he is often  a journalist at many of the top events so he'll   play blitz with the players in the free time and  he's just a great guy so i know eric quite well   and and now well he's getting to know sagar quite  well and he plays f4 saying hey your turn to think   you're in time trouble i'm up 20 seconds and look  at this position g4 comes to mind the knight on   g6 isn't defending bishop d5 check knight  to d5 use all the squares available to you this is um looking pretty good to see white  for eric it's um definitely one of those   i mean could've just taken on a five two i'm sure  but i i feel like at this point eric doesn't want   that pawn anymore he just wants to absolutely  crush black knight c6 position yeah this is what   i'm talking about it's so hard to make a move in  this position it's like eric is playing played   this game absolutely beautifully he came out of  the opening with a tiny bit of edge yeah black   played a little too passively played a little too  slow and then all of a sudden this is what happens   and the matchup it's you know out of control  at this point but if this were a close match   this is the moment where you just resign right  you just try to get more games going but for   uh sagar he's it doesn't matter in terms of the  match score there's a little bit of prize you know   have some fun he said are you not entertained  and the answer is yes sorry my apologies   uh but yeah the this knight in c6 was the hero  it forked and then won the rook and now it's   back on c6 perfectly happy is that queen's  like almost trapped but has the g5 square and all right f5 forking more this is the game of  forks yeah this is uh this was a bit of a painful   game eric played absolutely beautifully yes  eric's in great shape right now and you know i   i i want to say that it's one of these matches  where the story line often is oh sucker lost   on time and he had good positions that's true he  did have good positions and he has lost some time   but eric deserves so much credit for putting  pressure on the board and the clock even   when he's been in trouble he has been the most  resourceful player that you can possibly imagine   finding these tactical uh moves that save the day  just saying you know even if i'm lost objectively   we got to keep the game going and as if you  keep the game going longer and longer your   chances to survive increase and that's something  we all really need to learn from right it's um   not giving up when you're just worse and instead  just fighting back and playing for that win   eric being able to convert all like so many  positions in when she was worse into a win that   is a lot like that is skill right there oh 100 and  you hear this from the top players all the time   uh because they get in bad positions too whether  it's magnus within tsukaru but the ability to   be resourceful and to dig deep and never give up  that's an essential part of speeches in particular   and chess more generally so look at eric when  is knight to t5 stole upon c4 his queen is in   line with a rook but there's nothing you can do  to exploit that so you're up upon b2 is hanging   the bishop and the queen lined up perfectly it's  going to be another win for air maybe three oh   no another fork yeah now you can just take them  be careful with those knights in bullet chests eric's knights you know he's just been  using them perfectly in this match   and well does what i even have a move  here i'm trying to come up with something   so hard it's something that's what king h1  was played yeah as well as waiting moves   yeah bishop a6 take on e4 take over the  f file this is uh pretty straightforward yeah sagar is probably tired it doesn't late   by him but he's not going to use it as an excuse  and the thing he's going to say is eric played   great and my time management was bad and for sure  eric played great yes eric just played absolutely   beautiful chess and look at this  bishop d3 take on a5 with the queen   all of your pieces in the game right now for  black and you are up material so yeah this one uh   might be a go next angle not much to say here  other than you know why it's just kind of trying to hang on fortunately not a lot of moves  are even like possible to complete like you you   know you can't barely move your pieces you know  everything just okay well ricky one here is or   or or anything really yeah queen g3 first rookie  one next rook e1 actually still was possible there   because of the checkmate on the dark square there  goes that rook and there goes another victory for   eric rosen oh oh my god okay well eric is just  running away with this match i mean 14.5 to 5.5   yes that's uh oh he's thinking a little bit  second move are we gonna get this again we   are we're gonna get this funky bishop c4 but  no queen e2 this time so it's probably gonna   go into the periods right yes and it's got  like these vibes of a potential king's gambit   that was declined but i like what sagar is doing  a5 going on the queen side because you know white   is going to strike in the king side at some point  