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Norway Chess 2026: Alireza v. Gukesh, Magnus v. Pragg, Divya v. Bibisara In Hyped Matchups! Rd 8
06-02-2026 · 5h 02m
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and this is the next big step.
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With the football as well, you need to plan your moves a bit ahead.
You need to stay sharp, you can't lose one second of focus if you do and you like it
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I have to sometimes surprise the opponent.
Chess have a lot to learn.
life have a lot to learn so everything in life you can always get better and you can always improve.
Total chess can turn chess into an even bigger sport for new audiences.
to win the title.
We are in the final stretch of
Norway chess and Norway chess
women. Two leaders have a broken
clear in both fields, but there
is no margin for error. Every
No second chances, no safety net. Round 8 begins now.
For the first time in 13 years, Norway chess moved from savanger 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 engine evaluations.
We didn't make this not the way F4, but the bar drops though.
This year's lineup is ridiculous. Magnus Carlsen returns once again and faces challengers like Lukash the Marashi,
Vincent Kymar, Wesley So, and Alireza Farushev.
Every single round looks like a world championship match that accidentally wandered into another tournament.
He's feeling the nerves now of it, Vincent Kymar.
The women's event is just as fierce.
Vizucineer, Juven Jun, Humpik Neru, and Anamu's Juve all ready to fight for every point like its person.
But 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 style, the players go straight into Armageddon.
One game, one winner, maximum success.
After last year we know exactly how intense this tournament can get.
So get comfortable, the clocks are ticking, the evil bar is about to go insane.
Norway chess starts right now.
Good afternoon from Oslo and you can forget the postcard picture image we have in front
of us.
Forget the scenic walks along the fjord because we are at the Dakeman Yovika library and right
now this building is not your average library.
It is a pressure cooker of chess every player and we have 12 of them will be fighting it
out, slugging it out for those all important points.
Everyone is ready, we are ready, so buckle up, we're in for the ride.
I'm your host, international master Ivanka Hasker and I am with two of the finest people
in the chess world.
course it is international master Tania Sajdev and grandmaster otherwise known as Lord of the Dance
I'll have you know David Howe. Shostles moves David Howe. Oh you can't put me in the spot this
early in the show like if it's a good round if there are six decisive results in the classical
I might do a little jig. Oh well you heard it here first and it's actually a very impressive site
So Tanya, David, three rounds remaining, we are in for a treat.
It's absolutely buzzing here at the Bjorvika Library. I mean the seven rounds have given us form, pressure, setbacks, comebacks and a leaderboard that is absolutely alive.
Three games remain, finish line and side for the players. David, I think strategy has to change, especially for the Chasers.
They've got to punch up, they've got to get their game on and I'm going to predict lot of top twists coming up.
I actually had some fun with the calculator this morning. I was trying to work out who needs what in the last three rounds who should be taking the risk who's going to go all out. Some of the younger players, they go all out anyway for a win. But yeah, we are going to see some incredible storylines. I have a feeling in the next three days.
And talking about storylines, that's exactly what went down yesterday in day seven. Two decisive wins. But boy, was there a lot of drama.
Bibisara is suddenly winning, she's a full piece up.
I don't really see a way for Black to regain material in this position.
She's about to stretch her lead. This might just be handshake soon.
I'm not very happy how it played because I think if I will play better after reopening,
I will have a big advantage instead of blundering.
This is difficult and Wesley has made a move. It is Rook to F5.
He finds it!
Wow, best move and suddenly Gukesh is huge threats to deal with.
And it's only 10 second increment.
Lukesh will be in time pressure for the rest of the game.
Huh?
Draw?
That must be a draw.
It's Handshake between Kukkesh and Wesley Soh.
Out of the blue, it is a draw agreed.
It's Lukesh about to give up one of the pawns
and just start marting up the board with the B pawn
and Wesley is not happy with the way he's played this Armageddon.
Got five seconds on the clock.
Losing position, about to get flagged.
Wesley Handshake Rook.
Game over.
Handshake.
Kukkesh takes the win.
When you have more time in Armageddon
and then we'll stay at the stuffer for the afternoon.
So, 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.
Armageddon was good, so your classical game didn't go well,
so I think Arale was quite lucky today.
Cragoni has one winning move now,
only one to keep the advantage.
He has to give a check with his Queen.
He does play this move.
And that's it, he resigns from the number, takes a win.
After the last two games, I think I was just making sure that I don't get to seconds because I was just making so many mistakes there.
Vincent shaking the head. Magnus has found a direct way to shorten this game to try and get it done before the clock's ticked truly down.
And he offers a drone. Magnus Carlson with the shake of his hands takes the win.
Generally, I feel like it's a little bit easier with Blacks psychologically, but I think my results are just as good with White's.
Whichever side I'm on
Well that brings us to today to round eight pairings and David earlier on you mentioned
You had worked out who needs to take the risk who needs to really just that play it comfortably
Well, Wesley, so he's at the top of the leaderboard yesterday. He played it safe today
He faces off against Vincent Kramer. What do we expect?
Yeah, Wesley yesterday with a really surprising decision to offer a draw to Goukeshe when he had so much more time
Goukeshe was playing on seconds. The position was level. I don't think Wesley will be taking much risk in the last three rounds here
I would think going to Armageddon might be his strategy. He starts with white against Vincent Chima
I do believe he's a favorite at least if it gets to Armageddon because of Vincent's poor track record there this week
But in the classical Wesley with white he should be pushing
I think everyone else in the pack will be taking risks.
I think classical wins are going to be at the premium here.
Yeah, Wesley So is the modern front.
But you know, Winston Carmel is a kind of opponent
who can ruin your tournament if you blink,
especially the kind of positions that Winston has been getting
in the classical.
I think for Wesley, this is leader management
under real pressure today.
What happened yesterday?
You start feeling shaky after that loss.
He's on the board right now for Wesley.
