Levy meets Magnus Carlsen for the FIRST TIME

ladies and gentlemen it is my pleasure to welcome you back to the Champions chess tour finale here in Toronto Canada $500,000 worth in prizes and we are down to our final four this is day one of two of the semi-final after which we will play two days of a final match and it is Magnus Carlson versus Fabiano Carana and Wesley so versus nck Abdus Satur of the youngster the 2021 World rapid champion and he is from usbekistan also this was a really special day because today on the panel if you watch the live stream uh I technically got uh an opportunity to interview and meet Magnus Carlson for the first time and that it's really special to me before I jump into the games today I will be showing you both matches I do just want to share that um I really got into this whole YouTube thing kind of by accident I was a chess teacher first until the world shut down and I just pushed all of that same passion and energy for the game uh and excitement about all the top players and all the top tournaments here and I'm really happy that I've managed to make this a career and now there's a book out and I'm just you know I'm going to different cities all over the world and and meeting chess fans and it's incredible how much the game has grown but I've never stopped being a fan I've never stopped being a spectator and um having an opportunity to to interview Magnus after obviously covering so many of his games which all of you enjoy watching uh as well was really special I uh I don't get Star Struck very often I don't get nervous around famous people very often I've met a lot of famous people over the last few years not that's not like a flex just I find myself at events with big streamers or athletes who are playing chess and uh I've been never been that nervous to ask somebody a question so it was a really uh it was really special uh and it means a lot and um that was kind of my you know my Fanboy moment and and I do just want to say I'm not too different from all of you if you saw Magnus or you saw me you know you might get nervous and uh I was pretty nervous that was that was that was pretty cool so hopefully I have a chance to talk to him again a little bit more casually maybe we'll play a game uh maybe he'll sign my book and I'll give it you know to one of you you uh but uh yeah let's jump into the matches best of four just really special I don't know just felt warm and fuzzy it it was cool it was super cool um Wesley so you remember when I show speed met Ronaldo it wasn't as exaggerated but it was kind of like that Wesley so nobec abur best of four Bano Carana versus Magnus Carlson best of four it's day one nobody's going home but somebody will have the lead Wesley begins with E4 nobre plays E5 we have a Spanish we have a classical Spanish with with A6 and Knight F6 and then we have D3 which is a little bit of a sideline normally white plays C3 H3 and then plays for D4 here we have a very very delayed version of that and now white plays D4 and we get this big Central tension it is actually nck who decides I don't like Wesley's approach I'm going to play aggressively now at some point something's got to give there's just not a position where all of this can survive something's going to have to explode and it does West tries to attack noer be's Bishop he brings it backward now we have Knight takes on E5 takes takes takes takes and takes nobody has a horse it's just Bishops white is going after the E2 the E4 Pawn noer is defending it now uh very nice position from Wesley although he is down about 3 minutes and now we trade the Rooks and a couple moves later we trade another pair of Rooks and it is Wesley who is for a very brief moment down a pawn he has six pawns and not backck has seven but these pawns are very weak and the king is a little bit weak so probably at some point yeah and there you go and he's going to win that pawn as well so but Bishop takes H4 all right well okay actually as it turns out he never really truly wins the pawn back and noback is just a clean Pawn up but it's very difficult to win this end game because like I said doubled isolated e Pawn's going to be I mean that that counts as a pawn right in an end game so this one is headed for a draw uh but as you know as being veteran viewers of my recaps that means that if I'm not ending the game yet something probably happened well there was a lot of shuffling NRE Bea is up a pawn he's trying to win right and for a good reason and Wesley has 27 seconds on the clock not back down to 10 he sacrifices one of his pawns to create an opening in White's position and get this big clamp and he's shuffling and he's shuffling we've now officially cross 70 Moves but something's going to give who's going to lose who's going to lose their nerves first we have a lot of maneuvering nobody's got a weakness no Beck is looking oh no no sacrificed a second Pawn to get in with his King oh there's a big moment is Wesley so going to be able to defend himself he off the king we're past 80 moves