In today’s chess video, we’ll look at
some spectacular finishes from 8 incredible games. We have games from Magnus, Mikhail Tal. There is a lot to learn here so fasten your
seatbelts & enjoy the show. But before starting off, I would like to thank
Brilliant for sponsoring this video. Alright, let’s start with this game first. It is Ftacnik vs Cvitan. The game is setup for an exciting finish. White is pushing these pawns & looking to
promote. On the other hand, black is preparing an attack
of his own. He has got his queen to h4 & now he is threatening
a mate. So white brings back his bishop to prevent
it. And here, Cvitan plays an absolutely crazy
move, bishop to h3. It’s a bishop sacrifice, and you might think
white can easily take it. But then, after queen takes back, black is
threatening to finish off the game with his pawn. Therefore, white has to sacrifice his rook. He ends up an exchange down and the game becomes
kind of tricky. So that’s the reason why in this position,
white did not take the bishop. Instead, he simply picked up this pawn, getting
it closer to promotion. What next? Well, here black comes up with an absolutely
incredible mating combination. I can bet a million dollars, you would have
never seen such a beautiful line! Let’s go! First, we have a bishop sacrifice. King takes, and guess what, then we have a
queen sacrifice. The king takes again. And now the knight jumps into action with
a check. The king has to go back, and then the other
knight gives a check. This king is left dancing to their tunes,
he again has to go back to the corner. And finally, pawn to g2 finishes off in style,
and that’s a beautiful checkmate. Alright, moving onto Game number 2. This is Hartlaub versus Fleischer. We’re just out of the opening & here black
castles on the kingside. It looks all dull & boring at the moment,
but Hartlaub wants to make it exciting – that’s why he goes for the stunning, knight f6 check
– it’s a knight sacrifice. Black cannot just move away because then there
is a lot of pressure on this pawn & the king will be exposed. Therefore, black takes the knight. And now comes another sacrifice, this time
it is the bishop. Taking the bishop is almost obvious. But surprisingly, stockfish suggests king
g7 as the best move, maybe because then the rook can come this side, and the king can
secure himself in the middle. But anyway, that didn’t happen, so black
takes the bishop. And now white sacrifices another piece – knight
g5 check! What on earth is happening! Black takes this as well. But look, now the king is slightly exposed
and white has smartly made way for his queen to jump in with queen h5 check. King has to move and white hits him again. He has to move back to the H file, and now
can you spot the winning continuation for white? Yes, it’s rook f3 and that’s when black
throws in the towel. He offers resignation because rook h3 is coming
& there is just no way to stop this checkmate. Now the next game I’m going to show you
is Adams versus Torre. Now here, white first doubles up his rooks
on the e file. And after that, he exchanges his bishop for
the knight. If you look at it now, white can think of
going for a backrank mate. But the problem is that - right now, there
are two defenders of this e8 square so even if he tries it, black can easily prevent the
checkmate. So, what does white do? Well, he follows a very basic principle - attack
the defender. In this position, his queen is under attack
so he plays queen g4 and now he is challenging black, ‘Come take my queen’. You capture my sweety & I will mate you. And if you don’t take me, I’ll take you. So naturally, black keeps the defense of this
e8 square & moves the queen to b5. But white just follows him. Come, take me now. Again, black has no option so he goes back
to d7. But now white comes even closer – Right
in the face, come take me now. Black again runs away. This time he threatens with the pawn. Black takes that. And now, he threatens the queen with the rook. He can’t take anyway because ultimately,
he will get mated like this. So, the queen again runs back. White continues to have fun & comes with queen
b7. This time black has no safe squares for the
queen along this diagonal. So, he just gives up & offers a resignation. What a fun game! Alright, let’s move on. Now here, it is white to move, he is ready
for an attack. But can you think of an immediate winning
idea for white in this position? You can pause the video here if you want to
give it a try. Okay, now as you can see, the white queen
is eyeing down the king along this dangerous diagonal. But at the moment, there is no clear way to
