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Norway Chess 2026: Wesley & Bibisara Lead The Pack As Alireza & Divya Chase The Wins! Rd 7
06-01-2026 · 5h 29m
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I'm not sure if I'm gonna get away
I'm not sure if I'm gonna get away
Come on, woo!
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Six days of chaos at No way.
Chess and no way chess women and
the board is on fire.
Wesley has stormed into the lead,
Two brutal battlefields. Welcome to round 7.
For the first time in 13 years, Norway chess room from Stavanger to Oslo
bringing the biggest stars in the game into the heart of the capital.
Over the next week, the world's best chess players attempt to keep their nerves together
while the rest of us pretend we understand the edge in evaluations.
We didn't like this not playing F4. Oh, the bar drops though.
This year's lineup is ridiculous. Magnus Carlsen returns once again and faces
challengers like Kukeshto Morashi, Itsun Kairmar, Wasli So and Ali Reza Farusha.
Every single round looks like a world championship match that accidentally
wandered into another tournament. Women's event is just as fierce.
Zushinir, Zhu Wenjun, Humpik Neru and Anamon's Juke all ready to fight for
every point like it's personal.
Well here's the thing that makes Norway chess different from any other event on the calendar.
They are in no peaceful draw.
The classical game ends tied, the players go straight into arm again.
One game, one winner, maximum thrust.
After last year we know exactly how intense the tournaments can get.
So get comfortable, the clocks are ticking, the evil bar is about to go insane.
Norway chess starts right now.
And it's a good afternoon from Oslo and I might be calm and peaceful outside but I can tell
you inside the Dijkman library the atmosphere is electric. Slugfest, emotions and Armageddon
or what we have come to expect from the home of fighting chess, of course, it's Norway
chess. I'm your host, international master Yvanka
Houska and I'm here with the absolute dream duo, international master Tania Sestiv, give
me a high-five please and Grandmaster David howl sorry I don't have long hands
well the atmosphere here is buzzing it's round seven what can we expect so much
because momentum is truly shifted at Novichest right new leaders have
emerged the chase is on and so far it's absolutely been wild I mean just across
the road. We've got the Nobel Peace Center, but the chess here has been anything but peaceful.
David Howell, Norway chess is on fire. I love it, Tanya. I love it. It has been a really thrilling
event so far. Six rounds packed full of everything, actions, surprises, time scrambles, arm against,
of course. This is the final sprint, it feels like. Four rounds remaining. This is where if someone
Catches fire they could run off and take that title
I would love to see a breakthrough now and someone tried to cease the ball by the horns
Well absolutely dramatic scenes here in OHS yesterday
We have four decisive games in classical. Let's check out this recap
First she delivers a check the King moves and
Queen's act queen's act. Oh my gosh. It's checkmate. It's checkmate in three. It's Queen takes me
She resigns, the Vizara takes the Armageddon.
I also want to win some classical games, but...
...unversionately from the first round I stopped doing this.
10 seconds left on the clock.
Oh my gosh.
And you could have an hour on the clock and would not help if you could play it right now.
Vincent Kajmer picked up the phone.
Oh, this is a beautiful move there from Vincent F6 locking out the black rook.
That's enough to warrant resignation.
He was under constant pressure and I don't think it was so so bad, but you know this time control this time has really helped me like he had to make some tough decisions for a little time and then obviously you start to make mistakes at some point.
She's going to try and block the advance of the Black King, but a couple of checks here or the Black Rook going behind. White is way way too slow.
And Handshakes, Juen Juen the world champion gets her first win at the Polychats.
The end game is drawn and I just forgot everything I knew in the tension.
Magnus, he's going for the corner.
He's found it. He finds the tactical trick.
And handshake, Magnus gets the win.
The way he played kind of left him with very, very few chances.
9-6-6, the rook's going to go back and knight to B-4.
That's game over, just right there.
And that's it, it's handshake, Jiu-Jitsu now gets the win.
I go to some good positions after an opening and I just try to play fast.
Wesley is just about picking up that pawn that's up for grabs.
His hand was shaking there though.
He's double checking things just in case he miscalculates.
But two pawns is too many and the black rook is too passive.
Another check.
Don't take that pawn, rook c4.
And that's it!
Wesley so takes the lead at Norway chess.
Congratulations on leading Norway chess right now.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, wonderful.
I don't think I've ever led Norway chess in all the years that I played.
Not even around the world.
The nerves, the emotions of round six, but it's a new day and new possibilities round
seven and it's a mirror match.
The players have actually played each other before, but now they're playing with colors
reverse and we have some big matchups as always from NoHS.
Vincent Kheimer takes on Magnus Carsten.
Magnus Carsten could be back from the dead.
he's got two classical wins now but he still needs a string of wins if he wants to make a
real case versus eight title he's not out of it and that's always a scary thought i mean even
currently not in the late or not in the not in the hot spot of the chasing pack Magnus Carlsen
will be a favorite for a lot of those watching they want to see him go the distance but i think
for Alireza Ferozha the big question today against Pragananda can he get the reset after his loss
yesterday his first here in the classical at norway chess yeah and the mirror match so back in
in round two, feels like ages ago, just last week.
It was Farooza with the only win of the classical portion,
defeating Prague.
So good memories, of course, having Black this time,
it's going to be more difficult.
But he started so strong, Alireza.
Is he running out of steam, or can he bounce back?
What do we think?
He just has to remember that losing to Magnus,
there's no shame at all.
And the good part is, you've played Magnus twice
already in this tournament.
And so looking ahead, Alireza just
needs to reset himself, forget what happened yesterday,
and come back today with the black pieces against the struggling Prague.
He perhaps does make his chances. Now, one player who also bounced back into the lead,
claiming it. Bevisara Ossobaiva, the big question today with margins, such a narrow gap for that
leader. Can she hold on to it? Can she hold on to her narrow lead? Well, we're going to find out
today as we see Hampi Kaneru. She has the white pieces against fellow Indian Divya Deshmukh Deshmukh.
Divya yesterday losing in a heartbreaking game to Jute Wenjin and for tournament leader of Norway
Chess Wesley so you know round two kind of signal the big turn around you know he lost in the Armageddon
round one for Pagananda then he came back in fighting form against Gukesh to win the Armageddon
and then he's just gotten from strength to strength and now he's just had two classical wins in a
It's been awesome to watch Wesley this tournament. He's playing at a whole new level right now.
You know, he's that immovable object, he's that unstoppable force. Depending on the position, he's playing them out to perfection.
He leads the tournament right now. You know, Wesley said when he joined us that before the tournament,
he wanted to get to about 12 to 13 points at Norway chess and would consider that as a success.
Well, guess what? He's sitting atop and that's within reach.
In fact, I think now he gets even more ambitious. He wants the whole thing, David.
gave it. He definitely wants the whole thing. He's got a great lifetime score
against Goukeshe as well. Two classical wins for Wesley. Goukeshe has never
defeated him in classical games. I think he could get chances as well. The way
Goukeshe has been playing, he's been a bit loose, he's been taking chances, taking
risks. Wesley a great counter-attacker. Divya in the meantime will hope to put
yesterday behind her looking sharp and yeah she will face Hampi Canaru and
She's got decent score against Humpy historically.
Divya in second place, so she can't afford
any sort of setbacks at all.
Yesterday could have been a blip.
Today it's all about getting into the zone,
getting focused, and someone who is also in the chasing pack,
it is Anna Muzichuk.
She has the black pieces, but she lies in eight points,
and that's not far off the lead.
It's a big day for Anna.
I mean, with eight points, she is one of the cheesers
the title. She has so much experience here at Norwich as she is a defending champion as
well and today she returns on the board with her lucky sweater on.
Lucky sweater. It's brought her a lot of success both last year, this year. Vincent
Kajmer had success yesterday and it looked like somehow the belief was starting to shine
through Vincent after all those tough Armageddon's. Five bad days yesterday was great. He joined
us in the studio and he looked really, really positive.
It was awesome to have him, right? Until yesterday it was Windless Chima and then he gets this
huge one in and suddenly climbs to third place and you're looking at Winston Chima showing
the world why Norway chess can be so up and down and so much rides on a classical game.
Yes, exactly. And I gotta say, Vincent has come dressed to impress. It's an attire that
you often associate with snooker players and I love to see it.
I think he's one of the best dressed chess players in the league chess.
I'm sure a few people would have a thing or two to say about that, but yeah
Vincent a very stylish guy both on and off the board Magnus
Yesterday the slick back hair and he managed to win today
Maybe less so but yeah with the black pieces
He will hope to at least get to an Armageddon and win that one
I think a loss for today for Magnus and he will be out of the running for first place
He has to go a lot and he should do it in the classical and yesterday
He described his fighting mood at one and a half out of ten
But surprisingly played super confident chess and wrapped it up against the tournament leader in the classical
I think his fighting mood goes up today. I think he wants more now Magnus. We might just see it's Carlson climbing time
And the last time he played Vincent a few rounds ago. It was really dramatic stuff
So I wouldn't be shocked if the drama continues. What do we think of Bibis Zara's chances?
She's looked very confident in the Armageddon and
and LifetimeSchool 2-1 against Zuzina.
The Bissara, her only classical win, came in Game 1 of Norwich S women, since then raking up the points in those Armageddon,
very impressively, but I have to say Zuzina yesterday, her Armageddon win against Anna Musichuk, was so solidly done.
And I feel like this match, we're going to see fireworks, both these players won a three-time world-blitz champion,
champion. The other Jujina has had a meteoric rise in 2025. The winner of
Grand Prix women a few days second there and they go head off and I think for
Jujina she wants a fight in the classicals. This one's fireworks. For
Jujina she's playing catch-up and she needs a fight. She needs to unbalance the
game. She definitely wants those three points and for BB Sara she gets three
points. Victory in classical well suddenly she could be cementing her
lead at the top. It's also their style of play right, Nida is shying away and speaking
of style, Magnus Carlsen there, stylishly signing off some autographs before he enters
the playing arena. How are we feeling about the fact that despite Magnus still being in
the middle of the leaderboard, has had three classical losses in this tournament, we are
still talking about a potential eighth Norwich S title, happens only with Magnus. Exactly
and it's been the kind of double-edged chess that he's been playing.
He's been taking big risks, Magnus.
Rare to see from someone who plays a kind of less classical chess these days
to go all out in every game.
It feels like he's either winning or losing, not much in between right now.
And that's why he's in with a chance with this scoring format
with a three-point throw in, handshakes with Vincent Kheimer.
Whoever wins this will really fancy their chances.
Wesley looks great, but maybe Wesley at some point
might start playing it a bit more safe.
So, yeah, this round is crucial.
And we see their head-to-head as well.
Lopsided for Winsenheimer with one win to five losses there.
Magnus Carlsen with the black pieces.
I think given the tournament situation,
we'll take any fight that he gets.
Knowing that Winsenheimer's Achilles heel here in Oslo
has been the Armageddon,
I still don't think Magnus wants to take it down there.
It's just not enough for him.
No, it's not enough to get those one and a half points.
No, he's gonna go for the full three pointer as we have a beautiful view of all six games
That's our about to be in progress
Ceremonial first moves that are being made
Yesterday was so nice to see the little girls from the droning sampling and they were making the first move
Queen collection there's a young future grandmasters and
And, okay, which games are we most excited about in this round?
Yeah, and where should our audience keep their eyes on?
I mean, all the battles, super critical with the scoring system here at Narhagesh.
But let's not forget, it is Westi, so who's at the top.
He's playing against a struggling Gukesh right now.
He starts with the black pieces.
Westi does.
Does he want to steer this into safe zones and take it into Armageddon?
But the thing is, with a player like Gukesh, you know your chances will come.
He will try to push and pressure it out for a fight.
I think that's a big match up and of course whenever there's Magnus Carlsen world number one on the board
You know you've got to go there as often as you can Winston Kymar has got to be confident after his win yesterday
Exactly what you need when you're about to face Magnus and in the women
It's going to be all eyes on baby Sarah was a jiu-jana
And no it just is so exciting you you always feel like you need eyes in the back of your head
You need to follow like an octopus all of the games. No, actually octopuses don't have any eyes
It was spiders do right?
They have many eyes.
Now we need at least six pairs of eyes to follow all of these,
but we'll try our best for everyone at home
to keep you outdated with all of the developments,
all of the moves,
all of the twists and turns.
Vincent Keimer starting with the Reti.
Little love to see it.
Flexible opening.
Asking Magnus,
which setup is he going to go for?
David Howell approves.
1-9-3 on the board yesterday.
Surprisingly, we had none of this happen.
It was always the Queen's spawn opening and the King's spawn opening.
opening. We have seen Reti being played in Oslo this year quite a few times.
Winston sticks the plan. It's also an idea that was discussed heavily in the
World Championship camp for Gukesh, the team Gukesh employed against Dingler
in. So I think a lot of notes to take back from from that preparation that
Winston was a big part of. Magnus, do you think he's just a little bit surprised
by Winston's decision here? Quite possibly. The good thing about the Reti is
there are so many move order tricks. So no matter what the opponent wants to do,
whether it's a Queens gambit declined, a Slav, Kings Indian, you name it,
Grunfeld, there are so many ways for White to put a little different twist on it
and try to confuse the opponent, try to get a favorable version. So whatever
Magnus planned to do against D4 he might likely still try to do, but aware that
Vincent doesn't need to commit the central pawns yet. This one is going to
be I have a feeling a long battle today. I don't think you beat Vincent Kleymer many
times in general with black, but if you do, you have to kind of outlast him. He's so strong
and so solid.
And I'm just going to add to that, Jovi, that for Vincent, I think it has to be a very
clear picture in his mind that I'm not confident if this goes into Armageddon. I've lost five
of the six in that format. Against the world number one, with the white pieces, if I won
my chances, it needs to be in the classical.
Yeah, exactly. It needs to be in the classical and Vincent has been piling on the pressure
in the classical and the Armageddon, that's a completely different story as Tanya is indicating
with moves and blunders being made pretty early on. But Magnus, deep in thought, now it suggests to
me just by looking at Magnus that Magnus is kind of racking his brain for old ideas that he's perhaps
come up with maybe from the 2013 World Championship. Exactly, he's not out of book, that's just
our producers having a laugh. Dick talking about the books, I guess it's the library
here, so yeah, Magnus just trying to recall something that maybe Vincent has never seen
before from pre-millennium times. How does he get anti-young player chess? Is what's
going on in Magnus Carlsen's mind as he decides on that center top board does he
start with a pawn move or is it going to be the knight coming out to f6 meanwhile
action on on our other boards I see a couple of queens spawn opening a couple
of Kings spawn opening and a one-knight f3 the reti only played by Winston
Karmar I see something potentially very fiery in the women's section and it's
there in the bottom left between Humpy, Canary and Divya Dashmook. It's Benko baby. It's
Benko, yeah. I think from now on it should be renamed the Benko baby. Ben-Keyer knockout.
Exactly. It's got that vibe, right? You go for the Benko, it's an early gambit, it's
an early pawn, sacrifice if you're black. We're looking at that bottom left board Humpy
playing with the white pieces. You can see she's already up a pawn right now. In the
big decision here for why this do you hang on to that one do you trade the
bond that they've just moved forward or do you simply give it away
they've got choice of opening of going for the Ben knockout in this round it
just shows us the ambition that she always has every game she wants a fight
against Humphrey a struggling Humphrey exactly Humphrey canary struggling
miss event she's currently in last place but of course we're in classical of
course would rocket up the standings and talking about standings Wesley so
getting an e4 e5 it's an Italian game against Goukesh interesting choice by
Goukesh because Wesley won on the black side of an Italian against none other
than Magnus Carlson just two rounds ago so Goukesh trying to maybe surprise
Wesley trying to catch him off guard in the opening Wesley switched it up
slightly by playing a slightly different system.
Let's say that interesting choice by Gukesh is now thinking.
So I see our top row, we've got two Kings Spawn opening,
one by Prague, one by Gukesh, the two Indians employing it.
A center top row, we've got Vincent starting with the Reti
and now we see Magnus coming out with the Knight.
Vincent not yet showing his hands at the center of the board
but getting his bishop out, Fan Kettering on the next move.
Bottom, our bottom row of Norway chess women,
all of them start with the Queensborough opening today.
And just to mention, two chairs against each other. Magnus maybe in the confessional?
Vincent walking around waiting for Magnus to come back and play second move.
But yeah, I mean, you mentioned the women there, Tanya.
What are your thoughts? We've had six rounds completed.
Only three decisive games total in the classical.
Is that disappointing? Is that surprising? What do you make of it?
I'd say both those things. I think I am really surprised with that.
Usually we see a lot more decisive action when it comes to women's chess and it's
To me the fact that so far six rounds in only three decisive games have happened in classical all other results going down to the Armageddon is
A bit of a shocker, but I also want to point out it's not because a lack of excitement in the game itself
There have been a lot of ups and downs roller coaster missed opportunities there
And we very well could have had ten decisive games instead of three in the women
And it just goes on to show that when you've got a two-hour with no increment
Going on just the kind of turnarounds that can happen in those final few moments the hits and misses
I got to say I was discussing in the lift yesterday with Mehmet, the game theory guy,
and he was telling me that the women are playing way more accurate chess than the Norway chess.
So when you get perfection, you get a draw.
David, I thought I was going to do that.
I mean, perfection is one way to put it.
There have been lots of mistrances.
We've had plenty of winning positions.
We've had seen quite a few mistakes here and there, but nobody able to get that killer instinct in some of the bigger encounters.
It feels like often they're happy to go see Armageddon, some of the players.
Zhu and Jun yesterday suddenly found the energy to go for it in classical, but until that she was happy to play it rock solid, just being really, really safe.
Normally you have to take some risk at some point.
So accuracy, I've never been a fan of it.
Accuracy kind of dictating everything, but it definitely feels like at some point the classical wins will start flowing.
And it's just about who gets them.
Round six saw the most number of decisive games talking about fighting chess.
You know, we had three in Norway chess, all won by white.
In the women, we had Juve and Jin take the win in the classical.
Her first win here at Norway, just in a big one.
It was against Sevilla.
What are we expecting today?
Better fortunes for the players playing with black?
Well, we'll actually dive in and have a look at Hampi against Sevilla,
because that one definitely seems more imbalanced than the rest.
You know, we have a banker on our boards.
and we can see that decisions have been made that earlier on we were kind of considering
no whether white would play b takes a6 or would they go b6 maybe we can actually do
an action replay and break down all the subtleties yeah for anyone at home not familiar with the
Benko gambit it is in this position after c4 black playing c5 asking white inviting white forwards
with D5 to gain some space. E6 now would be what I like to think is the cousin of the
Benko. It would be heading towards the Benoni defense. After B5, C takes B5, the Benko gambit
accepted. White doesn't have to take it. It's very possible. After A6, White has a bunch
of moves. White does take on A6, I think, more often than not. B6 rejecting the gambit
is another variation, hoping that the black A6 pawn actually just gets in the way of
the Rook on A8, no open 9s there on the A file, the Knight still a bit stuck, the Bishop
can't come out to the A6 square. But White can also try to build a center very quickly,
Quincy 2 to build E4, Knight C3 to build E4. What do we make of this, the choices that
were played?
I really don't appreciate that my favorite response to A6 hasn't been named by you David,
how it just yet?
Is it E4?
E3?
Yes, that's the one. I do like to start with E3 and then you bring the Knight out and slowly
built the idea of E4 and A4 coming in as well. And in fact, I will tell you that that was
one of the lines that we looked at as the Indian team for the Olympiad. And both Hampi
and Dewey were part of that camp. But we're seeing none of that because Hampi goes for
a different option.
Oh, maybe mind games then. Here, Dewey is saying, oh, please play E3. I have a special
idea lined up. I know you've looked at it. I've looked at it more recently, though. E3
table. We have a question from our producer. B6 is what Bick normally plays here. I'm going
to admit here, confess that I don't know much at all about this line. I've never been brave
enough to play the Bank of Gambit. I bluffed it once, but what should black be doing here?
Should black take back immediately? This is also something that we've looked at, and
it might look strange, right? You 1-upon, you immediately give it away, you invite black
to actually capture it with a developing move, but I second what Big said.
This is many of my second favorite move in this position and it all relies on the fact
that you give away a pawn for a really strong control on the C4 square eventually.
Now once the white knight lands there, positionally, strategically, it gets really fun to be white.
And whether you take it immediately or you go D6, knight D7 and then pick it up with
your knight, there are a lot of games in this position.
A lot of games and I always found it really interesting that white often plays a4 quite
quickly trying to put a pawn on a5 and black is a bit stuck here. Either you block yourself
with a5 and totally give away b5 for good, maybe a white bishop landing there, or for
example if the queen takes pawn to a5, it's just a bit hard now to get this knight out,
the bishop out and I've always struggled to understand these so I stayed clear.
Yeah, I was going to say, we're not doing a very good job of selling the Benko.
We've said, well, e3 is good, b6 is also quite nice as well.
I mean, one thing that Benko does have is that you do get that natural development.
So after pawn takes a6, the bishop is very quick to come out.
Also, you have these two open lines on the queen side to start applying pressure.
And usually what black wants to be doing is going after your fiancetto d6 d sorry d6 g6
bishop g7 you get massive pressure on the queen side and the whole justification is that
even if white is that extra pawn it's not going to be a pawn that's easy to advance
and black is very quick just to line up on the queen side and start just having fun.
Yeah, really interesting idea played actually by Divya and it's a very modern idea if I'm not mistaken.
I used to subscribe to some opening newsletters and I remember that black here in the past used
to always take this pawn back immediately with the bishop. The idea was to kind of pin the
e-pawn if white ever wants to move now then bishop takes bishop will force the white king to
to give up castling rights.
We've had a couple of moves in the meantime,
but the modern-ish mainline suddenly became G6
with the idea that you just leave this pawn
as long as possible, Bg7, e4 castles.
And you're trying to provoke white to go forward with e5,
which is playable, but kind of overextending risk there.
And the whole idea was after Nf3, black goes out,
and there are quite a few tricks in this position.
I've seen many grandmasters make a mistake here.
The pawn hit on e4 due to a pin.
playing bishop to d3 and suddenly black has the advantage after the beautiful knight takes d5
and this is a well-known trap. Anyone at home who's a d4 player, watch out for this one.
Hitting the king, hitting the rook and you can't defend the rook or maybe you have to,
but the bishop then on d3 would drop. Black is actually suddenly material up.
But yeah, this g6 line fell out of fashion just the last couple of years, I think in e6,
okay, by Divya trying to strike for the center first. This is maybe more Blumenfeld gambit
then Venkul Gambit suddenly another kind of cousin, one of the family of openings.
There's something to unsettle Hampi right Tanya?
I completely agree with you. It's sort of playing against Hampi's positional,
sotitic style. Like currently Divya is down two pawns in the position. Yes, the A6 pawn will be
picked up but Divya is playing for initiative for that central pawn that she's given up and very
often it also relies on the activity of your dark square bishop once it lands on that G7 square
I'm expecting Hampi to pick up the spawn that's just been taken at the center of the board right now.
And interestingly, Divya has had this position before.
This is a line that she's played. So the question in my mind is, how well prepared is Hampi for this game?
You know, as a player, having worked with Hampi and been in the team with Hampi,
the thing is, when you're not having the best of tournaments,
how much effort are you putting into your pre-game prep is the question.
and Divya has played this exact same line in 2026 against a player who's playing at
Norwich as women here. Is Jiu Jitsu here? Yes. And she's gotten this position. It was a very
complicated battle with Jiu Jitsu winning it with White and I think Divya has come up with an
improvement in her play to employ this against Hampi today. Fascinating dynamics here. The fact
that Hampi hasn't recaptured the pawn immediately makes me wonder whether she's aware of the fact
The fact that Divlius played the Benko, maybe she just didn't check it this morning.
Maybe it's been a few years since Humpy looked at this, which is quite a rare guess.
I've got to say the Benko gambit at the top level nowadays.
If she's not taking this pawn, I think the only other move you could feasibly make an argument for is e3,
before black pushes with d4.
Maybe it's still difficult for black to guard the d5 pawn, but surely she's going to take that back.
Especially if she's unprepared here.
You don't want to allow black with such strong central pawns here.
And the question is what next?
I think I recall English Grand Master Gawain Jones playing Bishop E7 here at the British
Championship a couple of years ago. He was sitting on the board next to me and that became
a bit of a strange fight, although he ended up winning from a worse position. And the
idea is just to get Castle as quickly as possible and ask White how he catching up.
Yeah, but the mind games are there, David, especially when Divya has prepared. Let's go
to the birds eye view because I want to take stock of what is happening in the other games.
And I can see that Magnus, he's down on the clock, but it's very standard position, not
out of the opening just yet.
And I'm seeing that there are some very interesting decisions.
And immediately my eye is drawn to, has to be top right, Goukèche against Wesley, because
yesterday it was all about G5.
So many games had that with Black going on the front foot.
Goukèche, is he inspired?
dive in. Yeah, let's dive into that one. The other curiosity of Magnus being 15 minutes
down now and then you haven't played one move. Something's up. Magnus doubting himself, not
playing as quickly as possible as he could do maybe. This game though has been very quick
from Goukeshe especially. Very quick action replay because Wesley has sacrificed the pawn.
It was the Italian game and after Bishop c4, knight f6, the two knights defense. Knight
G5 is very popular maybe at lower levels or in faster time controls. D4, we've seen that
by transposition yesterday in one of our games in the NHS women. D3 was played by Goukesh
with quieter system and I really wonder why Wesley went away from Bc5. He must have been
fearing an opening idea, a D1 by Goukesh, because that's what Wesley played against Magnus,
one against Magnus in Bc5. Maybe some mind games he plays Bb7, which is known to be a
bit more passive but also very solid dodging main theory and Castles Castle
Bishop b3 and Wesley here playing a move that I say I would say isn't in style
normally I would expect Wesley to play like d6 maybe try to play knight a5 d6
bring the bishop out to e6 I don't know h6 there's loads of ways for black to keep
the game quiet but Wesley goes kind of combative here in the center we see a
trade of pawns rookie one hitting on e5 it's very uncomfortable now to defend
pawn with f6 because White's going to break out with d4 very quickly and maybe there's
something even better but this is an annoying pin. RQ1, Bg4, another pin, but this is broken.
Not giving up the bishop power with the bishop takes f3 and this is a pure pawn sacrifice.
The bishop kicked back, knight takes pawn, reminiscent of the martial pawn sacrifice
in the Rolo pairs but what do we make of this? Goukès clearly in prep but Wesley thinking.
I love it. I love that Wesley is just going all out in his games here at Norwich as you
know we always associate Wesley so solid with all those positional battles, playing it safe,
playing it cautious, waiting for the opportunities to arise rather than trying to create them
on the board. But this Norwich has been a completely different story for Wesley. He's
sacrificed upon for initiative and you know you said martial-esque and those ideas with
h3g4 already given as a hook, David, for Wesley in this position, I think Gukesh has
to be really careful or really well prepared in this position. For black, the plans are
pretty clear, right? You start hitting the rook at the center of the board, the dark
square bishop lines itself on the weakened dark squares via d6, you sidestep your king
and then you break with f5. You want to target these pawns that Gukesh has over expanded
with to win upon in the position, but in the process behind in development, let's highlight
the queen side. Not a single piece has made a move for Gukes. The king in the open. Look
at Wesley, held upon structure, down upon, but that's given him access to open diagonals,
open files. Bishop d6, king h8, queen d7, f5, rook a8. I really like the potential of compensation
here. Absolutely. And can I give you a small plot twist? So the plot twist is if we rewind,
he's moved so when the rook was taking the pawn on e5 and the knight was
standing on d5 black main you played c6 or knight b6 but c6 was the main move
because you want to keep your knight in the center
Wesley played knight to b4 and as you can see from Goukash's clock times he
did not pause for thought so Wesley thought maybe I'm getting a surprise and
And Gukesh said, no mate, analyze that.
And here we get the position.
And it's kind of interesting because I also agree with you both.
I'm very worried about Wesley's, no, not Wesley.
Gukesh is king, you know, it's all alone.
And I have this kind of running joke when I'm teaching.
I kind of like, king, nervous old man.
I don't know if you can have an emoji for that one, David.
I'll try, I'll try.
You always have an emoji.
You know, you always have to justify your play
to this nervous old man.
he's like oh my god I'm not that safe protect me I'm weak and vulnerable and of course you know
when there's an end game then it comes out and steals the show there you go that's a nice one
and I mean first up there's gonna have to be a lot of precise moves from Goukesh but the fact
that Goukesh is not pausing for thoughts was in Danny Ranch emoji yeah at least the oldest man I
and I can get on the oldest avatar of OG.
You know Danny watching this show, David.
Love you, Danny.
Hey, Danny.
I'll go nervous, not old with this image.
There we go.
OK, thank you, David.
