Magnus Reads Hikaru's Soul

ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Masters air, this is the first tournament on the Champions Chess Tour 2023, the double elimination bracket style I still can't understand, but I'm trying to do the best I can and today we have our bracket of winners. finale that is Magnus Carlson against Hikaru Nakamura, just as we all expected, very good, like when the Golden State Warriors were an absolute giant in basketball. Well, we knew they were going to play in the final, we knew these guys were going to play. the finals too, however, their usernames are not Fabiano Caruana and Aquarium 76.

This will be the appetizer game of the day and then we will take a closer look at the battle between Magnus and Hikaru. Let me provide a friendly reminder that this is not the end of the event because we still have the losers bracket and then we have the Grand Final etc. Alright, I wanted to show you one more game because this is one of the craziest games I've ever seen sit back relax enjoy the next 20 to 25 minutes of your flight to the promised land of Chess Recaps I'll be your captain I'm your captain I won't be your captain I'm your captain Okay Fabiano Caruana is playing aquarium 76 because the other 75 were taken, his opponent is from Uzbekistan and this game was crazy because it started with a rejected Queen's Gambit defense, it was a Queen check A4 hitting the bishop in the night and then it was a line I had never seen in In my life, Black does this and then E5 explodes the center of the board and then he went completely crazy.

Fabi took it upon himself to attack his lady. The F6 queen threatened checkmate which literally has mate now the bishop came out with knight threats C2 and Fabi played A3 Knight C3 that guy captured his knight, did this and then Fabi took d52 now apparently this is all theory, wouldn't you know it, You couldn't say that because Bobby has five minutes left on the clock, but all of this has already been played. before, uh, and the white king just stays here and it's like you don't have any setup, you don't have any dark square bishop, your other knight is gone, this knight is in jail, this bishop is stuck defending, actually Black has nothing and throughout this whole game, Fabi was like making moves just making normal moves, but then Fabi played Queen G1 to, I guess, try to play for G4, G5 and Black immediately came in with his Queen and things They looked very, very dangerous.

I mean, this king is on the verge of mate, so in order to try to create a counterplay after the move G4 and then the Rook F1, a move that breaks the rook and really very ugly, Black played B5 breaking the center, then Tower D5 then took and then took B5. This is the mate that is done in a single movement. The C3 Queen position looks absolutely horrible. White has five dark-squared pawns and a dark-squared bishop. I mean, I don't know what you can play here. The computer wants you to play H5 to make sure there is no back row and if this to play Rook B8 and start some kind of monster attack, the guy goes here even though yakuboyev and Fabi now play A4 and in this position suddenly he has great attack like he's farming G5 and so on and H4, I mean he has everything, everything. the house is going well you know the king is on D2 the king is on D2 the whole game like that it's normal G5 takes H5 uh oh now you can't stop me oh wait yes you can Rook F6 but now Rook G1 oh oh King is running check although Rook blocks Queen takes oh King f8 ran into a fork Queen B4 hits both and fabi's King survives the absolute apocalypse uh and now he just goes to an endgame where he has an extra bishop and that's more than enough at this level of chess to win you would probably need like four more bishops and many many checks later Bobby came up to the board promoted his pawn and black gave up what game King D2 Knight A1 and let's play chess.

I only have one king in the center of the board, it's normal, a typical day at the office for a level 2800 Grandmaster and Fabi will play in the final of division uh two, he's not in division uh one, but that's okay. , I mean, there are a lot of players, okay, Magnus and Hikaru, that's why you're all here, come on. I will take you through the history of this match. So Magnus started the first game. By the way, will he ever change his profile picture? The profile picture of him is playing Magnus but they were acquired by Chelsea.

I don't know, maybe he'll permanently have that mark as a cute little photo like in the mountains like Hikaru, that would be nice. Okay, the first game starts and this one already has a Catalan style krakalackin, uh, for white, but this is what it's called. Symmetrical Grunfeld, you give up the pawn, you get it back and from the beginning Magnus knew that these nights in the center he has these bishops, that was terrible and the reason Hikaru is not taking and so on is because he has to deal with this. Now we have this position as a big exchange and basically Black is at a disadvantage and he's going to try to get it back with Knight E4 and Knight A6 and Knight D7 and Rook C8 and the bishop is very strong and White is going to say "okay." I want the pawn to come back, come and pick it up, but you actually have to get this fascinating idea point from Pawn B4: Gambit that pawn instead of creating an objective with the Knight and now you play A3 and Knight C6 back is a good take and here the computer wanted Magnus to trade rooks or play the B7 rook and go for that pawn, but instead Magnus played the B6 rook, which is still fine and got a position after a massive sequence of trades that look like this.