A4 King C3 oh my goodness is he going to win the pawns okay we have to make a draw finally no JRE Bale's out I lied to you a draw oh no dear back over presses a bishop end game to start this recap A6 you cannot take because the pawn sneaks through but if this suddenly this Pawn is a major asset Bishop D4 is a winning idea Bishop B G5 is a winning idea and this one goes 97 moves and ends with ner Beck losing some type of material tragic the world rapid Champion over pressing over overconfident frankly which is nuts because Wesley so has probably been the best player in the event so far Magnus very very close if not tied for it well now noer has to fight back he's got the white pieces he allows a he allows a NSO Indian he's clearly shown very good preparation yesterday he put Fabiano Carana under all sorts of pressure trades gives away the dark Square bishop and we get a position where he's just going to put pressure on Wesley with his Knight and his Queen develops his Bishop castles and has the following position Knight D7 Queen C2 and now what Wesley wants to accomplish here is it's a little bit difficult for him to find a a home for all of these pieces comfortably so what Wesley wants to do is he wants to go boink boink put the Knight there where it controls the center the bishop controls the diagonal and this Bishop can get out the second Wesley goes back noer Beck plans the Knight on E5 and then he gallops that way with his other Knight and he plants this Pawn on F4 and now Nock has a nice looking position that is exactly what you want if you don't have a dark squar Bishop you mobilize your structure you start moving confidently toward your opponent another Pawn now goes to a dark Square he has six out of seven of his pawns on the dark squares that's because he doesn't have a dark Square Bishop A5 taking a little bit of space Bishop D6 and the Knight jumps into E4 Wesley looking to potentially give a pawn back to the youngster to plug the center now Bishop takes E4 Bishop takes E5 when the dust is settling noer backck has an opportunity to Simply win a pawn and he does and he does black has six pawns and white has seven second game in a row C5 hits the night and now Nock uses his space advantage and finds the absolutely classy E6 the idea of E6 is something you are going to see in a moment but the point is to plug the black position block these pieces and pry openen the king you you you step away for a second you could have taken on F7 by the way you could have taken on F7 and then come back but instead he does it this way and then he sacrifices his F Pawn to open up Black's King that was the idea me personally I think I would have taken on F7 first I like the prospect of the king standing here but Nock does it this way they're both good Rook f8 Rook D1 he's not trading the Queens the attack is continuing but Wesley so one of the most capable defensive players in the event oh my goodness it is very close rug d8 prying The Rook away from the defense of the one on F7 we're both below 30 seconds Rook d8 Queen F7 and in the Skirmish Rook back to D7 no abdor finds the only winning move and he sacrifices the queen Queen takes D7 the pawn sneaks through there is absolutely no way to stop it there is absolutely no way for Wesley to get to the white king ooh what a comeback that is a gangster way to go out Queen D7 F7 and attacking game from start to finish they trade blows with the white pieces and we move to the third rapid game Wesley looking to get a little bit of Revenge we see the same thing we saw in the first game Bishop 2 E7 okay this time Wesley doesn't play D3 this time Wesley plays Rook e one and we have B5 and D6 this is a classical line D6 a little bit early black could have played castles right away which is normally what black does if black is trying to play the Marshall which is the immediate uh D5 but by committing this Wesley fires away on the queen side with A4 Rook B8 takes takes and now Wesley's trying to play for D4 and he has a very pleasant position the center promptly gets locked the Knight jumps into White's position white has a strong central post he also uh has a much better r Rook on the queen side black will look to activate with the c Pawn or potentially the F Pawn in the future but the C Pawn for sure the bishop goes to F5 the Knight goes to B4 now I really like what NRE does in this position he you're going to notice will slowly team up the queen and the bishop and have this very powerful diagonal over here and that is exactly what happens with the move C5 it's a very tense moment in this game very tense moment Center's about to explode we might have a mass liquidation DC Bishop C5 the pawn on F2 is hanging but it's nothing special because Knight takes E4 now if you do the math in this position white can play Bishop takes Pawn takes Queen takes and actually end up with an extra Pawn the drawback of this is after Rook A8 or even Rook d8 the first rank is really weak and the other drawback is that not only is the first rank weak your