Magnus's Greatest Comeback (A Chess Documentary)

the streets of New York City erupted in Chaos on November 10th 2016 in front of the Trump Tower and Beyond riers were busy protesting Donald Trump's recently announced victory in the US presidential race streets filled restlessly with traffic or became closed off entirely in the most extreme cases city blocks even transformed into many battlefields where supporters classed with protesters verbally and physically over the sounds of police cars called in to qu the Mayhem and then someone mixed in the cacophony of New York City Streets was peace and quiet two young men and a game chess with the upu going on outside the silence this dim lit room offered was as Serene as it was surprising one almost wouldn't be able to guess that a crowd of hundreds sat in the dark to watch these two illuminated men bounce wooden pieces across 64 churo squares their hands seemed to move with inner alacrity and enigmatic purpose that captivated the eyes of not just the silhouetted crowd but a growing online crowd of millions therefore the conflict going on outside seemed nowhere near the strange importance of the complex and bloody war that these two men were engaging in around 600 million people play this ancient game of fictitious War today and out of those many million only the top 30 can make a living off of it and out of that minuscule slice of players only two were allowed to sit down at the small seemingly ordinary table and compete for the title of world champion [Music] these two men are Magnus Carlson of Norway and Sergey karakin of Russia the match will be a best of 12 games with tie breaks added if necessary at stake are over $1 million and the Monumental title and Prestige of world champion these two young men have worked deciduous their whole lives to be here let's see how they fa I hope you are ready for one of the most tense and dramatic days in chess history an unspoken rule of spectator chess is that you are to remain silent at all times after all it's only polite to let the players have their peace of mind while waging mental Warfare with one another but after only two moves Magnus sends a wave of laughter over the otherwise silent crowd in one of the most important games in his life he has chosen to open with the competitively uncommon Trum palski attack he started out with the Trum palski a name that purposefully resonates with the new president elect Magnus may be inside this room but he isn't oblivious of what's going on outside when these two powerhouses of the game play more often than not there ends up being no decisive outcome out of the 21 games they have previously played in tournament together Magnus has all but four wins while Serge has won the other 16 have all been grueling draws after 42 moves with only one major piece a piece the two decide to add another draw to the board the 55th world championship starts rather undecidedly while chess has been enjoyed by people for one and a half Millennia World Championship chess has only been around for one and a half centuries the first Showdown occurred in New York City in 1866 where the two leading players at the time willhelm steinet and Johanna suor played for the first ever title of world champion in this hardfought match steinet came back from a 1 14 deficit to win the world championship title 10 to 5 in perhaps the most furgo reversal of Fortune in the history of world championship play it was a dramatic start to the Legacy that is World Championship chess and it highlighted the trend over 40% of world championship matches have witnessed the winner coming back from behind to win it all and it's in these impressive comebacks that the true Brilliance of Chess and the ruthless determination of its players can be put on display for the world to see for example U versus alakin in 194 5 where after game seven U was down4 but CLA his way back in a 30 game set to ultimately win the world championship title 9 [Applause] [Music] to8 another famous example is Fischer versus spasky in 1972 with cold war tensions Rising it seemed as if the whole world was watching these two men symbolically compete fer trailed behind early on 0 to2 but his grit did not diminish and after the 21 game marathon match fer found himself a up 7 to3 this win would make Bobby fiser the first and only us-born World chess champion and would be the tiny yet massively monolithic stain to an otherwise Flawless Soviet Union control of the world title in the second half of the 20th century but perhaps the most impressive comeback in all of Chess Championship history is one that occurs over the span of not one championship match but two welcome to the insanity that is Casper versus karpov in 1984 these two men were about to play the longest world championship match in chess history due to one seemingly insignificant fact instead of being a best of format Kasparov versus karpov was a first two format whoever scored six wins first would be the world champion innocent sounding enough and it looked to be that way when the reigning world champion karpov got off to a strong lead early on being up 40 by the end of the first nine games it seemed to the world that the experienced kpov would get a fast and clean 60 sweep versus the young newcomer Kasparov but then the next game was a draw and then the next and the next and the next in fact the next 17 games were jaws and then a worn out karpov who had lost 20 lbs due to the mental strain of 17 grueling draws in a row finally got his fifth win only one more win for him and this marathon of a match would be over but the youthful Kasparov had different plans four more draws later in game 32 a number that only one other world championship had seen Kasparov achieved his first win and then after 14 more mind-numbing Soul crushing draws Kasparov got his second win and then in the very next game his third by this time the championship had stretched 48 games long hundreds of hours of competitive chess had been rattled off in mere weeks due to a lack of physical and an excess of mental exercise each player's Health even kasparov's was sinking perly into danger and so the fied president said that there was a thing is too much and against both players adamant wishes canceled the entire tournament 48 games gone crushed erased in the blink of an eye the match was to be replayed the following year and this time and all times to come afterwards the championship would have a set limit of games 24 to be exact half the length of their previous world championship match after game five Kasparov was again down this time by a 2-1 deficit but his resolve did not break during game 16 Kasparov takes the advantage outright in perhaps the most stunning way possible