Magnus knew this was a victory. Magnus knew that after the moves Knight C4 A4 King F3 King E3 he must be winning. Why does White win? The engine only says plus one because the engine is giving an incorrect evaluation of the ending. Why is white so much better here? Because in positions that have material equality. and symmetrical equality, as you know, everything is equal at the end of the game, the person who has much clearer objectives who can target his opponent's weaknesses and a much more active set of pieces like a king. The white king is right next to the epicenter.

This guy is drunk. He's just asleep in the corner like someone woke him up because he has to spring into action and that's what Magnus knew, I mean he knew when the whole exchange happened, right, though Hikaru has to defend this position, so Hikara play F5 to Try to block the white king and here comes Magnus's king running and gets there but not so fast you can't take my pawn yet okay you can't take my pawn because you're going to lose your knight now here it was . At first, apparently magma should have played Knight B2 and he's just going to win the pawn and it's a really bad pawn to win because it's a pawn that's a really bad pawn to lose, it's worse for Hikaru if that pawn was here.

It would be much easier to defend yourself, but it is not now. Something really strange happens. Look and Magnus doesn't drink now. I don't know what happened here. I'm sure, as a goat, he has an explanation, uh, it wasn't like that. a live mouse I don't think he slipped I think he just didn't like some of this maybe he didn't like some dark horse infiltration but that doesn't make any sense because F3 maybe he didn't like that King is so active in the way of everything you know, maybe he didn't quite see a way forward. It could be that he just didn't see a way.

You know F4 comes to all of us. I don't know, he decided. wait and Hikaru just held on to the pawn, he said okay you can't have my pawn anymore and then Hikaru pushed all his pawns and I mean it was a Mad Dash, it wasn't a very precise game towards the end, they both had 10 . seconds on the clock, but this is just a draw, this is just a draw because you're going to get this pawn, you're going to run to the pawn and even though white wasn't the cleanest draw or anything like that, but once white get there, Black will simply stay still.

They're just going to hang out like you can win this here. I'm going to win that and I'm going to sacrifice my night for your pawn. Make no mistake, you can lose this game. It's okay, you can lose this game by making a mistake. nightfork okay Knight F3 King C6 95 check boom night Fork is a king and pawn winning end game King Shields and okay I can't draw arrows because jaws.com has 30 million people at any given time so all the servers are down but the point is Right King E5 King F6 King F7 um but that doesn't happen and they just end up tying uh there was a uh I think it was Peter Lecko who said that Magnus Carlson would have won this game against any other human on the planet, any another human being.

Hikaru is the best defender in the world, he is not around. I think Magnus is second, but I still think Hikaru is by far the best defender in the world, seeing him save a position where Magnus would beat most people. after three four like, I think if you gave Magnus this position against me, I don't know, I mean, you'd probably need like 10 beers for me to draw this with black, maybe more, you know, really, only Hikaru can do this like him. can defend in the most annoying way and just survive so Magnus can't win this game he just can't break through we have to go to the second game the second game was the strangest game I've ever seen Hikaru play honestly why because Magnus played a bail and then played a double fee on keto which he played recently, he played this in the last round of Tata Steel and it's like maybe you knew this was coming, nothing Hikaru did in this game made sense For me as a viewer, no.

As a player I'm no better than him when I say it didn't make sense to me, it's like when you watch the game and you don't understand that you guys were there, you watch a broadcast of Hikaru or Magna, how? They do this to people, why did Hikaru play the Knight bd2? There are some positions where the Knight goes to D2 like in London, but the Pawn is here. I mean, I would have expected you to know the C3 Horse. I think he was trying to play something unique. He was trying to get Magnus somewhere in the forest but he played Knight D2 and then he played Knight B3 and Anish giri tweeted this position and said "That's the official random world champion, why?" because he's joking, he's joking with the fact that what's the why. the horse in B3 and it only went from bad to worse.

Bishop G5 takes A5 E5 and I was like wait, this is like and then Hikaru took and I mean the computer was on top of this, it was like it was minus one and the guy was minus four. minutes, that's what I'm saying, it's one of the strangest games I've seen from Hikaru, like you almost wish you could illegally adjust the Knight you meet in tournaments, you say, you know, you adjust, you play the piece, right? You're just trying, it's like you're just cheating, you know. Slide the Knight to C3 from where I can go to D5, but why is the Knight there?