I just want to follow up on your point, Yvanga.
Actually, night before, I don't have a single game
on my database.
It's all C6, and I think one game, another move is implied,
but it's not an important one.
In fact, this has also been played,
the spawn sacrifice by Gary Kasparov against Vladimir Kramnik.
So it does have a long history of some very, very strong players
employing the spawn sacrifice night before.
Definitely, Wesley's source preparation, Gukesh immediately responding,
but that doesn't solve problems.
And I think this is going to be one of those games.
We don't pay so much weight issue what the evaluation bar says.
That's going to be practical issues for white to solve.
Yeah, the first one is, where to put the rook?
Because I reckon you can't just put your rook anywhere,
because the queen wants to come out to f3 is what I'm thinking and also the
bishop on c1 wants to come out to f4 and start covering some squares around the
white king. So you've got to be precise even here like do you play a tempo move
such as Rd5 which also looks really weird but you're just doing it to
gain time or do you go Rd1? I think it's a 50-50 it has to be one of those two
squares. I would say Goukesh, I would never play Rook D5 because I'd just be scared of
trapping that rook. But Goukesh, it might be his style. Tempo play, the most ambitious
move in the position. That's a full tempo. Like, either the black queen has to move.
Not sure exactly where. Probably C8 if it moves. Then suddenly, whoa, the bar shoots
up. I'm surprised it's that high. Maybe if I know it's high, it has to be F4 or F5. Because
otherwise quiet moves and the game goes on but maybe f4 and shutting in this
bishop. Well done David. Okay, can we see it? I think I would play Qc8 here to be
honest because Bishop d6 I was a bit afraid that Bishop f4 and this nice
attacking piece gets swapped off. It still would be a bit reluctant to trap my
rook like this but maybe it just runs away maybe it's fine for Goukèche but
not easy, takes courage. Wow. And rook d5, very concrete line, right? Purely based on
calculation. Intuitively you don't want to place your rook there running out of squares,
but you calculate, the queen moves away, f pawn pushing up. You see if the bishop lines
itself, you end up trading a very key attacking piece. I think Goukeshe had in hands, this
is what's going on in his mind right now. I just want to point out that the absolute
key idea in this position for Wesley's to achieve f5. So even if we go through that
line david where you go root d5 i don't want to allow f4 f5 yes bishop to d6
and now if you go f4 queen h4 just looks like disaster about the strike right so
you definitely don't want to
head into this direction
too many lose points here and if you go bishop f4
the question to me is does wasley have enough
firepower to just simply sidestep the king take this moment pause
and say i'm setting up f5
This could be a really fun game, you know.
I mean, wow, I took that bishop and suddenly the eval bar shoots down.
I would take that bishop every day of the week, but yeah, I think this is the type of middle game where natural moves won't cut it.
Goukeshe will have to show all of his calculation ability, because yeah, f5 might just be that strong.
Yeah, this is so either genius, I want to say, by Goukeshe, or just recklessness.
Very brave opening there from the world champion.
big decisions to be made. Let's go to the bird's eye view because I want to catch up on what else
is happening. And let's go around the horn and finish on Magnus because I'm going to know after
that 15 minute think what did Magnus come up with. But let's first check in with the other games.
Spoiler, it was something really fun. Exactly. Other games, Pragnananda against Ferozha,
top left the green board that's almost a totally symmetrical position and
Prygnananda just choosing a slightly different placement for his night.
That is one of the quietest of quiet Italians.
The Gio Gio pianissimo has my Italian is terrible but still that's what I would call that opening.
Where was the hand action David?
Gio pianissimo. It's so quiet.
Benko bottom left that's going to be fun. Not too many new moves though.
though. Jiu and Jiu are against Anamu Zuchuk, also a slower double fienketto there, very
symmetrical. Jiu and Jiu are trying to play it really positionally. And Bibisara against
Zuzhuner has, I'm going to say, not quite exploded, but I think Zuzhuner has been tricked.
I think she's gone into a well-known opening, just full tempo down. So maybe we'll go to
that one shortly as well, but okay, where do we sense the most immediate action?
Well, let's finish with
Vincent Kheimer against Carlson because what did Carlson do like he thought for ages and
It is a Kings Indian at least you shall not be disappointed
Gotta love it
Magnus using the Kings Indian defense means that he wants a proper fight any tough player whenever they play this opening
You know that they want an imbalanced position right out of the opening. Yeah, he wants he wants to win this one with black
He senses that if he can put on a streak now on the second half of the tournament
He's right back in the mix and just a very quick action replay only six moves for everyone at home
Wondering where the time was spent Magnus on move one spent three and a half minutes before playing night at six
Probably he'd seen the reti before once or twice, but he just wanted to see what mood he was in
G3 G6 symmetry C4. It's hard for back to
Always kind of maintain that symmetry C5 will often be met by D4
White gets to the center first with a pawn break. So Magnus goes pure Kings
Indian just allowing white to take the center. E4, have it all. Grunfeld players
would play d5 here to challenge immediately. Kings Indian players would play
Magnus's move d6 and after knight c3 again it's a crossroads but Magnus it's
in decision from him. Paralysis it feels like when it comes to choosing what
Next, 97 is a move, 96 is a move, C6, C5, Rookie 8, Bishbeth 5, do you name it?
It's been played, but he hasn't played a move, 20 minutes down.
He hasn't.
And 96, Knight Pd7 are the two most played moves in this position with the idea of following
it up with the epon.
And I just want to point out the storyline, right, throughout Norway chess this year, Magnus
Carlsen has struggled on the clock.
pretty much every single round except the one where he took down the tournament leader
Alireza Furuja yesterday, where he was the one who was putting pressure on Alireza's
clock. He was making those moves quickly. It wasn't just the board. He created a big
deficit for Alireza to pounce on when you're down on those final few minutes. For Magnus,
it feels like this is a repeat of what we saw in the first five rounds, going down on
the clock early on and later on it comes to buy back the world number one. Yes, it's
the Kings Indian, but a really solid one. It's the Fan Keter set up that White has taken
Winston Kaima and I do feel that David, it suits Winston style perfectly. This isn't
one of those crazy Kings Indian openings where we'll see black flank down, the Kings side,
White go for the Queens side board being divided into two halves, but a more strategic Kings
Indian fight.
Right, and we're still in the realm of main lines here. You guys have indicated all these
moves available. Maybe it was Magnus in the confessional say, I could play this, this,
this, this, and he indeed he can. But we need him making those moves faster because Vincent
as yet he hasn't been surprised.
No surprise. I've seen Vincent play this setup before. So Magnus could have predicted it.
I've played this for the last 10 years with white quite religiously, just against Kings
Indian players. They tend not to enjoy playing against the Fiencato because they don't get
those attacks as you say Tanya. I know you've played at Yavanka, you've played this against
me once from the white side.
Ooh, how did it go?
I can't remember. But a long, long time ago. So, I mean, everyone's played it. My point
is that Magnus has seen this. It's just, he must have had an idea why has he gone back
to that pattern that plagued the first half of his tournament, spending way too long in
the opening, getting punished later in time trouble.
Yeah, I completely agree. And by the way, David is such a liar. He does remember. He
It was in Hastings. I had actually forgotten, but now suddenly it brought it all back. Thank you very much, David
Well, but not so long ago David and I had some battles as well. Do you remember that one, David Howell?
There's no record of it. It wasn't an official tournament
So I would deny the existence of the two blitz games that Tanya may or may not have beaten me
Where are the cameras when you need them?
I only perform when the cameras are on, you know
I bring my best when nobody's watching
Diva Howl.
Well, okay, but we...
Can't spell David without Diva.
And never notice that.
And on our screens, Magnus Carlsen deep in thoughts
as he decides what variation he is gonna play
just to unsettle Vincent.
But Vincent...
Clearly?
In his opening preparation,
we are gonna go on a short break from the return
and we're gonna break down all of the action
that is in store for us all.
See you in a few minutes.
Wesley, I mean, I know you're getting a lot of talk about you being number one in the
standings right now, but it's exciting for us as well as yourself, I think.
But how much pressure comes with being number one?
Well, no pressure at all, right?
Unless you're thinking about winning the entire tournament.
But absolutely no pressure at all.
Because as I said yesterday, you have some bonus, you have some space for error, so absolutely
no pressure.
But if anything is starting about first place, about defending titles and stuff, then there's
pressure.
But okay, Magnus has won this event seven times, I've never won it.
So yeah, it feels weird that Magnus is not in number one right now to be on.
With Magnus's win yesterday, do you still feel like he might be your biggest competitor
for winning Norwiches?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, for sure.
I mean, depending on his form, he could easily win two or three more games in classical if he's in his best form.
Yeah, depending on how he bounces back. Yeah, for sure. It's never over until there's a lot of rounds left.
Good luck today against the World Champion, Wesley. We're looking forward to the game.
Yeah, looking forward to it. How are you feeling today, Anna?
Okay, thanks. How are you?
good but but how do you feel like the chess has been going so far in the form
you're playing after Norway chess right now? It's more or less of my like average form, sorry.
Do you pay attention to the other games at all for example having Divya lose yesterday after
being leading, Divya Sada losing the day before when she's leading do you feel like it's a great
chance to to really take this for to do a back-to-back win in Norway chess?
Yeah, one, when can change the whole standings and the tournament situation a lot, so like
during the games I can answer how much time I have, if I have time then I can follow the
games, but yeah, like when it's closer to time travel, I'm focused on my game.
And you had the chance not to go into focus on your game again, and thank you so much
for taking the time.
Okay.
Pippisnara, I remember last time you walked in with those shoes, you played a wonderful
game of chess.
much talk do you play in those? I didn't actually remember, but I hope I will play good today.
It's a tough opponent to shoot in. What have you prepped for this game and what do you think
you're going to see today? I just want to play good chess. We played a lot in the last half
year, maybe seven or eight games. So yeah, I'm just enjoying. We're looking forward to good chess.
Thank you, baby. Thank you. Divya, you're still in the top here, even though it was a tough day
yesterday how do you recoup going into the next rounds? Well there are still four rounds left and
it's not like an own tournament that you get only one point for a win here you'll get three so I
think anybody has a chance to bounce back. Anything special prepared for today's game? We'll find out.
Oh I look forward to that that's a good answer. Thank you. Thank you Davie, good luck. Vincent it is
yeah it's one of the toughest jobs you have as a chess player I guess it's facing Magnus Carlsen
How do you prepare for that?
Well, same as every other day.
It's not my first game against him.
I know it is tough, but yeah, I mean,
he's also just a chess player.
So I think same rules apply to him as well.
But does it give you then a little bit
of better feeling going in when you've
seen his humanity this tournament also when
you played against him?
Clearly, yes.
But it doesn't mean that he will make those mistakes again.
So I don't think that's something I should rely on.
Both of you have had opportunities that you may have missed in the game so far.
Does that give confidence, do you think, or does it give a bit of a bad feeling as a whole both?
And I think also for both of us, that's just the way it is.
But generally, it's a good sign if there are at least able to create chances.
Good luck.
Magne has just talked to Vincent back here, and both you and Vincent have created a lot of chances in this tournament,
and asked him if he was optimistic or pessimistic, because he didn't commit. What do you think?
It's hard to say. It's positive that I've won a game yesterday, but it's a bit more insecure about the form.
Speaking of which, you're at the top when it comes to this tournament, so far you've met Wesley and you're close to the three-point limit. Do you think about that?
Yes, that's not the topic right now, but it's not what I'm looking for.
My main goal after the team and the team was to be respectable, and get back to my own feeling.
And I hope I can continue with that.
So is it good Disney comeback story that I can tell you about?
Absolutely, things are always possible, but it doesn't happen.
Good luck today, boys.
Welcome back to round 7 of NoHS and when we have an intro like that there is only one
to be said, Avengers assembled!
Grandmasters assemble!
Well done guys and that's exactly what we're expecting from our crew of 12
Grandmasters. They are assembling, they are deep in for fight and they are
ready for the battle ahead and on our screens it's the numero uno himself
Magnus Carlsen. And after a really long sink, he's come up with Rook e8. Not one of the
mainstream moves, but an interesting one nonetheless.
Exactly. Very interesting and okay. It might have to be story time with Dave in a second.
Magnus now playing Bishop to d7. And yeah, this all looks a bit awkward. All looks a
bit contrived. Normally that square is reserved for the black knight. Normally Rook to e8
bit later. Sometimes that rook is more useful on f8 if black ever wants to push e5 f5. But
Magnus is playing a very modern line that I actually discussed with him very, very briefly
just the week before this tournament. Tell us more, David Howard. More, I mean everything.
Exactly. We've had the opening, now we need the middle, now we need the end.
Okay, picture this. I won't say where in the world, but a really nice swimming pool. Hot
tub. I was in the hot tub.
Okay, I'm going to stop picturing then right here right now.
So, just before I had gone, yeah, I was with Magnus. I played a tournament in Sweden and
it was a thousand players. Shout out to Chess Party, fantastic event in Stockholm recently.
There was a thousand players. I managed to win the event but I was telling Magnus about
about it and we were discussing some openings and I was saying, okay, I pretty much play
old man chess. We both do nowadays. We're kind of the elder statesmen of the game and
I was saying, okay, most of the games I had a time handicap because I was higher rated
than my opponents and it was really difficult, but I stuck to the same openings every time.
With white I played Fiancetto lines, like Vincent's doing now, with black I was playing
just Karakhan. And I mentioned that I had a tricky line in that tournament where I was
really proud of what I did with the white pieces. And it was actually against Rook to
E8, Castles and Bishop B7. And I said to him, I had never looked at this before, that game
in Sweden just a couple of weeks ago. But someone online, an anonymous grandmaster,
I think it's a grandmaster at least, was playing this against me constantly. And I kept falling
into tricks that black has. And I say grandmaster because this person was like over 3,000 online
and super strong super quick and so when in Sweden someone played this against me I was like oh god
I'm gonna get tricked I haven't looked at it. Why didn't I at least analyze my blitz games and I told Magnus?
Okay here after bishop to do seven. I think I played h3 and after e5
I just took a couple of pawns and I played bishop to e3 and
Computers say this is fine to white everything is slightly better for white
But I loved the fact in that game that I ended up winning and it helped me to win that tournament
that the white bishop on g2 was still open because I do think it is a mistake
in these lines where after bishop to d7 for white to play e4 too quickly the
idea of e4 e5 often white plays h3 just to cover any later bishop g4 even if the
black bishop is already moved and the tricks include for example after knight c6
here if white plays d5 now black can play knight into d4 a really nice central
square. The idea is that if white takes everything, looks like he wins a pawn, but
knight takes e4, thanks to the rook on e8 now, hit on the white queen. Black is
suddenly better due to the discovered attack, but the tricks continue. If white
plays bishop e3 here, after a capture on f3, black plays the move queen c8, and
this is surprisingly annoying, because if white defends this king, this pawn
with his king, as you normally want to do, knight e4 check, and I fell into this
like five times in blitz before I was like, wait, why do I keep repeating? And here black
gets the bishop pair and has an advantage because taking the knight gets the queen trapped.
And there are various tricks like this one. Black can also take on d4 and there are some
interesting lines there. But yeah, Magnus, I won't give away anything that he said really,
other than the fact that he did mention, oh, rook e8, yeah, Peter Heiner mentioned this
to me. So I don't know what the detail is. He didn't go further than that. He just mentioned
that he knows of its existence, this very rare idea which he's used to surprise Vincent
now.
That is incredible, those insights. I mean we could have done without the bot stop.
Sorry, I don't know why.
David Howell?
I was trying to set the scene like a good story teller.
But that was amazing. I mean, and I have to add that e4 has to be the most natural human
move for white. It's such a Kings Indian defense move if you're playing with the white pieces
and the fact that Madness even has played Rbd7, you're sort of waiting for that to arrive.
You want White to walk into the most natural response of grabbing the center to come in
with the idea of pushing the pawn, getting the knight out, taking that central d4 square.
And if Kaima hasn't gone through it, doesn't have the knowledge beforehand of these landmines
in this position. I'm going to say that e4 is the move that you're looking at as white
first, where before you play h3.
Exactly, h3 I wouldn't say is that instinctive, because you'd be either looking at e4 or b3,
getting the dark square bishop into the game. But of the two, e4 makes the most sense. You
take control of the center, but yes, be aware that is danger abound.
I'm really fascinated. As you guys mentioned, whether Vincent will just go for that line
and whether we'll see some nasty tricks.
It's extremely subtle. The difference is the nuances that exist in this position of
switching up between E4 and H3. And I just wonder, David Howell, if Madness is going
to go into the Confession and give you a shout out on this one.
I'm not sure he even remembers the conversation. I mean, I was just boasting about how I won
the tournament finally after years and years. It was just a speech at the tournament, but
I was like, oh, my goodness, I won, I won, I won. I don't think he was really listening,
but he did say, oh, yeah, yeah, I guess, Ricky, I've heard about it. So that's the extent
of his half of the conversation or his part of it. But yeah, just the fact that a long
thing can ease clearly trying to avoid Vincent's prep. And I think it's all a psychological
game, of course, it's been half an hour on the clock for Magnus. I don't really think
that he's proud of the fact he's invested half an hour. But if it gives him a decent
position where both players are playing afresh then okay it's maybe a I think
worth taking. And just to add a small thought to that I just check on our
database that Magnus's rookie 8 is 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 the 8th most played moving this
position so it is extremely rare. Knight c6 played over 8,000 times Knight d7
played over 8,000 times and then when
Magnus Carlsen goes Rookie 8, there are
about 68 games in the database.
Just to kind of last nerdy opening
point, just to explain why Rookie 8 I
think players came across this, because
Nc6 is one of the most popular moves,
most logical. After castles, here Black
often plays the move e5 and after d5,
one of the two most popular moves is
just to go back to b8 and argue you
forced white to close the center. Now you come out with a knight to c5 and try to
hit the pawn and he's wasted a few tempi but if we compare it to the game
like after rook to e8 castles, bishop d7, if Vincent does play e4 either now on
the next move and then after e5 blocks it with d5 basically here Magnus is
saying okay my knight's already on b8 I'm gonna play a5 I'm gonna play knight a6
knight c7 and I've saved time, saved tempi. So it's kind of a again it's a move
We've got a trick, very subtle, not going to change the game long term, but it's got
things in common thinking.
Remarkable stuff.
I am loving this and I can't wait to see whether Winston works this out on the board here,
whether you go H3, E4 and maybe for those who are new to Kings Indian defence, you know,
it's important to mention that in this opening, the idea is really around white grabbing those
central squares with this pawn getting the pawns up and black should be ready with the
response of countering E4 with the move E5.
drawback of e5 is that your bishop on g7 you know the big sniper on g7 is dead and then you need to
find a way to open that up but you have to be ready for e4 e5 if you're playing the kings
indian defense yeah absolutely and as tanya and david both indicated e5 big idea for black in the
position and i love this bishop to d7 move because there is going to be no trade of pawns and
and then you know what I'm really curious about? Is Magnus going to go to the confessional
and is he going to give a shout out to our very own David?
Oh, if anything he's going to blame me.
Oh my goodness, you've got to do it. I'd love to see it happen.
We shouldn't have said the hot tub stuff now, that was so irrelevant.
And you know Bishop d7 it looks like a Nokia square right now. I also want to just add as I went through a few games in this setup David that it does come with another plan that a pawn when it's rolls up the board you're also ready to go a5 a4 really clamping down on the queen side suddenly the bishop has a role defending that pawn.
Yeah, and the other idea as well is Qc8 and putting the bishop on h3, swapping off White
Sniper Bishop, the fiancads with Bishop on g2.
So it's kind of a multi-purpose, really flexible variation from Black.
And I sound like I'm kind of praising this opening choice from Black.
I still think White has an advantage.
I don't think it makes a great impression these moves kind of overall, but I think it's
the psychological battlefield that Magnus is laying out now.
And the fact that he chooses the King's Indian really shows his intent.
He kind of employs it only in muslin situations when he's feeling really confident
So that's a good sign and Vincent. Yeah, I'm not surprised to see him think now for 10 minutes. Could be even longer
You know, they say intent over impact, but or you've got to choose your side
But here I think the impact that Winston is burning the clock is already a plus for Magnus Carlsen
You start feeling that maybe he's not used to the nuances involved with
switching up E4, H3, the differences between these two very normal moves as
Winston continues to go through the lab and trying to understand what does
Madness Carlson want? Well let's take a pause from this game whilst Vincent is
thinking go to the bird's eye view because I can see that this particular
round is shaping up to be super tense and before we dive into the games I have
have to, I don't like this particular time of day where we have to make our predictions.
Ooh, it's that one. I wonder why Yobi doesn't like it. Any thoughts on that?
Confidence Yobi, today's the day. You got it.
You know, I was thinking of donating. Actually, I told Tanya that I was donating my prediction points to her
and she said, I don't want it. It doesn't make an impact.
You have a zero.
Correct, the chair has more points than me.
And it just seems I'm completely cursed in this game.
So I'm gonna just hand the floor.
David won last.
So David's on three points, Tani's on two,
the chair's on one.
And yeah, wow.
Zero.
Ha ha ha ha.
Let's, David, take the floor.
How many decisive games are we gonna have today?
Wow, I get first pick.
Well, you won.
I know, but I feel greedy now.
I'm getting it all.
It's like my birthday.
OK.
I'm thinking one decisive game in the,
I'm being optimistic, one decisive game in Noi Chess.
The top three boards, one out of three.
And then on the bottom row, I think
Bibisarra against Zuzuna might be decisive.
And or Humpy Divya.
Do I save both or do I go for the lead?
Okay, I'm somewhere between two and three.
Come on, David, you can play.
Okay, two decisive games for Armageddon's.
Two decisive games for Armageddon.
Joby, do you want to go next?
No, no, no, you can go next.
Like, you don't even want to play anymore?
Almost. It's like you've really given up.
She's waiting for us to blunder,
and then she's going to pounce and get the right answer.
Yeah, I'm actually just giving myself an excuse
because I was going to say,
yeah, I was going to take two,
but then you took it from me, blah, blah, blah, you know?
So, half right, read me.
I know you well Jovi, you're doing your entire permutation combination right now in your head as we're giving our answers.
I will go with, I think today we get one decisive and it goes down to the wire in the other five games.
I'm going for five Armageddon's today.
I'm going for three Armageddon's, three decisive games.
I feel that the floodgates have now opened and you are right, you know, I've got some eyes on some of these games
and I'm looking at BB Sarah, a Salbe, against Jujiner, because BB Sarah playing with a king on D1,
but she's snatched a pawn on C7.
This is fascinating, and I think story time from David's over.
It might be story time from Tanya, because Tanya, just a few moves ago, I'll play up to that moment,
but I heard you had a game in this line.
I did. While checking the database, we came across one of my games from 2021.
and david if you just play across this is the queen's gambit declined the
night's come out the bishop comes out and and what i would love doing in this
position is trade the pawn try to go e3 and get my king to the queen side but
instead in this game after i did take the pawn after b6 happened i think we had b6
pawn takes pawn and now the knight captures if you would have taken with the
pawn very happy to go e3 also be very flexible with where the king is going
and then you start advancing on the king side but once the knights are off the board this
gets fun because c7 is tender but you got to watch out you can't rush with taking that
pawn the bishop moves rook c8 too many tempos let's also mention the check on b4 in this
position e4 was played and that was the move that I made as well and it gets pretty interesting
here because black has two choices you can either give a check with your queen or give
a check with the bishop my opponent Natalia Buxa in that game went with the bishop and
I felt very brave. I traded my bishop, blocked the check, traded my bishop, and got packing
out of the center of the board. But I was brave for only one move because Queen A5
check, and I chickened out with Queen C3. And Natalia had no problems whatsoever holding
this to a draw, though I do think I had some advantage in the end game with a really nice
pawn formation in the center.
Nice. And how proud are you that Bibisara might have been looking at that game at some
point because she followed exactly what you did. But after a check, she was also going
brave with her king maybe inspired by that game but in a different way she
played King D1. What do we make of this? I love it. I would have still gone Bishop to
D2 and we have a very similar position right because King to D1 just feels
like you keep that Bishop where it is C7 on the fire as well the Queen under
attack but this is Bibisara style of play. She doesn't know the meaning of the
word chickening out so she's going all out. She sees upon, she takes upon and
she's asking her opponent to prove compensation.
Once the queen moved away to A5,
Bibisara goes all out, Yavanka.
She's not thinking about development
and our blue arrow shows up saying that A3
was the best move in the position.
Bibisara, and I would say knows what she's doing
because she hasn't taken that much time
and are in 48 minutes on the clock.
You know, if you grab upon like that and it's over the board,
you're probably spending about 40 minutes
before you go that way.
My problem is, is that I feel that Bibisara
got her lines mixed up because sometimes you are capturing on c7 and it's fine and other
times you are absolutely not as a hot potato and here my my player has come out guys my
chicken instinct to say no no no no don't open up lines it goes against what everything
I've been teaching for a long long time instead I think I would have been okay I didn't understand
that a3 was an only move. I was thinking Bishop d3, King e2, get the rook to the centre and
solidify, really.
This would also have been fine, it would have been fine for white. Just to try and understand
why the blue arrow appeared, Bb4r, her move was given a question mark, not because it's
a bad move, but because there was something better. A3, I was going to say, it's slightly
surprising that this is so strong for white because the bishop isn't hit yet. The queen
on a5 does pin the a pawn to the white rook, which is undefended. So black could continue
as we'll see in a moment as she might do in the game with bishop e6. This tends to be
one of the ideas of the line. And why is this so bad? I don't really understand.
And I'll just finish that story, David, before we try to figure that out, that while in my
story time with Anja, there were no bot-tubs, hot-tubs involved in that one. But interestingly
enough the only other game after Bishop b4 this is the second one in my database
it was only the one that we were talking about before this Bishop to b4
hasn't been played that often so sort of a semi-new territory for both players
right now pretty much novel territory and Bibisara did play King d1 within one
minute so must have prepared this before but after Queen a5 she did think for a
while and I think maybe it is just the fact that the black Bishop is short of
square so after bishop a6 is digging a bit deeper rook c1 now finally
threatening this bishop and okay black can trade on f1 first I don't think
white can take on b4 because the queen will defend piece and suddenly that
bishop is doing some remarkable work bishop takes g2 threatened so after
bishop takes f1 rook takes f1 if the bishop has to drop back either d6 where
it's gonna get hit by e5 or if it drops back to e7 now white can play what she
did in the game but quitted c7 it comes with tempo and I think it's just the
fact the bishop is a bit clumsy and here Yavanka you were talking about the open
lines suddenly black is struggling to get any real activity against the queen
white is maybe getting ready to slide the king this way a bit later
Kc2 can be one to hide and maybe it's just a clear pawn. It's like a question of
timing right because as black you really want to be going knight a6 centralize
the rooks but you can't because you have to defend the bishop on e7 well fiery
game here already between Bibi Sara and Jujina and I got other news for you too
and for chat because oh my god we have a confession from Magnus and I gotta ask
absolutely everyone including you chat do you think he mentioned David Howell in
it yes he did okay Tanya says yes David says I hope not okay let's find out did
Magnus mentioned David. Let's check it out.
When he went for a night of 3G3 on the first two moves, I was like trying to look at this position as if I haven't seen it before.
I was just thinking like, this looks so innocuous and I can do anything.
Like you won't believe the stuff that I was considering there.
Anyway, I decided to do something a little bit silly.
I think I was talking to somebody recently, and we had this discussion like that, even
the Specialty 7, like, Rookie 8, Specialty 7 stuff is playable.
I hope it was not Vincent.
I don't think it was an incident. It would be embarrassing if it's him, but after a lot
of deliberations I decided to go for this, but I just see that all of a sudden I spend
half an hour on my clock on very little, and now I'm in here yapping, and he's probably
made a move and he probably knows the position. So, there we go.
Magnus, mentioning that he's been talking to somebody. Somebody on the table!
I love the fact that I am just in general so unmemorable that he couldn't even remember who it was.
I do think I was talking at him. I did mention that in the story and he was quite distracted.
So I'm not surprised. It's kind of a blur in his mind, but yeah
He might be talking someone else who knows about this exact line
My theory is Magnus Carlson knows and remembers exactly who he was talking about and I think this was just shots fired at David
I think he's just trolling you Dave. He knows you're here listening to him Magnus Carlson knows and remembers
It was David Howell someone's got to ask him once this game's over. I think he was protecting me
I don't really protect him though with that.
No, you didn't. You outed everything.
You were like, hot tub.
Yeah.
Or did he diss?
How too many did he diss?
Let's set the scene.
Two men in a hot tub.
Anyway, back to the chess bishop g5.
Vincent has made a move after quite a while.
Vincent's spending 20 minutes.
So Magnus, while he was yapping his own words,
Vincent was deep in thought.