practically forcing karpov to sacrifice their Queen for the the small price of his night after the 24 games were up Kasparov found himself the Victor 5 to3 the young 22-year-old had defron the 10-year reigning world champion and it only took a combined and mindboggling 72 games to achieve riots are still going on in Trump's home city as the two sit down to play game two Serge opens with one of the most popular openings in chess the Roy Lopez named after the 16th century Spanish Bishop Rodrigo Lopez de seura this opening line tends to lead to an indecisive outcome rather than a win it's clear early on that Sergey intends to play safe defense against Magnus after the opening the middle game shows a completely symmetrical King side a Telltale sign that a draw is incoming after a couple more moves both men agreed to draw while game two can be ritten off as a rather lackluster draw game three was anything but around 7% of Norway's entire population was staying up to watch their national hero so when Magnus receives the white pieces for game fre he decides to put on a show for his countrymen game fre starts with The Classic Roy Lopez opening but this one deviates from the norm as a few moves later Magnus finds his kingside rook in the middle of a baron chess board once Sergey places a Target on its back instead of playing the much more standard move Rook back to E1 he goes to E2 blocking his bishop and queen diagonals well it's still uh actually rookie 2 is a very rare line it is some small surprise already for karaki I think here's the funny thing Magnus will move it back to E1 on the very next move so why the E2 intermission well it served no other purpose than to provoke Serge to play B6 so that sort of forces Black's hand into playing B6 uh which threatens Bishop A6 Bishop A6 would lead to a bunch of Trades and and a peaceful result but as I said this game gets exciting now Carlson plays rookie one so he just literally played rookie two to induce B6 and then rookie won are you serious right but his point is he he believes that D6 is a long in the long term is a move black wishes he could have back Serge takes the bait and in the long run this move unknown to practically anyone but Magnus will weaken Serge's position over time later on looking to put pressure on Magnus to swing the tide of the game Serge actually commits his first big mistake but it was in this moment where kaken kind of struggled and decided he needed aggressive counterplay to deal with the fact that he was losing the pawn here if karakin played for example D5 he's got a very solid porn structure but karakin played what to my eyes is a very uncharacteristic move for him and he played C5 this move is now leading to a series of force moves that end up giving Carlson an extra Pawn Advantage the move makes sense on paper Sergey has a bishop to magnus's Knight and usually Bishops do better with less pawns on the board while Knights will do better with more if Magnus takes the pawn Sergey will simply capture with his bishop and the position will be more open for his Bishop to roam around and stalk potential prey but but Magnus knows this and doesn't come close to biting instead he slides his Rook deep down into enemy territory Serge is forced to defend with the King leaving his most valuable Pawn the F Pawn unprotected Magnus slides his Rook back freeing up his Knight to take Serge's precious Pawn now sergey's pawns are all weakly isolated and he has no choice but to play the prophylactic suicidal and yet correct move D3 it's a free Pawn on a silver platter for Magnus and while it does isolate his pawns too like a shark in the water he now smells blood at this point six whole hours have flown by and time which has pressured both players to make questionable moves is dizzyingly slipping away Serge takes one of magnus' Pawns he strangely left undefended but it was just bait for a beautiful Trap concocted by Magnus for the small price of one Pawn Magnus will to the commentator shock when Serge Bishop The Bishop's hanging and there's got to be a win here but afterwards Magnus finds his pieces congested and Serge's King suddenly attacks his Rook his Knight and his Pawn simultaneously Magnus can only save two out of the free and decides to leave his Pawn undefended it's what Sergey wants if he can somehow manage to take both of magnus's Pawns it's a theoretical and quite simple draw but instead of taking the defenseless Pawn right away Serge should attack magnus's Knight with his Rook the B Pawn should not be captured and the F Pawn should not be captured either that too is poison he panics though and takes the pawn right away and now Magnus can capitalize on a once again losing position for black but right after Serge's incorrect play Magnus makes one of his own instead of moving his Rook to control the board better Magnus moves his Knight to the edge of the board to defend his own Pawn serate now with from to bre Takes Over The Back rank with his own Rook there are still winning lines for Magnus but his very next move move 72 erases all of them instead of putting pressure on Serge's King with check Magnus makes the much more human and unfortunately incorrect move of attacking a somewhat useless Pawn yes it defends B3 and yes he ensured that he was going to win the B Pawn but here's what he missed after Rook to B7 we're not pushing H3 we're playing Rook A1 first exclam the commentators were pulling their hair out somehow Sergey would survive and on move 78 both men agreed to a draw fiday would go so far as to call it a draw for the ages Magnus had Sergey locked up but like a bashful Houdini he broke free during this game Magnus frequented the private room where he would rest his tired face into his palms looking defeated and lost on botes to him the spectacle was broadcasted live by hitting cameras in the private sector his home country could see firsthand his dejection as he let the biggest win opportunity he's had so far slip away Magnus would have the cameras banned and removed the next day yeah I wasn't really aware of that so U Magnus the computer says you have quite a few good ch chances today uh are you afraid of what you're going to find when you go through this game yes absolutely the pressure both these players feel increases tenfold when you put into the context that they sacrific practically their entire lives up to this point to be here all these men knew was chess they had no choice any other option would result in them not sitting where they were today you have to dedicate your whole life to chess if you are to make it and both dutifully did sacrificing their entire childhoods their entire teens their early 20s too to be here to sit where there are sitting today the pricelessness