So it will all come down to how this goes
and will that decision against Gukesh
abruptly to offer a draw. Will that come to haunt the tournament leader? Absolutely and
talking about things coming to haunt Alireza Ferozda having two back-to-back losses, how
is he going to recover from that? Is Goukesh going to be playing the role of spoiler? That's
a great question. I think Prague's win against Alireza did two things, right? It pulls back
on Alireza's momentum and for Prague it puts him right back into the mix. Now Alireza has
two back-to-back losses after dominating Norway Chess and he takes on the world champion.
A world champion who yesterday had a good result in the Armageddon and we've got Alireza
playing with the white pieces. The thing is at this point, David, three rounds remaining.
You don't want to go three down in a row.
Exactly. Everyone's still in it. Everyone's still in with a shout due to the scoring system.
Alireza, it's funny that he started the first half with two wins. He started the second
half with two losses against the exact same opponents he had beaten. So in an
orderly tournament he'd be on 50% but here he's still second place in with a
shout and here we see Zuzina who needs to put a streak together. And it was a
pretty disappointing loss yesterday for Zuzina against Bibisara, the classical,
the only classical win of Norway. Just felt like Zuzina never got the game
going and today sitting right there in front of her will-be-women world
champion, Zhu Wenjin. When we talk about not getting things going, I think we have
to take Wenjin's name. She's got a smile on her face though right now in Good Spirits
before the start of this one.
Yes, Zhu Wenjin hasn't fared too well in Armageddon. She's lost all of them but she does have
one classical victory under her belt and it does mean that she is very much in the mix
but the big encounter in the women's world has to be Divya Deshmuk against BB Sara currently
leading the event.
Yeah, to really inform players. Divya with a smile on her face. She has looked relaxed.
She has looked happy this last week. Having a chat there, really nice with the mascots
who are going to be making the first moves, I think. And, yeah, a big Divya fan there.
Divya Sara also with a lot of fans.
Divya Sara, not here. We're taking an appearance, but we noticed with...
Sorry. Yeah, and we see Divya sharing a few words with her little mascot. Maybe we can
listen in a little bit more. No, unfortunately didn't quite catch that, but it's very nice
to see Divya there in good spirits there sharing some wise words with her little young fan.
Yeah, Divya looks like she's ready for a big fight and this could be the decisive matchup
in Norway chess women. It's leader versus challenger. This is the big one to watch for. All eyes on
Divya with the white pieces taking on Bebesara. Bebesara leading the tournament in very convincing
manner. And for Divya, this is a direct hit at the leader, right? Two and a half points behind. If she
wins, the race changes. If Bebesara takes this, she puts one hand on the trophy. Absolutely. She will
really extend her lead if she wins in the classical and one man seeking to make a comeback.
He's had a very volatile performance here.
Norway chess is Magnus Carlsen.
So many decisive games from him.
Magnus himself alone has had more decisive games than the whole of Norway chess women
so far.
He's been responsible for some really fighting chess yesterday beating Vincent in the Armageddon
And it's going to be interesting.
Magnus has two whites from his last three games.
The one black is against tournament leader Wesley So.
So his fate is somewhat in his own hands still,
but he does need to go on the rampage
in the closing stretch.
Magnus Carlsen, he's never out of the race
until the map says so,
but the win he got against Winston yesterday,
it wasn't the one he wanted.
It wasn't a classical win.
And that's not going to be enough
with just three rounds remaining for Winston.
It's all been about the Armageddon curse so far,
Will this be where he starts playing spoiler to the great Wesley saw playing with the white
pieces in this one?
Wesley's got to be feeling the nerves, right?
So close to perhaps what is, or what could be the biggest win of his career.
Yes, the story of Wesley's career that his instincts are somewhat on the safer side and
you don't win many super tournaments if you're playing it safe, just taking draws from position
of strength and relying on others not to be able to put wins together.
I think Wesley, he's had some great results for the last 12 months, he's back, back in
form.
But I want to see Wesley still relaxed, playing like he was a couple of days ago and in the
meantime.
Oh, handshake tonight.
Prague left hanging for a second there.
That was fun to watch.
I think for Pragananda, you know, he's already beaten Alireza, he's already beaten Magnus
in this event and for today, Magnus gets a direct chance, a direct hit to answer right
back.
A grudge match.
We've been talking about the Magnus Revenge Drop on chess.com.
Some cool merch out there.
Will it be a revenge drop on the chessboard by Magnus Carlsen?
Yeah, we've been playing the Avengers-esque theme as well
for Norway chess.
You might not be able to save the game.
At least you didn't in the first half,
but you can definitely avenge that defeat.
So we'll see.
I have a feeling Magnus is going to try and prolong
this game as possible and grind crackdown.
That's exactly the playbook from Magnus.
But what can we expect from Pragananda coming off
on yesterday's win?
He's got to be feeling good about it, right?
He was the only player to get a classical win.
He took down tournament leader Alireza.
He did it in great style with the black faces as well.
And that's exactly the kind of confidence
you need when you're facing the world number one.
For Prague, he's in the race.
He's back in the mix for Magnus as well.
I think for both these players right now,
classical win has to be on the agenda.
Armageddon would just not got it.
That would just be a consolation.
That would be a consolation in deed.
As we see our players all lined up and ready.
I can't wait for those little kids to make the first move.
And so much of that will also come down to,
what are the first moves the players have prepared
for this very important round?
You've got the final rest day of Norwich as coming up tomorrow, you know, the Chasers
wanting to get those punches in, the leaders wanting to separate and keep that lead going
into that final rest day as the ceremonial moves are on the board, I'm expecting some
fantastic preparations by both the leaders and the Chasers in the back.
Also, as we're seeing on our boards, E4, E5 being played.
Magnus looking pretty chill.