pawns are very weak Black's Knight is too powerful so black is T is getting compensation in this game okay normally in life when you're compensating for something it's by getting a big vehicle because other things are small in in your life and that's okay or not I don't know but I'm not here to insult you unless it's about your chess moves in this case compensation is actually not so bad you don't have a pawn but you have very active pieces that your opponent will likely end up having to give you the pawn back and then at least you will not be worse well in this game after uh that Bishop D2 was actually the move that Wesley played he did not take and then he got rid of the Knight because he thought the Knight was very unpleasant and then he started building up on the dark squares and getting his King out of one pin into the other no your backck meanwhile Queen s both guys are now at 3 minutes the POS the position is very very tense nothing is guaranteed yet unless of course you start trading all the pieces Queen B6 Rook D1 and we have Rook E8 Bishop takes Pawn takes and now Wesley allows Queen F2 which is crazy walks his King out to H3 position is equal but it's very very brave Queen B2 Wesley does not believe that he's in a lot of danger here he doesn't think so cuz he's got moves like Rook D7 and he has moves like E6 which which is a problem because it's very difficult if black plays Rook E8 he loses to Rook d8 mate if black plays Queen E6 he loses to Rook A7 he would Queen trade first and then Rook A7 but in this position nck finds the coldblooded bishop C5 with the idea that after Pawn takes with a fork you sack the queen and if the queen gets taken you take their Queen that's crazy look at this this is a cold shower for Wesley so's attack who promptly grabs the queen and now has to defend this end game Rook C4 nerre is a pawn up it's probably a draw if you are stockfish but this is a pretty tricky position and the guy with two Pawn should always play on against the guy with one Pawn if you'd simplify the math what will happen is black will end up with an extra Pawn that white will probably have to sacrifice his Knight for and we will get rook and Bishop versus Rook which is still a draw But It's Tricky especially with low time and now noer Beck is going to go to work both guys with 30 seconds 20 seconds now we're nearing the 10sec mark a lot of shuffling you don't want to rush Bishop takes Knight because it's going to be a theoretically drawn Rook end game which they can draw in their sleep these guys have been drawing Rook end game since they were in the womb Rook A3 Rook E4 Rook A6 check and now on the 64th move of the game Wesley blunders apparently even here Knight B6 was holding because it at least allows white to step forward but instead of that Wesley's down two pawns and you're just not going to defend this end game all of this is coming Wesley so resigns he's down two to won and he was unable to win game four to force an Armageddon so Wesley so loses the first set to nerc Abdu satov tomorrow wesle so must win a set and then we might have tie breaks this is the worst spot weso has been in in Toronto last year he won the entire event this year he went six and0 in the rapid uh in the round robin stage this is crazy and Norbeck is is just a beast 19 years old from usbekistan became the 2021 World rapid champion at the age of 17 Superstar meeting the president of usbekistan I mean meeting the government there they've gotmy named after him he's been gifted a car by the government it's just incredible stuff uh he understands how to be star he's his English is also fantastic which actually is a really it's a really big problem uh especially for people who let's say are from Eastern Europe uh or might uh or may be from South America there's a police siren outside uh they're calling the police because of the the Beatdown that NB delivered um you know like chess is a is is an international language you don't have to speak English but for media opportunities like it's good to be multilingual I mean that's just the reality it's the way it's always been Vish Anan for example um I I mean I imagine speaks uh Hindi and if that's the wrong dialect I do apologize I'm an American I'm pretty stupid so I'm not familiar with every dialect uh in India but I do believe Hindi is the most popular uh he speaks obviously English vishan is like fluent in Spanish like it's unbelievable so it's really helpful for media and for these guys to grow and I I love uh nock's approach to the game and his stardom and I wish him nothing but the best and he leads against Wesley so uh one to nothing and then there was this batch um the stats team at chess.com gave Magnus a 71% chance I believe to advance to the finals if not a 71% chance to win the entire event still I think it's to advance to the finals and um this is a matchup that's really close and classical Fabiano has had a better year than everybody in classical chess um that's another siren which they're sending for the winner of this match