of Youth must be sacrificed but something else was gained something only a select few in the billions of people on this planet will ever know the rare feeling of being an absolute and Undisputed best two roads diverged in a yellow wood and sorry I could not travel both and be one Traveler long I stood and looked down one as far as I could to where it bent in the undergrowth then took the other as just as fair and having perhaps the better claim because it was grassy and wanted wear though as for that the passing there had really warned them about about the same and both that morning equally lay in leaves no step had trotten black oh I kept the first for another day yet knowing how way leads on to way I doubted if I should ever come back I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence two roads diverged in a wood and I I took the One Less Traveled by and that has made all the difference born in some Farah pool Ukraine in a tiny free room apartment cramped with his extended family Sergey karakin started learning chess when he was 5 years old his dad noticed Sergey watching chess on TV and he soon bought a chess set out so the two could play together and Sergey quickly demonstrated an ability so monstrous methodical and apparent that later that year he would be the one playing chess on TV his father realized he had a prodigy on his hands and decided decided to walk his young son Down A Road Less Traveled when he was not even a teen Sergey dropped out of standard schooling to attend a chess school no more than a 100 m away from where he lived for 9 hours a day all of sergey's focus willfully poured into the same 64 black and white squares soon his talents echoed throughout Ukraine and Alexander mamat head of the fam mamat chess club invited Sergey to study at his school with its enticing track record his entire family moved cross country just so he could attend J Serge continued to play his part and sacrificed his precious youth at the chess club at 13 He boasted that he could win the World Championship at age 16 suspiciously reminiscent of the young boy Beth Harmon plays in the Netflix miniseries the Queen's Gambit I will be world champion one day when in three years you'll be 16 in three years there's no doubt that with sergey's ability his dream wasn't as far-fetched as it sounded but unfortunately fate threw a wrench in his plans the director of the school suddenly died and the school indefinitely shut down just like that their family had no choice but to move back to some Far pole and saw whatever they could on the street to make ends meet as his father's cook wages were not enough to support the entire family when when we came back to sople I was 13 years old and starting from from 13 to 19 years old I didn't have any support uh again just completely nothing there was no money left over for coaching or training there were no sponsors there was nothing the young boy had nothing but poverty and his chess board game four was a 6h hour 94 move draw at the beginning Magnus gained a slight Advantage but 44 moves in he loses that Advantage outright by playing a move he incorrectly considered to be a forced to win Cate to to magnus's surprise counter played perfectly with his [Music] Bishop all right Magnus what's your reaction to this ending in a draw uh it's disappointing for sure um but you know I'll try try again next time for game five instead of the standard War Lopez Magnus chooses a very uncommon opening for him the Italian hoping to catch Serge and his team off guard but if anything it was Serge who had the slight Vantage after this more flexible and dynamic opening kakan instantly smelt blood it didn't help magnus's case that late into the middle game he blunders on the 41st move instead of sliding his Rook to start an attack on s's King he blocked it outright by retreating his own King to G2 for the first time in the entire match a winning line was available to Serge all he needed to do was find it but the path to Victory seen by the computers was mind meltingly complex and 10 moves later SED saw that he couldn't transport form his Advantage into a solid win he agreed to accept yet another draw but unlike the previous draws this time it was on soday terms while Magnus in 2004 was the second youngest player in history to receive the prestigious title of grandm Serge kakin right before his support evaporated in 2003 at 12 years and 7 months old became the outright youngest there are thousands of grand masters of Chess and he beat them all including Magnus to with this accomplishment he was not about to stop walking on the path less travel although he didn't become world champion at 16 in April 2005 Ser broke into the top 100 chess players and despite being alone in his efforts he kept rising from there at 19 years old Serge found himself 13th in the world it was enough for Ukraine's neighbor Russia to take notice of Serge while Ukranian government rejected pleas from ser and his family to support his chess talents the Russian Chess Federation welcomed him with open arms in 2009 they offered to financially support him and his entire family all he had to do was renounce his Ukrainian citizenship and moved to Moscow Serge's life was chess and his family so it's no surprise that he eagerly agreed playing with the Russian flag Ser in 2012 outplaced Magnus Carlson by a whole point to dominate the world rapid Chess Championship and become for the first time ever a world champion while not as prestigious as the well-known classical World Championship it was a huge win for ser and Russia but it wasn't just on the chessboard that Ser showed his support and admiration for his new home country in 2014 Russia invaded and annexed the Crimean Peninsula Serge's birthplace from Ukraine and in doing so would start the ongoing Russo Ukrainian [Music] war sodate from day one expressed his patriotic support for Russia moving forward his stances would become so strong that Serge would later be kicked out of attending half a year of fed chess tournaments in 20122 and early on his staunch views were enough to alienate him from many of his old Ukrainian chess friends and coaches who didn't really know what to say to their once friend seem like Russia annexed Crea suddenly he started to be like so prop supporters so for us in Ukraine bit not understandable because you spent so much time in Ukraine like uh like many years like friends if you are make such a statement some aspects you I think you also support this kind of War this kind of aggression which is I see not good but okay I mean the life continues well uh maybe if if it's possible I don't want to speak too much about it before the before the match okay can can we just if no one El it's okay