Yes.
indeed hasn't taken it back just yet but those spawns will be put back to the
starting places prediction Magnus starts with a queen spawn King spawn something
totally different oh I want to see a retty I think the Magnus might start with
the King spawn he's been doing that quite a lot this tournament we have seen
quite a few e45s were back to this view because we were just being teased there
with the opening moves the youngsters the future generation they were making
those ceremonial opening moves but yeah I'm expecting more queens gambits we've
seen so many this tournament and a lot of you fours a ratty few and far
between but that would signal a long game and you know you mentioned about
prugs win yesterday there we've got handshakes on it's rounded off no we're
chess we're off yeah and it's that moment where we start to anticipate the
mind games while the jacket is
coming off Magnus means business as
Craig awaits the first move Magnus
keeping us guessing. I think this is
going to be a very fighting game for
both these players. A drawing
classical just doesn't make the
cut David, especially if Wesley
wins today, then he's going to be
often the distance Magnus will need
to be Wesley with black the day
after the rest day. I think yeah
That is what Magnus intends to do. It is e4, it is the king's pawn.
How will Pryk react? He's been playing e5 in the main throughout this tournament and in recent times Magnus quick out of his chair, maybe offer a quick confession.
What are we expecting from Pryk? How combative is he going to be with the black pieces?
We find that out early on right if we see plug employ the king spawn opening a more solid strategic approach by him
If he goes for the Cecil it means the cell for the kill
So that will make it even more fun, and he's reaching out
You know, I was gonna say a French. I don't know why but I didn't say it and now it looks like maybe
prediction it might be your day if you're getting the moves right in the
predictions the other one is just the chair can take it from me then maybe all
of that changes today I mean a French on the board it was on your mind it was on
Prague's mind as well what does this tell us about Prague's approach in this
game David oh I think he's trying to provoke Magnus Magnus has two ways that
usually reacts against the French. He normally goes really main line. He goes D4, you'll play
Nc3, or he'll exchange off in the centre against the French and play much more positional,
much safer. Prague's going to be ready for both, but yeah, I think mind games, he's saying, okay,
no slow, steady E45. Magnus, it's your choice, and let's fight. And yeah, we'll get back to that
one later. Magnus, away from the board right now. What do we spot elsewhere?
Well, sorry to jump in there, but suddenly I was noticing on the top left that a whole
lot of moves have been played between Ali Reza Fuzja and Gukesh. Ali Reza, playing with
the white pieces again, he was very, very successful at the start. Kind of lost steam,
but I'm kind of curious about that game. What about you, Tanya?
Well, fun fight all along, but today I'm seeing a lot more E4, a lot more King Pawn openings
all across than the Queen Pawn moving forward. Let's start with the top row right there.
We've had two D4s, one E4 at the center of the board, so fun battles with a French being
the first semi-surprise, that's a top center board.
And then if we move on to Norway chess women, that's our bottom boards right there.
All of them start with the Kingspawn opening and quite different ones, black responding
with E5 on the Vengeant board and the Humpy board and we've got one Sicilian, the most
the marquee matchup of Norway chess women, that they are starting with E4.
Also why about taking it into a fight with the Sicilian and to me a first surprise by Divya.
It's the close Sicilian on that board with Knight C3. I know and just keeping everyone guessing
because yes it could be a close Sicilian could also be an open Sicilian but it certainly caused
Bibi Sara to think such an important game for the standings. Bibi Sara on 12 and a half points
and Divya is her closest rival.
If Vivisara wins, she might as well run away from the tournament.
And it's been so impressive by Divisara from the start.
She was the first player to score a classical win in Norwicheswomen.
It happened in first round and then getting her second win in yesterday
at a very crucial point in the tournament against none other
than one of the favorites, Jujina.
And she did it convincingly.
Taking on Divya and this one, I think this is going to be a big fight.
both these players are uncompromising in their brand of chess. What has impressed me, David,
about Divya so far in this tournament has been that every single game, every single opening,
she's managed to put out a surprise, a new idea. Yeah, and surprises coming thick and fast in that
game. The white queen already out as early as move four. It's a very rare line of the Sicilian.
It's got to be said, actually, these two, Divya and Bibisara, every decisive game in the way
WHS women this year has featured one of them. Yes. And, yeah, Dubisara with two wins, Dibio
with one win, one loss. And, yeah, they're bringing the fight on behalf of everyone else.
And talking about fights, well, let's dive into some of the games and which one catches
your eye. I'm going to hand the floor over to you, David, because I see you nodding away.
The green board, you mentioned it first, Yvanka. Yes. That's the most developed so far. That's
where we've had the most moves, maybe the biggest intrigue. And yeah, just a very quick action
replay because Goukesh has been playing this RgS system with white and with black this tournament.
So I think Alireza not too surprised. Knight d4, knight f6, c4, e6, knight c3 is met by Bishop b4,
the Nimzo Indian that actually has occurred on another board between Wesley Stone, Vincent
We'll show that one later, but the anti-Nymzo is Nf3.
Black goes into the Queen's Gumber, declined by transposition.
And now this is where Magnus confessed that he knew of at least eight-nine moves here for Black.
He'll play all sorts of things, a6, c6, c5, h7, h6, etc.
Dxc4 as well, but Bb4 is currently the most trendy.
If we're looking at Nohs alone, then Rg5 defense and exchange in the center.
And the old move, Bg5 has been played, Qa4 check is another option, but Bf4 allows the
black knight to leap into e4.
This is a very juicy pin.
White does defend it though, and after Bf5, Anoraza is thinking and has been surprised
by Rane.
And he has reasons to be surprised in this position.
Fishes back up one move and so Bishop f5, this position has been played quite a few times.
Knight c6, we've got about 70 plus games in that. Knight d7 is the move. You could develop
your queen to e7. Even g5 believe it or not has been played here. Some players have gone
for immediately getting the king to safety with castle. Bishop f5, never been played.
a fresh position completely. Bishop by 5 is a Gouquet's domarage novelty right now. And
I'm expecting Ali Reza to take his time. It has to be a new move for him. I'm trying
to understand what can Gouquet be setting up. He's kept his knight flexible. The one reason
to get that bishop out first is that when that knight goes to d7 next, at least a bishop
isn't stuck on c8. It's already out on the board.
