Magnus Carlsen Takes the 100 Endgames Test!

Oh I am International Master John Bartholomew and it is my great pleasure to welcome the world champion Magnus Carlsen here to our impromptu accessible studio in white ganze the Netherlands Magnus has generously agreed to do a little filming with us on his rest day so thank you for joining us Magnus yeah thank you yes having a good tournament so far and man we'll see ya might be at the end but it's still a way to go a few rounds left and we're gonna practice a few end games today Magnus is gonna take our basic test for 100 games you must know my Grandmaster hey-zeus de la via a video course that I just finished filming and how do you feel about taking some basic theoretical end games you were saying before we went live here that you weren't sure about your theoretical endgame status I wasn't sure about my theoretical endgame status and I know that this is probably the only book that my father's ever studied and he I think he could do at least some of them so in that sense I'm optimistic but I don't know like if there are questions about this square for instance I never learned about the square okay that's the true story I never learned about the square guy so I mean I understand it but I couldn't exactly recount what the rule is so okay so Henry Carlsen may be in a better position to tell us about the rule of the square instead but then again I'm better at chess and I'm I'm a bigger name so that's why I'm here instead okay and unfortunately for all of those who want to learn okay alright so let's get rolling with the test here no time pressure but I know you're a competitive guy you're gonna attempt to do them as quickly as you can so whenever you're ready sure click learn next now I'll get you started okay this this draw yeah this looks like a draw to me alright to e3 and the knight is in time there's always gonna be you for Emison in the right circuit Elizabeth one so you know about those four squares that the Knights should be yeah was the an to ative now it's in yeah like intuitive but if the knight is around III g4f one those squares h2 then I never thought about the fact that there were four squares I sort of just do it got it Oh black to move is it a draw no it's not you go King g3o alternative yeah I came to three and ninety-two kimchi to was what I was thinking but kimchi to winds as well I came g3 and they're getting okay two for two I didn't know that this endings were so isn't this the Spassky exercise maybe it's not game of spassky's no that was just like no it's not this one is actually this one is easy but there's a like a famous exercise that's bus you had to solve as a kid where it was similar but I think then the king was further away so the one that I think is interesting here is let's say the White King was on b5 mm-hmm and you play Queen e2 that's the interesting one I yes then you have to go King i1 instead of Queen sorry was also it's prompting you to find an equivalent winning move so yes Queen e2 would suffice yeah queen bee queen c3 this is confusing every single move is I think Queen b3 will do it yes I mean I would never go queen bee through I would go King Queen d2 every single time contact mister hey Olivia okay queen a3 is winning as well what does it want now Quincy Quincy three and now King bee three mm-hmm this was an unnecessary complicated solution I agree with that yeah this was now that III once again this this line yeah right here let's say black boy king b2 and it was white to move Queen e2 and King with one Lucius to King c4c ah the King b3 but King a1 actually draws that's actually a problem that's given in this course yeah excel so that's a common mistake yeah black to play so rook e1 Sims okay there would be 66 Louis's obviously so rook e1 and I'm just curious so that's the Klingon horowitz technique is that something you can put a name to that or is it no I couldn't put the name to it what I would note is that rook f1 would have made a draw if the white rook was not only a file so can i oh you probably can't edit our butts no the point is like rook F 1 King e6 King f8 and so on going to the short side yeah going look then white pushes the pawn to e6 and because black cannot occupy the a file then it's it's winning got it otherwise it would be a drum okay another Knight verse Paul Wow so this is I think you need to go to F 2 cos Knight g3 there's King e5 and it doesn't seem to be in time so this is the best way to keep the King out mm-hmm we start moving with the King and I think the black king is going to be stuck in the corner that's nice yeah I like the visual effect of the barrier after night off to all the squares that the night controls that have worked from exactly that's a nice position so it's all been Oh black to move is this a draw so we need to get the King to see for like Fischer did a nice game against whomever some Soviet player so against time ago from its I have enough yeah and okay Bishop chief I've no idea why that was better but the point is in the after Bishop d6 you need King c4 Donny syndrome right so stopping Bishop c5 yeah there was like kappa blanka enough sky think we're black just resigned but fisher later showed