it's totally okay but Ser didn't care Russia stepped in as the young man's savior when he needed it the most and he would give us all to pay it back this was the path Less Traveled this would make all the difference the halfway game wasn't drawn out and it wasn't necessarily hard fought either after just 32 moves and a little less than 2 hours of play both men like tired boxers in the ring agreed to end it there when are you expecting your first [Music] win if you only knew Spectators got to take the evening off and more importantly so did the players it was clear they both needed it as the karpov versus Kasparov world championship match echoed in the minds of Spectators commentators and players alike Russia had besides the aformentioned Bobby fiser flawlessly dominated the second half of the 20th century with classical Chess World Champions and Russia saw Serge as their next chance to continue their dominance in 2015 Serge entered the Chess World Cup a tournament that would allow the winner a spot in next year's candidates tournament the tournament that decides who will face the reigning whe champ champon that year even though the field was filled with some of the finest chess players the world had ever seen serate seated 11th won the whole tournament outright punching his tickets to the candidates with ease but the candidates was a whole different ballpark over half of the eight-man field was ranked in the top 10 Ser 13th in the world was the second lowest ranked player that year but he was about to shock the world again with one of the most monstrous runs in candidates tournament history to start he would beat the five-time US champion iaro akamura ranked third out of the eight-man crew then he beat the former five-time world champion vishan now the only thing standing in his way for a chance to face Magnus was Fabiano kanana the highest ranked player out of the Amman crew and the third ranked player in the entire world growing up in Brooklyn he would have been a HomeTown hero for New York to root for during the World Championships but on the 42nd move Carano went for a win with a risky Rook move and then Sergey stunned experts and counterattacked perfectly four moves later Fabiano had no choice but to [Music] resign I'm probably the happiest person in the world at this moment for years Sergey was stuck at 13th and then in one single tournament he broke through to the top 10 to become eighth in the world and he was determined to keep that momentum up and become the first Russian World Champion since karnick in 20 2007 all that was in his way now was the reigning world champion Magnus Carlson in front of one of the larger crowds that match due to it being a weekend and New York school districts giving out free tickets to kids another draw was yet to ensue Fabiano the person who was so close to being in Serge's spot had he not lost to him called the draw early on after 33e moves and 2 and 1/2 hours of play his calculated prediction had come true now the match was about the top the record for the longest starting string of draws in all of World Chess Championship history in 1995 Kasparov versus Anan played on the observation deck of the 107th floor of the World Trade Center where perhaps the views were so pretty that the players took their time to draw blood as it took nine games for someone to finally win Magnus didn't have views to entertain him however and the reigning world champion was losing his composure draw after draw a stark difference from anything he had exhibited before it's disappointing for sure you know I'll try try again next time like serg magnus's journey into the world of Chess started when he was very young at the age of six Magnus had memorized all of the flags and capitals of every country in the world by himself it was enough for Henrik magnus's father and a former tournament chess player himself to encourage his son to explore chess next Magnus quickly grasped the intricacies of play and it became apparent that he had a natural talent for the Strategic and analytical aspect of the game before he was even 10 Magnus was beating his father consistently and playing for multiple hours a day most days Henrik would have to tear him away from the chess board to let him get some sleep by 2004 at only 13 years of age he was already being called The Mozart of Chess a title given to him by chess Rider and Pro Player himself lamir cavolik after playing exceptionally well in a rapid tournament Magnus playing a rook behind found a beautiful Checkmate against Spike erns trapping er's King against its own two Rooks but the moart of Chess was just getting started later that year Magnus beat kpov the reigning world champion from 1975 to 85 and the person who preceded the legendary Bobby fiser as world champion then he faced the man who defron karov in the infamous 72 game marathon Gary Kasparov Magnus was ranked in the 700s Kasparov was still number one after Kasparov showed up half an hour late he sat down the face his youngest opponent ever quickly into the game Magnus can be seen strolling around while Kasparov stays sitting pondering heavily about his next move as soon as Kasparov moves Magnus instantly retaliates and continues to watch the other games this practically aloof Behavior visibly shakes Kasparov up how could a 13-year-old have so much confidence against the world's number one they end up unbelievably drawing Magnus would end that year by receiving his biggest sponsor yet Microsoft and being awarded the title of Chess grandmas the second youngest in history at that point behind Ser fast forward through the years and exceptional wins in 2013 Time Magazine names Magnus Carlson one of the most influential people ever and in his introduction Kasparov is quoted saying we will soon be living in the Carlson era in his famous 60 Minutes interview Magnus could be seen playing an exhibition match against 10 Harvard lawyers simultaneously while blindfolded Magnus won each game handily keeping track of 320 pieces on 10 separate boards all in his [Applause] head it's the most amazing thing I've ever [Applause] seen do you have any idea how extraordinary this looks to no it's um one of the amazing things in chess that you can you can you don't really need a board you can just but it transcends chess I mean I just uh I I just can't fathom what you've just done it's just it seems like it's supernatural Magnus chose the path Less Traveled and it made him exceptionally and brilliantly different then the World Championships came into the picture Kasparov who won the world title in 1985 after playing 72 games against karpov would end up retaining his world championship title up until the end of the 20th century before losing it to fellow Russian