uh which I will not uh which I will not spoil uh but Fabiano has struggled against Magnus and Rapid the most notable case being the 30-0 that he lost on the tiebreak day of their world championship match in 2018 but I think that's a little bit overblown and I think there is such a thing as momentum in the modern era in 2023 and I think Fabiano is in fantastic form and this first game uh Magnus plays a Spanish playing directly into this variation Bishop C5 the arhangel variation Archangel SK which is a city in Russia and there are like what is going on outside it's like the seventh siren it's Canada there's no crime here maybe they're all late for like the maple syrup convention I'm just I don't even I'm so tired anyway this is a variation of the Spanish that's more aggressive where black puts pressure on White's King on the diagonal from C5 um and white meanwhile plays in this way where we're actually playing in the center hits against uh the bishop here and Fabiano just made a course on this so Magnus uh it's a very interesting thing does Magnus have Fabiano's course maybe he doesn't want to spoil we get a very tense game a big maneuvering type of game uh A5 A4 Fabby seizing space on the queen side for Magnus Magnus of course a beast in these Clos maneuvering positions Fabby opens it up Magnus with a nice and healthy Center Fabiano reroutes his Knight to the king side and plays Bishop A5 sniping at the white position from multiple angles Magnus tries to crash through in the center of the board Bishop takes G6 a possibility putting a knight on E5 as well the the consequences for black might be dire once the position opens up for these Rooks we have Bishop G6 giving up a bishop but weakening that that structure over there the White Knight is trying to get in and Fabiano is in bad shape but Bishop takes H3 a counter punch apparently a bad move by the way but it's a nicel looking move Queen G2 Knight takes E3 Queen t apparently this is wrong apparently white should have went here Magnus has a winning position if he takes the Knight apparently for example Fe rookie 3 there are too many weaknesses in the position Queen G6 is better because of course you're getting here and the pawn very quickly gets escorted by the way another police car went by I mean I really this is crazy Rook D1 Bishop C7 and we go to an end game which I thought favored Magnus just ever so slightly but it's a very tense end game and very quickly we realize that Magnus only has 30 seconds I mean it's Queen Rook five Queen Rook five so what is he going to do how is he going to find a way to win this well Magnus does something he starts walking as king to the other side of the bo look at this this man's just walking as king he just you may be wondering by the way why in this position white black can't take it's after the trade the D Pawn's going to go so you cannot allow this Pawn to get to D7 force a piece to go to the back Rank and play very passively Magnus walks the king to A2 and now total pandemonium Breaks Loose as both guys have about 20 or 10 seconds on the clock and it is chaos the shuffling begins all right we're Frozen in Time Magnus plays Queen D2 losing the pawn on F3 oh my goodness Rook F1 is a winning move here to put the rook and queen here and go for M Fabiano doesn't find it now Queen C6 losing on the spot to Queen B4 apparently and creating some checkmating possibilities instead Fano goes this way we have a very tense game shuffling with 15 seconds on the clock Fabby loses a pawn oh my goodness Queen E5 what is happening both guys 10 seconds 20 seconds Fab's up a pawn but Magnus is pushing both and now Magnus walks his King to his death and Magnus needs to lose his K his Queen so Magnus is a queen down the pawn can't promote and Fai just needs to push his pawns and what's going to happen is he's going to win the race so for example King C5 to play B6 G5 B6 G4 B7 and now you give a check and the King has to choose which way he goes so you take and it's check but for some reason Fabiano facing this mounting pressure gives a check and then goes back and he loses time he loses time and apparently now King C2 was a draw but we're not even going to get into all of that because Fabby blunders the pawn with he blunders the pawn with Czech he forgot it was Czech and in the insane scramble not only does Magnus Carlson come back to draw this game he wins no oh my God no that is that is insane that is insane how how can you ever come back from this there was m in the evaluation I'm not saying Fabiano needed to find the M but Rook F instead of repeating apparently Rook F6 is already winning but apparently here Queen A7 is even better because after Queen A7 the King has to step in front of the Rook you win this past pawn and then you get to win the queen which is unbelievable unbelievable the point is Queen G4 King D5 you just play Rook F5 and the King has the and in a scramble not only does Magnus saved the game he beats Fabiano down to Queen I I think he just really wanted to meet me I think