And I don't really think that Vincent's going to part with the bishop pair.
His last move, he just wants to perhaps provoke Magnus into playing h6.
Just like we were saying in the other line, white being provoked into h3 might be a target.
And just to mention that Bf4 is quite a typical idea in some of these kings Indians.
So I think the idea is now, is Bg5, he's going to step back and he's going to argue,
oh, white might get a free tempo against the h6 pawn.
What do we make of this?
To my eyes, it's not the most natural move.
Maybe Vincent now is trying to surprise the surprise and try to throw the mind game back in Magnus's court
Love it. I mean, you know when you walk into a preparation
Avoiding a main line territory knowing your opponent has some ideas in it
Most likely you play a new move a fresh move which looks pretty good
You know and Magnus does push that Bishop back without which if I would be impossible like jumping on to d5
You don't want to allow any of that the question to my mind is David
Yavanka if Magnus falls back with his bishop to f sorry Winston even falls
back with his bishop to f4 does Magnus keep chasing that bishop do you want
to go g5 just with the idea that no matter what I need that central break in
I want your bishop out of the way I kick that out I get e5 in yeah it's an
interesting move as well because I've also doubled in the bishop f4 line and
one thing that I was doing not with a bishop on g5 was going bishop f4 and
it once my h5 gets played then I was going bishop g5 and then going back to e3 so that
there was no business with the knight sniffing around on g4. So this was the way that I was
doing things.
Maybe we can get that exact same position by transpositioning the new anchor after bishop
g5 h6 if it starts with bishop f4 if he gets hit and he can go back to e3 and it's the same
things same position and he does go back in D to F4. Moment of truth will he jump
with the knight or will we see another G5 and we live. Propagation from Vincent
he wants Magnus to extend because that gives him a target later in the game.
And especially because the knight is an F6 and it's what Yavanka wanted to avoid
right Bishop B3 can be hit again with knight to G4. Gaining all the time and
Now the bishop goes back to C1 and laughs at black.
You've gained two moves, but maybe not desirable moves.
This is always so confusing in the king's Indian.
I must admit, this is mind-boggling to me.
And this line, similar lines, it looks like black gets free time,
but perhaps it's counterproductive.
But what do you think?
Given the tournament situation, Magnus in the middle of the leaderboard,
Winston Kaima, fresh from a win,
giving both these players one to take it into these chaotic waters,
go G5, maybe not jump in with the knight,
maybe strike in the center immediately once the bishop retreats, but commit yourself
with the g-pawn moving forward. What are the chances that Magnus goes for this?
Well, I think quite high. We might see another long Magnus think now, but I quite like it,
Tanya. Why not get e5 in? It's impossible right now because it's covered three times
this square. So you can force it through. And Nc6 now might just be too slow. White
will gain a tempo with e5, sorry, d5 here. And due to the fact that the bishop on d7
is misplaced, or at least in this one tactical line, you can't counter with e5,
and so the knight gets taken and the bishop gets taken, so black too slow to get e5 in.
And it's also really fascinating how black wants to keep the knight flexible on b8
in so many of these King's Indian setups, so that when you get that white pawn moving up to d5,
you can go on the other side with a5, knight a6, and kind of develop from the side,
work your way towards the center.
So, Flakson. G5, it's happening. It's coming on.
Okay, prediction time. We've had our prediction with results.
Tan is predicting G5.
Javi, I also agree with Tanja.
I feel like Vincent is such a stable player.
In order to beat him with the black pieces, you have to take some risk.
And G5 is definitely there for the taking.
And I also found it really instructive the way that Nc6 doesn't really work
because you're not able to put your knight out on a5 and you're not really able to
go knight e5 or strike in the center close it up with e5 so what else to do
you've committed yourself g5 I'll say Queen c8 I don't know just to be
different but I also secretly think g5 you know I like the idea of Queen c8 and
I wanted to talk to you about that as well because Bishop h3 is another very
thematic point but for me when I see that bishop on f4 and I see that e5 is
impossible. I'm just thinking how you're responding to E4 now. You might not have
enough time to defend the idea of the E4 and moving all the way to the fifth
rank. Yeah, okay G5, come on. G5, that needs to be quick. Makes a lot of
sense. This game, all the ingredients for a real fight. Yeah, absolutely and that's
exactly what we want. Let's go to the bird's eye view. Let's just take stock on
some of the other games. Some of them are a little bit more exciting than others, but
we've got to give them some attention. And first up, it's looking really balanced in
the game between Prague and Ferozha. Ali Reza there with the black pieces. Can we check
in on that one? Absolutely. I think we need to do an action replay on that. But if we
just quickly take a look at all around our boards, it was for me really exciting to see
that you know you were talking about avengers assemble
we don't have any end game but infinity was all around the board right now
just look at the action that's happening here you'll be i just want to point out
gukesh versus westley art tournament leader really exciting stuff the bar
says that gukesh is better
classical points three wins three classical win three points
that could completely shake up everything he's up upon but westley is
finding ways to attack by the way that last move top right board
king sliding over i think f5 this is going to be a really fun one as well
on our woman boards as well. We see the bars pretty level on that bottom left and bottom
right board. But then, Zhu Wenjun against Anna Muzi Cik. Is Zhu Wenjun trying to get
his second win in a row? An equally exciting game. That one. But you're right, Yobi. Let's
start with Prague and Ferozhan. Then we work our way around the exciting chess all around.
Exactly. And what more could you ask for? Tense game here, there, everywhere. And, well,
Let's do an action replay and see how the players got here, and then assess what is
on our screens.
E45, an Italian, one of two this round, and also between Buccaix and Wesley So, this one
a very, very different type of Italian.
This is the slowest one possible.
A3 has come into fashion lately.
I know that Italian grandmaster Lorenzo Lidici was playing this with a lot of success at
the World Cup last year.
In the past they always used to play C3 almost on autopilot, automatic move just to step forward
in the center, but also to give the white bishop some retreat squares on C2.
Here the bishop gets a retreat square on A2, as we see in a moment, A6, black does the
same, the bishop is going to be super safe on this diagonal now.
Bishop E3 asking a question, and rather than taking, allowing white to occupy the center,
semi-open F file, especially with the Bishop still on C4. We see Ferozha played D6.
I'm not sure it's exactly this position, but Gukes against Ding,
there was a very similar idea during their World Championship match and
I believe that was with the Knight coming out to C3 or already on C3, Knight D2 was played and if we just catch up with the current position,
Prakas and Castle.
Yavanka
What do you think? Is he tempted slightly to castle queen side, especially if Black plays a move like H6?
Could we see castling queen side H3 G4 going for it? Pawnstone?
I know why you asked me David
I'm the person who's going to give that with a massive stamp of approval. It's my favorite thing in just opposite side castling
It's very much in Prague's style, right?
And also when you consider the tournament situation, Prague is currently at the bottom, he's lost two games in a row.
The scoring system in Norway chess doesn't lend itself to playing risk-averse chess, so...
You asked me whether he's going to do it.
I want him to do it, David, but I don't think he will.
Probably depends on what Black does.
If black plays h6 gives white a hook to attack later, maybe if blacks really slow and burns a bit of time,
maybe Q7, but if blacks quicker, Tanya, then maybe it's just time sensitive.
Maybe no way that white can risk casting Qc while the black pawns are also mobile.
Absolutely. You've got a hook on a3 already and if Alireza was to start with that move,
I'd be surprised to see long castle, but if I have to make a prediction,
I think anything apart from b5 and bishop e6 hitting the bishop on a2
Prague is ready for a fight
I think he will go long castle and make this a race on opposite side castling
You know you try to get to each other's king which means a lot of fun for us
In this position right now with this last bishop retreat that Prague has made
I think there are so many tempting options
8 6 maybe something that you hold back with just allowing a very direct path a direct hook towards the black king
Bp6, Bp7 to make sure that Bp takes Bp, you don't end up with double pawns on the C-line
or B5.
I feel like these are the kind of moves that you're looking at if you're Ali Reza.
But look at the clock as well, he's used a lot of time and he's just on move 9, Ali
Reza-Feruja at 1 hour 15 minutes.
Long think, wrong think is the cliche, but 21 minutes on one move and I mean Bp6 looks
pretty healthy, B5 looks fine.
I think he quite likes the idea of the bishop taking, for example, on c5 here.
He's got a really nice grip on the d4 square, semi-open d-file, but he needs to move, he
needs to speed up.
And I saw a feature chat a moment ago saying, Ferozha, he's put his foot down, the leg is
no longer elevated, his score is less elevated than it was earlier, and actually it was against
Magnus where he started putting his foot down and he was punished, he lost that game.
That be because like your blood isn't rushing to your head as much with your foot elevated
and you think that could be the reason here right now, Jovi?
Food for thought.
Well, no.
You know, when I see the foot is down, I'm reminded of that scene and inside out when
anger, I think that's what it's called, who says the foot is down, everyone, the foot
is down.
So you think it's an angry Alireza?
An angry Alireza.
No, I just wanted to say that.
Yeah, that was the only thing.
Yeah, no, it makes sense.
I mean, I'm just glad to see that he's feeling better.
Exactly.
He's probably not in as much pain
as he was when the tournament started.
How will that affect his results?
We see.
I just want to add to that that losing to Magnus yesterday
means nothing at all.
There's absolutely no shame in that.
His first loss, he has to remember
that Ali Reza has been absolutely fantastic this tournament.
He's playing with the Black Beasts,
but the clock is what I'm worried about in this opening.
Exactly, Ash there commenting about the foot down.
I saw that pawn for pawns as well in the feature chat
beat me to a pun.
I was actually thinking it,
but I didn't want to jump in and interrupt.
You said food for thought, foot for thought, maybe.
Alarisa, frugia.
Ooh, nice one.
I mean, he's showing he's not superstitious.
Otherwise, when he was on that winning streak
with the leg up, he would have just kept it.
All right, there we go, Alarisa.
Whoa, just zoom in on David Harlow right now.
Oh, okay.
This is how I commentate at home.
fact like the whole new level of commentary now. I mean for Alireza right, it's a different
locked in leaned in Alireza that we've been seeing. He has been sort of chilling and playing
and is showing in his result by the way move on the board. He does go for one that doesn't
allow long castle to bishop on A2 hanging and if you're white you need to take a decision
because if you capture that E6 bishop you're giving black the flexibility to even retake
with the pawn and then reinforce the idea of getting d5 in as quickly as possible.
Yeah and I mean to my eyes this looks like the most natural move for many
reasons but especially because white's last move if we just go back a moment
was bishop c4 back to a2 so you're basically saying okay you've just
wasted a move with a bishop if your next move is going to be trade-off on e6
you've just lost the tempo so whichever way black recaptures both look
healthy. Yeah it does kind of ask a question should
maybe have used that tempo to castle the king side and just or maybe play c3
something else useful that's why a surprise aloreza took so long 23 minutes
to play the most natural move in the position yeah and now that we've kind
of seen the whole pattern of putting the bishop on a2 is white obliged to lose
that time and either castle allow bishop takes bishop or take on e6 or oh
Oh God, David's going to crucify me, and Tanya as well.
Okay, should he bury his bishop?
I'm going to get in such trouble here.
I feel like I'm almost going to get thrown out of the commentary room for suggesting a move like this.
But it's bad, isn't it?
No comment.
I actually crossed my mind as well, you know, so I don't blame you at all.
I quite like the idea, like, basically you're trying to rid black of pawn breaks.
So giving away a square, but that's covered for now.
It looks like in English like the Botvinic pawn structure in the English opening and others
I don't hate it to be honest. White can extend with B4
Black can never get D5 now black playing B5
unclear whether that works
for Alarisa
I think we might see this for practice. I don't hate it at all
Yeah, it would at least justify his Bishway 2 move as you say
Completely agree with that because otherwise if you go shock castle
you're kind of going to walk into having to waste more moves, right? If black was to capture that Bishop on A2,
what is that Rook even doing there? At some point you'll be asked to retreat and
re-centralize it. Black can get a central break-in meanwhile once dropping back with trading your Bishop, getting that D5 move in as well.
It just looks like a very healthy position if you're black right now. Rook A2, big questions around that.
Bishop takes Bishop, you start questioning your own decisions. The move earlier, why did I retreat?
c4 we might see it happening but it's so incredibly committal because of that d4
square that's my only issue with this move that at some point ideas like
bishop g4 knight jumping in ideas like knight h5 f5 break come into play as
well I am just worried about that central square but looking at all the
other options the way Prague has played wants to get b4 in as well advance on
the queen side and he takes a decision it is bishop takes bishop not leaving
behind any dark square weaknesses and maybe you can use this idea go and see
Now that the bishop is not on the board, so if you're seeing a rook takes bishop, then c4 comes very much into play.
Yeah, your own bishop isn't dead anymore.
And now I'm happier.
I know, I was me who suggested to bury the bishop.
And bury it.
Yes, exactly.
Get rid of it.
Exactly.
And e4, e5 openings, especially the Spanish.
Black normally spends a bit of time getting the knight on c6 out of the way and then playing c5 and then putting the knight back on c6.
Yeah, it's borrowing an idea of that. I quite like the C4 move either now or in the next few turns. I think after
Rook takes which is more likely making use of the rook on E8 then pride probably goes king side now more positional than we
Wanted but still a fight ahead still a fight ahead with potential imbalances in the structure
By the way, a lot of imbalances in our other game. Yeah, let's go there
I was gonna suggest the same gook cash against Wesley
Let's head there because you mentioned it Tanya as being super sharp
Well, we saw it in a critical moment, right? Would who cash play rook to d5?
he did and
The question was would queen c8 be played? No, Bishop to d6 was the response. Where's the understanding that f4?
Was very problematic and then what happened next?
Yeah, so white wanted to play f4 in some other lines. It doesn't work here
The idea of trapping this black bishop because the black queen comes out to H4,
white's king to eerie, Tanya points this out earlier. So bishop F4, blue arrow
move, utilizing the pin just to trade off pieces, makes sense? Material up. Why not
start some trading? Knight E7 attacking the rook. Rook doesn't have to move yet
because after bishop takes D6, the black rook on F8 would fall.
Magics D5 here only helps white to simplify and white here, clear pawn up,
maybe Qf3 for example, holding everything together. So cxd6, White rook does move this direction.
Quite unnatural looking moves, but Goukeshe knows he's done the hard work, he's won a pawn,
so he just needs to cling on, survive. Question mark from Wesley b6. I probably would have done the
same to be honest, a very logical move, but the computer points out that Wesley should have raced
here and now, just ignored this pawn and played Kha, the same as he did, and just said, okay,
I'm one point down already. Why not B2 and F5? This would have really kick-started the attack.
That's a B6 and same thing, King H8, but a bit slower now with F5 needing to be played.
That was literally a pattern that Wesley did against Magnus.
Yeah, that's right. The exact same one actually, with a look at B3, he let the pawn go to play F5.
But he didn't do it.
No, and it worked out to perfection in that one. Yeah, and he came and joined us in the studio
and he said, well, you know, I had to attack.
I just want to point out that Gukesh is up upon in this position but it's cost him six
moves with his rook, castle rook to e1 taking that pawn at the center of the board then
putting it on d5 as David's highlighting the path it's had, b5 hitting the pawn and now
falling back looking at ways of coming back into rescue of the king's side via either
the f4 square or over protecting g4 but it's just a lot of time, it's just a lot of time
And I wonder if Wesley blue arrow appears it was his idea it will be played on the next move
It is just a question of how quickly Wesley plays it
What is Gukesh answering that with yes, you're up upon your king is unsafe your rook still on a1 your rook on b4
What is that even doing there? You've wasted so much time your queen hasn't made a single move yet
I'm coming for your king. I want to go f5 f4 f3 if I can get all of that in plant my queen on h4
Once the knight comes out I
I would be scared if I'm white here. What does the cage have in mind against f5?
One thing that does spring to mind is that the rook on b4 is very very safe for the time being it has a hiding place out there on f4 and
It does some nice defensive work protecting g4
I'm just thinking way ahead in the future so any f5s you can just start to
Utilize the queen and I couldn't quite figure out whether to put the queen on e2 or d2
and and then I thought with Queen to d2 at least I cover and stop your plan of
playing f4. Hopefully. Can I come up with one more plan now that you stopped my f1
from moving forward and I know you're gonna love it Yovie. Oh by the way f5
played. Mm-hmm. Do I have time to get that terrible bishop from g6 to the most
beautiful square on the position bishop e8, bishop c6. I'm just eyeing your
king side. I mean you divide the board into half. All of Gukesha's pieces are on the left
flank of the board. The king completely out there on his own. I don't know how chill he's
feeling about his chances right now. But once that bishop lands on that diagonal, I'd be super
happy as black. Talking to your pieces. Yeah, bishop's telling me that's how I came to this move
David Howell. The bishop, it was talking to me. Yeah, the bishop was like chilling out,
just loving life and then suddenly the pawn stepped in its way and it was like, wait,
I need to see the screen. I need to see the king and getting it out the way Rf4
though played instead of Qd2 that is a 7th move out of 20 that he's made with
his rook that's more than a third of his moves so far just with that piece alone
that's breaking some of the the tips we're told when we're young but does
make some sense he wants to swap off even more pieces if the f-file opens same
idea as Yovis right you want to stop f4 as well so not letting that pawn get all
the way to f3 for any potential kiss of that checkmate's there. So Rf4 and can Black still
have enough... Oh, did he just do it? Bishop e8, bishop e8. That's a guy, that's a guy,
right from commentary. That's the queen moment. That's my time, guys.
That's a goat moment. And you may even look stronger than ever now after Rf4 with Fania
because Ng6 is going to gain time against that rook in the near future. That is beautiful,
routing pieces. I thought the Queen or the Rook in the corner on A8 might be the
ones loudest in their complaints but actually that Bishop coming round that
was the loudest and proudest piece and it's gonna be scary now for the White
King for sure. Absolutely and you know Wesley said when he was here I
checkmate wins the game after Knight G6. You don't care about an F5 pawn. Take as
many pawns as you want. Open up those lines towards the White King. Queen coming
out to G5 with a check if you get greedy. The Knight jumping forward. All kinds of
meeting patterns and you'll we will have names for each one of them I will come
equipped with the names I also just like jumping on your idea like once a
bishop arrives on C6 I'm thinking that the Rook on I4 is going to be a target
as well you know not just to Queen to G5 but to also to G5 exactly why stop
there he's cleared the path of the pawn cleared a path of the knight I mean I
think if Goukash didn't see Pshpe now you've said it it's so like beautiful
harmonious Tanya like this this move but if Kukesh didn't see it it might come as a bit of a shock
and it could really tip him tip him into a bit of a think here I mean this is such a
multi-purpose move and Wesley saw it from far and you know you combine that with the knight
getting out of the way the queen landing on h4 or g5 you start getting really scared as white
right now I mean the only thing I'm tipping is my hat to Wesley so for the way he's been playing
at this tournament. It's just incredible to watch him. It's at a whole different level.
Yeah, he's playing fantastic chess. I was just going to also put the question to you,
to like, since bishop c6 comes with such venom and with the rook being such a target, I mean,
is it time to be a bit tricker happy and deal with this? Maybe threaten some d4, d5s or how
dangerous is this, but we're gonna have to leave you all on a cliff hang up
because this one is razor sharp both players are gonna have to play some
fantastic chess to get to the advantage because we're gonna go on a short break
on my return. My goodness me, you guys are joining us at the perfect time because on
this round all six games are tense. See you in a few minutes.
What I like about chess is that there is actually a lot of silly landmills.
With the football as well, you need to land your moves a bit ahead, you need to stay sharp,
You can't lose one second of focus. If you do, you might get punished.
You'll have to sometimes surprise the opponent.
Chests have a lot to learn. In life, they have a lot to learn.
So everything in life, you can always get better and you can always improve.
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Welcome back everyone, and before the break, Magnus went into the confessional talking about
the great line that David Howell discussed with him. Now because Magnus actually forgot
who was talking about, we decided to correct things. Have a look.
Oh yeah, I discussed this line when a great great friend needed help.
Great guy, love is coming to you.
That's exactly what happened. I mean that's real footage, I don't know what you're talking about.
We haven't corrected anything. I mean haters will say it's AI but it sounds like Agnes.
I mean that was exactly his wording and those were the exact outfits we were definitely wearing in the hot tub.
I can confirm.
Gotta love Vic.
I think that was absolute cinema.
And if you're watching, do clip it.
I want to see it played again and again and again.
And talking about the boards, I mean, it is pure tension.
I mean, so much drama.
And if you're just joining us while you guys have timed it to perfection,
what a moment it is.
So, going round the Horn, can we just do a quick status update on all six games in progress?
And then, let's dive in.
Let's do it.
Let's start from the top.
That's top left right now.
It's Pradhananda versus Alireza Furuja.
Furuja just lost his lead yesterday after the loss against Magnus, but right now things
look under control.
But it's all about the pawn formation.
Pradhananda with the better pawn structure, the knight beautifully placed where it's just
landed right now, slight edge to Prug.
You've got Vincent Kalmer taking Magnus Carlson and Vincent is putting the pressure on.
Right now that last move, Queen steps one step forward, watch out, 8-6 under attack.
You've got more space if you're Vincent, you're looking at the E-pawn moving forward, bring
your rooks to the center of the board, some questions Magnus has to answer about that
night at the edge of the board.
Top right corner, we've got world champion Gukesh playing an absolutely crazy fight against
one player who has been in the form of his life, a Wesley so leading Norway chess right
now, finding some incredible ideas, putting immense pressure down upon, but coming for
the world champions king.
Bottom rollers move on to Norway chess, a women David and I'm going to pass the floor
to you.
Exciting chess all around, some pawn sacrifices, some pieces under pressure and one end game.
Exactly one end game that is the bottom right with Bibisara, Bibisara Asobeva against Zuzuner.
It's actually one of three games this round if we count the top row as well, the OHS,
where one side has sacrificed a pawn, Wesley's down a pawn, Zuzuner's down a pawn, and Divya also with that Benko gambit earlier.
So that one is interesting. Apparently Zuzuner can get some compensation, but it might not be enough.
Bibi Sara looks like a favorite with white to maybe extend her lead in the tournament.
We'll come to that one a bit later.
Ju and Jun, we haven't really touched upon her game against Anna Muzichuk.
Anna, we see there in her lucky cardigan.
It does look very nice for white.
That started very slow, very stodgy, symmetrical.
But as soon as Anna allowed things to open up,
Ju and Jun said, yes, the center is about to explode.
And white looks like she's doing very well.
the first half of the tournament.
And just to update on the final
board, the bottom left there.
Humpy can arrow against Divya,
the brown board. We see that
black is a pawn down, but she
has active pieces, lots and lots
of open lines for both sides to
play with. I think Divya still
with quite a bit to prove in terms
of compensation. Humpy will
survive the opening in decent
shape. But yeah, early days.
So okay, where do we start? Where
we dig deeper? Well, I'm gonna ask that we go to Jueran Jun and Amuzajuk because we haven't given
that game any attention and five-time women's world champion 2024 Norway chess women's champion.
Well, Jueran Jun yesterday won. We could see a result of a resurgence.
Yeah, we really could. And just I won't go the whole way back because not too much was happening.
Just a few moves ago, the position was so different. It was so closed. And maybe the one
difference between the two sides is that she went she got a pawn down the board I play this a lot
with black and normally you just don't want to allow a gain of space it's a bit uncomfortable on
the queen side but what animus you trick did here I think really has cost her maybe it was time to
just develop the knight knight a6 or knight d7 and game goes on maybe knight e4 centralized as well
she allowed she went into change the structure c5 losing a bit of time for black she's pushed that
pawn already now for a second time she loses time with her Queen as well
because it's going to get hit in a second and I mean I don't really like
bishop g4 I think h3 is a nice extra tempo for white maybe the bishop
should go back given the question mark and we see boom e4 blue arrow and what
do we make of this then there's a threat to win a pawn knight to b3 in some
variations and e takes d5 I'm really liking what Benjen has done you know
yesterday she took down Deva in a really nice game in that one and Winston
Kamal has shown it at Norwich as right one classical win and you can really rock
it up the standings so that's all it takes Wenjin's been struggling in this
tournament so far but she's the one who's putting pressure on Anna Muziechuk
and the reason is that the tension in the center you combine that with the lack
of development that Anna has with the knight in the rook white bishop lined up
on a beautiful diagonal which will hit that b7 pawn the a5 pawn ready to
jump to a6, the moment black leaves control of that, all these ideas seem to be favoring
white. You can't finish development if you're Anna Muzichuk. You bring that knight out to
c6, moves like knight b3, moves like b4, hit the queen really bad, queen takes pawn, you've
got rook a3 coming in, you move the queen anywhere else, you lose that pawn at the center
of the board. And maybe you'll do a deep dive into those lines, but I just think the problem
for Muzichuk in this position is, let's show that. You look like you're about to win, but
where's that queen even headed? In fact, now I just realize that the queen is indeed trapped
on that square. And if you fall back to D6, don't get greedy. That doesn't really help
you. You could either start with knight c4 or even pawn takes pawn, knight jumping to
the center of the board, winning material here. For Anna, the problem is she's just
not finding time to finish development, to finish her problems of the left flank. So
even though it's material balance right now, the tension in the center, the big questions
that are being asked, it looks like the answers lie with Drew Engin right now. Pond takes
on night to expand Bishop opens up hits b7 yeah and it does look like that's
probably the direction she will have to go because there's way too much
tension in the center because of ideas that you both indicated Knight b3 b4 in
the air I don't see a good developing move for Anna she doesn't really want to
be putting the Knight on a6 and she definitely doesn't want to be going d4
because that allows my b3. So to my eyes, either you're taking on e4, or can you get
away with bolstering the center with some Bc6, a Bxe6, I feel that's a bit shaky.
Shaky, indeed. I fully agree. And this is any player's dream, like fiancated bishops.
We have a similar scenario in the Kleimer-Carson game, but it's all about the open diagonal.
So the white bishop's about to become open, as Tania's been saying, but the black bishop
as well. I think the reason Black's really worse here is because her bishop's going to
be staring at her own pawn. So the fact that she's got the center and a mousetrap doesn't
really help, it's just a target for the opponent. Maybe we can start, I quite like Bb6, Bc6
as an alternative. I think we should check that out. But let's start by just swapping
things off, trying to simplify and see how big the advantage might become for White.
take on E4, I'm assuming a recapture. And the question is, do we take with the Bishop? I assume so.
And now let's challenge this Bishop. You don't want this to survive for too long, so Bishop C6.
Take us, please, David. Bishop takes C6, then Knight takes C6, and oof, we've completed development,
and Black is okay. Book D8 coming next. So White will allow the capture maybe on her own terms,
So Bc6. Can she gain a few tempi first? Is it Bb3? Does she bring a queen out?
Maybe Bb3. Bar drops very slightly. It doesn't look like the end of the wall for black.
If you're able to get your knight out on d7 and there is no direct strong move here,
I think black's going to be fine soon. The worst is over, so there's something stronger for Wenzhen in the sequence.
position after bishop to c6. Bb3 is like my hand would play that move pretty
confidently as well but if you're Alireza would you leg play that? My leg would play my
footsie with bb3. Yeah but what else? What about Tanya's idea of going b? If we don't
trap the queen though. No now you have the c-force square. Yes.
So you can come back to c4.
Queen coming out maybe?
Yeah.
Good level.
Wow, Queen e2, Queen f3.
They just Queen e2.
I'm going by the bar here, not Queen e2.
Queen f3, not Queen f3.
Ah.
This is not easy.
Knight b4 is another scenario.
Knight g another possibility.
It's not obvious.
Anna should go for this.
Yeah, Knight B4 is really interesting because after Bishop takes Bishop, Rook takes Bishop.
If you do come up with your Knight to C6, I'm just wondering if there are any problems
where we can combine Bishop coming out, Knight jumping on to D5.
Knight D5, maybe it was a Queen D5.
Queen D5.
And then you get your Knight to D5.
Maybe something like this.
Good enough for an advantage.
maybe 95 is strong you know because this is a fork and the Queen is in a bit of trouble
let's see for some ideas she's gonna have to I mean pluck up some courage and take
on b2 in the near future so this still looks like an advantage for white
apparently something even stronger here and also the decisions are so much more
difficult to be made with the black pieces here right if you're white we're
seeing so many options that still keep a bit of the advantage going even if it's
not the best move in the position. But it's on Anna to be a little precise right now.
She could be in big trouble if she doesn't choose her path wisely. I mean with the knight
and rook still trapped at the corner of the board, not finding the time to go knight c6,
the queen coming under potential pressure, Anna needs to be precise.
And the same is also true of G1 Jin because as we saw it was so easy, right, if you didn't
follow through in the correct way, to have that small advantage and initiative disappear.
And just to check with our fourth commentator, Mr. Fish, first name stock, apparently Bishop
to E6 is the best, followed by Queen C8, which I think is very difficult.