Interesting. And bishop by 5 is a very common idea in the Rogozin in general. So I'm very
surprised it's a novelty. I think what Alarosa has done in itself is quite rare, but yeah,
fascinating stuff. Goukesh predicting the surprise and surprising Alarosa right back,
spending no time. And maybe just to predict the future, the most natural move would be
to play E3, try and complete development, bringing out the white bishop somewhere, and
then castling. And just to show you your idea, Tanya, Black's going to develop the knight.
Bishop, I don't know, E2, D3, one of these, Black can castle, Black can play C6.
Okay, game goes on. You know this matchup between Alireza and Gukesh feels like
pressure versus pride. Alireza has been on a bit of a slide and he's desperate
to stop it, right? Two back-to-back losses. Gukesh wants a statement finished
here at Norway chess and I think this is going to be a big fight. Both of them
want to battle. Both of them want to make this decisive in classical, which makes
me wonder, is Gukes going to throw in a G5 early on in this game and make it fun? Ace up.
Yeah, exactly. You know something, I was actually looking at one game in my database
and it started to ring very familiar, and that was the game between Ndbf2 against Anish Giri.
Now that went completely differently because Bf5 wasn't played, but there it was Nc6 instead of Bf5,
And this, if we could just put it up, just so that I can show some of the points of g5.
And in that particular game, Nc6, I think it was played in Tata Steel,
just a few months ago, beginning in January, and Nd2 was the response.
And then came the g5, and then came the bishop went back to e3, then came the f5,
and then came g3, and black was really going for it.
So first up night takes nights, not a fair five and pawn takes and then the bishop came to a three
First gets in some time and then the f5 came
Five friends trapped the bishop g3 and yeah, this is weird because where's the black king going?
I think I remember watching that game and thinking I would never touch this with white or with black
it's because it's so messy and
so complicated and
Yeah, good cash is gone away from this for now. Maybe this is what for Rizal was hoping to promote
But yeah, the game maybe heading towards more quiet waters, but also very logical keeping his options open
Yeah, 96 97 or maybe a really fun g5. You over you mentioned 96 was a choice by a certain Anish Gehry instead of Bishop f5
You know, right? And each green is a big fan of someone on this desk
You Tonya
You see which direction we're both looking at
He loves the Indian school of Jassani Shkiri.
But David, I mean, did you see the tweet?
I did see the tweet from Anish.
I didn't know if he was trolling me or praising me.
I literally never know it with him.
I think he was definitely praising you.
He did mention, Yobhi, did you see the tweet about how...
I did see this, not a David Howell broadcast.
You're on the wrong one.
Exactly.
I agree.
I completely agree as well.
It's not a Tania Sachdev and Yobankahuske broadcast.
Anish, yeah, what about us?
you're watching hello three of us here we come as a trio or not at all that's that's the deal
I like the sentiment David going back to our bird's-eye view well we saw
pregnant early on get in a French let's look at how that was developed and it wasn't one of my
old time favorites when I faced the French when I was playing E4 I always did an advance
and I had mixed results and I got I got to say I still have mixed opinions
Me too and these days I don't touch the French with either color so much
But with white I used to score very heavily again heavily against the French
But yeah, these positions that's so tense
I used to play just like you you've anchor E5 all the time. Let's do a quick action replay
Magnus reacted to this surprise with the advanced variation as you mentioned there
But after c5, c3, Black has so many options.
Black can also play with bishop d7, trying to quickly, for example, bring out the bishop
to b5, trying to trade off White's best bishop.
For Black's slightly stuck French bishop.
But Nc6 instead, and again, loads of moves.
Qb6, maybe the ultimate mainline, bishop d7, f6, Ng7, there's so many options.
And it can be hard to get your mind around it.
looks like Prague is surprised Magnus with a very rare move knight h6 or at least
compared to the other lines still a few hundred games there so I shouldn't say
very rare, slightly rare and the big question is to take or not to take?
Yeah. The knight otherwise will land on the f5 square. It's an interesting kind of
formation with the knight out to h6 because just to kind of compare it with
your queen b6 and bishop d7 there are certain guidelines like for instance
If a knight ever came to e7, that was white signal to go knight a3 to get your knight
to c2 so that you could bolster up the pawn on d4.
And if the queen ever came as, yeah, there's just one kind of idea, you could apply this
with both bishop d7 and the knight coming to e7.
But also, queen, after queen b6, it was also possible to go a3 to gain a very quick challenge
of b4 as well.
clarify the center in order to again reinforce d4. And one of the big ideas
with this particular pawn structure in general is you want to be going bishop
d3. So if we rewind tonight h6, this is reason why people were going queen b6 so
that you didn't get bishop d3 because that bishop shooting out at h7 is one of
the most powerful pieces. So this is also a question and as David you mentioned
bishop takes knight is also a possibility and I never knew whether
this was a good or bad thing. Yeah, I never knew either. And I think the last time I played
the French in a classical game, if I'm not mistaken, was against the Wayne Jones at
the London Chess Classic. And there he surprised me with the advance variation. I was like,
oh, no, I'm scared of that one. So I was kind of freestyling a bit. I played Queen B6, B2,
and just because of exactly what you said about Yavanka, I played the move from Nite
to H6 in this position. Nite E7 does allow Nite A3 and coming back to defend the pawn,
h6. The idea was that I don't allow knight to a3 because that knight can be taken and
damage to white's pawn structure, black gains a bit of time of development. Knight c3 is
supposed to lead to some forcing lines where black is totally fine. But now he played,
bishop takes h6. I took on b2 thinking, okay, I'm going to either win the rook or take the
bishop next and having one upon. And after the move knight to d2 takes, he just castled.