that's really what he was just like I just want to get interviewed by Gotham oh oh my oh my yeah brutal absolutely brutal stuff and um it didn't get much better in the next game for Fabiano who now has to win with white this is a rematch of course of their 2018 World CH Championship uh Magnus plays G6 it's a main line but now instead of taking on C6 Fabiano takes on C oh he okay normally when white does all of this and delays this for so long white ends up putting the bishop on F1 but all right he's trying to go here takes takes right A4 controlling the space Knight A3 D3 putting a lot of Pawns on light squares because he just traded his light squared Bishop right normal stuff you've watched enough of my recaps you know how to play positional chess no you don't none of us do but we're just lying to ourselves and now we have a position Queen Knight two Rooks typical structure white doing a nice job controlling the queen side white doesn't really have an easy way of attacking this Pawn he's going to have to reroute we need who right Magnus castles typical stuff right famiano improves his King both guys move their AG pawns cuz they're 2800s nobody understands why they do that and we put the Rooks on the center line we trade some Rooks and there's absolutely nothing here Fabiano gets absolutely nothing as Magnus completely controls the file and and Magnus just trading all the pieces and and that's the end of the game faan's going to make a couple of improving moves okay he does and you'll notice that the eval spiked like out of nowhere um apparent apparently it didn't like this King f8 thing it it it thought that Magnus needed to maybe play a little bit more emphatically maybe something like F5 and then put the King on F6 Magnus is not really a guy that likes to overcommit pawn moves until he 100% knows he needs to and there it is and now we have this trade and Fabiano's just going to have to wait a minute what just happened wait well apparently the idea was to go here the whole time and apparently if you play King F6 Knight D3 attacking this Pawn after B6 ab ab and let's say something like Rook to A6 even something ugly like Rook B8 is completely fine and if white tries to play Rook A7 to get in yeah it's quite unpleasant I mean it's probably it's probably the best thing that he can do but maybe maybe Magnus can play Rook G8 and G5 you know if you play like Rook C7 for example I always go Rook C8 uh and it's not so easy to win I mean it's an extremely ugly position to defend which stockfish is constantly claiming it can defend uh but now this is just really bad because after B6 now you can take take give a check Rook D7 and uh after Rook B7 apparently you zigzag and you and you get to the G6 pawn and there's just no way for black to defend his back rank so Magnus is just losing in an end game which is it nuts but Fabiano was also just literally up a queen so if Fabiano cannot win this game it's going to be chaos and both guys do not have a huge amount of time fabbiano hesitant to infiltrate Magna starts trading off in the center and you kind of always hold out hope there might be a chance he saves it he's not this Pawn is too strong and that pawn ultimately is the hero and Fabiano Carana grinds back and I got to tell you he makes it one to one and that was exactly like the Wesley so match white wins both games so white went 4-0 in the first two rounds uh and that that that is massive and and another thing which is massive by the way is uh that was really poor phrasing another thing which is like very important to highlight in this batch is Fabiano has been winning in the first two games like he won that end game in game two he was completely winning in game one so Magnus really has to turn things around but he plays the exact same line with a slight deviation uh instead of playing A3 and what he did in the first game like slow playing D3 Knight and stuff like that plays A4 right away and then he plays it like this and it's a going to be a longer maneuvering game so this time Magnus really delays D4 if not postpone it completely indefinitely but it is a Ru Lopez at the end of the day and if white doesn't play the move d4 and Roy Lopez I don't really know what he's doing so after a little while he finally does play D4 but Fabiano has absolutely nothing uh to be concerned about we saw a position uh the nobre game where he controlled the a file Fabiano has the the guns pointed over here it's not really a whole lot Brewing just yet but the position does look very pleasant and I have to say like if black wants to create an attack it feels like he can create attack basically out of thin air Knight F4 Queen D2 very tense position now look at the I mean that's just tra raing his worst piece which is not saying much cuz that piece was actually pretty reasonable to open up the f file and get the Rook into the game with threats like Knight H3 GH Rook F3 very pleasant position e takes D4 opening up the center now where's that Bishop going to go I I got I got news for you the only