The Queen just came from there a few moves ago, I guess hitting H3.
We saw a similar idea in the Carlson game, but yeah, I just wanted to say, yeah, Bishop
E6, game goes on, apparently G4 is white's best move, but never ever going to happen.
Fighting for the light squares, very difficult though.
But the line we were talking about, I think it's the most human, the most natural.
I'll ignore the other variations for now, but challenging the bishop.
And it is knight to b4, the best move.
Trying to force the hand of black, trying to get for the bishop pair.
White's left to go to the bishop so strong that a trade has to happen.
Nc6 I think also the most natural move, and it all depends on this position.
White finding something clever, she has taken only e4, so we're heading in this direction.
Here apparently white has a couple of ways to an advantage,
but they all revolve around getting the queens off the board.
So either taking first and then going Qa4, or this really lovely move, beautiful move.
Qf1, and I say that because I'm an in-game grinder, but I mean this force is a Queen trade,
nowhere else to go with the Queen.
And the King takes, suddenly Black's got issues with the Queen side pawns.
This pawn week, a6 coming to undermine, and if we see a trade of Knights, suddenly not
easy to defend these pawns at all.
This is a very deep idea and that bishop, the dark squad bishop, you compare their quality,
you just realize that Wengen's pieces are so much more active, the pawns are better placed,
the king closer to the center of the board.
This is an endgame, everything to play for, though it does surprise me the amount of advantage
that our bar gives White here, because you can defend that b7 pawn.
There are moves like rook to e7 in this position, but it's almost close to a winning endgame,
according to Mr. Fish.
Yeah, I would think that this is like 0.5 or something, maybe closer to 1, but apparently
just totally winning nearly plus three after K3 and that can't actually hold the pawn.
I was going to say that you know you can't defend because the bishop is pointing at A7.
So if the players go down this direction then Zhu and Jun is looking like she is going to get
her second win and we already have the first stage being put into practice.
So the first set of moves on the board now and the line we're seeing is if that central
the move, Bishop is challenged. Defend the pawn with the move, Bishop to B7. And we'll
see what Anna decides to do here. Should we back up, get our bird's eye view in Yovie
as we take a look at some of the other action that's underway.
Yeah, definitely. So we saw our first potential end game. Well, there is a game that is in
the end game. That's something that both of you highlighted. And that is Bebe Sarasalbeva
against Zuzinaire because there Bebe Sarasalbeva is a pawn up. A winning classical would be
huge for her. She'll start to really cement her lead.
Let's check it out. And very quick update for everyone. Action replay since we were
last here. We left it after Qa5, Qxc7. A3 would have been slightly stronger. Qxc7,
Bishop to A6. The best move from Zuzaner. And after Qe5 however, I think maybe a miscalculation,
maybe a misjudgment. She traded off the Queen's as black. She is a pawn down. So she would
been reluctant to trade off those heavy pieces but Qa4 check would have given black very good
chances here. I think she might have seen that after B3, for example if she plays Qa3
White can force the queens off with moves like Bc1. Qa4 has to go back to a5 and it's
just been a time losing maneuver operation there. So after Qa4 B3 I think she needed
to realize she can just go back queen c6, queen d7 somewhere and it's surprisingly hard
for white to complete development. The white queen almost trapped as well in the center
but trading off a mistake and bp7 the best move, bp3. Where's the compensation? I don't
see it right now. White has a beautiful extra central pawn.
It looks like a very healthy pawn as well and you've got a clear plan, right? Go king
e2, go king e3, put your pawn on f3, get your rook on the only open line trader of the rooks,
into a minor piece and game no target super healthy pawn formation up upon
you're the one with the better placed pieces you're the one ahead and
development this has gone completely wrong for the Chinese grandmaster yeah
very wrong and I don't think black has a threat like her last move bishop e6 she
wants to play f6 to try and pin this night and win this night but king e2 as
you mentioned Tanya one of many candidate moves f6 doesn't win a piece
because white can get out of the way knight g6 counter tuck against the black
bishop and yeah this happens white's just a pawn up with bishop pair and if
after six bishop takes f4 again pawn up beautiful knight now giving a weak
pawn this looks like one way traffic yeah and also the fact is if you want to
play it safe you could probably step back with your bishop to g3 protect it
and then get out of the way because black is really lacking in development
You don't even have to rush in this position.
There's no initiative you're fighting against.
The only thing to look out for might be some threats on the d4 pawn.
I don't know if Black ever wants to relinquish the bishop pair
and take that knight out to c6, but it just doesn't...
It's possible.
And then make a case for hitting the d4 pawn,
but I still think White just keeps that extra pawn in this position.
Maybe take with the pawn just to keep the bishop pair.
I mean, it's very hard to imagine Black having enough here.
White's maybe deals with Knight before but White's just gonna put King on E3 as he said Tanya
I'll put Rook and C1 and not the best extra pawn in the world but pawn is a pawn.
Yeah, it kind of reminds me of yesterday's game where Kakesh lost to Vincent.
Vincent had this beautiful pawn on E5 and he was just able to expand so looking really promising for BBsara
can we check in on Humpy against Divya and see how Ben KO, Benko is fairing.
Let's do it. I feel like I've corrupted everyone with my terrible puns. I saw some of our chat as
well getting in on the act. Sorry everyone at home, but I secretly love it. And yeah,
quick action replay here. We left it five, six moves ago, 19th D5. And rather than Bishop E7,
7, which I mentioned had been played by English Grandmaster
Galwayne Jones, a Benco expert.
United's A6 by Divya.
And a few moves down the line.
Knight's coming off the board, 97.
This was the idea to gain a tempo,
attacking the queen, defending A8.
Queen went back.
White gets time to feon Kato.
Black puts the bishop on her long diagonal here.
And queen C2, still a pawn.
How does Black seek compensation?
I will point out, though, that they're
The seeking compensation in this feels like closer to reality than in the Jujina game
that we just saw where Vivisara in an end game has a very nice pawn formation.
Here there are pieces on the board, there are open lines and Benko is really all about
not caring about the soul of chess, which are the pawns, everybody knows that pawns
are the soul of chess.
But here, you're looking at these open lines on the A and the B file, get the queen out
of the way, put the bishop on A6, get the rook on B8, make a case for the D4 squared
jumping in. At least there is compensation and practical problems for white to solve.
And the reason is it's just not easy to untangle yourself. Bishop on f6 does a beautiful job
of always eye lining the pawn on b2, making sure that the bishop on c1 doesn't run too
far away once a piece falls on the b5. The rook on a8 stops the rook from a1 to coming
into defense via b1. It's just hard to connect your pieces if you're white. Yes, you have
an extra pawn, but that's the bank of spirit. That's the bend knockout spirit right there
where you say you're playing for peace activity and not the quantity of bonds.
I completely agree with you, but there are some certain manoeuvres that White has in their pocket
to neutralise the star piece. So like for instance you mentioned as soon as you said Bishop on F6
I'm like oh we've got to trade that off that piece. So I'm thinking yeah David with his arrows.
I'm ready with a response. Oh I know you are. Let's say I'm waiting for it to come.
Black gives time, rook e8, bishop d2, I actually wanted to go d5, d4, but I'm not sure.
Did you have something else in mind?
I did.
I also want to bring this back one move because hdcastled immediately, but after d5, I guess
now Tanya's right, it is harder to get this without getting hit in the center.
I was thinking after bishop d2, as well you have the option to go d5, just so that bishop
c3, I just want to make sure that you don't get that trade in.
Because once you get that trade in, then White can just sit very comfortably with that extra
pawn.
Yes, and d4 and things close.
I did notice after knight e6, the eval bar slightly dropping after castles.
Not very much.
I don't know whether it works.
This is just because I've fallen for this trick in similar positions in so many Blitz
games online.
Could White have thought about a nasty cheapo?
Loose pieces drop off, rook undefended, knight g5.
I see the bar crash.
I just want to point out everyone at home, because some people might be tempted.
This was a sacrifice from Divya.
I suddenly realized why.
It doesn't work.
There's a check in the position.
This is a checkmate threat, but Black can just take it.
The ship takes A8.
It looks like White's doing well, but at the end, whoops, check, and it drops off.
The main reason I want to mention this is because actually after castles, this is a
threat now.
95 to win material and win the look on A8.
makes me feel like maybe we avoid rook to e8 then because rook to e8 then knight g5 would
be a possibility and maybe that's why the bar went up as well.
So I just wanted to also jump home what you guys are saying is the bishop comes to b7
and you think that you've avoided that trick?
Well no you haven't because knight to g5 anyhow.
Which means that the best move in the position is maybe the d5 moving up the board anyway.
d5 let's go.
It's got to be then D5, Rb8, or Bb6, sorry, my arrows, Bb6, there we go, at least then
protecting the rook.
Something to do with covering this rook on the long diagonal.
Avoiding any howlers.
Exactly, that was a big howler I just made with Ng5 earlier, so now she's going to avoid
it as a second time round.
I actually quite like Rb8 as well, just making sure that White doesn't manage to complete
development.
But we can all agree that Deveya down upon has sufficient panterplay, just based on
peace activity, just needs to handle this threat of Ng5 right now.
Yeah, that's a big one. We'll keep an eye on this one, but it's looking like Divya has enough
activity to hold the balance. Let's go check on Vincent Keimer against Magnus and see what's
happening there because Magnus went for this particular opening and David gave us some
little antidotes. I'm just looking at this and I'm thinking this seems to really fit in the spirit
of your h3 bishop e3 idea which was all about taking control. Yeah exactly taking control keeping
the white bishop open on this diagonal and just very quick replay that after h6 bishop f4 we left
Magnus thinking here after a good 14 minute think almost played nice he's six
D5 hit the night which went to the edge of the board
Hitting the C4 pawn white protected it of course building a nice chain Magnus undermined that while he forced on plus one of course
And he played E5 Vincent didn't need to take the pawn. He could have retreated his Bishop leaving the night on a five
But that would have allowed black to potentially continue advancing. So on plus one
One of the first times we've seen it actually this tournament Bishop takes E6
and now we see why Vincent provokes H6, gains a tempo and this is the live
position, hunting the bishop pair, Magnus says no, he's got to say I love what
Vincent's been doing, I think he's played fantastically reacting to this
surprise and White definitely with an advantage, more active centralized
pieces. I do love it and it feels like it's easy and moves with White, right? You
want to put your rooks at the center of the board, go E4, get more space, clamp
down on D5. Is it just me or does it happen to you as well that anyone who
says en croissant, your brain goes en croissant. Just me apparently. Maybe for Ruzia. But we're
in Oslo, we're not in France. I don't know why my brain goes there. I have never been in that
direction. Thank you very much for now forcing my brain to go there. En croissant. No, no,
en croissants are en croissants in this game yet, yet being the keyword. I really agree with what
David just said I think Winston has played this out the perfection after Magnus's early rookie
hit surprise you know your pieces are developed and Magnus his big question is you go into the
Kings Indian defense you do have that bishop and g7 that's opened up but that knight on a5
is still stuck there you get that back to c6 you have to deal with the worst pawn formation for
the rest of the game while for Winston he just keeps advancing and gaining more and more space
yeah I kind of call this position enjoying your space I mean there's nothing fundamentally wrong
with black's structure, it's just really really cramped. The knight on a5 is misplaced, yeah sure,
it's going to go back to c6, but the big problem is that there are no pawn breakouts and if Vincent
just keeps on denying piece trades, then white just has this beautiful clamp on d5 and can just
simply sit there, enjoy absolutely everything and Magnus is the one that's going to be struggling
for a plan. So in conclusion, we love what Vincent is doing, but how dangerous is the
position for Magnus?
I think no immediate danger in coming, but it is a long term type of danger that he just
gets squeezed. As Tanya was pointed out, white can improve. So many easy natural moves,
Rook D1, E4, Rook E1, H3, King H2. What does black do? If no, pawn breaks. Do you just
trying to trade pieces and hope to survive. Black is very much struggling for space here.
Only one piece passed the third rank, the sixth rank here for Black. That's the misplaced
knight. Nice pawn chain for White. Easy plans for Vincent. I think Magnus, he's slightly
worse. It's nothing dramatic, but definitely on the slightly worse end of things.
Well, we're going to have to see how the board number one, Magnus, how he handles this
unpleasant position. We have seen him perform miracles. Will this game be one of them? We
are going to go on a short break when we're turned. Well, it is getting tense out there
as the positions they reach their critical points. We'll see you in a few minutes.
Okay, so when I was younger I used to play a lot of gambit lines.
Usually when faced with the Sicilian, I would love to go more of a gambit.
So I would start with certain move d4 and then cd4, I would go c3.
Here if Black takes, I would love if they would accept a gambit because that would give
me an opportunity to face a lot of tactics which I used to love when I was a kid.
So I would usually go knight c6 and I would go bishop c4 then they would probably play
something like d6 which is developing the pieces and I would go knight f3 and I would
be a 3v3 child if they won knight f6 here because that will allow me to play e5 and because
I was young, not very strong, and also my openers were not very strong, so sometimes we used
to fall into the static that if you take with the knight, I take back with the knight. In my head,
I would be screaming out of joy if you take back, and I have Bishop of Seven and I get the Queen.
I'm really sure I have one at least like five things like this. So I used to love this opening
so much so that even though I had the files from let's say 10 years ago I did
not want to delete them so I just kept them in like a nostalgia folder that I
had I used to play this line
Oh
We are back and it's the midpoint of round 7 and things are getting sharp out of us.
getting shot out there. Everyone in the library, we're excited for the action that is going to be
happening and is currently unfolding on our screens. Gotta say that during the break,
we had a visitor to the studio to interview our very own David. He's a superstar.
Who knew that hanging out with someone in a hot tub and telling the story
stupidly on camera would result in getting interviewed? And I saw a few notifications
on my phone in the break as well. I have so many regrets in my life and this might have
been one of them, just sharing. Maybe I should have stayed quiet, but maybe I should have
also answered that interview in Norwegian. That's my bigger regret, not at least being
brave. I was a coward. I answered it in English and I do feel guilty because madness may be
slightly worse in the position.
Yeah, I have to just tell everyone that David is a complete superstar here. Whenever we
have walked the streets of Oslo, there are fans lining up for his autograph. Whenever
we go on a break? Everyone wants his interview. David Howell, how do you feel about being,
well, I wanted to say the most popular chess player, but okay, second most popular chess
player in Oslo after a certain Magnus Carlson.
Oh, I think Ari and Tari would have something to say about that. But you also got caught
out on the street. The three of us were walking down here, some passes by caught you right.
And they said hi.
Yeah.
You recognize you.
It was super nice. And there's, I think, quite a bit of a big Indian community in Oslo. A
a lot of them have been coming to watch the chess happen here at the Björvika
Dagmund Library. I think it's an incredible atmosphere in general for
Norway chess happening in Oslo. We see house full every day inside the arena.
You see fans lining up for the autographs for the players when they walk in.
It's been awesome so far. It's a very open environment like the players come
out and everyone is there waiting for them. I mean there's no as and graces
here in New Hs. It's just pure fun and that's very much reflected here in Biavika, the
Dakeman Library. And talking about fun times, well you mentioned a game to me, Tanya, you've
had your eyes on it for quite a while, it's getting really sharp, it's between Goukesh
and Tournament Leader, so Wesley so.
Wesley, not so solid today. I mean, we have got to do a backtrack right now, position
super spicy I'm really glad that we decided to go here I mean for a tournament
Stundings as well Wesley currently leader of Oslo of now which has here in
Oslo Kokesh he's been struggling you know we've seen glimpses of Kokesh's
fighting spirit we've seen him try to get those battles going where you know
he wants those combative positions but it hasn't worked out in the end for the
world champion yeah hasn't really worked out it's been up and down and missed
chances not quite being accurate we left it after Bishop E8 we were praising this
moves so much, fantastic spot by Wesley so retreats to the hardest thing in chess, especially
if you're trying to attack you're pouring down retreating pieces that he clears the
way for his knight, that might become relevant soon. More importantly he gets his bishop
to the beautiful long diagonal, loads of open squares there to stare down at. Queen f3,
trying to fight for squares, bishop c6 does hit the queen though, defended by the knight,
side steps, queen g3, queens are great defenders and after black plays queen d7, defending
F5 now sufficiently. So if white were too slow, for example, and played a move like
rookie 1, turns out that's fine. But 9G6 was the idea, hitting the rook, and F5 it would
just lead to, taking on F5 would lead to a bunch of exchanges where I think actually
the black queen is pretty happy to come out, and 9E5 threatened. Eval Bar says fine for
white, but this looks terrifying, got to be said. Instead, root to default from Goukesh,
And here we are, Wesley has been thinking for 11 minutes, how does he defend d6 or does
he defend d6?
Are there other ways to seek the activity he needs?
That's actually a question, sorry I jumped in there Tanya, but I had to pause because
it's not entirely clear, right?
You think rook f6, well that could be mapped by g5 and the question still remains, are
you going to sideline your rook to g6?
I don't think so.
Are you going to go rick to d8 go on the passive for a little bit, but it doesn't feel like it's in spirit with the position that black has
Yeah, it looks passive looks slow Tanya. He needs more. He wants something a bit more a bit more sharp here
I completely agree with that
I think if you have to decide between rook f6 and d6
Yovie as you said rook f6 walks into g5 and bishop f7 on the next move
So you definitely want to avoid all those all those ideas of playing against the rook
My first instinct was defend that d6 pawn not because it's a pawn
But I just don't want to offer any queen trades in the position queen takes bond just feels like a move
It'll come through and I don't see how I'm going to keep my attack going if I'm forced into a trade-off with the queens
So unless there are tactics in this position, and I'm not being able to spot it
They with my bets rook d8 and just keeping all the threats on the board
Eventually the dream for black is to get f4. I really want to get f4 in I want to try to get f3 in and then
get my queen to that h4 square. I'm struggling to find a route for it currently, but find that
maneuver. But to start with, I want that pawn on f4, but I think it has to wait. Although I did
see the bar go up after rook to a d8, so probably... and it's definitely not knight c8. Let me just
point that out. It's not knight c8. I do wonder whether he's got time to... it is a pity to give
up on f4 forever, but do you have time for f2? Well, whoops. If alba shoots up, is it just the
the fact that white can take pawns. Why is this so bad? I just wanted to carve out some
squares. Now after h takes for example, now I would say rook f6 because g5, black starts
to get access to some forks but apparently that's not the best. f takes g4, I guess white
takes on d6, just pockets another pawn and the black queen has nowhere good to go. This
would just walk into capture on g4, two pawns down, not enough for Wesley so.
I just embraced the spirit of the position David Tanya and just simply say I don't care about material anymore
Maybe play Queen to B7
So okay the Valoration bar doesn't like it but my idea is I just want to
It's quite interesting because I think what you wonder, Yogi is 96-984 after Queen to Expand right?
I just want to get kind of like double up
Yeah and I did 92-96 I love by the way Tanya thank you
9h4 that would be a deadly check if he gets into f3.
We have a decision by Wesley.
Ooh, root to d8.
It felt like the human move even if it's not the best move in the position.
And I do think that he wants to go 9g6 next.
I want to point out if black gets f4 after 9g6, Gukesha's queen will be forced to a very
ugly square on h2 with very little future.
I think Wesley's getting prepared to go 9g6 next.
So hang on a second.
Can you give me a big idea, Tanya, what's the best move instead of rook to d8, knight g6?
But then queen takes pawn. I had an answer to rook takes pawn. That was the early answer I had.
So, rook takes pawn, a big idea was to go f4. Ooh, it's spicy. Yeah, after rook takes queen,
you take the pawn and then you're hitting at f2 and you argue what a black pawn on f2 is going
going to be massive compensation. That was my one answer to Rook takes pawn, but Queen
takes pawn, no answer. Maybe move the Queen. I think that, oh, not Queen B7, Qxd6. Maybe,
no. What could it be here? Qxd6, Wesley clearly saw this and decided against it. What could
it be? Apparently that is a way to get compensation for the two pawn deficit here. Are you arguing
that he simply moved the queen, but queen b7 we saw already. I was thinking queen e8 taking
the e-file but I don't think that's moved on. Not bad. But I'm not sure what's the
follow. 95. 95. And it's actually impossible to stop both of these. You can stop one but
not the other. And Wesley here would have full compensation for the pawn. Apparently
in this position white should be trying to get pieces off the board, try to remove the
control that Black had over this long diagonal. But yeah, this would have been very complicated.
Wesley losing a full tempo to put his hook in a really passive square. And the downside,
and the reason he should have gone for the other line is because White can now take the open e-file
as opposed to the Black Queen sitting on that line. And Lukash should be in control. Wesley
so the leader in trouble. That's what the bar says, and that's the feeling right now. But I
I still see the idea of 9g6 f4. I see that Wesley is not on his chair. Probably chilling in the arena right now.
And at least to me, it does feel that black is still game on. It's still a lot to play for here.
That bishop on c6, a monster. Pawn threatening to come to f4. The queen and the bishop always ready to line up.
I also want to point out another sneaky plan after rook d8. Guys, bishop a8, queen b7.
It's all about the bishop maneuvers today.
have rearranged those pieces, get the mate in, in Blitz, this works every time.
Should pay a Queen C6 and coming in, of course White will have some moves, but
that's definitely one thing that Wesley has in mind. I do see the clock as well,
like the disparity on some of the boards is stark.
Feruja down low on time, Magnus low on time, here Bukesh is the one in a bit of
time trouble, 39 minutes only.
You know, the Wesley Goukeshe board, it feels like it's those kind of positions where the
boss is wanting, but the players are feeling a completely different story, playing that
position.
So Goukeshe has to be feeling like he's under pressure right now.
There is a tag.
And Wesley thinks he's got more than enough compensation.
Exactly.
And the price of an error in this type of position where the king's so unsafe is going
to be so high for Goukeshe.
So I can understand why he's burning the time, you know.
It feels like he's walking a tightrope.
we have the knowledge of the evaluation by the players have no clue whatsoever. So we'll see
Rook E1 whether that happens and whether that will be answered by Knight to G6,
introducing a new piece to the party and going to our bird's eye view, I'm going to actually
toss the question over to both you and Tanya. What game should we go to next?
Well, let's do a quick roundup, shall we, David?
To start with, we see in our top row there,
Norwich S, it feels like Gukesh is the one who objectively
has the best position with the white pieces,
but practically anything can happen in that game.
Vincent Magnus, it's a slow grind.
Vincent has handled the opening really, really well.
And he's going for the plans that we were discussing, right?
Expand in the center of the board.
Just continue development, brings the rooks there.
I think some questions for the world number one to be answered here.
Our top left board, Prague versus Peruzia,
It started slow, it remains slow, still a positional grind, that one.
And in the women board, all three of them, it's white with the advantage.
You know, good day to have the white pieces.
Actually, I look at all six boards and it looks like a good day to start first in chess.
Yeah, maybe just while we're on this board, a very quick update
between Pregnananda and Fersha.
We won't linger too long because the real action is still ahead.
Just to mention that Fersha really low on time, 43 minutes.
They haven't made that many moves either.
And yeah, question mark has appeared.
That's not because 90 E3 is a bad move.
Pryg's still with the advantage.
But just to point out on the last turn,
this maybe was the moment that White could start thinking about advancing.
Either way, after 90 E3, the plan is to play F4.
He just needs to make sure he's fully ready for it.
Maybe the White King, the safety of that piece,
is the one thing holding him back for now.
But Furuja has no pawn breaks in the plan.
I want to zoom out of the game for just a moment and ask you a question.
Prak started the tournament really well, right?
He had a couple of wins.
He took down Magnus Carlsen in round two as well and was in the chasing back till disaster
of the last two rounds since we've come back from the rest day.
What do you think happened?
What's been going wrong for Prakrananda in the last two games?
Well, between Gukesh, he just pushed way too hard and completely forgot about his own
king.
He was in full control. He just simply forgot that he just needed to push those past forms.
And in the time travel, it felt like he was going a bit gung-ho.
Same thing against Wesley yesterday. He's pushed that little bit too hard.
He felt the initiative was on his side, and then he went for it.
But he didn't quite zoom out and just go, hang on a second, let's be objective.
Yeah, and we'll see how that has affected his approach towards the day.
I really like what Prague's done over the last 15 moves, it's got to be said, just patience and maybe now he's like, okay, I'll only break if, only go for it, take risk if I'm 100% sure I can control things.
Yeah, Ferozha got the better of Prague back in round two because it was a similar story, Prague just taking some odd decisions, ambitious decisions which backfired.
And I think he's got a style of position that doesn't suit the French player here, but that does suit Prague
So we'll see I really like whites position, but of course it all depends on when lines finally open up
And to go for that to cash in on the positional
Strategic advantages of the hell the upon structure rooks better placed more coordination in your pieces
You have to get those pawn breaks in but for pregnant on by he needs to time it well earlier as a ferocious
going to be a factor on the clock right when you mentioned that I think that's
part of Prague's plan as well that play f4 when Alireza really doesn't have
enough time to figure out his way you want to get those key critical moments
in when your opponent's down on the clock on those final few minutes I have a
feeling he maneuvers around for a bit he's not going to rush with the decision
of f4 he might keep it flexible you know maybe even push that point to f3
hint at g4 get that knight to f5 think about ways the one thing you want to
with white is a move like C3 to try to kick that knight out, not only because of B3, that
C2 pawn does a great job of defending against any rook infiltrations for black. Meanwhile,
what are the plans for Ali Reza? Is he ever going C6 B5?
Yeah, and actually you just stumbled, I think, on the reason this is a question mark move
time yet. It took me a load of time to understand. I was like, wait, if F4 wasn't the best move
anyway, how can this be a question mark? There wasn't anything better, but it was just the
fact that with the knight in c4 black can't break with c6 b5. Black can't touch the pawns
on the side of the board so the exact plans you mentioned maybe f3 maybe double up on
the f-file put the rooks here and then prepare f4 slowly. This would have been fine. Now
black can never ever play c6 because b6 simply hangs and once you lose that pawn you lose
the integrity of the pawn structure completely. Yeah it's just hard and maybe black can still
play rook b8, c6, b5 but that comes at the cost maybe of the a5 pawn. So I think this
This might be the moment so we see the question mark.
Of course, Ferozha doesn't see it, but C6 has to be played with the idea of counter play.
Otherwise, he's just sitting and waiting for no reason.
And actually, if he does get C6 B5 in, Yogi, that's big counter play.
You know, Frag's kind of put all his eggs in one basket and the basket is called king side right now.
You break open on the left flank, you're either looking at a weakness on A4
or an A-passer if you're Ali-Rezard Ferozha.
C6 not only taking control of the D5 square,
And I don't see how you're fighting against the move coming in, except saying I accept
my mistake, I have to plant my knight back there, and then just get ready for the complications
after B5 anyway.
Yeah, and this might be what he has to calculate, whether he can grab the A5 pawn or not.
And the question is of timing actually, because C6 doesn't look like it's that fast a move,
you know, because I understand B5 is coming, but if you just carry on with the plan of
going f4, doing it now. What is going to be the response?
Great question. I assume black takes it, just to try and open up the white king at least.
Now there's a dilemma for white. Do you take with a rook? Risk? Well, I say risk invite
black to try and fork two pieces. Take with a rook.
Ooh. Okay. Take with a rook.
I see. Not my position. But I don't think g5 is particularly concerning because I suspect
that the worst of it you can just take the knight and then just live a happy life with
a knight on f5. I say, I say.
Love it though. The knights are better than a rook. Like here, Rk1 is coming, Qh5 is coming,
eval-bar frustratingly says 0.0. But that, if anything, is a good sign for white, right?
full compensation and maybe black is the side that has to be active.
Very interesting and the thing is that if this was to happen, if Alireza does go for the plan of C6B5 because of Prague's last moon, we might see something like this being played out.
And we know that Mr. Fish, he loves his pieces, super materialistic.