I was left with an unpleasant choice whether to take a pawn, whether to run away and lose time with my queen
And actually this pawn structure, which we might see, it's really bad for black
White just goes rookie one, knight f1, knight run to g3, knight to h5, and it sounds simple, slow, but very effective
And yeah, I worry for Pryg if he's not well prepared here
The fact that he's belly taken any time on the clock right now, a little over a minute, they didn't move like 9-8-6
I think he knows what he's doing he wants a fight he needs it and this kind of an imbalance if you do take the night
You open up the g file
You know there are ideas that black would have after Bishop takes Knight pawn takes Bishop
You could plant that Bishop on g7 open the diagonal with f6 at the right time as well and then get your play
What frog wants if Magnus wasn't to take on 8-6 is to plant the knight on f5
So it comes with its own sort of set of consequences in both these lines giving that play you want
I think it's between bishop d3 to try to stop knight coming from f5 or taking the knight on a 6 immediately as you guys pointed out
983 would run into pawn takes pawn, bishop takes knight for black in this position and you're super happy as a French player in that
So if 983 is not an option here
We're looking at either a bishop development by Magnus, which would then allow the knight to jump to the center of the board
Or a position which is absolutely crazy where Prague has got the doubled h pawns
But an open g line for future ideas and of course the French f6 break as well
I like what braga's on here. He's sort of taking the fight to the world number one with this move
I love it as well as a fan as a commentator. I love it because we're gonna get so much action in this game pretty much guaranteed now
I can't see this ever fizzling out. This is gonna be
Rich full of ideas for both sides
But yeah, it is very risky. We should say
So yeah, he's trying to play against Magnus. He doesn't want to get ground down in some long game
So I love the fighting spirit from Prec.
And we've spoken about this so many times, right?
When you're playing against Magnus, where do you create your chances?
How do you actually try to win is to get him into combative, dynamic positions
as quickly as possible, as early as possible.
The kinds where both players can go wrong, you're looking for those time scrambles at the end,
you're looking for those mistakes to happen.
You can't win a positional battle against Magnus Carlson.
You can't expect to actually get a result if you're going into a strategic maneuvering game
against a player like Magnus.
No, you can't, definitely, and Prager's learned that, as you mentioned, he needs to unsettle
the position.
So this one shaping up nicely, let's go back to our bird's-eye view, because we got developments
happening elsewhere and I've also got my eyes on top right between Wesley Soe, Vincent
Keimer, because there's a lot of tension in the centre and this one, it reads to me
like it came from a Nimzo Indian.
came from a Nimzo Indian and we'll break it down in a minute, but I will say that Wesley
has used this plenty of times before to make quick draws, this exact variation. It's known
to be pretty much a forced draw if both sides know all the theory. So the big question is
Wesley has been spending some time. Has he been surprised? He chose this line, so I would
be surprised if he's surprised. But yeah, Vincent now thinking a little bit about whether
to continue with Queen to H4, which is maybe the main line. But quick action replay for
everyone at home. The Nimzo Indian. This is with the Bishop coming out to make a
pin now on the C3 Knight. White plays Queen C2 and Black has a bunch of moves.
D5 is the way to stop white building a center. If you're inclined, I've always
been playing D5 just because I'm scared of what's happening in the game now. C5
is possible, B6 is possible, loads of moves, but Kima castles, Wesley does
take the center and D5 this is all very forcing stuff white steps forward
black gets a beautiful night in the center challenges and huge tension now
between the pawns here in the middle of the board so that's that's tension is
released Vincent attacks the E5 pawn which is now defended and I mentioned
that Queen H4 was played played in most high-level games in recent memory but I
do think that knight c5 was the old mainline and I wonder what Wesley's
store. Is it a small surprise or what do we think? Is it playing it safe in the
classical? My read on this is that Wesley knows that Vincent suffers in the
Armageddon at Norwichas and he's happy with his lead to just take it into that
if the opportunity presents itself and throwing the ball to Winston do you have
a way to make this into a game and I think Wesley's happy if this goes down
that path you know David you mentioned Wesley has played this number of times
himself there are a lot of forcing draw lines he's had games with elite
grandmasters Wesley in this position which have ended in a draw and I
I quickly want to show that part that leads there.
As you said, the move that's most played here,
Queen H4, you bring the Queen out, you hit the Bishop,
and White defends it by hitting the Black Queen.
You fall back to H5, you keep it active,
Aingos light squares, shock castle.
This is from the game Wesley versus Fabiano-Caruana,
and it's not the only game.
There are a number of games that have been played like this,
and this is how it ends.
You go G5, you hit the Bishop, you have pieces attacked,
what do you do, most natural choice,
you obviously grab upon, you completely ignore that.
But the Knight on E4 hangs as well.
The night hangs, so you trade on C3.
You pick up that knight, and after knight takes knight,
you know, your knight falls, what do you do?
Obviously grab another pawn, David Howell.
You never recapture.
Porn takes pawn, hitting the knight.
Porn takes bishop, this is all standard theory
in this setup.
After pawn takes bishop, a series of trades,
the entire sequence is just take,
take, take, take, take, all around.
Porn takes knight, pawn takes pawn first,
threatening checkmate right there, David.
You can throw that in, be a little fancy.
And after pawn takes pawn, only then you grab
D7 point you'd get this position anyway the knight on C3 would be picked up the
rook lines up against the Queen white goes Bishop F5 once more trade very
vestly asked take the pawn on C3 take the bishop on D7 take the rook on A1
take the rook on C8 take the knight on D4 opposite color bishops handshakes
Armageddon here we are literally didn't feel like chess it just kind of felt
like got to take, right? Watch it play out. It's gonna happen.
I think there are other names for it but when I was young it used to be called
like suicide chest where you try and get rid of all your pieces as quickly as
possible and the whole idea is to force your opponent to take everything
and they try and force you to take all their pieces and it feels like yeah just
swap, swap, swap, swap, swap and we swap down to a dead draw.
Yeah this is one of many. I've seen very similar lines and there are other
branches to this variation but everything leads to simplification,
everything leads to
I think Vincent looks a bit
upset. Actually he's like, Oh,
I want to play for a win. I
might need to play for a win
with black. If I'm going to
win the tournament against the
leader now, but, uh, yeah,
Quidditch for happens. Forced
draw at the very best, probably.
Yes. Well, Vincent is definitely
thinking of ways he can
unsettle Wesley will find out
whether Wesley has got a planned
draw in mind. Let's go back to
the birds. I've you because
allowed. I gotta say, Tanya, you mentioned move g5 and it is made an appearance in
Khrushchev against Gukesh. Take a look at that. g5, h5 there on the top left.