break through. Maybe if he can get another piece into the
game, that would be great. This dark-squared bishop seems the ideal candidate. And that’s how white comes up with a brilliant
tactical idea. First, he plays b4, not only threatening to
take the queen, but also freeing up this square for the bishop. Now after the queen runs back, it doesn’t
really matter wherever she goes, because white has this absolutely mind-blowing - queen f6
check, just sacrificing the queen. And after the king takes, believe it or not,
bishop b2 is a stunning checkmate. There’s just no way to defend it. I mean it’s ridiculous – have you ever
seen a checkmate like this by just fianchettoing a bishop! That’s insane. Anyway, in this position, even if he does
not take the queen, and moves to g8 for example, white can still play bishop b2. And again, there is no way to stop this checkmate. And finally, here even if the king moves to
h6, pawn to f5 still results in a checkmate. So, there’s no way for black to escape. Okay then, talking of sacrifices, how can
we miss out on Mikhail Tal. So, here’s a Tal special where he’s playing
as white. And as expected, he goes for a bishop sacrifice. King takes, then he gives a check with the
rook. And obviously black goes back to his shelter. But now what? Is there anything else that Tal can do? If you’re thinking of queen h5, then black
can simply free up some space for his king and then he can run this way. So, queen h5 doesn’t work. What else? Can you bring this knight into the game? Well, that’s what Tal did. He played the absolutely magical move, knight
to f5. Black can’t take because then his queen
his hanging. And he has to move it, because if he doesn’t
take the knight, it is still hanging. Therefore, he decides to go with queen g5. And now can you spot the winning move that
Mikhail Tal played? Yes, it is queen h5, threatening a checkmate
and also forcing a queen exchange. Black is busted here. Look, if he goes for a queen exchange, then
he loses control of this important square. Hence, knight e7 check. King h7 or h8, doesn’t matter. And finally, rook takes queen and that’s
a checkmate. In this position, even defending with the
pawn doesn’t work, because of the same idea. Also, if he tries queen h6, he loses the queen
and then ultimately, he loses the game. And therefore, black resigns in this position. After this crazy Mikhail Tal game, let’s
look at another beautiful game played between Yuri Gutop and Alexander Roshal. Look here, white has just attacked black’s
queen, so he needs to do something about it. As black, what would you play here? Well, the dark squared bishop is covering
this diagonal, and the light squared bishop has control over this diagonal. This bishop is also undefended so, one of
the most natural moves that would come to your mind is queen b6, saving the queen and
defending the bishop. But, that’s not what was played. What black played here was mind boggling. Instead of getting out of the way, he got
himself right into the firing line by playing queen d5. So, basically what he’s telling white is
that you can kill me if you want but then after I take back, there is absolutely no
way you can stop this rook h1 mate. Keep in mind, white can’t move this pawn
because it is pinned to the king. Therefore, white surrenders & he resigned
in this position. Talking about brilliant finishes, how can
we forget our endgame genius, Magnus Carlsen. This is one of the most famous games ever
played. It is the last game of the 2016 World Chess
Championship. Magnus Carlsen is playing with the white pieces
against Sergey Karjakin. The next move here won Magnus the World Championship. So, what did he play? Can you find it? Well, if you look at the immediate threats,
Magnus seems in trouble because Karjakin is threatening a number of checkmates. But Magnus doesn’t care one bit & comes
up with an absolutely incredible move – queen h6 check, a beautiful queen sacrifice. The idea is to empower both these rooks to
co-ordinate a match-winning plan. For example, if king takes queen – the h8
square is now undefended so rook h8 delivers a checkmate like this. And if pawn takes queen, then black weakens
his seventh rank. And so, rook f7 is a checkmate. What a magnificent end to the World Championship
Match! Alright so its puzzle time. But before moving on, I would like to thank
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premium subscription! So do check it out. Alright, so its puzzle time. In this position, it is white’s turn, and
you need to find the mate in 4 moves. Do share your answers in the comments section
below. Guys, don’t forget to like and subscribe,
and I shall see you in the next one.