And the fact, as David you're pointing out, it doesn't give a big advantage, just means that that exchange sacrifice works to perfection.
action. That knight on f5 looks incredibly strong and maybe that's what is stopping Alireza
Furuja from rushing with the only active plan he has in this position. Going on Furuja's
mind c6 f4. There's a lot of calculation ahead for both of those players as they start to
maneuver in order to get an opening of the line. Let's go back to our bird's eye view
because you guys called it, the very cool move has been played between Bebe Sara and
Jujune. That was a very neat idea of Night to G6. It's made an appearance. And Bebe Sara
looking like she's in control with that extra porn. And can we revisit Jiu Wenzhen and Amizucic?
that one we saw that both sides had to be careful in order to get but you went
in to get an advantage for Anna to maintain some of the ballads let's do
it and let's jump in Juvenin who's finding late form here late surge here
at Norway chess a win yesterday advantage against the defending champion
today I really like her position right now with the bishop out to G5 you
know the queen ready to hit that night as well the white knight will jump to
d5 that pawn on a5 you've got plans of a6 you got plans of h5 of the black knight
ever left the board from the square it's on rook d1 hitting the queen meanwhile
black just seems a lot more passive white's rook and c4 not naturally
placed but can't be hit easily taking away a lot of key squares from the black
queen as well I don't know if there's a knockout immediately but a really nice
looking position here bishop g5 rook d1 coming in queen f3 follow up yeah so
So many ideas for white. I'm really struggling to see for black. I think rook d1 is so scary
here. Mainly because the white knight will jump in, leap into d5 after some exchanges
with some tactics. The black surely has to challenge that this does come at the cost
of an uncomfortable pin. You don't see the immediate knockout for white. At least Qf3
can be met by a defense hitting the rook, defending the knight. So for now, I think
this would limit the damage. Rd8, any slow move like h6 here and white can get away with
anything. Maybe you take the knight first, just slide across. All of white's pieces
are so active, and okay, there's something even better than 95, maybe 86 first. Actually,
this is very nice. And this just shows that black is facing immediate danger. This is
tactically an issue for animers who trick right now.
I'm very interesting because due on June currently in third place, a win in the class
school would suddenly potentially see her leapfrog into first place.
And after BbSara doesn't win.
Absolutely, after losing five games, few would have predicted that.
And that's just the nature of the game here at Norwich.
As you know, it's up and down with the scoring system.
Three points for a classical.
Speaking of nature of the game, it's all excitement on some of our other boards.
Yeah, yeah, we've got to go to Goodcash against Wesley,
because that is where things are so sharp.
And we were kind of looking at rook e1 being played.
It indeed has made an appearance.
And then we were discussing that
Wesley can still keep the game very much alive by going knight to g6.
We didn't factor in pawn takes pawn and now bishop to e6.
We got to dive in and break this one down.
Is Gukesh, according to the valuation bar, is like chilling, winning.
But objectively, on a practical level,
that's not so easy. Not so easy at all, just a very quick update for everyone who is following
this game closely. Root to d8 is where we left it. Passive move. Wesley, I think it might haunt him
playing b6 earlier when he didn't need to, playing Root d8 now. Yeah, it's Tempi costing this whole
thing that he's doing and he's a pawn down, so he needed to be a bit more energetic. But rookie one
fxg4 and bishop e6 has forced the black queen back to a really awkward square on e8.
I mean the first move that comes to my mind take the pawn back black is
threatening knight f5 due to a pin down the e-file the white rook is
undefended so h6 g4 would cover the f5 square sufficiently here I guess you
would need an answer to like knight g6 for example and something to do with
this rook maybe you put it on a safe square and game goes on that would come
to my mind first but does he something have well does he have something else
in my clear you're not worried at all about the rook swooping on to f3 and
hitting the Queen on G3. You don't care about that, Rf3, Qh4, Qg6, Ng6, like it even more.
Ng6 and if the Queen steps forward, I mean, ooooh. Let's do it.
Amazing threats, something even better there apparently, maybe just each six first.
Okay, Rf3, I'm terrified. I also was looking at Qf8 as well, and that was in,
But anyway.
Hmm.
We have eight.
Looks very good too.
In this position.
You like it?
Yeah.
Okay, that wasn't very good then.
Well, it looks fantastic for Black compared to what we see in the game at least.
So, wow, look at three.
Maybe scary enough.
But maybe the point is that you have to take it with the Bishop then.
But it looks really ugly to go Bishop to Expo, but I'm just wondering, am I fighting again?
Ooh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Why is this so bad?
The Bishop takes G4 bad.
Super bad.
Is it 95? 95 Rookticks Queen? Rookticks Queen. Oh Rookticks Rook!
Whoa!
It's only because I see the bar that I would even dream of such things.
Okay we've got to show why it's so bad, because if you go Bishop takes Knight,
then the Rook comes, slams in with a check and then boom, goes the room as Rookage won his checkmate.
What's the name of this mate, Ivanka? Doesn't have a name.
Oh, we got to make one then it's the Wesley so almost mate
He could have had it if Bishop takes g4 played that was a such a hidden tactic
We do have each six g4 though on the board the more natural recapture. So rook f3 is the big question
I don't think 96 is enough. Maybe we can play f4
Which I didn't really have the courage to suggest but rookie 3 putting the rook on a defended square
I accidentally also
defend against rook f3
And this looks, I say fine for white, but Ne5, the game continues.
But Rf3 is the pressing question. What now?
I don't think you even want to dream about lining up the queen against the black bishop.
G2 would be just out of the question for me as an escape square.
Rook takes pawn, maybe some other square as well. Rook e3, Adiaz, Rook takes pawn.
This looks like it just wraps up the matter.
So it's between h4 and h2.
And I thought h4 is just the most natural move, but it gets hit by the knight.
So can we check out what happens and the bar just says that that line works to perfection?
You keep chasing the Queen. Is Queen H2 the way to go?
Must be right, process of elimination. Weird square, like...
Super weird.
Yeah, if Black's Queen Rook and Knight were somehow more active,
this would just be a winning attack for Wesley, but they're not.
Hey, maybe Yvanka's Queen F8, I quite like.
What's wrong with knight g6 as well?
Let's go knight g6 first.
Hang on knight g6.
There is no uncovered because the rook on e1 is unprotected.
And you're also threatening rook f6.
Yes.
Winning the bishop.
Knight f8, winning the bishop.
Why is white so much better here?
Is there some funny business with knight e5?
Knight e4, but there isn't.
Yeah, this is very mysterious. Is it...
I hesitate to suggest, but is it just getting greedy?
Oh wow, that's gutsy. Brave David Hall.
Brave, but also maybe just foolish.
Oh, it's definitely not that move.
Maybe you just take and go rook h3.
Rook h3's on the board.
Guess what? It's a plate. Yes.
And we saw big danger, right? Red alert here, the queen h4.
and would be a game-changing mistake.
Yes, the bar just dropped straight down
and it is the more natural move to make.
Queen H2 is not a happy square for the Queen
and the thing is Gukesh has no idea
that white is clearly better here.
He's just playing this on human instinct
and I ask everyone on human feelings,
human evaluation, how safe are you feeling
right now with the white pieces?
Not at all in 28 minutes.
He does find the best square he had to.
I think that would have been quite an easy choice
considering he had been calculating for a while.
Wesley just adjusting his rook.
I thought he was going to bring his rook back maybe to f6, suddenly that caught my eye and
then coming to h6 and...
Nice!
But no, he just touched it to adjust with this.
Shadoop!
Shadoop!
Wow, so many moves with so many threats.
Okay, so did we...
No, we thought 96 was very dangerous, but Davis just suggested river kf6, which actually
has a dual idea, right?
Your 96 coming next hits the bishop and rook a6 comes in with an X-ring checkmating attack.
what I'm not so worried about because I think g5 is going to be really dangerous.
And now it's, well, Qg6, hit the bishop, hit the pawn, yes.
Wow, this is so wild.
I love it.
Pins galore.
I was trying to make some sacrifices work, like if the rook moves, I can't quite get
it to work, but like some kind of Qh7, Rh4, checkmate, but g6 is currently, yeah, g6
currently in the skate square for the Black King. But yeah, I guess White would have other
ways to win this one. But okay, Rook of Six.
I want to ask you both a question right now. You're playing this position with the White
Beases. You're up upon. In your head, are you better? Are you worse? Or do you think that
this is just a crazy position? I'm just going to focus on my next one. What's going on in your mind?
I'm just as white. I'm playing for survival, hoping that I'm still a pawn up when the dust
settles with Wesley. I'm just playing for mate. I'm going for mate. I'm saying, okay,
I'm a pawn down. I'll lose an end game. So I have to deliver that killer blow.
And for me, at first it was panic. I must admit, it was sheer unadulterated panic.
I was like, oh my God, I see so many things happening. And now I'm like, as white, I would
be thinking, actually, the most dangerous piece that's been proven time and time again
is his bishop on c6. And you can rely on the law of exchange to help you, right? So if
If you get a rook f6, bishop d5, surely I'm getting away with everything now.
Those bishops are turned it off.
That is a great move.
Great move.
Suddenly I changed my mind.
Rook f6, I hate.
Wesley can't allow this.
The pin is really annoying and yeah, you can't even take the bishop because suddenly black
is tied in knots.
That is a creature soft actually in the position but I just want to finish both of your thoughts.
I think I'm completely with you.
If I'm white, I'm thinking about dinner already because this is gone out of control.
I'm definitely getting checkmated on H1 one day.
Yeah, I mean if Rook F6 doesn't work, 96, we didn't come to a full conclusion.
We've had a suggestion from secret grandmaster, BIC, in the control room just down here.
And he said, how about Rookie 2?
Since the white Rook being undefended has been the source of many tactics.
Rookie 2, I quite like that idea.
we wanted the Rook on E3 but impossible there because Rook trade and the Bishop
would drop off so Rook E2 makes a lot of sense the bar doesn't hate it
good move Bishop D5 coming in next. Oh Ng6 on the board we're gonna find out
Wow Ng6 is it oh whoa whoa Bicks got the right idea but there's a better move
King f1 defending that is difficult so difficult so tough and I think it's
It's sort of again that one move, many grooves kind of a thing where you defend your rook
and you're also making a case of sidestepping any checks of that black knight.
You know you're saying there's nothing going to be an f3, there's going to be nothing on
h3 and you just put the king on a very counter-intuitive but a safer square.
King f1, guys we're having a roll with the prediction game.
Do we think that king f1 will appear?
Yes.
Whoa, you always say yes, Tanya.
So Gukesh finds king f1.
Wow. I believe in Gukes. I'm with David on this. I think he plays Kf1. And I think if
he does it, I'm going to take my heart to that. I think Kf1 is just an incredible move.
To use your king to defend itself, to save the rope, to line up Bishop d5. I would so
like to see in which direction his eyes are pointing to. Is he looking at the king?
look at his king anyway because he's almost getting mated in so many variations but I
think he gets that because of the type of player he is, he's a calculator, like he'll
go process of elimination, like there's so many threats on the e-file, like he can't
move his, oh there we go, the i-cam, he can't move his bishop, the white knight doesn't really
have any good moves, the rook on d4, take on d6 is the only other option, the queen
can't move, so I think he has to, he's looking at,
It's a look he do or king f1, what is the center of the direction, right?
It's done and I have to say rookie 2 is also very attractive with the same idea
Just defend that rook move the bishop the next move
It's between these two and the icon that we had thanks to big
It felt like it was between these squares that his focus was on
Wow, can we investigate why king f1 is so much better than rookie 2?
Let's do it because we saw a big drop in the evaluation. So first up. Let's deal with rookie rookie 2
before David you take it over my guess is it has something to do with a
night check arriving at some at one of the either the F2 or the H3 square
think you're right but I did just take a peek I was a bit naughty there turn on
the engine just for a sec and these are the two best moves it has to be about
defending the Zurich so that's why I'm very comfortable relatively confident
that he's gonna take a one but yeah rookie to you let's start with that one
Tanya you're saying a check there are threats now Bishop d5 getting out the
I've discovered attack against the queen. One idea we mentioned earlier is knight's e5. I'm trying to get to that square
that you are predicting the check from. Let's say the white bishop.
I mean now if it moves, black can immediately take for example, take that bishop and there's a check.
So maybe this is the reason with the family fork, the royal fork,
forking problem here for white. That's the reason perhaps that King f1, I'm hoping the bishop f5 works here.
I'm not sure
Is it playable? Bishop f5 is playable. There we go. So there is a concrete reason and white saves the bishop
While gaining a tempo to threaten mate and if black reacts, it's the bishop for example, then I think white's safe
Okay, why is oh wait say my dear
My dear different order of Rook takes night. I spot your venture. Okay, we've got to show that one out too
It's completion because that is beautiful Rook takes Rook
Queen takes pawn
King has to move, and now we start checking the king.
Do we check the king or do we?
Oh, OK.
Check and win the bishop.
Maybe just check and win the bishop, because I don't know if this is made.
If this is made, oh, it is.
How is white winning this?
In a very complicated way.
It's not entirely obvious.
OK, also winning.
I'll just turn it on.
White, 95, apparently.
Attack goes on.
The black king isn't super safe, but yeah, I think the easiest one may be Queenie,
and then just take the bishop and two pieces for a rook. Yeah okay come on
Guki you've got to find King f1 right now I mean this gets really complicated
if you allow 95 you don't go g6 but all the other ideas of rook takes bishop
off the bishop f5, they're incredibly scary. He finds it Jovey. Yeah well I got
a big question right if you do not spot King f1 Rookie 2 is White busted? Good
question answer is no third best move g5 but he's playing that no one's playing
I think I suggested it's different different position it does stop
rook f6 I guess it's the only reason and I do still see not right now but 267
rook h4 swinging across some kind of check it mating attack
well now 95 is even more attractive you want that g6 square for your game and
after 95 apparently the best move here only way or not only way but rookage
for king f1 now
why don't rookage 4 though?
are just the bishops going in?
queen the bishops going in
no wait what?
I guess this hangs in...
no checkmate
two of a couple of checks and it's black delivering the attack I guess
probably king f1, rookage 3
and white's queen finally
that's why we never put queens on each two
and rookage is down to 22 minutes on the clock as well
And he's got 13 moves to make.
If he finds it, he's got a big advantage.
Like, this might be the critical moment in the game,
V1, where if he finds it, the rest, the other tactics fall into place.
If he doesn't find it, then the clock is a massive issue.
The king has to leave Falktown.
Get out of the way, defend your rook, hide against any checking ideas on F3.
Gukeshe, he's looking at that direction.
It's between King F1 and Rook E2.
Well, our panel are very confident that Goukeshe will find this very sly king move.
Goukeshe. It's a world champion move. It is a world champion move. It's also a move that you make
when you're in calculating mode and you don't care about the principles. I think it's good
that we go to the birds of you, but keep an eye on that game on the top right. Will Goukeshe find
the winner. That is King f1. We'll have a chair if he does.
Talking of winning moves, Yavanka, a critical moment on the bottom right
board. We'll just slide down one. That's the red board. And maybe we jump in
because Bibisara is suddenly winning. She's a full piece up. She's one king of
the hill already because the white king is sitting pretty in the sense on d4.
But she has to deal with a dual threat. Rook e5, rook d6, something to win
this bishop. Does she just move her king? Does she bring one of her rooks across too?
Kind of prepared to defend that piece. What do we think? How close, how easy, straightforward
is the winning sequence now?
Feels like it should be quite trivial, right? Both the moves that you pointed out, developed
a rook, moved the king sideways, if the bishop comes under attack. I don't really see a way
for black to regain material in this position. Not even a single pawn to boot right now.
For Bivisara Asubhava, she's about to stretch her lead.
She does go with the idea of Rook to D1.
If Rook D6 or Rook E5, you simply go King to C4.
And this might just be handshake soon.
For Jhu Jinnah, where's her counter play?
Where is the way to keep the game going?
Not even a single pawn to boot.
No, I mean, as you guys have indicated, you double up against the bishop.
You just sidestep with the king.
And the king can remain in close contact with the bishop.
I just want to investigate because we did see a brilliant move, a couple of brilliant
moves from Bibisara. Let's just quickly go back. We left it with King to e2. I just
want to discover how it went downhill so quickly. She's a pawn down, but after f6, Ng6, a brilliant
way of counterattacking the black bishop while defending her own bishop. Rxd8 was played.
We saw an exchange, knight back to f4, saving that piece now, e6 is hanging if the d4 pawn
is captured.
But knight c6, knight takes e6, beautiful tactic.
And rather than try to just defend a pawn down, which she probably should have done,
she fell into this tactical sequence, king e3, bishop takes d5, question mark, king
takes d4.
And the problem is now going back with a bishop doesn't work, bishop c4 would be a deadly
pin.
takes E4, she gave up the piece and you know I think just a miscalculation
Bishop B5, the fact that her king was on a light square, came back to haunt her.
And Bevisara has been so incredibly alert, you know she mentioned she won the first
game and hasn't won the classical, a single classical after that, I think all
of that changes today. Yobi Devid breaking news. Gukinsh plays king F1, it's on the
board, he found it. He finds it world champion move, Katania said king F1
world champion. Everything is
now covered. And that is the
move to net Goucache. A
significant advantage. Brilliant
just incredible. He is such a
good player. Goucache. I think
especially this type of position
suits his style where it's a
little bit on the messy side,
but there is a lot of
calculation to be done. He's
got something to cling onto, so
he doesn't have to go hunting
for the chances. He doesn't
have to create too much
himself. He's already a pawn up
difficult moves that you can only find through processes of elimination like King F1.
He's world champion for a reason, Kukesh. People might have forgotten that it was 2024, what a year he had.
And it's because he was finding moves like this constantly and he's got great chances now against Wesley.
Yeah. Winning the candidates at 17, winning an Olympic gold at 18 and then the world champion at 18.
What was his tweet, Jovi? The 18th at 18. The youngest ever.
in the youngest ever and just turn 20 we'll see what the new decade brings for him but at the minute
it looks like he's in fantastic shape against Wesley so and if Wesley loses in the classical
then again it is a free for all as the who will perhaps even overtake him and we saw that Gukesh
was about to reach for the bishop I think he's about to pull it back on that f5 square that's
a top right bow threatening a checkmate in one now on the at seven spots there
and Jovi to your point a classical win will not only shake up the top of the
leaderboard but the bottom as well suddenly Goukeshe is in the mix. Yeah he
will move to nine and a half points and just to remind everyone of the standings
Wesley is currently at the top with 11 and a half points he's been chased down
by Alireza on ten so anything can still happen. Yeah two wins in a row in
classical and Goukeshe could be in first place so it all has to start here he has to take down the
leader if he wants a chance to win this tournament and he's not going to get a better chance than
this. Pawn up against Wesley so now with a safe fish king as well and here to remind everyone at
home this is the leaderboard Goukeshe not quite at the bottom but one of the tail enders and he
will do everyone a favor by taking down Wesley if he can get that finishing touch on now and he'll
blow the race wide open. Bibisara on the other hand is going to be in the lead, assuming she converts
her extra piece today as we saw against Zuzhina and the others just have to try and keep pace.
Bibisara looks like she's all set to extend that lead with that win, but right now the biggest
questions are for the tournament leader in Norway chess. A checkmate in one being threatened,
is this the moment that you're looking at giving up your exchange if you're black for Wesley? So
So he's got extra time on the clock.
I think he has to start playing quickly to put pressure on Gokesh's clock as well.
But it's such a difficult position to make quick moves because every move, high responsibility,
high cost.
Right.
And actually, looking at this position, we got to this.
And because checkmate is being threatened, the path for Wesley to tread is actually very
narrow.
What can he do?
If he goes G6, we saw we have problems with the sacrifice.
that means that h6 is the only try and that's not pretty.
If that mate threatened, I had a suggestion but I don't think it quite works.
Qx, yeah, it's simply g6 h6 or you suck the material. I don't think he will even
dream of playing a move like Qg8 way too passive. H6 I think as we point out is
the best. If anyone who's just joining g6 dealing with the mate threat would lose
on the spot due to the brilliant rook takes e5 and the black queen simply
overloaded the white queen swoops in, check, and another check will pick up the bishop.
So we saw this h6 again goes on, but I want to suggest a queen sacrifice because we saw something
similar earlier. Rook takes bishop, Ival Bar doesn't like it. I really wanted to play knight f3
again with the fork, something we saw earlier giving up the queen and just calmly taking back.
Black would be a whole queen down for just a bishop, but yeah, there is a threat of Rookie 1 in
in some lines there is a threat on the queen on the rook.
Are you just making a case that you moved the queen away and you're saying show give
me a check on e1.
I'm going to go with g2 and I'm going to just start fighting and running away with my king.
Maybe take on d4 or maybe I can.
No I want to take on d6 with the queen but yeah this looks good.
That would have been perpetual so Qxd6 he wants to play.
Oh that doesn't help.
check. Maybe I have a draw here with a knight coming back and forth between F3 and G5 no
matter where you go.
Be sure where I shouldn't go.
Definitely shouldn't go to H5 for many reasons. There's checkmate in 1, there's also various
ways to delay it. Just Bb8 first, whoops, Bb8 first.
Can you not be nasty and just give the checkmate in 1 already?
Just G6 first, but yeah, Rg5. Okay, if you insist Tanya, mdm is very, the king has ventured
too far so okay we haven't refuted it yet this queen sacrifice oh that's a very creative idea
so okay let's work through the candidate moves what about queen h5
let's do it let's do the chance again okay check now check i say check i mean also attempted
to take this rook i guess any capture the white knight will throw itself in the way
no more fun so Richie won check have to come up the board this is really clever
you're gonna go because but you lose the Queen oh I know what you're gonna go
once I'm not this way King G3 sorry yeah I wanted to go Rook takes D6 yes
that was it that was stunning well I don't know whether it was stunning
You're hitting the bishop and checkmate? Yes, that is true.
Beautiful line. White's going to be up at least a pawn or two, come to the end of this variation.
I don't know why King on g4 wasn't winning but King on g3 is.
Chess is mysterious. Is it because you'll have rook h4, rook d4?
Maybe. Yes. I want to stay here and in this position check.
Oh, no, no, no, the fish is still hanging in that line. Maybe it's something to do with a fork like 95 when Rc6 happens
You just move rookie six. No
What is this end in seeing
No g6 f6 g6
Six
But now the roots defended so there is time for a check. No, no, you go. Yes. Yes. Yes, and get jerking out. Yeah
This has a mind-feel to tactical like this skirmish that's about to happen
like I think your precious work something out but it's terrifying especially when
you have about 19 minutes on the clock and there's no increment and you still
have 11 moves remaining yeah and that was really scary and it felt like there
were so many variations it's definitely I think a very good practical try so let's
just run through that one more time. Rook takes bishop. Got a dicket. Got to take it.
Do we have anything alternative? No, we don't. So Rook takes queen, you've got to do that.
And queen h5 is what you said. There's also another move. If I want to play it simple.
Rook takes d6. I don't even want to suggest this, but Rook takes d6. No, that's bad.
bad. I like the idea though and keeping it simple I mean Queen H5 very non-simple
that's very difficult but how about you go for it Jovanka. I was gonna say the
knight is trapped on H can we use that fact no but I am like just what do you
call it? Spitballing ideas. Yes I really want to see about Queen. I actually really
I like Queen H5. I just think that why give you a Queen with a check?
I see that there's something stronger. The bar suggests that there's objectively a better move.
It's funny. I've taken a peek, so I'm not going to say it.
Is it findable?
It's findable. Goukesh finds this.
But do you think we had this raid? Do you think that... What are the chances we see...
Oh, we're doing...
Okay, it was H6.
H6. We'll catch up with that. Just for everyone at home, I will reveal because this is extremely difficult.
But Goukesh would have found this. Queen attacked, Rook attacked. What'd you do?
You move neither and you just defended the Queen. King G2 getting out of any checks
The knight should take the Queen if he takes the rook then the white knight blocks white has the extra Queen
But when the Queen is captured now no need to bother about trapping it just take it immediately and white's just a fawn up in the endgame
Easy King G2 would have obviously happened
everyone and their cap finds it
But that would have been such a cool variation
I think in blitz that would work for black because King G2's
it takes a bit of time to spot but H6, Wesley finally realising that that was tempting but
not quite enough. H6 game goes on, it's still only a pawn and still quite messy this division.
Very messy position as there's tremendous risk for both sides. Let's pause from this
one and let's go to Vincent against Magnus. Because earlier on we just said Magnus, less
space potentially unpleasant position and still the case that he has less space
Vincent going for your plan of going E4 but going for Queen to C8 setting up a
battery hitting born on H3 that's something that you've been mentioning
David as a plan. Yeah typical idea that whole Bishop D7 very early from Magnus
this is a tempo gainer and I played this a lot with white I mentioned that
earlier with my long long stories I've played this system so many times
When I first started playing the Fianceto lines back in the mid-2010s, like 2015-2016,
I lost a lot of games with white because I never really knew how to deal with a king-side attack.
Somehow, white's king is a bit airy, and I mean, the way you want to deal with this is to play King H2,
but suddenly I'm seeing ideas like rook to E5. I was going to suggest rook to A5 originally
to try the same idea to swing over, but maybe white can throw a knight in the way.
That one's complicated, needs to be worked out, but rook E5 and
I lost to English Grandmaster Luke McChains so many times, especially in Blitz and Rapid because I couldn't, like, even when I was doing well objectively,
I couldn't deal with these types of sudden switches in momentum and Black bringing a third piece into the attack.
This could be uncomfortable.
Uncomfortable but I think the most uncomfortable thing in this position in this game has got very little to do with what's going on on the board.
Madness is down to under 25 minutes with 22 moves remaining.
That's barely a little bit over than a minute for a move right now for Magnus and every
single minor piece on the board, no trades have happened.
I don't see any direct way of forcing lines, forcing sequence of moves where we're going
to go into an easy end game to navigate if you're black.
Magnus, whether he plays rookie five or not, whether we see King H2 or maybe different
ways to defend this, I think for Vincent the clock is his ally.
Yeah, the clock is definitely Vincent's ally here, especially as Magnus ticks down and
he has to take those decisions.
But the decision to be first made is by Vincent how to defend the pawn on h3.
And he doesn't note play kxh2 automatically, which is a move that I would expect to be
played like almost instantly.
Yeah, and the problem is what else is not kxh2?
Kxh2 looked fine, although the eva bar slightly edged in black's favor.
H4 is always a reluctant move. Here the black knight will jump into G4 and remove the dark
square bishop. He plays G4 instead, the third of the options. This is such a high responsibility
move. There's going to be sacrifice ideas later. There's going to be H5 to deal with
later, but he has for now clamped down on that king side, making the bishop and queen
feel a bit silly. So Magnus needs some kind of attack later.
I would be very tempted if I'm black in this position and I know the number of moves I
have to make with no increment to first just trade the entire queen side get
pawn to take pawn to spawn in get Rook takes Rook in and then I really like the
idea of playing h5. I'm asking some questions about pawn that just move
forward you take pawn to spawn Knight takes pawn h3 super weak Magnus he does
take a decision I think he's just trying to get some moves in at this point
trade off as much as you can and then strike on the other side of the board
very cool Tanya and yeah sometimes there are tactics as well against the Rook
sitting on A1 with the bishop on the long diagonal.
Are you ever taking with the knight? Ever. Ever.
I actually wrote a newspaper article about knights on A1.
It happened twice at the candidates, a knight in A1.
First, Fabi put a knight in A1 and lost to Anish Giri.
Really instructed game, one of the final few rounds there.
And then in the last round, Fabi learned from that.
He was on the other side, forced to yes to Penko's knight to A1,
never let it out, won a game.
And also there's a funny vikingsay story about that, so Hans Rey also put his night on A1
and it wasn't a good night on A1, so a club decided to call themselves the Night A1 Club
in honour of this terrible night. Hans Rey did not approve.
And when Sankama doesn't approve, he does recapture with the Rook, but now you've been to watch out
for all the ideas around the longest diagonal on the board with the Bishop in G7 nicely lined up against that Rook.
My eyes are now shifted towards that right flank, the move that you mentioned, H5, feels
like the most critical move in this position.
Everything eyeing the G4 pawn, asking for a decision on it.
And you simply go F3 to keep things consolidated.
Yeah, probably F3.
I guess you can calculate G5 as well, but that's asking for some sacrifices.
And Magnus asks the question, you're going to find out, Tanya, great move, and why not?
not just nudge white on the side he's slightly weaker and that's why I was
talking about like wrapping and blitz this is uncomfortable for white
vincen has 42 minutes so probably finds a way to defend to keep control but yeah
suddenly it's black creating some kind of initiative camera has to go ahead in
hands and calculate all the lines and always look at the king side with one
eye on that rook on a1 you know any ideas of the black knight capturing on e4
for example in these kind of positions not only eyeballing the g4 pawn once
that night from f6 moves away huge pressure on the diagonal. Vincent Kana has to be tactically
very aware. And like I said is a change of approach here from white you know g5 that's
very ambitious very very risky I don't think we'll be seeing that from Vincent I think
instead he's going to go for a move that you two have been pounding the table for f3 lock
it down but but can we check g5 because I know why you're hesitant to go towards it
it's all the sacrifices on each tree bring the queen into g4 exactly bishop it looks
really about the light square so yeah we can look at it but I don't think that
Vincent's gonna play but go bishop takes h3 boom I knew it I knew that you'll be
one of this yes Knights overrated anyway like who needs a night especially if
the night would be on g8 who needs that piece go for the king okay pawn takes
night in for the penny in for the pound and now if you go queen g4 does at least
F3 yes I mean the bishop with the Queen but this bishop takes Bishop instead and
that one is slightly concerning and I'm being British with a slightly very
polite just a little bit okay King F1 King F1 I like you cash yeah but I was
I'm just so worried about, there's some checks, but I'm worried about like a Frenchie thing happening with H5, H3.