That bishop is getting chased down. I'm also got my eyes on the Marquis matchup
I think between Divya and Vibhisara. Again, that looks very unconventional
with a queen taking on d4 and I'm really excited to see how that one
develops. And before we dive into that, let's do a quick roundup of everything. I see a
Kinect 4 on Magnus Carlson's boat, so David Howell is a happy man right now. That French
is going to be an exciting one next to that top right there, Wesley So, Wesley Schaimer.
Potentially going into a very vintage Wesley draw, some forcing lines there. We might see
this go down to the Armageddon, meanwhile, Jiu Jitsu, or Wen Jun. There's pressure on
that pin tonight on F6, and I think White's more active pieces. Give White something to
play for but these openings Wenjin should be able to neutralize take it to that
Armageddon would be my bet on that and before we head into Divya and Vivisara
Yovanka as you wanted it Humpy and Anna Musichuk I think Anna Musichuk definitely
the more motivated out there to do this is a slow guy copiano but I think
Musichuk will look for her chances for Humpy the big question is how ambitious
how much of a fighting mood she's in she's been having a disastrous tournament
here as well it's not been working out for her and she's currently in last place
So let's deep dive into Divya against a BB Sarah and
Well that also answered a question of mine
You know which way was the king gonna be castling what Divya says King side, but let's break down
Exactly what went on before yeah white is so far ahead in development just to mention here
Why it's got both nights out a bush about a queen out and castled and the black looks like she's barely made any moves
But yeah, how do we get here? It wasn't unorthodox Sicilian
that means after C5 white starting with Nc3 very flexible, Nxd6, but if you start with
the pawn on d6 we could see the Carlson variation of the Sicilian with a quick d4 and this kind
of cuts across blacks plans somewhat. The queen goes back to d2, white fiancato is the
bishop on b2. Modern kind of theory here, there's a lot of it but it looks like Bebesara
wanted to avoid that if you play 96 you can't play a night off you have to go
for the dragon or classical Sicilians if white plays night of three although
white could have played f4 grand prix attack g3 lots of options anyway so
flexible but I think Bibasara wanted to kind of force Divya down and narrow a
path a6 and now if night of three we'll see maybe more mainline Sicilians but
Divya has been surprising opponents nearly every round here in Norway chess
to d4, getting her queen out early. Very interesting stuff. I think if the black knight had hit the queen,
which would have been the most natural move, the queen would probably step back to e3,
and the whole idea is to jump in very quickly, potentially, to the b6 square.
And yeah, again, it's something that probably Divya had prepared, so BeBsara plays b5 instead.
White develops, black's bishop gets out, but black forced to make some pawn moves, and yeah,
just so far behind in development. She's trying to speed up now by playing e5.
What do we make of this so far? It looks like a dream for Divya. I'm not sure where she's going
with her queen though. It really does right? With only a single bishop developed for Bevisara
in her position and you're still far away from castling. Divya can move back, line up the rook
on d1. Anytime you commit to e5, trying to be energetic with black, it's going to be a fight
about that d5 square at the center of the board. I mean I cannot oversee the importance of this
a matchup between Divya and Vivisara, right, for Yvanka.
I think for Norwich as women, the championship might just come down to this very game, to
this classical game.
Divya has currently two and a half points behind Vivisara.
She wins this, she gets those three points, she takes the lead with only two rounds remaining.
Vivisara wins this, that's almost, you know, home for her.
She's got it in her bag.
It's very important that Divya, the position she's got and what ideas that she might have
to try to get the initiative with the lead in development that you're pointing out, David.
Did she actually make something real for it?
Or will Bebesara have enough time to get the knight out to f6, to put the bishop on e7,
to get her other knight via d7 or c6 into the game, get castle, give black three moves,
and you're absolutely comfortable.
Yeah, I completely agree with you Tanya, this is such an important game for the standings
and we have seen actually Bebesara also come to the games flexing her opening knowledge.
This is excellent technique excellent preparation from Divya to just unsettle her opponent
Queen has to move. Where are we expecting the Queen to go? Wow
Yvanka just while you were saying that I was expecting Queen D3
I've got to say or Queen E3 one of these two retreats
But Divya is looking away, which is a bit of a tell-tale sign and Tanya you've just pointed out that she has another option
Maybe retreating isn't the name of the game right now. Maybe she doesn't have to go back
And it's a banger of an option.
David, I was trying to look for some games in this position, see if this position has been paid before.
It has absolutely not. It's a fresh position in the board.
One thing's clear, this is Divya's preparation.
And going down that rabbit hole, seeing what the best move of the engine is,
it's a shocker here, Yavanka.
And if that's part of prep, this is where a Norway chess woman could completely have a turnaround.
Knight takes pawn.
is the move for Divya to go for for the initiative you sacrifice your night for
two pawns your queen will grab the pawn next and you're basically making a
case that you're completely not developed the rook's coming to D1 the
white knight's about to jump to D5 and you're just paying for long-term
pressure and compensation does Divya have this in her prep will we see this
happen I'm just completely flabbergasted by that move because I think I would
automatically if I didn't know that this was a possibility I would just
to miss it because yeah I'm chicken and also I think with the queen would block
the check and I'm chicken club as well I think we also have a fellow chicken yes
I would never play night 65 but if it works and it's preparation we might see
fire on the board occurring big moment here for Divya is this all part of her
preparation, will she slam that night and take the pawn on E5? Well, we're gonna leave you
on a cliffhanger because we are gonna go on a break, but don't go anywhere because we've got
more action coming up and if you're subscribed on Twitch, you can catch the pre-game thoughts
and moves from our players.
What kind of result are you happy with today?
Kind of a result?
Well, win Armageddon.
I noticed Vincent lost all his Armageddon games, so I mean at the very least, or at the very least, or at the very most, or whatever.
I tried to win something.
I mean yesterday I was very disappointed with the Armageddon game, but okay.
It's been interesting with Vincent this tournament because he's gotten so many positions, but he's been unable to capitalize.