but I could make a trough huh oh why to move is this a draw no it's not even close to a draw just go Bishop h6 j 7 then wait a second then fish Wow alternative might be Bishop D 444 yeah but the point is why not Bishop c5 yeah that would win pretty directly Bishop's III uh-huh and then probably Bishop before or like I mean there are a million ways to win yeah mission t2 then Bishop h6 okay yep yeah so short diagonal for the bishop yeah short diagonal long solutions so this one is yeah Bishop c4 Bishop c4 looses the thing is usually when yeah Bishop d7 is in is an easy draw just just wait but with Bishop c4 so usually lacking would be like on e7 then and then then you give a check force the king one way and you go with the King V the other way and but yes exactly here Bishop g5 asking the king has already been forced f7 you can go Bishop g5 and then controlling the f6 squares the atom can come around yeah exactly and whenever Bishop attacks f5 then you give a check on a6 yeah right okay okay i how to okay yeah pom-poms move this way mm-hm uh yeah this is an easy draw just control the diagonal yes another one bishop g3 or f4 f4 maybe no bishop were playing as to me we're going to h2 Hey that your yep yeah I had the feeling the first time and Bishop to be 8 right that's nice and safe stop King a7 yep uh yeah it's a well-known principle of the one diagonal in [Music] in this upset called bishops ending like if the bishop can do all its job on on one diagonal then it's usually an easy way Sariah or drones never never black to move I think this one is an easy win as the pawns are too far apart and they cannot be stopped on one diagonals and black not suffering from the wrong bishop yeah yeah it's it's just an automatic win I mean you forced like at some point you put the pawns of g5 and a5 let's say White's King on tv4 and Bishop on d1 and you've already forests why - to make a choice by zooks one you've one of the pawns advance and then wherever the White King goes the black King goes the other way yeah so this one just bring the King to the right side and the pawn will not be in time J stomp on the exact that's a perfect score so far yeah it's going well the only thing that's defeated you is the alternative move so far yeah yeah so this is a standard pitiful I've seen even very strong players go wrong here especially in blitz so the point is a 2 rupee 8 mm King a3 then King c2 and you'll have to under promote two knights and and up Knight will be caught so what do you do is king b2 and then can you see one right which a lot of people find counterintuitive yeah it is I think this is you just have to know right yeah yeah that's that's the thing and then you go to the corner again not not to a3 not having to do any Knight promotions yeah I mean need to by a process of elimination it's easy to find but otherwise check if you know this you'll never never forget it exactly why to move can he win the ass you're just grace I'm gonna win the rook King in no man's land yeah why to move is it worth playing on it's a rather leading question I would say okay again I have two white pawn is on c2 and black pawn asan oh okay so I I'm just confused by where Jesus actually are yeah this is a funny one like wow yeah upon two squares away from ocean but yeah it's it's uh I had one against real sense of once and in blitz like I was queening quitting my my pawn I think I quitted on g1 and he he was pushing his e pawn and I thought I'd misplaced my king like I'd gone with a king to 2s free yes it had his king on f7 and the other and the pawn on e7 and for a moment I panic like there's no check on on on on f2 and I was running out of time and that I saw Queen a7 ah nice you could say yeah so that's yeah that's one of the two techniques either when when the pawn is nothing on a 7 or or C seventh right either pin the pawn or give a bunch of checks till you till the King has to step in front of the pump right okay why to move okay and I have to say on this is this one this is one that tripped up your father for a little bit oh yeah yes Hendrik had a hard time with this yeah I would say this one is pretty pretty easy you go King c6 and then you take the opposition push the bomb and that's it okay now yep it's an unusual exercise but almost process of elimination yeah as well sir reminds me about exercise where I have to put three wide ponds and like to move with King and no phones and it's is still villa draw yeah what to move so d4 would be decisive so you have to go d4 and then take the opposition so this one I'm kind of curious if we go back to the first position uh-huh and obviously you know white should play d4 but if they blunder with the King move and black is allowed to play d4 do you think in terms of e squares or is that a concept that again is maybe couldn't put a name to it no III again I couldn't put a name to it I just know that whenever the King reaches the third rank it doesn't the opposition doesn't matter hmm if the pawn is one is still away so I don't know for me I know I mean I don't think of key moves I just think of interesting resins yeah exactly whose dealer via is quite explicit in this and showing okay the key squares for the black