Why is it a Frenchie thing?
Because they do this in the French.
Oh, just like give up pieces of the H1?
Yeah, no, yeah.
Okay.
Well, they don't give up every the whole army, but they definitely go Bishop takes porn and then I'm thinking H4, H3.
Nice.
Nice.
takes porn and yeah just why is a bit tied up like on this diagonal there's some issues not sure
where the white root goes 95, 93 this is maybe even more of an initiative than Wesley was able to
generate and just at the cost of one point piece for two pawns yeah the eight pawns and menace
this is yeah this is how I oh I'm getting trauma flashbacks this is how I lost so many games when
I first started playing the system with white I don't think Vincent can allow this or at least
in practical terms, you might literally regret it. So f3. Yeah. Ooh, and he does it just as you say.
So g5, too terrifying. Even if objectively it was the best move in the position,
but as a human you just don't want to walk into those lines, allowing the black queen forward,
Magnus Carlsen ready with his response. Trades on g4, you take towards capture towards the center.
Now also threatening ideas. If you're white, I know wishful thinking, but king f2, rook h1,
Bishop 8-6, line up the Queen and the Rook and then give checkmate.
I think it's more than wishful thinking. I think it's very plausible. Barring there
being no sacrifice on G4. Why not? I would be looking in that direction as well.
This has been such a well-played game by both sides. I've got to praise them both. Magnus
is currently on 99.2% accuracy. Vincent's on a mere 98.5% accuracy, but both players
playing fantastic chess. I think though like Magnus doesn't have to worry about
being cramped anymore like with Rooks off the board. His pieces actually have some
harmony so he's been playing great Magnus ever since maybe that slightly
suspicious opening and yeah Vincent up on time no issues yet just has to watch
out for all these night takes g4 sacrifices in the near future. And maybe
that's the point of this last move that Magnus played. It discourages
Winston from the plan of the King Lift, get the Rook to the H line, try to attend some
check-mating ideas. Knight takes point and so many of those positions will come with
a check and a fork.
Yeah, absolutely. It's a position now where both sides have their chances and it's getting
close to that time where the clock starts ticking down and the pressure is on for our
players. So we're going to take a quick break and that's the perfect time to stock up on
your drinks, your cups of coffee, your cups of tea, and just get motivated and get sharp
for what is to come ahead. See you in a few minutes.
I
I
Welcome back everyone, it's round 7 and it is exciting one as always, Noi Chess, home
of fighting chess, and we have two empty chairs.
You can see from the kings that it is our first decisive result of the day.
BB Sara, a salvever, defeating Jujuner, netting a full three points, and that has significant
impact on the standings.
It means that BB Sara will be consolidating her lead at the top.
That is, unless her closest rival Divya Deshmukh manages to win, and looking at the evaluation
bar is saying to us that Divya is also well on track on getting the three points and then
she gets those three points and then Vivisara still maintains that lead going into that next round
before another rest. I mean Vivisara so far has been the player who's dominated Norway chess women
getting that first round win in keeping the lead throughout losing it briefly for one round to Divya
for Divya to keep the chase alive to stay as close as possible she needs to win a game and she's made
quite a few inroads. She certainly made a big inroads and we can actually hear
direct from B. Visara on how emotions after winning such an important game.
Wow, what a game today. This was a dominant performance.
Yeah, I think it was a strange game because I have big advantage after the opening by
time and by position, but then I missed her Bishop d6 and I think it was around equal.
maybe have a little bit better position but yeah I don't know I don't know what
she blundered but maybe after that after bishop d5 she can play rook d6 yeah
instead she needs to play I think rook e7, dpxc6, bishop c6, f3, f5 and it's
a round equal. Are you happy with the Chess you're playing this time? I'm not
very happy how I played because I think if I will be play better after the
opening I will have a big advantage instead of blundering but you do have
the shoes so they give the extra luck at the end right? Yeah maybe I don't know.
Thank you so much Bibisara.
Bibisara in red with a fire and the lucky shoes. I want those Chanel shoes.
What do we got to do for those shoes Jovi? And a little money.
Need a raise is what we need. We definitely do. I'm sure there's
I remember when it was at a
Reza wearing some really nice
tops. People were doing that
every day. During most of it
was a Gucci Reza. Exactly. But
in the meantime, someone else
playing really stylish chess is
Divya Deshmukh and Queen A. A
what a stylish. Move that would
be that would be such a
difficult switchback, I would
say because her queen only just
landed on a couple of moves
ago, but it's all about the light
We're seeing several instances this round of the side who are trying to fie in Ketu or pushing their g-pawns,
suddenly getting targeted around their king, and she's a pawn down.
She needs to find this to get the advantage.
It's a dual threat move, hitting the knight, but also threatening bishop into e4,
hitting the white queen, hitting the rook.
All of white's pieces are targets.
What do we think the odds are of Divya finding this move to seize that big advantage?
She'll see the move, no doubt.
But she'll be thinking, well, hang on a second, isn't White just simply going to go knight e1
and everything is connected and protected?
Great call, Yogi, knight e1.
I think she'll continue that variation by taking the bishop.
And like we were talking about Norwegian cheese, Swiss cheese,
the cheese with the holes in it, whichever one it is, knight g5, maybe heading into those gaping
chasms here on the king side. She's played queen a8, update.
Brilliant move. Great move from Divya.
and it's also a defensive move because we see an idea that we were talking about in another game
David Howell that you had pointed out White had set up with that last move Humpy retreating the
rook the idea of knight jumping to g5 to win the dark squad bishop again threats of that pawn on
8-7 being tender in this position let's show that knight g5 and suddenly white is back right back in
the game you take that knight you take that bishop you're screaming for a bishop pair in an open
position and suddenly it's everything to play for with the bishop lining up at the center of the
the board. So Queen to eight, not only coming in with a threat, but fighting against the
counter play that Hampi had set up.
Beautiful. And funny how these patterns keep echoing each other throughout this round.
But Bb4, massive threat, game winning threat, Bf3 as well. Yeah, let's just follow that
through because can Hampi hope to survive this? This just looks so strong, and knight
and f3, knight and h3.
Well, I guess you have to grit your teeth, move your rook out of the way, and then when
the knight comes to give a check, you protect the pawn.
So for instance, knight f3, king h1, and this is really, really, really bad.
That bishop on c1, just compare all of black's pieces to the white counter part.
Yes, you have an extra pawn, but who even cares about pawns with that bishop on c1,
the rook on b1?
I mean, look at all of black's pieces, just much more active.
I'll leave the rook in f8. That's not yet in the action, but these pieces way more active than that.
Actually, can you just kind of clinch it by putting your rook on to d8?
Now, the reason why I'm saying this is because if that rook hadn't been there on d1, you can go knight e1 and that would be the end.
Oh, just a show and white takes the time out, play b3. Whoops! Beautiful.
Every time I commentate with Triget Polga, she's always hitting me with knight e1 tactics.
Uh, Yobi, it's your turn.
Why, thank you. Although it wasn't the best move, though, according to the engine.
Looks good enough.
But, yeah, instead of route to D8 in that position, I mean, 91 is the most logical move. Maybe
Queen D1 as well. Let's say 91.
Now, what would have been the strongest move?
91 on the board, so we might see this happen.
Okay, played by Hampi.
A trade on G2, and the knight jumping to G5, aiming for those light squares, looks like
a very natural follow up for Devere right now.
I really wanted to get something like knight h3 and if the king goes to h1
I just wanted to show off and place it like Queen e4. Oh, wow, it does work. Okay, Queen e4 and
Queen f3 was also probably very good, but just to show there are tactics
I feel like I'm underselling it a bit for black here, but black wins back her pawn and
Still with a big advantage. So
Okay, we'll see knight e1. Divya feels like she's on the brink of at least keeping pace with Bibisara
And that would be quite a comeback win for Divya after the last few couple of days here
in Oslo. Beautiful position. It's also a very Divya position and something that Hampi is
not enjoying at all. To be under attack, to be under pressure, to be low on the clock
with 20 moves remaining and 12 minutes to defend a very scary looking attack on the
king side. It is very scary indeed. In fact, the valuation
by telling us that Humpy is objectively lost. We'll see whether Divyette manages to find
Night G5. It's very much in her style. Let's move away from this one and go back to that
super sharp game between Gukesh and Wesley because Wesley has been in the tank for a
while but he's just made a move.
Breaking news. Wesley So is going for it. He sacrificed the exchange and now an only move
with Goukash to keep the advantage. We have to do a quick action replay. We last left it after
Bishop f5, threatening mate was met by h6. Goukash thinking, made a small mistake. Here he had plenty
of options. Apparently, Rxd6 would have been a good sacrifice, winning the knight afterwards,
although this is difficult. Qh4, as we'll see in a moment, maybe a better square for the white queen,
but this was tough. He played 95, very natural move, trying to blunt the strong dark, well,
Well, the black bishop here, and the light square bishop on c6, Rook takes f5 played by Wesley,
and now Qf7, double hit, both on d5, f5, but more importantly, I think, Nf3.
We've talked about that before, that's going to hit all the pieces.
And now Qh4, the only way for Goukesh.
Everything's hanging, and what do you do? You counterattack against the black rook.
Tanya, do you think he'll spot it?
The question, he has to do it really fast.
It's not just about this move, but the next nine moves that he probably be needed to be accurate right now.
Queen h4, I'm trying to look a bit into the future ahead here.
You hit the rook, not giving black the time to capture the knight or the pawn.
Rook to e8 or rook to f8, one of these two moves.
You still haven't solved the problem of knight f3.
Or bishop takes knight, or queen takes pawn.
How are you fighting against all these three threats with one single move?
This is difficult. I mean, I've just taken a peek. Apparently, Queen to B4, pinning, pinning, pinning, self-pinning.
You name it, at least something on the e-file. This is so insanely counter-intuitive and so difficult for a human.
Gukash has 10 minutes for 10 moves. Well, 9 moves now. I think Queen H4 is findable, but follow-up is incredibly difficult.
And Queen H4, the idea in some lines is to play 9E7 as well. That's difficult.
The problem with Queen H4 is that you get the feeling that you're still not hiding against Knight 2 F3.
You're still placing the Queen on a vulnerable spot.
Yes.
So your mind isn't going in that direction.
The only argument you can make for it is that it comes with a tempo.
But you know one thing, I think Queen H4 is findable and maybe even Queen E4 because everything else loses material.
You know literally like as you mentioned Tanya night F3 is coming and you can't do anything about that
So if you drop the night back
Do we have a move?
Not yet. Yeah, it's oh God Gukesha's got to be feeling the pressure on the clock now reaching the nine minute mark about a minute
But move for the world champion. You can't move the night out of the center of the board
You've got to find a square for the Queen the blue RSA's only move to keep the advantage
Does Gukesha find it?
The computer points out that Queen H1 is maybe the next best, really ugly self-pin, just to defend the knight, just to control F3.
I think maybe he'll play a move like Queen G2 or Queen H1, just because those do cover the squares,
but that would allow Wesley back in the game, and White would have a clumsy construction, loose pieces all over the place.
Goukèche there looked at his score sheet nervously. He knows it's nine moves to make in a really, really topsy-turvy position.
no stability at all. So much about nerves right now as much as calculation. It's anything but a
simple position and a simple problem to solve. It's not just finding Queen H4, it's finding the
next move. And the next one after that, you put the Queen there, black side steps with the rook,
you line up your Queen around those 1 million pins that you pointed out, black can get the Queen
forward to H5. I'm still not seeing this as line over. It's not a great move but it looks scary,
Queen H3 check coming in. Yeah, and maybe actually in this position if Rook to F8.
He goes Queen Chidoo, he goes the wrong way. Wow, double question mark apparently. That's not
because it's a losing move, but it isn't the best. The advantage is gone for the first time in this
game, or at least since the opening. Wesley is back on level footing, but he needs to be accurate
himself. Yeah, and I gotta say Queen H5, not necessarily the most intuitive move because
it's just driving home the point of 9F3. A lot of us, myself included, would go take the pawn.
He doesn't? Take the pawn, okay. He grabs it. And now again another blue arrow. Only moves
one after another for Gukes to find. And no time on the clock. And we should point out, not only did
Wesley kind of miss the best move, that's why the Red Cross has appeared, but I think he's being
ambitious. I don't think he played this move because necessarily he missed Queen H5, although that
that might have been the case. It was difficult as we say. But taking this pawn, just to very
quickly mention, if rookie three now the blue arrow pointing out that move, if the black
queen were on h5, there would be a nasty, nasty check on the d1 square. That's why h5
was better than f5. But that's difficult to see. You need to dig so deep. Wesley's playing
partially with an eye on the clock. Can I just mention an absolutely crazy point and
maybe irrelevant, but I'm going to say it anyway. David, I see the difference between
Qg2 and the h1 square you pointed out earlier for the queen. In the case of the queen being
on H1, Gukesh would have the option to stop in with the knight to E7 forking the bishop
and the queen. And your queen doesn't drop with a check. Now there's no 97 on the board.
Oh, that would be so beautiful. That would be a winning tactic, potentially, for Gukesh.
If it wasn't for the fact that the queen did drop with a check, Tanya, that's a great
spot. And that's where time is needed on the clock to realize these small differences.
Queen H1 would also have stopped that Queen H5 idea. So multi-purpose, but Queen G2 is
such a much more natural move. It looks like a nice cozy square protects F2. Now he needs
to stop Knight f3, he will find Rook e3 surely.
And you know what Wesley's done? He played this move so quickly because he is being practical
right now. He's not being objective, he's not looking for the truth in the position,
he's playing against Goukesha's clock. He wants that to take it down to the last few
seconds and then strike and then bounce. Absolutely ambitious play, just play fast,
more important than find the best move. And someone who needs to play far fast as well,
it is Ali Reza-Ferruccio because take a look at this on the right side.
is the clock situation. And he
razzle down to four minutes 18
seconds. Wow and quick count
shows that Prague is also up a
pawn. So not just up 30 minutes
on the clock. This feels like a
good opportunity, although I do
notice that the white Queen is
trapped. I do wonder whether we
might see a draw in the near
future because whites Queen
Prague's Queen can't get out.
That's the right board there. The
black Rook is going to slide
back to a five to start harassing it. And maybe we'll see a repetition. But for now, the game continues.
Alireza is the one who needs to force the draw before it's too late, before he runs out of time.
And okay, I know it's a practice play, but is Alireza's threat simply to go rook a six, rook b six,
and then keep the queen honest in that direction? Exactly. Something to do with harassing the
white queen will just quickly step to this game. The queen can go to c six and try to escape via
C8 and maybe out by H3 but it looks a bit weird and White's king is an issue. If that
gets time and puts the queen back on A8, just like Divya, there might be some tactics on
that square and hitting the white king. Not easy for Prague. 0.0 almost. Small advantage
for Prague despite the fact he's up a pawn.
And we've been talking about one break in this game which still hasn't happened. At some
point Prague wanting to step back with that king, trying to get F4 in as well, but first
questions to be answered about that white queen there.
Ali Reza, 4 minutes on the clock, 9 moves to be made in this one as well.
Super-danced.
I think it is the draw on the spot. If Prague doesn't play Qc6, just to point out for everyone at home,
the most natural move in my eyes, other than Qc6, would be maybe to slide the king back to safety.
But then, black will close the door, black can play a move like rook to d8,
and there's nothing white can do without giving material back. For example, h4,
Rk5, hits the queen, you can never step back to c4, you get trapped, and if you step to
c6 then it's similar to what Yvanka was pointing out, Qc6, the rook continues the harassment
of the queen forever, and we see a dance and a repetition.
Why are we not counting knight c4 as a resource for Prague, to take control of that square?
Great call.
Rb8, I still have the c6 square for my queen to run away.
Aha, in this position, after Rd8.
Ooh, good move.
At least the game goes, oh yeah, the c2 pawn.
is also hanging. Queen C6 coming in then. The game goes on. Maybe Black takes the time
out, defends the E5 pawn and threatens to trap the Queen. And if White deals with that,
C2 is still hanging. David, I don't know. I feel like Prague's
going to try to flag Felucia here. If there's no direct way to force a perpetual redrug
to it, Felucia has to be incredibly fast. Well, that's something that he knows how to
do. He is the one minute man in loves playing
I think Queen C6 trying to get the Queen out, hitting the night, gets time for Queen C8,
and Queen out the whole way. The Queen side holds itself with the pawns. I think this
is the way for Prague to try and play for a win, if he's inclined to do so.
That is definitely something that Prague will be calculating. He'll be trying to play
for the win. He's currently in the last place.
Big blunder by Wesley Solt.
to go. We're going to go there.
Let's head that directly between
Goukash and Wesley because Wesley
if he loses, well, Goukash is
back up there. Let's go. Wow.
This feels like a blitz game.
Almost Wesley has 30 minutes,
but he's playing so quickly. He's
trying to pressure Goukash on
the clock down to four minutes
now to make six moves. The world
champion B five a big mistake
for everyone at home. Just to
mention in the last position
He needs to find this at some point, but b5 played instead and this is difficult still
for Goukash to consolidate.
He should be taking that pawn as we see with the arrow.
He moves his queen forward, a decent move and he looks up.
Checking out the move count, he's no longer writing down his moves, no time.
Yeah, absolutely.
And while all he has to do is a 4-minute, is pd ganzales for Goukash.
It's not going to be easy, not in this position.
He's somebody who relies a lot on calculation and for that you need those extra minutes
on the clock. Wesley trying to keep things at pace right now. Do you get rid of that
night at the center of the board? Do you now go Queen H5 threatening infiltration on H1
and D1?
Qh5, if the Queen were already there, there would be some really annoying checks for White
to deal with. So Wesley just choosing the wrong square for his Queen. We should point
out there's a threat. Rf4 is a winning threat right now, hitting the Queen, hitting the
rook. So Black has to deal with that. I think Wesley might have missed this Queen move.
spot by Goukash. C6 B5 also strong but this one more practical. Out of the pin, the White
Knight released, 97 in the air, Knight F4, Knight jumps.
Yeah. And does this mean that the Black Queen just has to go to H5, the move that she should
have been playing. Get out of the eye line of the rook.
I'd love to get that move in even now with all the checks being threatened. If you're
Wesley saw you want to play moves quickly right now. Goukeshe, four minutes, five moves to go.
He needs to stop though, Wesley. His last move was inaccurate. He's been getting a bit over excited
maybe trying to rush Goukeshe on the clock. Sometimes the best strategy is to play a few
quick moves, then stop. Spend 10 minutes, the opponent's heart rate slows down, they no longer
as kind of on high alert, hyper focus, and suddenly switch the pace again. Slow, fast, slow,
fast. Against time trouble addicts that's the way to beat us. My concern for Gukesh is that you know
in these kind of nervy moments at the end of the game somehow something goes wrong for the world
champion. He's been losing so many points, positions under control, winning position, slipping out into
a draw, equal position, one move blunders. That's been the storyline for Gukesh Domaraju over the
last year and a half. Yeah and one other thing that I got to say does worry me that if Wesley
spends a lot of time. Goukash is going to be given that time to calculate and he's so
good at that, keeping calm. And in those big match moments, he's able to rise to the challenge.
So Wesley has to dial that fine line between playing fast and playing practical.
You don't want to rush and play bad moves. At the same time, you definitely don't want
to spend too long that the opponent has time to think he plays the best move, Wesley. So
So he gets rid of that knight, meaning that rook to f4 is no longer possible.
Now he takes the pawn.
This is where Goukash has choice.
You want to take back that pawn automatically.
There are options so you can take another pawn undermining the black knight.
d4 might be on his radar, trying to pin and win that knight in the center.
But you have to always watch out for a check on b1, right?
Queen's got infiltration squares if you're westly so.
He takes a peek up and Goukash takes a pause before capturing, pushing.
Which pawn is he going to pick?
Will it be c4 or will it be d6? The worst thing to happen to a player is the problem
of plenty, the problem of chess when the clock's going down.
It sucks to have so much choice and he has to be practical about it as well. Does he
take the pawn on c4 and allow the checks? Does he play rook takes d6 in which case he
has to calculate what is going to be the impact of allowing black to capture on d3. So many
critical decisions for Goukesh and he's down on the time coming close to three
minutes. And four minutes to go, for moves to go right now I'll also point out
another tactical geometry in this position. We've been highlighting Queen H5
if that happens watch out for a check on H1. Now that there's a rook on D5 you
have to be on the lookout for such ideas. I'm really glad you have this move
because now Queen H5 take that knight David. Queen H1 wins the game for Black.
I want to say wins the game it's still of course 0.0. Psychologically wins the
game, Black would suddenly be up a pawn, and Gukesh looking up at the clock, he
realizes he's got so many issues to solve, so many questions, the best move
according to the computer is Rook takes D6, but I don't think it's natural, I
think if you're playing by hand, if you're playing low on time, allowing the
Black Knight here is so scary and the whole idea is to counterattack, go for
mate, and it's actually tricky for Black to deal with this. And you never want to
be allowed with the check on F2 because you're done in exchange. It might be the only way
to keep the game going.
There's only way to fight on and I mean even a position like this, how do you evaluate
this? Black has three pawns. Black has to clear her up.
He takes the pawn.
He takes the wrong one. Vantage gone and now Wesley sweeps in instantly with the check.
Doesn't even pause. Bukash, he's dropping the B2 pawn and that might just be the start
of what falls next. Momentum on black side suddenly.
Yeah, but it's so difficult to make that switch when your opponent is attacking you
To make that switch to go into the counter offensive. It was so natural instead just to play it safe
Rookie one is what I'm expecting
Mukesh the block he does it hits the Queen do you take the pawn over the blue RSA's attack the other pawn
Does Wesley find it out as he rushes to his decision? He does pick it up. It's not the best move
It's advantage Caucasian one more time. Can he get hungry?
Can he now grab that bar on D6 hitting the knight on E5?
I mean, now he will find it, because he has to.
And, I mean, C4 is hanging anyway. It's going to drop anyway.
What are the moves? The white rook on E1 is stuck defending its king.
The rook on D5, where else? The queen can't move.
Look at Wesley leaned in, trying to calculate variations,
making sure that when Goukish has a move on the board,
Wesley is ready with a response.
And just a reminder, the players are racing to get to the 40 move mark,
where they will get a 10 second increment per move. Which is nothing in this position. Exactly.
Wesley, I do think he's getting overexcited. That Queen C2 there was such a strong move because
Knight D3 would have been a big, big threat as well as the C4 pawn dropping. He took a pawn that
was actually in the grand scheme of things, less important. And now the Black Knight is unstable.
Wesley hasn't been calculating. He's been looking at the clock so much, so he needs to slow down
still and be accurate. Otherwise, you cash if the Queen's come off, for example, is out of danger.
And you'd be completely winning if you're white in an endgame up in exchange for Westy. So he's
been playing the clock rather than the position so far. But David, I'm just wondering if he's
about to swoop in with the rook. I see another move to Knight to expand. Knight to expand looks
tempting, but you've got rook f3 hitting the Queen as well. Always looking for checks, captures and
threats. Comes in with a big one. And that sets a trap. The white Queen cannot go and take the
Black Knight, for example, if there's a checkmate on the f2 square, that would be really nice,
that tactic of it lands. Wesley, I think that's why we saw the reaction. There we go. He's literally
looking at the f3 square, but he's basically telegraphing to Goukash. I want to play Rook f3.
Calculate that, please. And that's exactly what Goukash is doing. Maybe he's being sneaky. He wants
to play Nxc4, but he's pretending he's looking at Rook f3. I feel like all of us have done that at
I'm not sure I've ever played
that. I've played that at
some point in our chance career
many times even as an adult. But
for Wesley, it's something that
you referred to earlier on
David and Tanya. He's got just
under half an hour on the
clock. He does not need to rush
this moment in the game. You can
just take that step back ago. Okay,
I can play Rick F three very
tempting. But I don't need
to. I just need to consider all
it Magnus Carson against Vincent Kheimer objectively in the balance, although the pawn
structure has changed. It looks like Vincent's been doing everything he can to protect that
white king. That's the left board. He's put all of his pieces around it. This one, it
looks like it will start to get even more exciting as the clocks tick down. Magnus down
at nine minutes, Vincent at 19.
Magnus really playing the man, as well as the board as well, choosing a very provocative
opening C6 and suddenly with the white king being a little bit shaky you feel like you
would prefer black here.
I mean, it's really difficult to evaluate and I think that's what both players have
been going for. We see the board on the right in the meantime, we see Pragg Nananda having
retreated as king and Ferozha instantly retreating his rook. Is that the sign that the game might
fizzle towards the draw now. Prague missing a tiny opportunity to keep the game going.
Rook a5 followed by Rook a6 harassing the Queen, chasing that piece will result in repetition.
Prague taking super water. Has he missed that move?
It's a big threat right now and the only way to keep the game going against that, we were
discussing the idea of the line jumping forward, protecting the square of a5, also attacking
that e5 pawn. If Prague is happy to take this to Armageddon, he goes for a different option
But if not, then he's got to play knight c4 and create those imbalances of giving that c2 pawn that's such a strong part of that pawn chain.
He looked away for a second just a moment ago as if he was like, oh god, how did I not see this?
I think he felt that he could still get his queen out via c8, but that avenue has been shut.
And we point out one more time that after the rook falls back on a5, do not put your queen on c4.
It ends up getting trapped with the black rook stepping up to d4.
So many pitfalls that you could walk into here, Prague, still, if you want to play for a win.
We'll come back to that one in the balance. We still have so much action elsewhere.
If you're doing very well, that's the line we showed a bit earlier.
Zhuen Zhun still with a small advantage against Animusi Trick, deep in the endgame now.
Kymer, Carlson, the most tense of them all.
And Wesley Gukes as well. Wesley still to make a decision, still to make a move right now.
That's a top-right board. Hasn't taken the pawn, hasn't gone in with the rook.
with the Rook. Another option you could jump in with your knight as well,
tripling down on that f2 pawn. This game still won for all three results. You
could walk into a checkmate in one in these kind of positions. Absolutely.
With the king so exposed, I got to say, looking at our bird's eye view, it looks
like we're in for another decisive day as well, with Divya doing super well.
Gukesh, Wesley, that could turn at any moment a draw looking the least likely.
and I suspect that Magnus might have woken up and might be going back to his
2900 vest type of chest and Prague Alireza I do feel that that will fizzle
out due engines in her element and I just want to point out bottom left board
we're talking about the bears advantage that last move comes up with an idea of
a trap a big threat being set up you're attacking that f2p on night ticks spawn
a tactics in the air either you place your rook and v1 first if you want to
be extra flashy or they were saying give me a move I'll capture F2 deflect your
pieces swoop on to the first rank game over beautiful beautiful motif there
Tanya love it Humpy can barely move a piece Humpees the bottom left board the
king is cornered the knight is pinned the rook defensive queen defensive the
other pieces undeveloped I think Divya gets the win looks so instructive the
way she's set it up so far but the killer blow is all she needs
Um, how do we jump in next?
Just quick question to both of you, okay?
We will move into Divya's board as this could be the moment that Humber just...
Let's just show it.
Yeah.
Let's put your idea on the board, Tanya.
You were, you know, you were asking about Rook to D1.
B3 is a natural move.
And look at that, the evaluation bar says no.
What?
I was thinking we take on F2 first.
Rook D1, if you want to be extra flashy,
but the bar says that the more accurate way to execute things is just pick up the spawn.
Whoa, whoa, not as much.
Because this does get into an endgame. This is the idea Tanya and the back rank. White has to throw the knight in the way
But maybe it's not as over as it should be as it looks
Black still with an advantage of course due to the pin on the first rank. Maybe
Can we try Rook D1?
Yeah, why was Rook D1 not good?
Rook takes.
Knight takes.
Pick the Rook.
Oh not good enough.
Wow.
Is it because of knight to E1?
Wow.
Someone's always playing Knight to E1. It's either white or it's black.
Did I could fall for this? Because it's so attractive to go in with this line.
But it's humpy on the move right now.
There are not so many moves. You don't even have any options right now.
You're Rooktide down to defend F2. She does try to break 3 with the Eepon moving forward, trying to develop a bishop.
Can you go Rook D1 or Knight? Oh Knight takes pawn, best move in the position.
Now it works.
Even stronger because the black bishop has access to some squares.
And also now she will be forced to find it because white playing Bb3 consolidates everything, protects all the squares.
Knight takes f2, let's just show it. If Rook takes, then Rd1, check will cost white her queen, will cost white her house.
And yeah, so queen takes forced instead.
We'll see everything come off, Nd1, check.
And at the end, I mean there's Bg5, there's Bg4, at the very least you can pocket another pawn.
Divya will be a pawn up with a winning endgame.