Do you think he can use that against him somehow today?
Ah, yeah, that's a good point. I think he's severely struggling with the time control. He's really a classical player.
If you look at his ratings, his Blitz rating is his lowest and his weakness. I think he's barely 2600 in Blitz.
Yeah, that's something he really could improve upon because he's trained by Peter Leco, who's a classical chess player.
Vincent really is a classical player, but this year he's playing the Grand Chester which a lot of
speed tournaments, so I have no doubt he'll improve. Online he's already improved a lot on Blitz,
his rating is very high on Chester.com, but he's not able to show it in person, but yeah,
I don't want to jinx it. You can use it against him if you try. Yeah, that's the plan. If Vincent
gets low on the clock and he has to rely on increment, then he's very vulnerable for sure,
but there's two hours. Good luck. Thank you.
Hampi, I mean, at least mathematically there's still a chance for you to win all the games
going up to the leaderboard. What is your approach to that?
Yeah, nothing great. Like I've been in terrible form. Like I was in yesterday, I had a disastrous
games as well. Like even in classical, I started blundering. So I'm really not thinking about
this all day. Just wanted to play the game. Yeah.
So you survived yesterday, the classical today, you're facing Anna, who you faced so many times.
What can you expect from this match?
Yeah, we played plenty of times.
So yeah, it's going to be one more tough game here.
West of Luck, thank you.
Vincent, West of Luck has seemed really good in this tournament,
but you have also looked really good until you've gotten in a bit of a time trouble at the end.
Do you try to actively do something to not end up in shorter time?
Well, it's very tough to not end up there, but maybe delay that a little.
Generally, you just have to see what's possible and I guess using your time in a good way
is one of the decisive factors in how you perform here.
We're looking forward to seeing the performance today. Thank you Vincent.
Thank you.
Oh, that's a big game for the total standings. I know you keep saying it's only one game ahead,
but now we're getting towards the end of the tournament. Does three-pointers become more important?
It's still one game to go.
And do you feel good today before this game?
I'm glad to play with white, finally, because I had many games with black pieces that weren't so easy, so I hope with white it will be easier.
We're looking forward to it, and you're still right up there. You're only just a short ways ahead to Bibisata and Divya ahead of you.
Yeah, and they are playing against each other, so that will be an interesting question.
Good luck.
Thank you.
Bibisata, I'll allow myself to say that today you can almost decide the tournament, Twitter, Winning, Classical Time. Do you think about this at all?
at all? No, not at all. What's the focus before going into such an important game? Just enjoy,
we have three more rounds, so I just want to play every game as the best game I can, and that's
all. And are you enjoying your chess these days? Yes. That's a good answer, I like that, confidence.
Good luck today, Bibisoda. Thank you. With such important games as today, do you plan and
do you save anything special for those kind of games in your preparations or so? Is it just
another day at the office? No, I think it's just another day at the office because you never know
if you're going to get into that situation. So that's why I think it's just one game.
How much are you looking forward to this day? Because right now it does feel like the entire
tournament is on the line today almost. I don't know, to me it's just a regular game. I don't
really care. And you actually manage to think like that when you sit down and play as well,
not feel the everything, all the surroundings or anything like that?
Yeah, okay, we've been playing for years, so we're kind of learning that.
Good luck to you, we're really hoping for a great game save, Divya, thank you so much.
Okay, thank you. Agnes, what strategy are you going to have today for the game against Proctor Event?
I know, I'll play and then we'll see what he does, he kind of plays everything, so yeah, we'll see.
Go back.
We are back, where's the beginnings of a dead man?
We are back, where's the beginnings of day eight of Noy Chess, three rounds remaining,
and we have a real mixed bag in front of us.
As the players are locked in thoughts, and locked seeing these particular players in
action, let's check out the birds like you, because as I mentioned, a real mixed bag,
we have some real cutthroat chess, then we have some games that look like they could
very well fizzle out to a draw.
i'm looking at the four boards that excite me the most and right now that's the top pro
norway chess and the center bottom row the marquee matchup in norway chess women devia
versus bevisara and left to that bottom left i think that's going to be our quickest to
armageddon if that was a championship that one would be won by rujina and benjen right
now opposite color bishop equal number of pawns i think david most likely to go into
an armageddon i would say over the next five moves they'll find a way to to make that happen
our bottom right music versus Humpy still a very slow strategic fight not much has happened.
It's a classic typical Italian so far. Yeah, I agree. We have four, maybe four and a half
exciting games. And then we have Wesley trying to make a draw and then we have a millionaire
trying to make a draw. Yeah, we won't go to that one yet probably. But yeah, the others
I'm super excited about right now. Right. And one of those games that really excites
me also in particular reference to the time mods is Magnus. Magnus against
Prague we saw Magnus be surprised by this French choice and then night at age six
and he spent a lot of time on the clock. We actually have a confessional from
Magnus. So let's hear what he has to say.
Here we go again.
Ah, f**k. Here we go again.
Get surprised. Think for 20 minutes. Try and make a move that's kind of dumb enough
that you might not completely know it. Modern chess.
I'm not sure. I'm not sure.
on stock fish more like to prepare and then 20 minutes later after hating myself I suddenly
start thinking okay what's going to be the weirdest move possible what's the fourth
fifth best top engine move what's something that my opponent hasn't studied that they
might not remember and after all the mind games you end up playing something that might
not be great after all in 9A3 we did see a dubious mark appear that was a cushion mark
followed by an exclamation mark so not the best move Magnus probably the best would have
been to take that night. But, uh, yeah, it shows the thought process, even of the world's
best players can be very human, very human. And who I've been told that I have to have
to ask for our predictions now. I'm a bit, I'm a bit reluctant to do so because I have
a grand score for those of you who've been just following. We do have a prediction game
going on, where we've been betting how many decisive games will be happening. And I'll
have you know that so far of the trio, David, our grandmasters in the lead with four points,
Tanya is second with two points, the chair is third with one point, and yours truly has
zero points or as my dad used to say, Seropelo in Spanish. And that's exactly what I have.