Vladimir karnik in 2000 kiik after a 7-year Reign would then lose his title to visham India's first first ever grandm in 2007 a five-time champion vishy would hold the title up until 2013 when a young 20 something Magnus Carlson came into the world championship equation commentators during this match exclaimed that although Magnus recently became the world ranked number one he had little to no chance of winning in fact his quest was similar to climbing Mount Everest with tennis shoes and no oxygen when it came to Championship matches fishy was [Music] fishlyn his title and when it came to the two's head-to-head record bishy had Magnus beat 6 to three this was just another Cakewalk for vishy andand or at least it was supposed to be in the coming weeks Magnus defeated vishy in a Flawless Foo fashion to become the 16th ever World chess champion bishy came back the next year in the 2014 candidates just barely ER that year stronger than anyone could have predicted receiving the highest ELO rating ever in chess history at 2,882 the 16th Champion was an Unstoppable force and vishy simply didn't stand a chance there were even times when it looked too easy for the defender ways to improve along the way and some of those that's interesting sorry I I was going of he's not sleeping no he's obviously not sleeping but Magnus would win 3 to one later that year he would win the Blitz and Rapid World Chess championships too and become the first player to hold all free world championship titles at once Magnus made chess his life's path and it rewarded him profoundly but now he was playing his toughest Challenger yet an opponent who had equally dedicated his whole life to chess but had not seen it rewarded as equally Sergey kakin was hungry to see the roles reversed after seven drawn out and bloodless draws Magnus decides it's time to strike no matter the risk he opened with the K Zucker Tor system with white and the advantage between the two players became an oscillating pendulum all along the way there were ample draw routes available for Magnus but every time it was his turn to move he would take the path Less Traveled less studied and less sure here there's potential for danger here so Carlson should probably take notice of this and play one of the three moves the engine is actually recommending Queen E2 Knight E2 H3 get rid of this Knight this probably makes the most sense but Carlson was ready to be a aggressive he wanted the game to get nuts he wanted the game to be mixed up so that he could really get his winning chances that he so long desired and so he played the move night to B5 it's amazing that night to B5 was was played at such a high level match and it was a risky delicate and enigmatic path that could produce a resounding win but at the cost of being more open to attack than he ever had before In classical chess each player for the first 40 moves is assigned 100 minutes of play time plus an additional 30 seconds after each move is made com mov out to 3 minutes per move due to the complex nature of the game both players were teetering on that 3 minute Edge jostling their pieces for any slight Advantage time was running out and threatening to take out both players as it slowly slipped its invisible hands around each of their necks around the 30 move Mark there were more moves than minutes for each player Carlson ran from any attempt at a draw like the plague and Dan Sergey quickly into a self-made dark Inferno trying to push him in while he himself leaned dangerously close so close that the blistering heat became unbearable and then Magnus slipped instead of pushing Sergey in a rushed blunder on the 34th move acted as the rocky ground that stole his footing right from under him Carlson didn't do that though he didn't play Rook D7 and he didn't play the other move the computer seems to be liking which is Knight E5 Carlson was he was not to be deterred from the most aggressive and risky way to play this position perhaps playing those two blacks and getting those draws really affected his his psychological stance on the match because now he played a move that regardless of how long we've been letting the computer think still is not in the top three because it's just a horrible horrible move in this position Carlson played C5 sacrificing a pawn and letting Black's potential initiative start to run wild with it and now Sergey could Puppeteer an unsteady Magnus right where he wanted Sergey traded Rooks and the aftermath allowed him to take an extra Pawn from Magnus and during the end game every Pawn counts Sergey had six to magnus's four and those extra two both had a clear path to coronation at the end of the board consequently it was looking like the end of Magnus but there was one catch Sergey had exactly 1 minute left on his clock to take advantage of it the pressure was mounting he had Magnus falling into the hot ashy demise but the flame was running out there was a solution however make it to move 40 where both players are granted an additional Lifeline of 50 minutes s needed those 50 extra minutes desperately to study the board and fully take control of the situation but they were behind a wall of five gargantuan moves it was dizzying play at that point like a submarine sailor holding a flickering candle he had to act fast first he hastily tried to make the endgame even more decisive by offering Magnus Queen trade of course if Magnus were to accept Serge would be rewarded handsomely with a decisive win but precisely because of that reason Magnus declines and he does so in the most ingenious way possible with a knight sacrifice because the Knight places Serge's king in check his Queen suddenly becomes paralyzed and although Sergey wins over magnus's Knight in exchange for a pawn a couple moves later Magnus is able to take one of Serge's Knights and then his last extra Pawn too thus equalizing a game that was almost certainly in Serge's hands and then all at once the two submerged from the sea with gasping lungs breathing in the fresh air of an extra 50 minutes sod's ocean of an advantage had somehow waned away and it looked to be yet another draw eventually Magnus even finds himself upon Pawn up and the game is looking good for the reigning world champion until the 52nd move where Magnus with many good options available to him chooses the absolute worst and I mean the absolute worst welcome to the blunder that is H4 matches will come with brilliant moves and not so brilliant moves too it's part of the human condition mistake will always be made the worst blender in Chess Championship history was made in the 1892 World Championship tooro was behind eight wins to nine going into the final game but lucky for him after playing an aggressive early and