It's like Divya has Hampi's number, you know, it's she it's almost like being a customer right now
World Cup finals, Divya winning, defeating Hampi to take the championship there.
Then you come in to Norway Chess, their first encounter, Divya wins that one.
And this one with the black pieces done in style so far.
Yeah, like Hampi just hasn't found her momentum since that first round loss against Bibi Sara.
And I'm also going to say that, you know, from an internal national rivalry as well,
Well, this has got to hurt, right? You're India number one, you're the top board, and
you're playing the younger generation. You always want to assert your domination, show
them that you're still boss, but for some reason it's Divya's style of play, her aggressiveness
that I think really destabilizes Hampi.
Yeah, that's the thing with local rivalries, country versus country, like when you're from
the same place, you probably literally have their phone number and you figuratively have
have their number and it looks like Divya knows Humpy very well and she will pounce with
Knight takes up two. I'm pretty certain after a bit of thought. Maybe we'll zoom out of
this game because clocks are ticking and still no moves, Wesley. So I think he's paused
at the wrong moment. He should have paused two moves ago when he had all the options
and he could have kept Goukesh guessing. He could have spent a bit more time calculating.
There we go. Goukesh had time to work things out. Actually makes a mistake after Wesley's
last move. Maybe that's where we jump next. Magnus, climber still maneuvering, still keeping
each other guessing. And now a blue arrow appears. Rook F5. That is difficult.
And it's difficult. One can understand the idea with the Rook left to go Rook G5 at the
right point, but you're basically evacuating your entire first rank to any single check
that can arrive. You know, the Rook's getting in, the Black King suddenly not feeling safe.
It wouldn't mean my top three move guesses in this position.
Yeah, I don't think it would be mean on my radar either like I would be looking at the Queen lots of swears
You could use that the night jumping as well. Yeah, I see a check
I give exactly I saw the check as well and that's going to be backed up by another check because where is the white king gonna move?
Maybe a height on G1. I think that's why good cashers put his rook on the third rank
partly to protect a 3 if he wants that pawn for an endgame if he wants to win
But mainly to protect the F3 square, but the black knight can't
jump check and use it. The rook f5 is such a tricky idea because it wants to use this idea of knight to d2
and then when the king tries to hide on the g-line, rook g5. But then can't you switch the move order?
Can't you give a check and once the king wants to move over, then go rook f5?
question and maybe we can jump in and show it why Rook f5 is such an important move right
now for Wesley. So he does have time still, but he clearly is excited about the clock
situation, so you might not think for too long. 92 check is the move we're all looking
at. King g2 here would invite another check, and I'm not sure Koukesh wants this, although
Ival Baal says it's fine. Maybe White can block with f3, although ugly. King g1, and
now you're asking the question, Tanya. Rook f5. Why not?
I think it's a check in Qd3.
It must be, right?
I thought so too with the pin.
But I guess there is a night check.
King hiding in the corner and...
Not that one!
Wow!
Rook. No, you can't give a check.
Can you do it?
Where is it?
It's not easy!
Maybe just Qf6?
Yes.
Then the Rook can come in with a mate.
The king has to go...
Hmm, F1. Wow, this is difficult and Wesley has made a move. It is Rook to F5.
Oh, he finds it! Wow, best move and suddenly Goukeshe's huge threats to deal with 92 check.
Rook coming to G5, if the king ever steps across to the G-file.
Goukeshe on the defensive, how narrow is his path?
And it's only 10 second increment. Goukeshe will be in time pressure for the rest of the game
and has to keep his king defended. You know, Wesley might not have made objectively the best
Moves but practically some great decisions here by the tournament leader some great decisions, and we're keeping an eye
Draw that must be a choice handshake between Cook cash and Wesley so out of the blue it is a draw agreed
Wesley throwing in the draw off a cook cash had no time bailed out and Wesley now showing a variation
Maybe we can listen in
We're not getting any audio, okay, no we're not getting any audios but what a surprise
there.
Gukesh no time on the clock, a draw I think a fair result.
I wouldn't, I don't know Yvanka, it feels like both players could have played on I think
from Westie's perspective it makes sense, but we'll hang on a second as the as the piece
is being set up here. Let's go to Prague Nanda against Alireza Ferozja and find out what is
happening there as moves are being made in a flourish. Whoa. Whoa. It's just been picked up,
which turns out to be a blunder, but I see an exchange for Alireza Ferozja. Yeah, we'll get
them up in a second on the camera. Prague, I don't think it was a blunder. I think it was just a
the ball and she's a small
glitch with the boards. Here
was so difficult. Uh I thought
it was a false draw and it
was in our shaking his head.
He's down to one minute. Just
a very quick action replay for
everyone just joining an
exchange sacrifice from Prague.
It looked like a draw imminent.
We said, okay, the queen is
trapped. You can just slowly
use your rook hit her, but, uh,
yeah, she does escape to the C
right now and after rook a6 rook a1 that is genius from Prague and deflecting away
look at that brilliant move double x-glam deflects away the black rook now
six falls and it's a hit on it on d8 Prague has seen it all and deeper
it's also hit on the e-paul and you cannot take the time to snatch the rook on
a1 because the rook on d8 will fall with check suddenly this is super dangerous
for Ali Reza. It's not only the loose pieces and the knight jumping in. There are ideas of f5 just opening that pawn shield in front of the
black king. e5 hanging as well. Rk1 the queen needs to stay true to that threat. Nd5 jumps in.
That is exactly the emoji that the king deserves right now.
Ali Reza trying to get as many pieces close to that also defending the f7 square.
I have to say the Wesley end was incredibly abrupt.
Yeah, Wesley if I mean if he realized that he was actually at least fine totally fine and he had 20 minutes extra on the clock and
Goukes was super nervous. I think Wesley if he doesn't win the tournament regrets that moment
Goukes that must have been relief. Yes, he was doing well objectively a few moves earlier but the trend was against him
He had no time. That's where Goukes tends to have some issues and just as it was going in Wesley's favor
anti-climactic draw. We wanted more. We did want more and Prakhananda is giving us more here as
this position is turning in his favor. Prakh with some very nice choices. He can capture the pawn on
e5 with his queen. He can also just preserve the rook on f1. Step up, rook f2, keep everything protected
and black's king is so shaky. A knight is threatening to jump into d5. We have pawn takes
pawn f5, moves that Tanya, David have indicated. It looks like Ali Reza's
position is just creaking. I saw this feature chat earlier saying I believe in
Ali Reza. I think Ali Reza needs to believe in himself right now to defend it.
There are ideas of 95-97 check. There are ideas of 9g4 capturing all the points
that you just made. I love the move rook to f2 keeping all the threats alive
saying that you know you don't have time on the clock. You have a difficult
position. Work this out. I'm not expecting any abrupt drawoffers in this one.
No, definitely not. I think Shu on the other foot, Goukesh would never even have thought about
kind of offering that draw, but the fact that he got it just to the point where he was nervous meant that
Yeah, it was just too good an offer to refuse.
And Goukesh is the kind of player who'll play every position. The fact that he accepted it shows the kind of pressure
he was feeling as well.
Exactly. I think if anything, Wesley probably expected Goukesh to say no.
I just wanted to kind of make him a bit more nervous, but in a few more extra seconds, but
really strange finish to that game. We'll see them again though in Armageddon.
and yeah this one Prague will never offer a draw now he's on the front foot
with a big attack Alireza I don't think he would offer offer a draw he would
love to switch the board around though have white this is a razor sharp and a
razor position and 23 seconds for four moves that is the current time as a
Neema razor says that oh Neema razor finding out Ali razors clock love it
23 seconds if anyone can make that time it's Ali Reza without having a dead
last position by the end of it. Yeah absolutely. The one thing I just kind of
wanted to go back to and speak a little bit in Wesley's defense. Mm-hmm. Because
Wesley's currently leading the event with 11.5 points. If he plays on maybe he
runs the risk of losing, he's unsure, he's getting nervous. And anything could
happen. Rook f2 played by Praik and Praik he's in the bottom. He just lost two games
back to back. He can just play with abandon and we're seeing Ponte's pawn as Ali Reza makes his
moves instantaneously. 15 seconds now. 15 seconds for three moves. Five seconds to move. That's not
going to get easier. E takes f4. I think that was the easiest of the bunch. White will recapture that
most likely although the white knight can also jump. Can make an argument for the white knight going
to g4, d5. Most likely I would say the queen recaptures an f4 because you don't want to block
the white Rook. You also want to
create some threats hitting the H64
night on f6. I think that's a
dream destination if the white
night can somehow replace its
Queen. But yeah, the questions
are going to continue being
asked by Prague. Prague needs
four precise moves to flag
Alaraza or forcing into mistakes
as PLM TX says, and that seems
true. Definitely feels like Alariza
needs a bit of a miracle to survive
the black side. If Alireza is able to survive this, keep the evaluation bar where it is. It will be
very impressive. He first saves the H pawn, but now the white knight can jump into d5, land the queen
on 8-6, knight f6 checkmate. Oh, so many holes, so many dart squares for the pieces to jump into.
9-5 is the most natural move in the position. It's also the strongest.
As a defensive resource for Alireza, he needs to try to give up one of the rooks for that knight.
I'm seeing defensive ideas. Land that rook on the sixth rank, cover that square. He's still got
two moves to make Alireza Ferozha. He's down to 14 seconds.
Prague, will he show Wesley how it's done? Great comment there.
Prague is half playing on the clock, but of course the position also looking good.
Alireza losing some sharpness, says Serik Tert.
Yeah, H5 wasn't the best move. Just to show how difficult the position was,
just to mention, Black's best move on the last position was F5.
How difficult was that instead of h5 even if Alarisa had 15 minutes let alone 15 seconds f5
So difficult allowing the pawn to drop just to swing the black Queen over into the defense and
Yeah, if he's forced to find difficult moves like that, I think no chance. Yeah, no one is playing that
Absolutely, Jovi and we're talking about what is someone playing with 11 minutes on the clock might defy but knowing Prague
I'm just wondering if on his radar. He wants to go completely nuts on the right flank go G4
try to win on that side, open up the king side, land knight takes pawn next and make
the same arguments with 8-6 inside as well. That would be a surprise as well. That's a
bonus behind these kind of shock moves like g4, out of the blue, out of nowhere. 9-5 is
the obvious one. That's what Alarisa is calculating though. So Alarisa will have an instant reply
lined up. Maybe there are no good replies. That's why 9-5 should be played. But yeah,
We'll see, we'll see.
Prag needs to just calm himself,
use his 11 minutes wisely.
Maybe one or two minutes now would be a good investment.
I'll just make a case that if 95 happens,
the fact that Alarisa's had these few extra seconds
while Prag is thinking, he's ready to go,
Rook back, give up that Rook for the night on that F6 square.
Say I'll suffer down a pawn.
It's not happy though.
It's not happy and that is a lot of suffering.
Down a pawn, he'll be losing every end game.
Queen still in the mix though, maybe some chances.
But yeah, he might try and find another way
defend who knows but I agree with I'm Harley D by the way good call there I
don't think Prague wants to go into the put an Armageddon against PD Gonzalez
here exactly he also wants revenge for the first half of the tournament where
Prague went down to Alariza in the classical well it's a matter of pride
for Prague he's just suffered two back-to-back losses he knows that if he
wants to make any inroads into the standings he has to strike in the
classical he has to get those three points and now big question night to D5
will that fall into Alireza's hands work A6 what we're expecting G4 is
another suggestion blast things open six seconds he goes in with the night big
track Queen 8 6 night of six Alireza ready with his response one more move to
make with 10 seconds on the clock F5 Pragananda needs to find the best move
Going to g5, it's a killer, not only hitting an all-important pawn on g6, but allowing
the white knight to threaten more checks.
Looks super strong, also very natural.
Alireza will be calculating this, so Pregg will want to calculate deeper before he makes
that move, but it will likely end up on the board.
And I love that Alireza did not fall backward the rook, even if objectively it was the move
to be played because you're only delaying the inevitable.
you're trying to just go into complete chaos you're hoping for miracles but
you're creating your chances. Yeah and f5 may be coming as a surprise
surprise because you know he would have been calculating vrk6 you know moves
that give back the material and says Ali Reza is just rolling the dice
Qg5, Qg7 is the move that both sides will be relying on. I think this is
definitely calculable. It's all forcing moves, Qg5, threat, Black Queen slides
across to g7. I think we can just, well, e5 is very tempting there to get a knight to f6,
but also e takes f5 to be calculated. There are ideas of knight e7, check. All
the Black Porns on this side, the three Black Porns might just drop off the board.
Once on gm advice right now, if Pregnant Nanda wants to flag Alire's on the next
move, only one move remaining, what's the shocker you want to make here?
What's the spanner in the works you cough you look over his shoulder and be like look at that
And then make a move and then you make a move
97 could that like
The thing is that Ali raises so fast. He's got really good instincts. I think anything is
Gonna throw him off. Yeah, I think a true professional tries to win on the board
If if you were losing Prague and this was the clock situation then we might see some gamesmanship
But no Prague is so locked in on trying to out calculate
He doesn't just want one move to try and burn Alaraz's time, Alaraz is going to have 10 seconds per move for the rest of this game.
It's also the position where Prague is clearly better, he can't have any confusion about it.
It's not that you're down in exchange and you're double guessing the evaluation here.
So Prague trying to work it out the professional way, he's trying to win on the board and also Alaraz is only going to get a 10 second increment per move.
move. Queen g5. It's got to be
in Pragrita Queen at six is the
other option that I see coming
with the Queen on the other side
d6 e5 Queen e5 looks extremely
attractive as well in this
moment. I think blacks reply to
everything. I think Alarosa is
going to pre move bringing the
black Queen across in front of
his king to G seven. That's on
the right board, but on the
other side we see Divya. She's
blown advantage. She's allowed
the game is going to be a draw and just to keep you updated on what's happening on the other games.
You and June is a comfortable one up in an end game against Anna Muzic going back to our birds. I've you and Magnus
Carlson, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you
G-Wen Jun is a comfortable born-up in an end game against Anna Muzicic going back to our bird's-eye view and Magnus Carlsen
He's
Trying to work his end game magic. He has better pawn structure, but everything's still looking relatively balanced
That's a crazy position with three minor pieces Queens on the board and only two pawns remaining
That's the top centerboard right there
Winston Kymur who was on the push in this game
But Magnus right back the better pawn formation because Winston spawns thrown apart there both weaknesses
Magnus has got to be feeling good about his chances right now, even though low on the clock.
Yeah, Magnus feels like he's playing without too much risk.
And yeah, he loves a better pawn structure. He loves active central pieces.
The clock situation slightly in Khyma's favor, but I think both low enough that
it's blunder territory incoming in the near future.
So we'll keep everyone up to date, of course, if anything dramatic happens between Vincent
and Magnus for now, still roughly in the balance, as it has been most of the game.
And there's an Armageddon coming up soon.
There's another one. Yeah, between Goukèche and Wesley. So will Wesley so walk away with one and a half points while he'll have the draw odds as he takes on Goukèche with the black pieces. And this is the most dramatic game so far as
5 minutes and 33 seconds on the clock just going into the tank trying to be very precise.
Queen to G5 as indicated by the blue arrow is the best move, love that move but there
are other options, Queen can come to D6, Queen can come to H6, even E5 at the right time
is going to be something that Black has to worry about.
And this game huge for the Stundings as well, you know while Wesley is getting ready for
is Armageddon. He's also rooting for Pragananda right now. Alireza with 10 points closest in
that chasing back. And I think if this one goes to Armageddon or worse for Alireza, he
loses in the classical. Wesley will be quite pleased.
Yeah, Pragg will go from last place up into the middle of the pack. Back in the tournament,
things could start turning. So many storylines here at Norwich S. But yeah, the early leader
of the event in trouble. Queen E5 is pride choice. A surprise going into the center.
Queen G7 is a pre-move almost. There we go, Alereza blocks. He controls everything. He
covered his rook in the corner. The black queen, a great defender, now has to run with
his king to H7. Best square protecting his pawns. He's down to four seconds. He's lost
with his queen.
The queen side steps. No trades for you. Alereza hits the pawn on C5. 97 check. F5 lose.
That was the mistake and now back to four.
Oh my god, he's about to get flagged.
He's going to get flagged, can't find a move.
He makes it in one second on the clock.
Queen G-Star.
Porn takes Porn.
Wow, keeping it simple now and the White Rook will join the party.
Maybe some checks in the air with the Knight as well after that Porn is recaptured.
It'll be really careful but Prague will go back to the calculation mode.
We saw the nerfs there, Alireza.
No time, it's just...
Yeah, he's just playing purely on instinct now.
That was pure panic that last move by Alireza realizing he's got no time on the clock and barely saving himself from getting flagged as
Pradhananda keeps the pace picks up that pawn
Good practical play actually from Prague because he anticipated
That Alireza would have been looking at Queen to G5 and all these kind of ideas instead
He went for something completely different and the most natural move blocking with the Queen was incorrect
He gave Alireza a lot of choice as well
That's how he nearly flagged in there and that's how to beat opponents when they have no time on the clock
Give them choice where three moves look the same. He had to choose between King h8 King h7 Queen f7
Who knows who's best which move is best with just five seconds on the clock and now Prague
It would be so tempting to come in with the night worst comes to worst as Queen can start taking pawns
He can take c5 he can take b4 you can win all the Queen side pawns and still continue with the attack later
about four minutes on the clock enough time to work out all those lines David
that you're highlighting a very pleasant choice for him meanwhile Magnus
making some pleasant moves for black and Magnus making some moves we still see a
level-looking position but Vincent I'm doing some pressure here there's an
annoying pin the white knight here the black king will be safe hiding behind
its own steed behind the behind the knight in F7 Vincent's the one who
You have to draw this, not easy.
And you have to be careful.
Magnus' last move hints at the move, Bishop c4, pinning and winning that night as well.
Queen g3 is only one single check, king on f8, and there's no mate.
Now, Magnus, the clock isn't in his favor, but the position feels like he's not risking
much, and Vincent only playing for the draw here if he finds a bunch of accurate moves.
But here we see both boards, Craig still thinking, no moves yet, he's down to 3.5 minutes.
is it always come down to the time
stramble? It feels like we're on
edge. Normally we would say
prags going to win this 100% of
the time, but the clock adds that
extra dimension bit of spice.
Exactly. The players do not get a
break after move 40. Instead,
they just get 10 second increment
per move, which levels up the
pressure and for Vincent
Kymer, the big question is how is
he going to defend his weak
born because as Tanya is pointing
target. For Prak, he's just comfortably calculating whether he should take the pawn on C5 or jump
in with a knight to deliver a check.
For Kaima on the left side, the dream would be to get the queens off the board. The white
king looking a bit unsafe right there, Bc4 as a threat. If there's a way to neutralise
the pressure, get as many trades in with such little pawns left, the end game should be
a draw. I mean the armageddon then just gets started and that's a nightmare for Winston
but that's a problem to deal with later.
Meanwhile, a choice by Pragranda on our right side.
The rook moves in, it's about to come in.
It is about to come in and some instinctive play, F4.
F4, the bar goes sky high.
Farouzha's just throwing the pawn away.
Everything's covered by Prag.
It's knight and two pawns now for the rook.
Material parity, but the white rook coming into E7.
The black king's so open, checks all around.
No time, it's about the clock.
Queen goes across, he delivers a check of his own, but if the white king can hide, that
check can be blocked in so many ways, then Prague, it'll be his turn to attack and doesn't
look like any shelter for the black king. Rg4 now looks like the maybe the most simple way
to avoid any further checks. He could also think about walking forward with this king,
but don't walk too far up the board. Prague in full control.
In full control and the queen on d6, she is poised to start munching on the pawns. Very
nice safe block there from Bragg. There's nothing that Alireza can do to generate play.
I mean he can go Rook to C1 but Qd6 is in the air. Q takes pawn if he drops the Rook back.
Living life on one second, a pawn drops. Bragg's actually just calmly,
not even going for checkmate, he's just going for the pawns. h5 hanging, b4 hanging, Rook c8,
the last try from Alireza but he's leaving his king bare. That black king has no clothes
with which to survive this attack this is looking very bad for Alireza his campaign
about to take another hit right now after going down to Magnus Carlsen,
Progrananda on the brink of victory 13 seconds Alireza needs a miracle to save this one
he's trying to come in with his rook set up some tricks tricks he is a tricky player
we've seen miracles happen in Oslo we've certainly seen both players rise from the dirt
and for Ali Reza he's just gonna rely on his instincts and you know there are
some counter chances Rook takes pawn being one of them. The black queen will
swing over to the block any checks to try and survive. Tanya do you spot anything
immediate? Are there any knockout blows? The bar seems to suggest so. The fact that
Prague is thinking I'll say one thing if Prague comes down to the 22nd 10 second
territory. We're talking Blunderfest all over again. Alarazer will be right back into it.
Alarazer, maybe the more confident of the two in bullet territory. The Pryk has that
one extra minute. He does have a few checks, sir. He can give in the near future. He can
at the very least trade off some queens. He plays Queen F5, very impressive control type
of move there. The White King is going to hide out on H3 where there will be no checks.
Alarazer takes the pawn because what else? But now the White Rook's been released as
well but now you could force a trade right queen c8 coming in I'm pinning your
queen he goes the other way puts it on a southern and there are ideas of night
going to e6 to block that trade David. Pregnay has one winning move now only
one to keep the advantage he has to give a check with his queen that is the only
check in the position he will find it queen trade not enough for an advantage
he has to play this move he does play this move. He comes in with a check.
He's setting up. Rook A2, double up and a checkmate on H2 as well.
Prog gives a check, gains 10 seconds and that's it.
He resigns, Prog and Nanda takes a win.
Nanda takes the win. He was about to win the Black Queen with his Rook.
Wow, what a result. Huge for the standings.
The player at the bottom of the table gets a win and moves back into contention in the meantime.
Still action elsewhere.
Action as the clocks tick down between Vincent Kramer and Magnus Carlsen.
the ball. The ball is going to
be a little bit more than that.
Carlson Magnus with just 20
seconds. And although we're in
an in game, not too many pieces.
Hey looks like it should be a
draw. This should be level. The
Magnus. He's trying to win a
porn. He's trying to win
eventually to be for porn.
Vincent locks up that side of
the board. That could be the
clincher. Cemento as Peter Leco
Vincent looks like he's about to clinch a draw and Fortress is the name of the
game as we also had a draw between Humpy Canary against Divya Deshmukh so we're
going to be seeing another Armageddon and Joowen Jun, she's a pawn up against Anna
Muzicic but it looks like a Fortress as well for Anna. Magnus here desperately
trying to trade Queens on his turn to create some imbalance just to keep the
game going get that deep passer if Winston was to take the Queen on D4.
not happy. He knew that he needed a classical win to stay in the race. But
Winston said not today. Yes, which means there's one game remaining and it looks
like that one is going to be finishing in a draw. Anna Muzichuk claiming a draw
by repetition.
She's correct. It is the third time the players reached this position. They
weren't notating as the clocks were so low. So this is a great spot by Anna
Muzichuk who gets out of jail. She was in such a difficult position, lost at some
point that you and June unable to put on the finishing touches. It feels like one
that slipped away and we will get draw confirmation shortly but in the
meantime Armageddon. In the big one it's tournament leader Wesley Soe playing with
the black pieces against world champion Neen, their decider right now for
Gukesh has to win with white. Wesley a draw is enough and so far a KG start.
Definitely a KG start. Well Wesley will be happy because he will at least walk
No matter what happens here, Wesley will maintain the lead.
Alarazer falling in the other game, being so Wesley is happy.
The chase is not making any inroads on his lead there.
He attacks a loose pawn with his bishop, asking for a decision, and he completes his development.
KG was the right word, Tanya.
It is very locked up for now, this pawn structure.
No trades, but some holes on the light squares as the white knight jumps forward.
At some point, Wesley wanting to break free on the queen's side.
Yavanka mentioned the pawn breaks.
I think they're about to land here now.
They're going to be definitely making an appearance, whether one side wants to build right now or do it.
He was reaching out for the queen side pawn and there it is.
I mean, he was dictating it. This is very well known tactic.
You give up light squares, but White can only control one at a time.
If White had one more move and was able to deploy the other knight on c3,
clumped down on the b5 square, Wesley would have been suffering passive positionally,
dubious position for a long time instead break out and Blacks would can be a very strong Bishop
annoying pressure on this diagonal. I don't really like you how Goukash has handled the last few moves.
And I'm still thinking about the decision that Wesley So took against Goukash in their classical
to abruptly finish that game with a draw off in an absolutely crazy position with Goukash down to
seconds. Is that something that he will live to regret? It all depends on the result of this
this Armageddon. It's something that will definitely be clarified later on in the tournament.
This is going to be a moment where perhaps Wesley will look back and go, well, I should
perhaps have played on. But the rook slides back to its starting square there on b8 and
now it is all about how is Goukesh going to start to improve his position. He does have
a lead in time. He has to play quickly.
play quickly but without pawn breaks for white he's facing pressure along the
b-file for eternity he can swap off some knights sure it doesn't change much he
brings his other rook to the c-file but watch out there will be c4 ideas Wesley
does the same he doesn't need to go for anything special Wesley he has a grip
controlling the pawn breaks and that draws enough more space the b-file with
a b2 target right there the bishop on g7 also eyeballing that side whenever he's
able to push open with his pawn ideas of the light-squared bishop falling back
f5 f4 coming in as well it just feels like all the plans reside with Wesley in
this position as Gukesh you have this beautiful looking knight on d5 but it's
empty beautiful there's really nowhere else to jump and no assist 100% accuracy
from Wesley so so far literally 100 on the accuracy bar Bishop to e4 played
asking for a bishop exchange but Wesley this is a move he wants to play anyway
strange from Gukesh because f5 might just come with tempo now but this was
his idea to free up his queen. Tactics on the diagonal.
At five. Come on, Wesley. Push that bishop away. He's thinking what's the follow-up.
Yeah, most natural move. Why not? He just wants to make sure he's not too loose, but
no threats from white. Knight takes knight, will be met by the black knight recapturing.
Black's got everything defended. The queen held by her bishop.
F8, just avoiding any checks at all, but I've got to say, Goukèche is keeping the tension
alive and he's got that healthy lead in the time.
And that's something that will come back to haunt Wesley.
If Goukèche can just keep the game going and force Wesley to burn some time, taking
those decisions, then when the clock starts running down, it's going to be a problem.
Goukash doing okay on the clock so far but yeah the key moment still ahead.
And Russ has been the Armageddon king so far in this tournament after a first round loss
he picked up so many points just making sure he gets the draws in the classical
and raking up the points in Armageddon so all of that Armai experience coming into play
he's got a good healthy position and keeps that time clock a pace as well.
Just a bit under five minutes but they're starting to level out with Goukash going
under seven minutes picks up a pawn and it's a mistake.
That is so risky. Like the black rooks cannot use the a8 square now because the white bishop
in the center was controlling a8. I'm really surprised Wesley didn't play the move d5 there.
Gaining time, gaining tempi. Goukesha's queen though, living a charmed life. It's lucky
to survive as it is. But he's hoping that the pawn that he's just stolen will come
into play a bit later. Wesley, can he trap that queen or force a repetition somehow?
trying to calculate exactly that does he push in a d5 fast or does he go on the
counter offense with rook to a8 there are trades on the c6 square that you
need to calculate but it's all eyes on that queen on a6 yeah no way home and
Goukèche being very brave he's relying on the fact that if you push d5 the c5
pawn is vulnerable and he's also relying on the fact that the queen can go
back to A4 if needed and escape to the D1 C2 square. Run away, run with the queen, the
queen needs to flee. Run for his run. But first the bishop, I'm surprised he's even
thinking like surely he's gonna step back, there aren't any other tactics. Is he choosing
which square but G2 looks like the most natural by far. There we go. He does it, it's on the
board Wesley now. I'd say he's about to go Rook 8 and for Rook 8 you do have that B5 spot
to run to, attacking c5, coming in with a check on the black king. That's Goukache's
only plan. He has to get that queen out of dodge, and that's the path forward. And then
you're up upon. If that queen survives and returns, Goukache is playing for a proper
win here with that x-rape on. And the question is where to put the queen. Should she go on
b6, should she go on b5? It's decision time for Goukache, but that's going to cost him
some seconds on the clock. Yeah.
It feels like the next five moves are critical.
Either Goukeshe comes out a pawn, maybe even two up, two to the good, and then he just wins the game.
Or we might see a repetition, the white queen constantly hit, or maybe Wesley gaining some material,
the white queen forced to give itself up for some pieces.
Queen B5 played.
We're hitting the pawn.
It's hitting the pawn, and Wesley's probably regretting the move king to F8,
because that pawn hit comes with a check right now on that strangely placed king.