thing the bishop can do is trade for the Knight so you compare the quality of pieces fabbi has the cannon that way he controls the entire a file and he has the f file as well so really Pleasant position for Fabiano who now begins encroaching on all the sides of the board computer thinks it's equal but the computer is a scumbag and now Fab's opening up the center which by the way the computer hates but again the computer is a scumbag that is the best human move uh stockfish wants to trade queens now De Queen B4 pressuring this giving up this Pawn ideas of Bishop F2 are in the air Queen C2 D E5 you can't take you can't take this because now The Rook is sniping oh also that hangs a rook I only thought about that when the queen was there right long day um Rook D1 now you're threatening to take the pawn now you're not threatening to take the pawn because yes there you go Queen D2 wait what about the pawn mag just lost the pawn on e4 what queen C4 he goes back Knight F1 Magnus just blundered the game the Knight was defending G4 and F3 kaboom always look for things in front of the king that are only protected by the king it's completely insane my friends Fabiano Carana steals all of magnus's Pawns he's up three Pawns in an end game and he just has to convert we move to 409 move 49 Rook C1 and this is coming Magnus Carlson resigns three games Fabiano has been crushing in all three he leads two to one this is nuts this is this is unbelievable Fabiano has shown up to play Magnus has not that is that that that really is the reality of the situation and now we have the final game the final game of Rapid if Magnus Carlson is able to win this game we will play an Armageddon Fabiano has white it is a worst nightmare scenario if you are the guy that has to play for win D4 Knight F6 and uh Magnus plays a a goofy NSO a goofy nysso cuz he's got a do something all right F3 to try to play E4 grabbing as much Central space as possible Magnus immediately creates imbalance gives away a center Pawn for a flank Pawn loses a Tempo on his Queen goes back to D7 and plays in a way that is just Uber provocative but is actually completely fine Fabiano did not respond in the best way uh after after Knight takes D5 Knight D5 and something like this apparently uh putting the bishop on C4 is already a huge mistake apparently what you're supposed to do with white is develop these three Queen there Knight on C3 and Bishop on E3 before you develop the bishop because the bishop is actually a waste of time it is going to become either a Target or your Center is going to get attacked before you can hide your king now Fabiano has to go here and fabi's down four minutes it has not gone his way Ed Knight D4 Fabiano trying to get rid of some pieces to at least alleviate some pressure and he does but Magnus has too much Magnus has too much too much pressure and too many pins and Fabiano is going to have to bail out somehow he's going to have to try to maybe get to an end game he's defending himself Rook D7 apparently a mistake apparently Rook D6 was more accurate all right because Rook D7 allowed this and uh rather Rook D7 allowed King H1 which with Knight C2 was the move played in the game the idea here is that you have E5 which is a counter shot whereas uh when you when if the Rook goes to D6 Rook D6 King H1 Rook d8 you don't have E5 because this is protected and also after Knight C6 Queen E3 like again that that apparently that that's the reason so The Rook need needs to be on D6 and not D7 both guys make a lot of mistakes here and Magnus finds Bishop takes H2 oh brilliant sacrifice which gets us to an end game Rook D2 Queen D6 he picks up material and my friends it is six pawns versus five this is literally the worst place you want to be this is like getting tackled To The Ground by khabib nurov this is what that's like and now Magnus is going to go to work with 252 on the clock versus 17 seconds you can be Fabiano kowana you can be any other very very good player he brings his pieces look at Magnus stripping away that Queen side defense it's now just one Pawn hanging there he's only up 5 to four but because he has so many pawns that's what gives him really good winning chances if it was a two-on-one you remove everything it's just this it's like that nor Breck end game remember but this one in the hands of Magnus Fabiano with less than a minute on the clock look F5 he's slowly prying apart creating weaknesses he repositions the bishop on D5 hitting both pawns preventing the knight from coming forward Fabiano has to zip around with his rook and he gets his Rook glued on the edge of the board oh that's uncomfortable and now H5 and the second that the King goes to play defense he removes control of this and yeah that's it I mean the Pawn's either going to walk through or you're going to lose the defense of this Fabby takes this is a magnesian master class is what this is it takes 55 moves this man just won with black we're going arm again oh that was perfect you literally could not have asked for something better