so get activity while you can on the queen side   okay give the knight to 7 knight c5 i mean this  position is just looking pretty solid for white   yep but b3 bishop way to be together that's like  you play the spanish often right and sometimes   that move you sacrifice a pawn just to shut  down the bishop this is one of those moments b3   i wouldn't think you have a rewrite or bishop to  b1 and then becomes a big pain yep and he's going   way too familiar with this i think we know that  b3 is coming why else put your rook on b8 yeah   i wonder what rugby could be for there it is but  now this bishop is going to come it's like d4 a3   and then the pawn on b2 is defended which means a2  is followed so it's upon sacrifice at this point   and black is not thrilled about that even though  he got the bishop off the board yep now we might   see uh some c5 i mean i think this is very good  for for wyatt like you have the center um you   have a really weak a5 pawn to go attack you have  possibilities to expand on the king's side like   this is a dream position for white it certainly  is and it goes to show that cyborg didn't want to   sacrifice material but sometimes that safer method  causes you more problems because look at this   he'd end up losing the material anyway so that  temporary pawn sacrifice with b3 was justified   and now knight d5 is a threat to probably e6 to  stop it but when you play e6 the dark squares on   your king side become weaker so e5 knight oh okay  g4 trying to kick the knight away to go knight d5   wow just going to go check my name all right  well i wonder what rook h3 could be for i   don't know you tell me maybe maybe we we want  to you know just march our pawns up the board   i love f5 here i see pawn i push pawn and i like  what oh that's a pin knight and the knight can't   be defended well rick kicks h5 here okay true  the knight is hanging here but at least you   quick counter shot into point take c3 and then c2  is hanging can i take on c2 no rookie wait sweet   take c2 well there was rook g6 that scared me he's  five seconds left all right true yeah 30 seconds   to five seconds so i mean there's actually a lot  of chances here from oh wait a minute wait whoa why don't you just take off that was a free  pawn you want that pawn i promise you you want   it king king f8 run your king away and take  on h5 saga is winning this week 1.8 seconds   i would play like queen takes e6 or something  to flag them just try to win on time you know   but the thing is like you probably you know  usually in these kind of positions i pre-moved   every single capture yeah preview vertically tried  because there's nothing white can do about it so   even if queen queen should be terrible because  rick h5s comes with a chat eric is using all   this time now yep but he's trying to figure out  a way to win on the clock and king there queen   each one good move queens for it just go just go  all right if queen if one is working three worker   three oh i missed it right three would have won  the queen i've had that lined up and now black is   even immaterial is that right i can't count  quickly enough even material yes even material   oh my gosh and even on the clock rook 8 coming  to win the a5 pawn oh i don't like this palm push   yeah because king of d4 check and you can win the  f4 7 though rook f6 now is going to win for white   i like the king coming in though can you eat  three keys trying to check me he's trying to check   king d4 go no it's too slow though okay yeah  it's unfortunate yeah rook f2 you're gonna   lose g6 you can take out four maybe there's some  chances to draw this but you're down two pawns   yeah i mean it's very difficult and that pawn that  passer is uh rookie two wait rookie two and then a   four a three wait it's a draw again yeah somehow  sagar escaped he's also playing really quickly   like he he had one second and now he has six  seconds so he is warming up yeah he's in pre-movie   he's getting his bullet skills back and it's  eric who's the one in more time trouble right now   all right so king b5 the time scramble there was  just crazy oh wait this is winning again oh never   gets to f4 that's huge oh no yeah and then you're  gonna get the a pawn and then two pawns and this   is winning yep and you can even play with like  c4 check because the king will have to go away   now king two ah you just go don't take an a4 oh  actually you can because it's not me rookie seven   pc4 back just go kc4 try to check my him try  to check him in oh king c5 would have been   cute there yeah so it's going to be a win for  eric to cap things up unless he lose on time   always possible but no soccer all the time oh  what an intense match wow well we need to go to   break uh sorry to cut you off there you know but  we need to go to break so we get the players in   we can interview them hear their thoughts we'll  be right back with eric and sagar sounds good and we are back with the players after was a  very hard-fought match congratulations eric   you played really well uh so i'd like to start  with you uh the match