middle game he found himself a piece up with a pretty much guaranteed win ahead of him you're in a must-win situation white has an extra piece and should win but instead of that chigorin made an extraordinary blunder Bishop B4 attacking The Rook I mean who knows maybe he was still playing quick moves maybe he didn't realize he'd reached the time control anyway unfortunately Bishop B4 alls Rook takes H2 and here choran resigned because steinet would deliver Checkmate the classic two Rooks on the seventh Checkmate after a grueling 24 game match jagor narrowly lost 8 to 10 while not as bad as Jag goran's mistake still stubborn to play for the win Magnus makes the overly aggressive Pawn to H4 four move this move is suicidal for two reasons first it slows down the pressure applied to s's a file Pawn which is creeping closer and closer to the end of the board to many of us this position seems recoverable just simply take the pawn with your queen but it's actually not as simple is that due to the second crucial weakness of H4 C's Knight now has access to perhaps the most valuable square of the board at the moment G4 this move will put magnus's King in a terrifying check because after moving his King out of danger sod can mobilize his own Queen into the attack applying an insane amount of pressure any line from this point onwards results in Magnus having to sacrifice his own queen or finding himself checkmated outright therefore H4 a seemingly innocuous pawn move has sealed magnus's fate he won't play another move that game but it doesn't stop him from spending 1 minute and 48 seconds desperately looking for a way to undo what is already sealed in the 64 scores before him he has devoted his whole life up to this point protecting a wooden King no bigger than his F he had worked his way up year after year to become the person with the most protected king of all time and now there was nothing there was no way forward the board presented a stubborn sfist Boulder that would never succumb to magnus's will no matter how hard he pushed Magnus has no choice but to resign and in that moment he becomes the most ejected human being on the entire planet if it weren't for his father based on eyewitness accounts behind the thick pain of mirrored soundproof glass sat a shivering Henrik Carlson looking onward at his hopeless son Soul crushed knowing there was nothing he could do to help his father had been to practically every one of his son's tournaments even taking a year off to travel with his teenage son so he could play the world's best Magnus says he wouldn't be able to tolerate this life if it weren't for his father who's always there for him when you travel with Magnus what's your role I'm a servant but even now after all his son had accomplished he still became paralyzed mentally imploding at the thought of not being able to help his own son when help was needed the most for the first time in magnus's world championship history he is trailing behind before players make it to the official press conference reporters from other news outlets have an opportunity to stop players and ask question questions usually both players would give quick responses and be on their way to The Press Room but on this occasion Magnus didn't say a word while Ser happily answered questions about how it was like to win his first game of the match against the world champion the result was Magnus showed up early to The Press Room Before the host speaker even showed up both players are required by contract to attend postgame press conferences if a player were to forego a postgame press conference a hefty 10% of the $1.1 million prize pool would be for forfeited this would result in a loss that would be over what most of the best professional chess players make in a year Magnus exhausted and ejected and alone camera clicks by the hundreds decided to go with the wind and not give a damn that press conference would only feature Serge who with his win of game eight simply needed to tie four more times with Magnus to become the world champion Wilhelm dinet the player who came back from a 14 deficit to win the first ever World chess champ Championship live peacefully as he reigned Champion for the next 8 years but like all kingdoms Stein's Reign would inevitably crumble in 1894 he would lose his title 510 to Emanuel Lasker who was 32 years his Junior Stein had spent the next three years in preparation to win his title back but when the rematch happened in 1897 Lasker destroyed him even more thoroughly at 2 to 10 after such a crushing loss Stein's whole psyche just cracked shortly after he be became institutionalized in Moscow for 40 days ranting to his fellow inmates about the wonders of Chess when none of them wanted to talk or play chess anymore he took to an unplugged telephone and claimed he was calling God to play chess with him instead 3 years later he died the first W Titan of Chess was left broken after losing the very title that made him won and then there's Bobby fiser the High School Dropout from Brooklyn who had symbolically challenged and brought down the Unstoppable Soviet Union to become the world's 11th chess champion when he returned home he gave no speeches and signed no autographs he turned out millions of dollars in sponsorship offers and locked himself away from the public eye living as a recluse Fisher would hardly play competitive chess again and his health physical and mental was slowly deteriorating soon the old Fisher was hardly recognizable he went on frequent anti-semitic and anti-American rants this is all wonderful news it's time for the US to get their heads kicked in to get time to finish off the US once and for all this just shows you that what goes around comes around even for the United States America's chess hero had fallen this was not an arrest this was a kidnapping it was all cooked up do you ever think about that yes I do you know when I was watching the the recent film about Bobby Fisher I was thinking you know is this going to be me in uh in a few years I don't think that's going to happen but you know it made me made me think a little bit that you know I have to to be aware of this 4 years before Fischer's death in 2008 a 13-year-old Magnus became the youngest competitor to participate in a feed World Chess Championship Magnus with Henrik lovingly by his side flew down to Libya for a chance to face the number one player Gary caspero for his title but he didn't even get close to facing the world's number number one because in the early rounds he lost the leavon aronian that loss made the young magnus's whole world fall apart now that boy was back 12 years later dejected and fearful he sat alone in this hotel room knowing that he was the best but he