what a game with black he creates imbalance immediately and that is just I mean that is a a dubious opening quote unquote but he gets the job done and he bids remember they bid for who plays Armageddon with black Magnus bid 8 minutes and 56 seconds so he was in a must win game here but in Armageddon you are not in a must-win game you're are in a must draw game you are in a must not lose game but Magnus bids 856 to get black and plays the Sicilian Defense Magnus gives Fabian a 6 minute and 4 second time Advantage but it's not 6 minutes and 4 seconds that's important it's the fact that Magnus has 9 minutes to think until move 60 when he gets 1 second bonus time that is how Armageddon works so it's not necessarily the time difference it's the fact that when you get into an imbalanced Sicilian Defense white is going to have to think too and Magnus plays a con Sicilian it's a very unpopular opening at top level white is considered better there are considered to be better options in the Sicilian but when you are in a situation like this right life is going to be very very challenging for white but not for Fabiano Fabiano pushes all his pawns he mobilizes he suppresses the move B5 and look at the time he's still up six minutes so Magnus hasn't had the successful opening experiment Fabiano has a very very pleasant position he's marching Magnus down Magnus might not be able to Castle his King he definitely can't go along he especially can't go along here now and where's he going to keep his King in the center Pano plays Rook G1 he's ready he's ready to go he's about he he's about to knock on the door Fabiano uh is is pissed off he's like the Mafia the rent money's late Magnus strives to create a little bit of a brick wall he's got six minutes on the clock Bobby goes back to H1 ready to open up the position Magnus strikes in the center oh my goodness this is absolutely NS six minutes down playing this really hot position but it's going to come down to two or three critical decisions brilliant move a little bit of a overstatement there but he's you know opening the position and now this is just I mean the quality of these Rooks is incomparable whook absolutely dominant and now Bano had to step on the gas he needed to find F5 and after e takes D4 Bishop takes D4 with pressure on the rook and he can continue to Fire and apparently according to computer with moves like 95 FG with all of these different pins white is doing well and I don't know could potentially go on to have a decisive attack again higher the computer thinks the more it thinks the position is total chaos but Fabby takes a step back and sometimes In the Sicilian that is literally and I am not exaggerating all it takes takes Magnus chops down the bishop and will you believe it Magnus Carlson castles into this line of attack because he has one of his own Knight D4 mistake number one long castles mistake number two his idea was to give away the pawn you can't take it cuz it's pinned but instead of that Magnus rips open the position with B5 correct move down 5 minutes on the clock with less than 5 minutes to go total in the Armageddon but the Avalanche is just Unstoppable now now the a file is open as well King to B1 B4 hits the Knight and he blows open the center of the board an absolute Sicilian masterclass Fabiano sacrifices his Rook to create attacking possibilities on the H file and down the middle and now Magnus plays a a a a very very very clever solution to this position look at the evaluation it is really really really high in Black's favor but Black's best options here are to play moves like D4 Bishop E5 with mate coming potentially and run your king to E8 and and it is craziness Magnus now pauses and realizes he just has to not lose so he gives away all of his Advantage all of it with a move that the computer deems a blunder but the computer doesn't know where in Armageddon and after Knight 2 E6 Fork Knight F3 is a counter fork and suddenly it's like the Spider-Man meme where everybody is looking at everybody else and you know what's going to happen Magnus gets a forc liquidation and and when the dust settles he is completely winning because he is uper Rook uh the best line there by the way if you're confused why it was Zero that the best line is Queen to H3 and then Bishop F4 Knight G7 Knight D2 and it is a forced draw instead of that Fabiano Carana goes down swinging but unfortunately he is a rug down and he loses you could not have asked for a crazier first day of semi-finals the defend champion of this event in Toronto slightly different event taken down by the 19-year-old USC Superstar Phenom who now leads one- nothing Magnus Carlson fighting back from 2-1 down to win on demand game four and win the Armageddon I'll see you all tomorrow get out of here

Channel: GothamChess

Views: 698,809

Keywords: gothamchess, gothamchess london, gothamchess caro kann, gothamchess openings, gothamchess vienna

Id: sQilMtrvVrE

Length: 35min 18sec (2118 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 13 2023