And if the bishop were able to use f8, the white queen would be trapped, like root to
b8, queen takes pawn, and if you could switch around the black king in its bishop, then
the queen would have no way home.
So Goukeshe using that opportunistic tactic to survive with this queen.
Wesley reading the 3-minute mark now.
Still about a 3-minute difference on the clock.
So Goukeshe keeping that pressure going.
A must win with the white pieces in the Armageddon.
And I think you have to take that bait.
You have to pick up that extra pawn and Gukes did it as quickly as he could.
Not spending time calculating, he said I have to win this game, I need to take the decision,
we see what happens later.
But where is the queen going to go to once she's attacked by the rook on A8?
It would be 8.
Oh, but now queen A4.
Or queen takes pawn even.
Take it with a check and then run.
I mean without the pawns, there's more pawns up for grabs in the center unless Black's
going to block with the knight, but then the white queen should be able to escape.
There we go.
Gakesh does not shy away from Bates. He takes them. He asks you to prove yourself with every
pawn you want to give on the board.
Big advantage for Wesley so the best would have actually been to move the king away a
few moves ago just to make way for the darts where Bishik hits C5. That was difficult with
no time. Now there's no way to catch the queen. Rook A8 continuing the attack. White
can survive a bit longer maybe even b4 and out and out via h4 swinging across
he hits it oh you can play queen b5 I was gonna say there might be tactics was
rook takes c3 but then the white b pawn takes and the rook protects its queen
oh that's a really nice idea a very nice resource and suddenly location's
rook can be one doing a wonderful job on that square queen b5 offer a queen
trade queen before pin the knight as well to tempting options he does go for
the idea Wesley trying to keep as many pieces on the board no trades for you
yeah and still asking the question how is the queen gonna find salvation because
she cannot step two squares backwards because she gets in the line of the
Bishop maybe you just move your knight away and say I want some real trade
right now if you're looking at many pieces off the board the easier it gets
Let's go right into the playing hall, actually hear the audio while the player is just hitting the clocks.
Just feel the tension alive in the playing hall.
He's clearing his throat, he means business.
He's trying to ask for that repetition but the Queen does escape.
There's no way to continue hitting her now because the Knight is pinned and she's going to flee to H4.
She can run to the other side of the board creating some threats.
Safety, two pawns up for Gukesh.
He doesn't go for it though, he does keep it on the left flank right now.
But it's going zigzag and going all the way back home.
And then who's stopping the B and the A pawn going up?
Nothing's stopping it.
Gukesh taking that big risk with his queen grabbing the pawns.
The pawns weren't poisoned and he's done a fantastic job of hiding
of navigating all the pitfalls. He's home.
The Queen has found safety. Wesley two full pawns down. No compensation.
No compensation but some hesitation there from Goukesh as he recaptures on E3 with the bishop.
14 Queen moves by Goukesh in the game so far, picks up two pawns, lands right back from where it
started and with a winning position. 14 out of his first 32 moves with this Queen and yeah don't
don't try it at home. Normally you get your Queen trapped if you try this, but not if
you're Gukash and you're a fantastic world-class calculator. And Light Squares, now slightly
vulnerable around the White King, but mostly just lacking the ammunition to attack.
Well, he's beginning to load up right now as the Knight moves over to F5, but Gukash
quickly covers that diagonal. I was going to say there's still pressure, you know, against
the pawn on d3 but also the fact that for the time being white's pawns are not
motoring. Very important that Queen takes d3 a move ago was impossible
because Bishop c5 check would have hit the black king and the Queen would have
been picked up on d3. So the white knight gets time to centralize. Just as soon as
Vesley set that up with the King sidestep, Kukish blocks it with an active
knight jump to the center of the board and how's he gonna continue? He wants to
push those pawns but for now the way Vesley's rooks are lined up it's not
easy to get b4 a4 up the board. Yeah he needs to be patient he needs to build up
maybe improve the position of one of white's rooks in the near future that
can come up to the seventh rank maybe you can stop at some other squares along
the way he moves in with his bishop another great move posting up two very
active pieces and Wesley when in doubt push the H pawn very logical Cloucache
blocks. Loxav instantly keeping pace on the clock as well up to a minutes right
now. Gantt centralised the Queen, Rook if I, Wesley steps up. Is Gokisha about to give up one of the pawns
and just start marching up the board with the B pawn and Wesley is not happy with the way he's
facing this Armageddon. Yeah, I'm surprised he's not shaken head earlier because it went wrong
a long time ago. Wesley's fighting hard now, but if he does win one of the pawns back there might be
a glimmer of hope before we defend the two pieces that are currently skewered against each other on
on the fifth rank, but A3 was full.
Wesley, maybe he's trying to play mind games here,
get under Gukesha's skin,
and Gukesha finds a brilliant move,
doesn't need to react to his bishop.
The knight coming into B4, then C6,
that is a deadly fork, unstoppable.
Nice move there as well.
Going backwards in order to go forward,
how to handle that family fork.
You can't do it.
Black knight, wherever it goes, will get captured.
Just defend that square.
You can move one piece out now, but two pieces will still be there, ready to be forked.
This might be it, Wesley's down to 45 seconds, Goukache, his best Armageddon of the tournament so far.
So close now to victory.
Goukache very close to victory here, close to walking away with one and a half points,
but for Wesley's the clock is ticking down, big threats.
Oh, B-6.
Nice.
Comes in with his QA tactic.
You take out the knight about to jump in. The rook hangs. He picks it up with a check.
And the knight's landing. David, he's going in with a queen.
Oh, beautiful move. It's not a mistake. He's chasing the black queen around.
He wants that exchange. He's hitting F7 now.
He's the exchange. Rook for Bishop and two pawns up.
That beautiful deflection tactic with Bishop B6.
The clincher, Wesley Desperately, retreating his queen the whole way back to D7.
He just realized that the pawn was hanging. First about to put it on D6, then finds his way forward, but it's not going to help.
Gukesh ready with the response. Wesley now got five seconds on the clock. Losing position, about to get flagged.
Oh Wesley hands it to Rook. Game over. Gukesh takes the win.
Gukesh takes the win, walks away with one and a half points, but for Wesley he still remains at the top with twelve and a half points.
What a game! What a match indeed!
As we listen to the players...
And as the players analyze, well, we are going to go on a very short break, but during
the break, we are going to be playing an interview with Magnus Carlsen and the big question
that we all want to know is will he apologise to our very own David Howe for misplaying
his opening recommendation?
No, I'm scared. I haven't seen this yet. I'm dreading what's to come.
Well, he apologised for not mentioning David by name. Now, this video is for subscribers
only so make sure you hit that subscribe button and get to listen into what Magnus is saying
as he warms up for his Armageddon.
Hi to Compassion, you mentioned about this move Bishop to this seven
and I guess you just learned who was the person that you talked to?
Yeah, I guess so. Sorry, David.
Magnus says how the game went. Did you play an old man just that went really good for you yesterday?
I wouldn't necessarily say so. I just tried to do something to get a game and we got that to some extent.
to some extent I obviously was was worse at the get go but I felt like it was at
least semi-manageable and yeah after a while I was pressing but it didn't feel
like it was anything special and I think at some point he kind of changed his
mindset and started defending and he did that really well and yeah I probably
like could have kept the game going but I didn't see a way then the clock started
taking and kind of lost hope at this point are you pushing yourself to winning
classical games rather than to go to Armageddon or you don't really think too
much about that no I mean at least I'm trying to to do something to get to get
the games going for sure just yeah probably gonna need a lot of a lot of
classical ones but yeah I didn't go go my way today but we'll keep keep trying
and at least we got a nice playing game. Thank you very much and have a nice
Thank you.
you
We are back and it is Armageddon time as Armageddon kicks off between Vincent
Clymer and Magnus Carlsen. Also, we have Humpy Canary against Divya Deshmukh. Both of those
Armageddon's are in process right now. Both players playing with the white
pieces they are in a master win situation and as we get the audio of what is
happening live in the playing hall let's hear those players slam those clocks.
Gotta love that sound we're gonna get plenty of that in this Armageddon
started with the Queen's Gambit declined this one the Queen's Spawn opening
D4 was the opening of choice here Magnus taking his bishop out getting ready to
go castle on the right side of the board meanwhile for Winston Kaiman a lot of
plans revolving around planting his own dark squad bishop on the longest diagonal on the board.
Exactly. IQP isolated Queen's Pawn. Magnus in recent years has started to like these quite a lot.
They provide flexibility in games, maybe tough to defend, but Magnus will hope that the game doesn't
necessarily get there. Easy plans, easy next moves for Black. Black will castle, Black will play Queen
E7, maybe even a Queen to E5, threaten some nasty stuff on the King side. White's King lets defenders
and very very interesting middle game ahead. Very interesting middle game, but for Winston
Kima it's been a nightmare of an event when it's come to Armageddon and what a boss move if it
would be if he's able to change that narrative today against the world number one, but lots of
work left to be done. I have to say though, playing with the white pieces against this IQP,
you know, a structure where trades become that much more difficult, you always have a long game
to fight for. I think Winston's got his chances. He's going to try to keep as many pieces on the
the board. He's happy with no trade. All the miners there so far. Castle, Bishop B2 quickly.
Get that Bishop out. Rooks come out. So you believe, Tanya, sixth time lucky. Six Armageddon.
I'm listening, David Howell. That's what they say. Exactly. He's lost five Vincent of those
Armageddon's. One-one classical, but number six. It's the charm. It could be the charm.
Magnus, I do believe that's a positional threat, though, at least in terms of the match situation,
making a draw. Knight takes knight now would force either a pawn to recapture and symmetrical
structure, equality or the white queen taking in the center would allow the bishop to hit
with bishop to e5. This is a very well-known idea. So Vincent probably should react to
this. I'm not sure how, maybe retreating his knight, but Magnus with a threat.
The other reaction we need is from David Howell to Magnus' apology earlier on. What
do you have to say about that?
accepted. I can't believe he forgot it. He forgot me. How could he?
He needed to do a little bit more than just say sorry. I feel maybe buy David
some drinks. But going to the game, I agree with you, David. I'm looking at
by Bishop on D6. It's bearing down on age two. Knight to F3 is definitely
something that I would be considering. But he goes, Knight takes Knight,
get those trades in. A draw is good enough. More pieces off the board. The
the better your chances. Put that bishop, hit that queen.
Okay, and the big question after the queen retreats or slides across, I'm not sure exactly
where the queen will go, is whether Magnus can break. Can he get d4 in? Normally with
an isolated queen's pawn, if you can push that pawn forward and throw off the opponent's
coordination, that tends to be a big success for black. So can Magnus do that instantly?
And if you don't, the white rook will line up on the d-line, making sure that doesn't
happen in the future. Magnus instead takes out the other bishop getting ready to put
his rook on the c-line. Is this the moment that Winscent finishes development harmony
by playing the rook next to the king over to put pressure on the iQP?
That's a logical move. Don't do that pawn though. No, don't do that. Oh, you can actually.
Oh, taking that pawn, yeah. Then black should not take it back because there would be check
meeting ideas with the queen against g7. But black would have played bishop e5 and the tactics
would have worked out in black's favour. The tension between the darts go at Bishops
now with a knight in the way, yes, but the tension is defining this middle game.
That was actually a really nice sequence of moves and Bishop to E5 not giving Magnus the
chance to pick up that pawn, but how are you defending it? You really don't want to retreat
with your Bishop on E6. What Bishop would that be? Doing no good for Magnus, he takes
a pause, also asking himself the question, firstly, is Knight to Expawn a threat? With
all the Beasers hanging, Bishop takes Bishop coming in, how scary is Knight to Expawn?
Big question. I don't think it's currently a threat. The black knight will recapture and due to the tension with the bishops
It's likely a rook would land up on e5 protecting whatever happens to
The d5 pawn maybe a knight ending up on that square
But how to pass how to throw the move back to Vincent. He uses his rook
You can use your rook Winston can use the bishop to pile on the pressure on d5 all plans in these pawn formations revolve around getting your pieces
against that d5 pawn
Bishop f3, asking several questions.
Bishop f3 is such a nice move as well.
It's also setting up defensive possibilities of the zigzag formation with pawns on e3, f2, g3, h2.
And this will keep the white king intact and allow whites to start focusing on putting pressure on d5.
Yeah, I love that it deters the black knight jumping into e4 as well.
I think Magnus might struggle to get that in.
I love the fact that after Bishop F3 the white knight, where does it want to be?
It wants to be in front of the isolated pawn, blockading it so it would have a path via
E2 and to get to D4, that's called Bishop trade, helps white, that's the black's best
minor piece right now.
Black's worst minor piece, probably the light-squared bishop.
So ideally Vincent wants to leave just that piece on the board trade off everything else.
And it's the most natural move in this position.
We're all screaming for it.
What's deterring Winston Kammer from making it?
Is he's calculating what happens after Bishop to G4?
bishop f3 the bishop slides over you're pinning it against the white rook you
treat that of Magnus's pieces are coming closer towards the white king we see
bishop f3 played and Magnus now no time on the clock just a three minutes and
19 seconds and it's ticking down he has to take a quick decision it jumps him
with a knight to e4 well very somatic and only move appears you can take that
pawn and you should do it big advantage for Vincent Cumber did you see him eyeball
Magnus there, he just made eye contact, staring him down, he's like, wait, you've miscalculated
and Magnus has miscalculated, he's going for his queen? Or is he? No, he doesn't call
the bluff. He trusted Magnus there and now the game is back to equal. That was a free
pawn, there were some tactics and it was hanging by a thread for white, but Vincent had the
time on the clock to think about it at least. He didn't, he trusted Magnus.
Now many times we've seen even the world's best players fall to that folly, right, where
you just feel that Magnus isn't capable of making mistakes. You just don't take
advantage of those misses. He trades more pieces off but you can't do that.
It's opposite color Bishop Ng Magnus is down upon but this should be enough to
hold right now. If the rooks are off the board it's an immediate handshake.
Yeah and the thing that's going to be concerning Vincent is his king safety
because if that king gets checked on the g-line it's gonna have to hide in the
corner and Magnus is going to force a perpetual. So Bishop d4 would invite that idea that Yovanka
is mentioning. Also Magnus ready to challenge on the c-file right now. I think he's told
all his problems by giving up that pawn. Yeah, Vincent, like he could have won a pawn
in a clean way without opposite color bishop's landing. He saw this. That's why he played
so quickly there. He saw that he could win a pawn. But the sting in the tail was the
fact that Magnus now locks in the white king for eternity and Vincent now pushing pawns
desperately, Magnus is going to give his own king some lift, some air at some point,
and then the Black Rook is coming in either on the D-file or via the G-file, and he's
going to be able to force at least a draw.
The opposite color complex, Bishops, huge drawing tendencies here, and you've got double
pawns to boot.
How are you even making a passer?
It's a faraway dream as Magnus immediately gets active, the Bishop on H3, not only an
attacking piece, but guarding against any back-ranked check-meeting ideas, the C8 square under control.
Yeah, I mean how is the white king gonna unravel itself from his cage?
It's not happening
Never ever getting out this just background checkmate and Magnus here
He's just got all the time in the world to open up pawns open up his king and improve
And that was such a strange moment by Vincent Kheimer, right?
Because you see that trade and you know that Magnus is solving all problems you end up going into this end game
Where are you fighting in a must win game a draw with white is as good as?
resigning in this position had Winston only taken a pause he would have seen
that Queen takes pawn works just rushing past that decision as Magnus
keeps getting more and more active and Magnus just keeps the King in his cage
relocates to a2 and now he just introduces the King into the game it
almost feels like Vincent is the one who should be bailing out because the
pressure. Against White's King is so great. There's no plan of improvement.
Yeah, there's just nothing to do. And yeah, sometimes I think maybe this is a
pattern. Vincent Kramer obviously is easy to read into results. This would be his
sixth Armageddon defeat in a row if he doesn't win this game now. But it feels
like he's not keeping the tension. He's rushing a bit. Like there was a game
that he just blundered against Prague. One mover, it was just over. And he's not
looking you know deeper he's not happy to sit there and play against the opponent's
clock. Magnus had about three minutes when we went into this simplification series and
there you just try and find ways to keep as much attention as possible instead of bailing out to
an easy endgame where Magnus can blitz. So I think it's just something a bit off at the moment with
Vincent Serrada. Just maybe it's the mindset maybe his head's still filled with the classical
ups and downs but yeah Armageddon not his friend. Absolutely not. He addressed it by
saying that he's just not being able to find his rhythm and flow when it moves
to Arma straight from a classical game which also takes so much from you. I
think for Winston Kaima whatever chances were there had to happen in that
classical game at the beginning he did get a little bit of edge to push in that
Kings Indian but once Magnus sneaked his way out of trouble never gave him a
second chance back in and this Armageddon except that one move miss has
been a Magnus Carlson show. Has been a Magnus Carlson show and look at this very
instructive g5 preventing the f pawn from advancing there's no way out for
the white king. The bishop goes to the center of the board wins and slowly but
surely trying to make some improvement with the white king boxed up in a check
making that it's not gonna be easy to free that rook. It's almost like white's
just gonna end up playing like rook a1, rook c1, black maybe has no way forward to
try and win this game but doesn't need to you can just sit still put the king on
g6 maybe push h5 g4 only black can improve the position white is stuck
the bishop drops back but f4 never really achievable without losing the
e4 pawn I think right now Magnus might even start getting ambitious he's just
gonna enjoy this position going to improve his king march forward at the
right time try to strike with f5 and just say you know I've got no danger
right now we're setting up the idea of lining up the rook and the bishop against
the g pawn if the f-bond moved forward with rook g1 stopped by Magnus Carlson
consolidating the king's side to G1 Vincent at least staring down the black
king but where's that rook going what's Vincent's next move any rook trade draw
any check on the back rank could be made Magnus is going to play a five at some
moment in this game he's going to try to create his chances you know the bishop
in the rook beautifully combined by Magnus here to lock up all of white
pieces just no improvement the pawns don't go forward the bishop can't really
go anywhere the rook stuck to the back rank the king boxed up in the corner yeah
definitely if Magnus were the one who needed to play this out for a win I think
Magnus would absolutely do it but he doesn't need to he can just like shuffle
the king backwards and forwards he can do whatever he wants and we have a win
for Divya as she walks away with one and a half points very nice game there from
Divya. And we're back to Magnus. We'll update everyone. We'll break that one down a bit later,
but Anna Moziček will let you know when there are twists and turns in her armageddon that's
just begun. Only just against Yuan Jun a few minutes ago. Magnus in the meantime. He's basically
doing the online or over-the-board version of pre-moving like King G6, King F7, King G6.
What can white do? Nothing. He's just shuffling his king and now the clocks have leveled out as
Well, Vincent Kammer has to be feeling that this is a game of no improvement for White.
Bishop d2, even if you get the rooks off the board, Rook e1 is still not possible, even
if it was to happen. A pure opposite-colour bishop and game, immediate handshakes, a draw,
which means Magnus takes the win. He's setting up Rook d6 though now, with the bishop on
c3 controlling a checkmate on e1. At least some ideas.
Some ideas, although when the rook vacates, the black will go behind with his rook and
try to set up those checkmates again. The MVP is just the Black Bishop. So glorious, so strong.
We've seen a lot of light-squared attacks actually this round here today in round seven
overall in Noh chess and Noh chess women, but this is the best minor piece of them all.
You could start shuffling around with the Black Rook and chasing that Bishop if you're Magnus
Carlsen. I don't think there are any bad moves in a good position, especially one that looks
like this right now. Magnus though going under a minute. The only thing, the clock.
The clock is not on Magnus' side, but they do say playing a king down in the end game
is never a good idea. Magnus now trying to break things open, but I'm slightly surprised.
Let's say he wanted to take any action at all. White was the king down on G1, so White
do anything, but maybe he wants to clarify it here and now. He's winning back his pawn.
He's going to try and get the rooks off by giving a check.
If you push your F-pawn forward, the black rook steps one step ahead with a big double
attack you could go back on the second rank as well. Nice moves look good there. Yeah I think
rookie three actually is the cleanest of them all. Vincent shaking the head. Magnus has found a
direct way to shorten this game to try and get it done before the clocks tick truly down. Vincent
now that's the face of a man who knows sixth time was not lucky. Sixth time was not a charm in this
Armageddon. The Armageddon course continues for Winston Kymur and he offers a
draw. Magnus Carlsen with the shake of his hands takes the win of them any
match. Very important win there for Magnus in the Armageddon. We immediately go
over to Dewan Jun, Anna Muzichuk as Anna is in full control. Look at that she
has the material to boot. She comes in with a knight to F3. King side steps, but Anna,
she's just simply material up.
Yeah, it's a queen for just one piece. I think we saw a huge blunder just three or four
moves ago. Quincy five is such a devilish move and handshakes you and June resigns about
to get checkmated. Queen down. It's been a bad day for her.
It's a good birthday for Joanne June, coming so close to winning in the Classical, but
in the end, I'm using it in Armageddon.
Anna just keeps on keeping her hope alive.
She literally is making a win in Armageddon, her bread and butter in this event.
And she did that last year as well, so she has enough experience to know that this is
a long game at Norway Chess.
You know, you throw in a couple of opportunities with the Classical, far and few.
If you keep control on the Armageddon, you will always have a shot at championship.
That's how she did it last time.
It feels like the story continues.
She's always in the mix Anna Muzichuk, you'll notice.
Yes, she's always there.
And that makes it go for it right at the end.
Absolutely.
She's always keeping it calm in classical.
And then in the Armageddon, this is where she just rolls the dice and goes for broke.
We had some interesting Armageddon's we joined in the last minute.
Maybe we can just recap in those critical moments.
Yeah, I'd love to do that because some really cool tactics, especially from Anna Muzichuk.
I should mention in that final one, we'll jump in just half a dozen moves before the real change in this game where things suddenly span out of control for the women's world champion, Zhu Wenjun.
It was actually a slightly suspicious opening from her, Black's doing very well, Black has the open F file, big targets here, the white queen, short squares.
And here Zhu Wenjun decided, okay, I might as well grab something, try to cling on.
She played a rook, takes b7 grabbing a pawn, but this rook, no way home.
Bishop to b6 shuts the door in that rook's face, and after the bishop drops back,
the other bishop did the trapping, and Anamuzzi trick didn't stop there.
After winning the exchange, she decided, okay, she needs the energy.
White still has two pawns, so it's not game over yet.
E4, she pushes forward, unleashing the queen, and here,
White needed to get her own queen out of the way with a check,
because instead of taking this pawn, for example, as well,
She just retreated a knight and now Queen Trap, Rook to e5 and here also Knight d4 and Rook to e5 here the Queen realized no escape.
Just two pieces trap first the Rook then the Queen beautiful from Anna Muzzi-Truk.
She went to Inferno, nothing better than giving up the Queen for the Rook.
Let's now Queen for peace down, checkmate and she had to resign.
It always amazes me about Ana that her classical games feel so many times that there's these slow, strategic, positional grinds.
Sometimes we get a bit of a no-game draw as well from her, and then the Armageddon's are absolutely wild.
It doesn't matter if she's playing with the white pieces or the black pieces, she goes full throttle for her opponents.
Absolutely, and I actually asked her about that. I was like, how come the difference in style?
Another interview. I wonder, this time is it too late now to say sorry, David Howell?
Howl?
Is it, am I too late to say sorry?
No, is that not a song?
It is not one.
Joby?
Please tell me.
This one you know.
No, no, no.
I don't know why you keep choosing these songs.
I don't know.
I'm going to apologize to you, Jovanka, for my singing there.
And I'm going to bring us over to another game that we didn't get to focus on too much
because there was drama on the Magnus board.
But if you're taking the win against Humpy, and I just want to point out,
like this bishop ended up falling.
Humpy walked into the same exact opening she nearly lost in in the classical
almost a repetition of it again a rook on b1, bishop on c1 just like the classical
they never got out that bishop ended up getting pinned apparently the final
blunder was around here from Humpy Canary allowing the black knight into c2
she should maybe have been striking out with moves like g4 but h3 allowing the
the black Queen swapping off here.
It was just a fork town and.
Yeah, Humpy looks like her Achilles heel.
This tournament has been these sharp openings.
Benka Gambit, Blumenfeld Gambit, Divya rewarded for courage.
Definitely courage.
Well, they do say fortune favors the brave.
It didn't quite work out in the classical for Divya,
but she managed to nail it in the Armageddon.
We're going to go on a short break because during that break,
we're going to try and get some players into the hot seat.
see you then.
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One, two, three.
Oh!
Oh!
Oh!
Oh!
Oh!
Oh!
Come on!
Woo!
One, two, three.
Woo!
Oh!
Oh!
Oh!
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We are back and it has been an eventful day here at the round 7 of Norway Chess.
We didn't quite manage to get anyone, I'm looking at an empty chair beside me.
He'll be your host.
But I do have the wonderful tagline and the lord of the dance over here.
He's been digging away.
Grandmaster David Howell is also our prediction king.
He's got reasons to be happy in doing the victory dance.
David Howell. How does it feel to get it right? Again.
It's only the fourth day out of seven, you know. I'm gutted. I'm thinking about the
ones that slipped away those three days where the chair was correct. And then you were correct,
Anja. But today, four Armageddon, two decisive results. It could have been so much more.
I actually thought that Yavanka was going to win for the first time. It looks so close.
I honestly thought I had it in the bag, but then I've been thinking about it quite a few
days, but the players, they just keep favouring David and Tanya and the chair and not me.
Don't lose hope, Jovi. 20-27. Always look ahead. I mean, honestly, if you get kind of
victory dance performance we did from David during the break, I'm okay losing the prediction
game to him every time.
I want to know how chat did, did you predict that there would only be two decisive classical
games today?
Yeah, I mean, what a day it could have been, I actually think four or five, the way the
games were going, but in the end it was the likes of Wesley agreeing a draw prematurely.
That meant we had all those Omegadans.
Yes, and we didn't quite manage to get Magnus in the hot seat, but we did manage to get
an interview, so let's check it out.
How was the Omegadans?
It was alright. I played a little bit too slow in the opening, probably not so great also, but at a certain point I think he might have missed an opportunity to win a pawn in a better way.
And after, you know, we exchanged everything, they were upset called bishops, but he's not only is my bishop caging in his king, but I think what also he might have missed is that it's also protecting against checkmate on C8, which means that he's just in a bind and there are no chances.
So that meant that all of a sudden time is not an issue at all.
So that was nice.
In general, what do you prefer to play armageddon with white pieces or with black pieces?
It depends.
Generally, I feel like it's a little bit easier with black psychologically.
But I think my results are just as good with white.
So whichever side I'm on.
I'm gonna click
points. It still feels like it's a free throw though. Anyone can take it right. I'm going
to point out that in the women's section the gap is much wider. You've got the top Vivisara
here at 12 and a half. Humpy really struggling at 6 and a half. But if you go to Norway chess
from Wesley Söder to Gukesh with three points for the classical win it's still anyone's
tournament. One classical win completely changes up to leaderboard for Westy So, two and a half points
at this stage. It's still bigger than what it implies because it's still only one classical
win that could change that entire narrative as the finish line gets in sight. Exactly,
three rounds remaining. Let's take a peek at what lies ahead tomorrow.
the world's best matchups in
the world. And Tanya David,
which ones are you most
excited for? We'll get those
parents up in the second mix,
especially excited about
Magnus Carlson. There we go
against pregnant under
prank in great form today. His
winning technique against
Alireza sharp, smooth, looked
in control and Magnus has been
resurgent in the last couple
couple of days. That's going to be fun. Wesley so against Vincent Karm, I think, as well.
Vincent will take some risk with Black wanting to win to try and catch up with Wesley. And
Wesley tends to play best when the opponents are going straight for him.
This is now a chess every day. It's on fire. But I will point out that last matchup that
you've got Divya Deshmukh taking on Bibi Sara as well, right? Bibi Sara has been in the
lead except that one round where she messed it up for just a little bit, reclaiming Lederland
just on the next day. She takes on a very, very dangerous and extremely in form, especially
in the Armageddon, Divya Deshmukh.
Yeah, we'll see Divya Deshmukh.
Today she came in, meaning business.
Tomorrow she has the white pieces.
She will be seeing how she puts
Bibi Sara Asalba Eva under pressure.
And under pressure is exactly what our guys
are gonna be feeling tomorrow.
Under pressure?
No, no, no, no.
No.
Now, that song, I know.
Who's gonna be singing tomorrow?
That's the big story.
I'm gonna apologize to everyone for my singing today.
It's been too much.
No, it's been absolutely perfect.
Tanya, David, it has been a blast.
Like to thank you both and David.
You're not getting a high five from me
because you are the king of predictions.
We'll see whether David is on point
with his predictions tomorrow.
Thank you everyone at home for following along
and joining in subscribing.
It is very much appreciated.
Tomorrow, of course, it's crunch time.
You
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