was tied three and a half   three and a half after the five minute portion  what do you think went right for you after that um   that's a good question i mean i started winning  games uh consistently which definitely helped   um i think the shorter the time control  the more of an advantage i had i think i   i was able to avoid flagging in some of these  um these crazy time scrambles and that can uh   that can definitely play a big role so uh yeah  i was happy with uh the later stage of the match for sure and sagar what about you  what on your end did you feel like   went wrong i would guess time management would  be part of it but can you maybe explain to people   what it's like shifting roles from somebody who  talks about chess often to playing it yourself   yeah i mean i was looking forward to this  match uh very much i know that all the chess   knowledge that you gain by you know writing  stuff analyzing games commentating does not   guarantee you a good performance because of the  practical playing skills are lacking so i tried to   cover them in the last 20 days or so i  tried to play a bit i tried to train myself   i think if i had not trained myself i would  have done worse than this so so i guess a   little bit of more training maybe a month  or so more could make this match closer but   i think when um when the time was running low uh  eric was playing very well and i think full credit   to him for for winning this match yeah no we just  want to say to you sagar um we both were very   very impressed with your level of gameplay and you  know we talked extensively about your involvement   you know in the greater chess community and you  know watching you play a lot of the games and   having many many good positions but then losing a  little on time that that that was very unfortunate   i thought uh eric made very  good good use of his knights uh   when he would close the positions and then  you know sort of uh no lights are very tricky he made sure nothing was hanging and you know i  i when i tried to over push or something then i   would get trapped or uh somehow hang something  so so that was uh one of the recurring themes   in the match yeah i think knights are more of  a like a better piece than a bishop in in low   time situations sometimes even trickier than  a rook so have to value them more in blitz   for sure and well eric a question for you  because you are willing to mix and match   different openings it seems so what was your  preparation like for this match and i mean you   seem to really concentrate on some aggressive  lines at points and then other times you're a   bit more solid so what was your sort of  mindset going in and how you would play   sure um i mean a big part of my preparation  i don't know if anyone or everyone knows   this but uh sagar streamed a lot of his kind  of training sessions with uh with adivan a   strong grand master so i i tuned into a bunch  of those and tried to try it he did homework stream snipes well for one of them i joined  and then like the moment i joined they   they were panicking saying like eric rosen's  in the chat i was wondering like how they   could tell because i can't really tell on  youtube but someone was like impersonating   me on youtube exactly so um but i was still  watching i didn't want to say anything though   but they were they were super instructive  like it's super interesting to   watch like an international master get a lesson  from a grand master and they weren't doing so   much opening preparation but i still got a  sense for uh for sagar style and they were   trying to scout out my weaknesses so um so yeah  i was trying to uh to to make games exciting as   exciting as possible to get kind of my style yeah  i also checked your game with irene yesterday and   you know so we we both tried to get to know each  other and also adipan i would like to thank him he   helped me a lot in this match and it was also my  wife here she was following all the games while   they were happening and so in the break i would  go and ask her if you know is there something   that i can improve upon and then she would suggest  me so maybe that actually helped in one of those   games where uh the catalan game where i played  uh queen d3 i improved with quindy too so   that's so i know yeah unfortunately i  don't have a wife to help me with that well i actually have a question the follow-up  question here because you're just uh talking   about uh working with adiban um and you know you  do a lot of journalism i've known about your work   and followed you for a long time but how much  work do you put into getting better yourself   as a player because there's a big difference of  course between commentating i know from experience   i'm not improving as a player when i'm  commentating and doing all this stuff but   you need to focus on your own chess so how much  are you doing and what is that experience like   well i i was doing nothing much because when when  there is work i i just don't commentate i also   have a a company to run so it's like an entire  organization with lot