King RC 3 d3 III yeah I can get it there with a pawn on the 4th rank they win yeah yeah I'm not the best person to teach cuz I would just say yeah this is it's a good model though yeah I'm sure name these techniques sure I I remember I mean starting out I found funded a bit counterintuitive that white gets the opposition but you still went right but yeah no I guess having access to all the three quid key squares is is the key right okay ten problems to go yeah white sand move can he draw mm-hmm yeah I actually can't now that took me it took me more time than it should've but I was thinking you were pondering the orientation again yeah I mean so what I was thinking was knighted for King D 2 but took me a little while to say 96 I know okay a nice work idea my emotes yeah a knight a for King D 296 that is nice moving further away buds I'm getting that fork why to move can he win white spawns wide spawn is moving this way so you just go and I'll flank and that's gonna be it that's another one I think amateur players find counterintuitive yeah I given this the students in the past and it's just it kind of blows their mind that the king should go diagonal and around the pond they always want to go directly up bring the king to f4 yeah yeah for me I mean it's just you quickly eliminate the other possibility so and then it has to be then it has to be the way around right but it yeah it's it's a good lesson what is the correct result yes so here here the thing is I think you have to to avoid a few key squares as black so I think the way to go is King to f1 uh-huh and King to g1 and if you yeah if you find the right squares then you should just never go to g2 whenever you go to g2 I think it's it's I I see that in that variation it's it's it's lost down exactly never go to g2 because then then the white yeah once one thing Queen gets to e2 then it's it's it's lost so always yeah keep the keep the king away from from g2 and then done is wrong yeah this one is tricky mm-hmm never allow that White King to come in yeah with the black king Horrocks exactly yeah this is the key position right it's one of my favorite chess positions like just the domination aspect of it yeah why to move can he win um so I would guess it's a fairly easy win just cut off the king exactly cutting off the otherwise just it's just in trouble no no no wipes everything is active enough in that case yeah this is another one that it's easy to go wrong especially and it's vegetables specially in blitz cuz intuitively you kind of want to cut it the King off the other wire but this one is more way more effective right why to move what is the correct result the correct result is a drug his wife goes came to e1 and black cannot take the opposition mm-hmm that's it yep straight forward yeah white move can he win so what I suspect is that h5 wins and the restaurant cuz you need to I mean I add this I also have to say it I don't know hmm but stairs like point system where you get points for the poem that is not past being as far back as possible and the other poem being as far advanced as possible and so you get to plus a minus system and if you're in the plus then you win if you're if it's equal area or in the mine sister draw I've never heard of that method no I mean but I looks like bears rule ah okay yes I believe de la via mentions that it's yeah I'm at zero but I mean it's very easy to calculate these things but yeah I didn't don't really know the other rule but but but exactly I mean the principle is keep the pass bonus as far back as possible and it advanced the other eponymous he says h5 that's right this one white scoops it yeah black will get back in time suppose you've already spent 30 of your 50 moves it should be plenty of time 97 Bishop d3 building a barrier fish to e4 okay agus is another reference Bishop e5 instead yep King d6 that's the move I wanted to play too but he wants Knight f6 hmm yeah different setup yeah so what I would usually do from a start is that would go fish before then King King d8 King d6 Qing yi eight Bishop g6 and revert to the W shape agreed yeah okay whatever he wants Knight f6 he's gonna get it say hey there we go de la vie approved yeah okay why to move can he draw also this is another one of these exercises right is this the one where you have to I'm just trying to see if there's any wrong those incorrect you need to five and King e6 exactly I thought it was so black gets the setup you were kind of talking about earlier yeah flaking yeah but in its yeah that was unusual in the sense that the King is on the other side right on a different side maybe you can just click through that very yeah that's nice so this King do five and um and it's an EC domination in the center of the way cher ami not wait to go King if I probably but so King f6 396 King me 7 you can get the check on you 5 but then king of faith and why just in time mmm nice yeah blacks probably one square away I also know who wants me to do it again right part of chess opposed yeah module here yeah okay okay so we got you on one problem yeah you're doing it let's hope I don't get that one in the game okay the pawn is moving toward this side so here it's again now flanking or no