I mean, he can't go anywhere and I thought, what is this game? Hikaru, you know, put the other night in C3 because some Knight had to be in C3 and then he put in a D5 iron and the night before Magnus traded Knights to open his file. I mean, it seemed like that was it. I mean C5 blocking Bishop F6, but then Hikaru. he played A3 and started to get out of position and then made this move, that move lost the game. Bishop D7 loses, loses by a small sequence. The E7 queen hits the bishop attacking the rook and threatens the C3 bishop, where the rook now needs to abandon. the bishop defense because if you go here, I just go here and your bishop is stuck, you can't take it because you can't move anything, so Queen E7 wins, she just wins, I mean, she's just winning, like the alternative to that .

Black just wins this pawn and then wins the game later and Magnus plays with King G7 and friends, when I tell you, if you don't beat Hikaru at the only time in the game where you can beat him, you will never win. he A4 H4 A5 and Hikaru comes back from the absolute depths of chess hell he's not even worse, he's not even worse, I mean that game was pretty much what I mean, you know, I'm sorry if I play like that, I'm going to lose all my games all my games Hikaru is just a defensive God as if, Magnus lost this opportunity.

I think in this particular game, it's probably more Magnus missing out on him than Hikaru thinking the first game was just unreal, defending this game was like okay. if Magnus plays Queen E7 it's probably right, it's just a one move thing, but Hikaru doesn't lose just to tie, how crazy they drew a little, I mean, unreal crazy, crazy, now we have the third game, the third game, we have an Indian BOGO Bozo. Indian uh C5 this line is a very interesting line where Black damages his pawns, but the position is actually surprisingly resilient and only develops A5.

A good bond on the lady's side. You can trade like this, but because Black gets the activity on the a-file, it actually makes up for the weaknesses. of these pawns are very ugly and they like double b pawns but there is no way to attack them and uh he is just active, he plays very actively here Knight E4 very good idea by Hikaru effortlessly effortlessly holds Magnus the point is thatafter this I'm going to take the queen first I'm not going to take the knight and lose my bishop and uh yeah uh they repeat moves you say what the hell was that good what the hell was that is that was just a solid game that was what I mean that was Hikaru holding with black, you know, Magnus opted for Knight F3.

Hikaru played a super super cute line on the BOGO Indian and uh neutralized effortlessly and then they played the fourth game. Hikaru was white and I said, oh, he looks at a Berlin, ah no, not a Berlin, but do any of you have any idea what Spanish Magnus plays? Magnus likes to play Spanish with black. Which one plays trivia? No. None of you have any idea. You're only here because I'm staring at the camera because I put Magnus in the thumbnail because you like to laugh at your hairline and you like to make jokes in my comments section I absolutely understand you have a great day I said I understand you have a great day no it's understandable that you have a great day anyway Magnus likes to play the Marshall in the Marshall Sicilian, I mean, in Marshall Rue Lopez, the d-pawn doesn't move, it goes to D5 immediately, it doesn't go to D6, the point is that Black gambits the pawn on E5 to create this powerful central position and then goes like this with the bishops and the queen and what that gives you is a very aggressive position with the queen H4 and so on, however, Hikaru came very well prepared and played rookie 4 which is the right move trying to go here and kick out the queen and the untrained.

Mind you, this looks like nothing less than two-fifths after a day's work, like you know two guys playing chess against each other, but no, it's actually a very legitimate line and here White has the option of continuing to play with him. bishop to E3, but Hikaru says No, I'm forcing a draw time for Armageddon. The way Armageddon works is two guys are betting well, they're bidding, they say I'll play this amount of time with black. I offer nine minutes, so I want to play black and I will. offer nine minutes and I will start with 9 minutes versus 15 minutes, however in Armageddon there is no overtime, there is no overtime, so when you lose seven minutes, you lose seven minutes and now the most absurd moment in the Hikaru Magnus rivalry has arrived .

Have I ever seen Kikaru bid eight minutes and 59 seconds why because he thought Magnus was going to bid nine minutes he was like I think Magnus will want nine minutes at 15 I'm on a bid 859 this man Magnus Carlson Soul

reads

Hikaru as Daniel Negranu does in poker compilations how it simply says you have King Nine. Magnus bid 58. That's crazy, that's the best. What I knew was that Hikaru was going to bid 859, he bids 858, that's absurd, so Magnus plays black and in a game that's so close you don't want to play white because you just have to win, you have to beat the odds. black house tie in armageddon so when black is in time out but ties the game black wins time for armageddon look at this eight it's in shape it's 15 for white and it's ok it took three seconds on the first move, but it's 8.58, this is crazy.