of people working together   so i specifically worked for this event like two  days i did not do any videos or any articles or   something so the last two days was very intensive  i prepared all the openings and everything   so i i think that it's it's different like  with regular commentating and annotating   you can really get a good feel for chess but uh if  you then mix it up with regular practice every day   then you can improve but i think the priorities  are set you know like you have to do some i have   to make sure i do some other things so i'm not  able to dedicate that time to polishing my skills   but uh you know every time i play such  a tournament uh it inspires me to start   preparing again so i want to thank chess.com  uh for for inviting me to such an event and uh   yeah last uh 20 to 30 days were great fun you know  preparing for this for sure and i guess eric you   know we know it's getting late for both you well  for you in particular sagar and eric we appreciate   your time but question for you you play against  levy rosman in the next match what do you expect   from that how do you see your chances yeah i'm  not sure um i'll have to maybe start preparing   uh levy i've known for for a long time we're good  friends we're kind of rivals a few weeks ago he   called me out on twitter wanting to to face me  in chess boxing and i'm not really into contact   sports and i don't really like hurting people  physically so i'll take your spot i'll fight levy   oh if you want to yeah you can play him in chess  i'll do the boxing part so i'm gonna do yeah   more uh more chest preparation can take him down  boxing that would be better let's go well you are   both two of the nicest people in chess great  ambassadors for the game we really appreciate you   taking time with with us after a very stressful  and tough match so thank you both congrats to   you eric and sagar again thank you for joining  us we hope to see you back in more competitions   thank you thank you robert thank you and uh i also  want to thank all the viewers who are supporting   also vidit was streaming and there were a lot of  people watching it uh so sorry for losing so many   games on time but thank you for supporting me  no thank you very much for taking your time out   both of you to play thanks yeah thank you so  there you have it the quarterfinals are set eric   rosen moves on to face levee rosin we heard his  thoughts and nemo i just have to say they are so   wholesome that was an amazingly friendly interview  they have so much mutual respect for one another   eric saying hey i actually was watching his  learning experience his coaching sessions and   i was learning through that so it's really nice to  hear how even super strong players international   masters they have a lot to learn they're working  on their game every single day when they have   a match coming up so i really appreciate that  insight yeah i mean honestly i think the most   maybe heartwarming thing for me was how much  effort really um both of the players put into this   match you know um like just how much like like  cigars explained that he took days off uh from   work and we we all have talked about how he he's  mentioned himself he has the company to run he has   a million other things to do but he really  was invested in playing today and that is like   you know results are one thing but kind  of like hearing those kind of stories   like makes me feel really good you know yeah and  um of course for eric as well i've played eric and   match before he's actually told me he's prepared  as well so it's just always hearing about these   chess players and how they're always looking to  be the best that they can be that is wholesome   and i love how motivated sagar is like he wants to  play more chess now he lost and he lost by quite a   large margin but he's like no let's keep going i  want to get back into this and i love that about   chess and it's a good reminder that these players  have been studying chess working on their game for   many many years and it's hard to just go and play  so when you have an engine by your side you know   even we as commentators we have the evaluation  bar it becomes easier it's not stressful and i   know from experience that when you jump right back  into it it can be difficult so thanks to both of   those players nemo thanks to you for joining me  for what was a great match for having me thank you   and we want to thank all of our viewers of course  for sticking with us tuning in and enjoying the   show there's more chess coming your way title  tuesday's about to begin so i think we got to   sign off get out of here and the title players  it's their time to shine all right see you guys you

Channel: Chess.com

Views: 280,102

Keywords: chess, imnotagmscc, i'm not a gm, speed chess championship, speed chess 2021, i'm not a gm speed chess championship, speed chess tournament, twitch chess, eric rosen, sagar shah, rosen vs shah, eric rosen chess

Id: wFXExxd5c84

Length: 222min 11sec (13331 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 02 2021