this is called shouldering away that's the thing and now the White King can I cannot get close and that move kind of reminds me of Kings c1 with the position with the a pawn yeah exactly continuing to shoulder yeah nice again one once you know it's it's pretty pretty easy but it's kind of counterintuitive so this is a bit of a weirdly phrase problem here yeah once I just an orientation or the orientation is is difficult so the king is on c1 pawns on f6 this pawns on d5 five mm-hmm okay I just have to mmm put on some t5 the other points on f6 and the black console okay now I have now I have the position in my head some world champion visualization here gets so yeah Quincy five takes takes king d2 King d6 King III King e5 King Day - you can't get the opposition so no you cannot trade Queens okay so I would say solve that one correctly yeah I just so so hard for me to visualize from yeah from from the black site yeah and that's always an important decision right whether to trade into a pawn endgame I think amateurs often make those decisions kind of lightly yeah I mean for me I would I would never trade Queens there cuz if you cuz if you if you keep the coins it's such an easy win mm-hm but but yeah okay fantastic so that was the basic test in 100 and games you must know by the way the basic test I think it's actually fairly challenging for the vast majority of players yeah I thought a lot of them were not that easy and most of all a lot of them were were quite unfamiliar yeah so because de la vía says that these are positions he believes a first category player should know all of them which i think is a bit ambitious but certainly highly useful all of them definitely again a lot of them were new to me but it's knowing this stuff will certainly yeah save you a bunch of health points in terms of winning or or seven control yeah well that was great thank you so much for explaining your thought process and just a couple endgame follow-up questions because I think our viewers would be very interested to know so what does without giving too much away what does your endgame work look like these days are you actively drilling theoretical positions or as most of your endgame work on more higher level stuff so yeah in recent years have certainly done some work and on theoretical endings I'm just repeating and trying to get more more confidence there but then again normally playing end games is more about it's more about positional understanding and besides you know end games I get or often better because I play better in the middle game yeah but you're obviously known as a fantastic end game player and yeah so so what I would say is that I was known as a very good end game player but meanwhile my theoretical endings were actually not that great but now I think that part is catching up a bit like I'm getting more confident there as well that's a follow-up question I had so I read a book some years ago and it was a collection of your games and the author I can't remember the name of the book but the author speculated that in the mid 2000s or so you perhaps spent more time working on your end game than you had previously I was wondering if there was any pivotal moment or game or just realization that you had that encouraged you to do that um I would say in the early 2000s I worked quite a bit on on my end game um but late to mid to late 2000s no I wouldn't say so at all I just got a lot of experience playing the best players in the world and I went from you know losing end games to losing equal end games to to winning them because I gained more experience okay I understood the game better so I wouldn't say there was a concerted effort there I mean I definitely made an effort in the early 2000s but not not later got it because one game I actually go over in our hundred end games boot camp and also in the course is a rook ending us two Aronian at the TI Morial 2006 you have to bring up bad memories yeah sure that was real lapse in concentration at that one but obviously if I had been more confident in in my endings then I wouldn't have have bashed it yeah so I think that was the case of me playing end games better in general but still not being confident about the theoretical and those games hurt as every chess player can attest to oh yeah for sure you never feel more more stupid than that than red like I remember that game like playing playing good defense for so long and then falling at the last hurdle yep exactly well you've certainly played many games since then to make up for it and we wish you the best of luck in this tournament with three rounds remaining yeah I mean I've actually even become a pretty decent defender of route Kendall's - oh yeah to my surprise so many games stand out in your head to that degree these people can can check out that I've held a bunch of them mmm recently so I'm happy about that fantastic well thanks again Magnus for joining us we really appreciate it Shinda best of luck in Tata Steel the rest of the way yeah thank you

Channel: John Bartholomew

Views: 1,594,651

Rating: 4.9278417 out of 5

Keywords: Chess

Id: k1SCXb2WA2U

Length: 31min 22sec (1882 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 03 2020