only had four minuscule games to prove it the two finest chess players the world had to offer at the moment couldn't look more eerily different from each other Ser had a cautious collectic confidence about him while Magnus looks as someone who has lost everything and was manically trying to take it back magnus's opening fit the look as he played the relatively new enigmatic and complex opening called the Archangel in doing so Magnus was trying to catch Serge who had undoubtedly studied magnus's games religiously off balance but Ser was prepared and without missing a beat counterattacked all of magnus's advantages soon it was Magnus who was caught off guard and on move 23 he sat there idly digging into his precious time in this situation when Carlson played the move Knight to E7 was this another blunder yes could it cost him the game yes after that s's confidence increased and he found himself slightly holding the advantage for the next handful of moves he even took on the offensive role taking a pawn for his bishop and soon the chess engines located the possible path to victory for Sergey but it was outrageously complicated too much so for Ser to see it while the wind simply dissolved away from the imaginary Battlefield Ser smile did not g game 9 would be another draw and now he had just three more to go game 10 would happen on Thanksgiving Day the crowd was bustling as Spectators poured in to see if Magnus now the underdog could bring it back Magnus has been down before and it's precisely that reason why he's the best he will always no matter what get back [Music] up we're about to get into some crazy stuff the world went wild what is wrong with Magnus Carlon are we literally seeing another [Music] blunder Serge misses an early draw opportunity and eventually Magnus gains a slight Advantage this could be his chance [Music] on the 56th move seray cracked trying to gain the advantage back he slivered his Rook deep into enemy territory but it's exactly what Magnus wanted like a shark smelling blood he knew there was a winning position on the other side he just had to find [Music] it [Music] after 7 hours of grueling play and 75 moves completed Ser saw the shark in magnus's eyes and it was hopeless to try and swim away amazingly seray resigned Magnus had earned his needed win on the 10 game of a 12-game match it was chess's version of a borderline photo finish as now in magnus's words the two men were fighting on equal terms two more games to go I want to be the very best game 11 a freour 34 move tie Ser had white for the last time in the classical phase but instead of trying to win he played defensively utilizing the Roy Lopez opening once again Game 12 shockingly there was practically no audience for the last classical game of the match as the organizers decided at the last minute to raise the price of attending Game 12 astronomically High into the hundreds of dollars I'm not a criminal therefore the last match was a ghost town and Magnus and serge were sitting alone in the main room waiting to attack and Bam just like that an explosive 35-minute period passes rook's gone Knight's slay Queen's destroyed after the fastest Massacre of the whole event a draw was decided immediately after it was time for the football shootout ask rapid category four games 25 minutes aside each plus an additional 10 seconds per move if all of these four games resulted in another draw Blitz is next where each player only gets 5 minutes with an extra fre seconds added per move if players are still tied after 10 Blitz Games there's one end all Beall category never before played in a world Championship if somehow both competitors are still tied after 26 games of chess the controversial Armageddon was designed to ensure a winner by the end of play whether you or your opponent get white or black is a 50/50 completely luck based usually this wouldn't be a problem because almost always there is another game played after where you switch colors with your opponent but with the Armageddon it's just one game it's essentially a Blitz game except whoever is the winner of white gets an additional minute of play time but the catch is white needs to win a draw in Armageddon entails black taking the game and in turn the whole match it's an all or nothing format that both players would love to avoid as well as being Magnus Carson's birthday November 30th would be the start of the tiebreaking phase four rapid games would be played back to back to back to back more games less time a recipe for blunders creativity and the unexpected when you don't have the time to rely on your mind the moves becom expressive in a way calculated classical chess can hardly imagine moves would come down to Instinct and experience alone when it came down to it this wasn't a battle between two great minds anymore it was a battle between two fervent Hearts put on display palpitating for the whole world to see do you think that rapid is a good way to decide who's the best player well I mean I think you have to have uh you have to have someone who wins you have to have a way to break a tie 12 games is a lot of games so you have you have a chance to prove that you're better if you cannot prove okay you either play play Forever or can you just uh speed things up game one turns out to be a 37 move 55-minute draw actually there's draw the first game of the tie break ends in a draw onto the next Magnus open strong catching Sergey off guard Unsure how to Counterattack the Russian ate up most of his precious 25 minutes early on and his moves although great were not enough to match magnus's soon WIS became available to the world champion in this position still with a huge Advantage Carlson should do anything that just keeps the pieces on the board but the crowd tumbled in their seats as Magnus missed an opportunity for a win but that he decided to trade Queen and go to an engam where not not only do the Queens come off the board but immediately another set of pieces come off the board decreasing the chances that the miners can ever fully coordinate now play The Rook and then another on the 73rd move by moving the wrong bishop and that was with this horrible move Bishop to G4 might even be worth two question marks but as long as Magus kept on the pressure his opponent would eventually lose by time soon s was down to a minute then 30 seconds then 10 seconds then 5 seconds with Sergey only having 4 seconds left on the clock he made the draw uring move kakin took zero time and immediately played Rook to E8 preventing bishop f8 and all the fans everybody knew something had gone wrong here for white by the skin of his teeth he survived game two the crowd the commentators the world was in shock Magnus had the advantage open in