I mean, it's a huge time deficit, but I have news for you, it's a long time. Nine minutes is a long time, and Hikaru. you played exactly the right opening you have more time you have to play a closed structure let's close it well we are playing a reverse Kings Indian we have A4 we have Knight A3 The Knight comes out The Bishop comes out and Hikaru plays in a way that is very cautious, very maneuverable, very closed, it maintains its time of five minutes. Advantage, he's fine, castles H4. The bishop comes out and now we have an exchange, so Hikaru is going to trust this and this and put the rook here and Magnus is going to trust the queen.

Side and be solid and meet Hikaru when he gets there and here comes Hikaru and his position was good. He takes the Queen C7 to the Knight to H1. There was a really engine-like idea here to sacrifice your e-pawn and then do this. This is so. Disgusting now the bishop can't move the bishop can't move and the knight goes to E4 something like this where white completely closes the central door and it's the right time to attack boop boop boop boop boop boop boop just everyone completely blocked Position Hikaru is a person, although it is not a boot machine like dried fish, so play Knight H1.

Knight H1 is defending this and right around here I thought okay, Hikaru was going to win. This is a perfect position for Armageddon, five minutes up. You have to play H5 like you have beautiful attacking potential here, one problem, the guy on the other side is Magnus, like how can you beat Magnus? Magnus plays bishop E6 and right here I think there was another moment, uh, here, here, I think the engine really wanted Hikaru to do this to play the h-pawn but it's still not easy, I mean, it's not over and like Hikaru hesitated now Magnus immediately finds F5, that is a very important move because if you take it, now I have my Rook on the 6th row to defend myself and suddenly you are under attack even though you thought you were attacking me uh and if you block the center then I just come back and again the closed position benefits the guy who plays to tie, so H5 gh5 and right here Hikaru actually lost the game, lost the game by a very, very disgusting tactic, a very, very disgusting tactic that, in a strange way, Magnus maybe saw, but maybe not, I guess he didn't see it because if he saw it, he would have played what he played, the Knight takes E5 and the point is that after F takes C5, this is a clearance sacrifice, you clear the C6 square for the queen, but what matters is not the check, but teaming up with your Rook laterally, Rook H6. things ah no sorry no Rook H6 Rook take G3 Rook take G3 wait but then why is King H2 so good F F4 first and then Rook H6 okay yes F4 first and Rook H6 yes you block this wow okay another one time I just thought it was Queen C6 Rook H6 I forgot there was a covering bishop that's why I comment on the games that's why they play the games uh but Knight E5 Queen C6 and then F4 pulling the plug on that Rook H6 idea uh Magnus had to see that uh but again He is not playing to win. he just plays Knight P4 so again and that's it, I mean, Hikaru now has to try to find a way to pass, but Magnus takes a pawn and just comes back, so now Magnus has one more pawn.

Hikaru is still playing against, you know the clock a little bit. a little, but Magnus exchanges the queen and will get another pawn. Hikaru is doing the best he can, but unfortunately, the moment Gap gets closer and closer and Magnus just brings the king and is up, his pawn is super strong and you know what happens when White doesn't. I don't win at Armageddon, the other guy wins, in fact, Magnus was like -4 and said: I'm not playing D2. I'm not risking anything. I'm playing Rook take A6 putting my rook here and this is unwinnable for white he just can't win this can't be won for black can't win for white and we got this, we got these pawns to fall off the board and right here the boys agreed to a tie because it's a tie, you could tell why they did it.

Hikaru tries to mark him because you're not, Black is playing to win like, you know, so Magnus wins the first matchup, taking a page from Hikaru's playbook, and Hikaru's playbook is not to win a game in a game. that you won yesterday Hikaru didn't win a single game five draws including one at Armageddon and this time Magnus wins at Armageddon all I have to say is that I really feel like Armageddon is a lot of fun but I don't really feel like you're trying to put chess on a TV five draws are fun marshall draws are fun it's hard it can just be boring if you're not interested in it, like if all the football games in a series are tied or zero zero or one people would say like this, you know it's hard, chess is difficult anyway, Magnus wins.

Hikaru now has to play the winner of Wesley, whatever the brackets are in the description, but he has to play the winner between Eric icy and Wesley, so Eric. look and Wesley, then the winner plays Hikaru, if Hikaru beats that person or that person beats Hicaro, they move up to play Magnus and that's how the Grand Final is decided and if Magnus loses in that Grand Final, then they make a restart of the grand final. I think God help me I don't understand the double lighting see you in the next video get out of here