the palm of his hands and he Let it Fly Away the most difficult thing for Magnus in this match that he knows exactly how tough Serge is so the tension is really growing and maybe this is what he needs all this tension and being a little bit scared in a positive way so he will be able to give his best Judith poer the main commentator of the tie breaks at her Peak was ranked eth in the world many male chess players didn't think a female could even make top 100 let alone top 10 the elite chess players at the time weren't convinced of Judith's abilities world champion Gary casprov had gone on record saying that Judith is a trained dog she has fantastic chess talent but is after all a woman no woman can sustain prolonged battle she will never be a great Grandmaster instead of letting those words get into her head though she let them in as fuel when she found herself sitting beside casprov at a rapid tournament this was a chance not only to bend his perception but the ubiquitous Collective perception ception of woman in [Music] chess and just like that Judith had defeated the world champion and Kasparov had no choice but to admit that pgar showed that there are no inherent limitations she had done her part of Chess history and defeated the best and now she was interested in seeing who would do the same today sodate perhaps trying to take the advantage of his opponent's dejection from the previous game opens in an uncharacteristically offensive manner but instead of dejection Magnus responded with surprising confidence there was something new in his demeanor something that said not only I can't do this but I will do this one and a half minute on a clock for Sergey kakin I have a feeling that Magnus will win this kakin bishop F1 Rook A2 what a pressure by Magnus I mean it's crazy to have such a position again 1 minute and 20 seconds left on the clock the question is will Magnus Carlson be able to capitalize on a winning position we're going down to 15 seconds for Serge kakin Sergey desperately looked over the board but all he saw was a heap of broken uncoordinated pieces where they want they tall yeah but the thing is the problem is the probably Rook one is the only first time we have and he does not play rook1 Rook takes C7 but Rook A1 no Rook Rook A1 is the move for picking up the bishop oh look at that 5 won it and Magnus Carlson WIS Carlson has won the first game of the tie break and that brings us to the final game of the championship one would expect Magnus to go on the defensive for game four but shockingly his play is just as attack oriented as seray both players are looking for a win here as a draw is simply unacceptable at this point but while Ser is forced to look for a win Magnus goes for the win none other than to prove a point that he is chess's greatest player alive but it's going to be tough during the middle game sod catches a break he finds his rook and queen threatening magnus's practically defenseless King all the pieces that usually would defend it are eyeing an attack of their own and soon sedate if Magnus plays incorrectly has a mate in one but Magnus sees this he's seen it the whole time and for 29 seconds Magnus Ponders on how to retaliate and the result of this pondering delivers one of chess's greatest moves ever in 1965 a 13-year-old Bobby fiser had made headlines around the world for a game he played in New York's West Village in this game fiser playing as black stunningly sacrificed his Queen early in the game on the 17th move his opponent Donald Burn one of the country's best play players accepted the Queen's sacrifice thinking it a blunder by the younger opponent it turns out that it was one of the greatest moves chess had ever witnessed fiser move after move trapped Burns King and took material all along the way in one of the greatest multi-move Fout strategies ever in what would be crowned the game of the century perhaps provoking the new game of the century Magnus moves his unprotected Queen right in front of sahay's King whoa what a way to finish off a world championship amazing combination by magnet he couldn't capitalize cating he couldn't capitalize on winning on three occasions during the match but Magnus Carlson bounced back and after winning the third and the fourth game of the ti when two of the finest chess players in the world face off every now and then Spectators get to witness just for a glimpse the secret and mysteriously alluring Garden of chest this legendary and Timeless Queen sacrifice has proof that in the in the computer dominated World human Ingenuity and creativity will always Triumph Magnus with a move so Sublime that it would Ripple the Chess World and perhaps create the spark that would light the chess Renaissance to come proved in an unfathomable fashion that he was worthy of the title of world chess champion Magnus sees the moment the championship and the breathtakingly beautiful creativity of Chess itself ladies ladies and gentlemen uh thank you very much for your support uh I want to thank everybody it was uh actually very nice atmosphere uh during the match uh I was happy to come here after after the games every day to uh to express my feelings and uh thank you uh for your support for your applause and uh still it was fun and uh I tried uh but now I want to uh to get home as as my wife told me that that our son he um he started to to make his uh uh steps so I want to [Applause] see he held his head up high in the face of defeat and it paid off only a month later he would become the world Blitz chess champion outplant sacrifice of his own and his young son who had just learned to walk would now be able to call his dad a multi-world champion Magnus also had some words on fatherhood but this time they were for his own father thank you all again for coming uh I would like to thank my opponent again for a very good fight I would like to thank the fans my my own sponsors my chess team my family uh my mother and my sisters who came here for um for for a long time um just to support me um I I I think that's why they came anyway not because it's uh New York City and they wanted to shop but uh and last um but not least um my my father he um he's really the best support I have he's the he's the best person I know and he always sacrifices uh his time and energy for me to uh be able to perform in the best way I I can and he he has done so for um um well since I since I started to since I started to play and I um I'm eternally eternally grateful to him even during difficult difficult times uh so thank you very much um you mean you mean all to me

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Id: ZhmrF10m0jg

Length: 59min 5sec (3545 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 22 2023