I have nothing. I come so close.
Today's the day, Yumi. You got it. Today's the day.
Today's my lucky day.
Yes. You knew that Prague would play a French. You had that spidey sense.
So we let you go for us this time.
Trust your instincts.
No, I don't want you to feel sorry for me. I feel like the rules are...
We don't have that.
We don't feel sorry for you. We're just the one you do.
This is just the way things have been in the Norwiches!
Have I still had the players are conspiring against me?
Yesterday I should have got my three, okay, and anyway, anyway, I digress.
So I've been asked, okay, so I'll take the first decision.
Take the first pick.
Three.
That was gonna be my number, Jovi!
Three decisive games.
I reckon Wesley will be successful,
I reckon it's gonna be a draw between Humpy and Anna,
and also Joon Joon Joon there.
I will go with two decisive games and four Armageddon's today, David Hallis.
Oh no, that was going to be my answer.
That brought me success yesterday.
Oh, okay, so my choice is I have to decide between one decisive game,
even though it feels like several of the players are quite blood thirsty.
Do you still think about peace sacrifice, Magnus Pragg? I think that might be decisive.
So, for Ruzio Kukash could be fun, decisive as well.
I can't just say one, so I'm going to say four decisive games in the class pool.
Let's go.
You know, the last time we cornered him and he was forced to predict four, you didn't
you?
He caught four predictions.
It's not going to happen again, don't worry.
I think you've made a very good number.
Okay, I'll also chat, get involved, see if you can join the winning team or the losing
team.
But I take some skill to get them all wrong.
So you're at 3, I'm at 3, you're at 2, 4, 4 and 4 decisive games exactly and David has
guaranteed himself like second place at least.
Not necessarily, 3 rounds to go at Yabanka, I mean I could overtake him, get 3 out of
3 and be the winner, you unfortunately, exactly, I can't make it, maybe the chair can do it.
The chair can catch me up.
Maybe you and Chad can also catch David up.
I would have said you and me together can take him down, but then I realized that's just me.
So in any way, I'm literally not pulling any weight when it comes to that.
Okay, well, we'll see whether today is my lucky day.
We will find out.
But talking about luck, talking about fire, can I direct us to what is happening between
the game. I'm going to be
going to be playing for Rooster
and Goukash because when I see
the pawns on G five and age
five, I'm thinking this is
smoking and an uncle. Wait a
second. Queen takes porn. Blue
arrow. Let's go. This is one of
the four decisive games this
round. I'm banking on it. It
just looks so chaotic right
now. Very quick recap of the
or near enough mobility from Goukesh, at least among games that we can see with master level players.
Farouzha, spend a little bit of time, play the most natural move.
This is where maybe Magnus would have smelled a rat, spent 30 minutes, and then played something subpar,
just to try and get Prague out of the... sorry, Goukesh out of theory, but E3, most natural.
Goukesh says, let's go. G5, love to see it. This is why I'm such a fan of Goukesh's jest in general,
which is always entertainment, whether it goes right, whether it goes wrong, it's fun.
And g5, he pushes the bishop back, he takes this white knight with a check, and now h5
all the pawns running forward, and there's no way to save this bishop without pushing
the h pawn. H3, h4, probably playing h4 just to stop the pawns advancing, but this comes
at the cost of white's pawn structure. Loads of weaknesses now, I'm not sure whether black
pushes forward with g4 or plays queen b6 but this type of thing could rebound on
white so Farouche says okay it's too late I have to fight fire with fire and he
goes on the counter-attack. Queen b3 normally you expect opponents to react
to threats not Goukeshe he just castles and this is the live position Tanya it's
about to explode. It's Ali Razor sharp position is what we have and I absolutely
love it. The first surprise of this game was Bishop to f5 by Goukeshe and then
And the next one is what we're seeing right now and this will just stop there, right?
Queen takes pawn is the bait right now and David, it gets very tricky because there's
actually no good way to defend that rook.
I first thought that, you know, he's playing for compensation, Gukesha's knight comes out
to d7, knight of six, you still have ideas of h4, but if you go for this idea, queen
takes pawn and white is close to winning in this position.
If knight d7 is losing to queen takes pawn, Gukesha's planning a rook sacrifice right
now on move number 11.
he's got shot casu queen takes pawn good and it's on the board we're gonna see
this being played out Gukesh will have to play fast to show confidence here
97 is lost there's no good way to defend that rook what does Gukesh have in
mind here okay so can we just run through that 97 line one more time and
just to kind of walk through it move by move 97 take the pawn whoa it's
We don't even need to analyze. C6. This is what I was talking about. This is some master preparation, world championship level preparation here.
Gukesha Singh, I'm making a simple pawn move. Take my rook and this has to revolve around the idea of trapping the white queen at the corner of the board.
It has to be. I think the black queen is going to come out. I'm not sure whether you take this bishop first. That's the big question, but queen B6, I'm expecting.
The rook defends the knight. The white queen totally traps. Watch out. The black queen might dive in as well.
White's getting a bit shaky suddenly and yeah, if White just tries to complete development,
the Black suddenly will likely be winning, just moves the Knight out the way.
Material balance is actually still fine for White,
but the fact that the Bishop is about to get trapped,
the fact that Queen is about to lunge forward,
White's going to win material, sorry, Black's going to win material.
And Ferozia, in huge trouble, he sacrifices the Rook indeed,
as Krishna says, the Rook, and I don't think the Rook should be taken.
Or is it too late?
Alireza looks shell shocked and also I love the fact that Bukkesh on the move castles just before C6 spent
What was it seven minutes? So he was lulling
Ferozia into a false sense of security
In this position. He was like Queen B3. Oh, I don't know am I still in prep? Am I not still in prep?
Castled Queen takes B7 instantly C6. That's a boss move. Wow boss move in indeed
he can't take the rook because of the problems of development and also the bishop, but okay,
what can white play? So white can just focus on, I want to say development, but I'm slightly
worried and I again think British, extremely concerned about this bishop on g3, because
if you were to make a move like bishop to e2, isn't h4 just the coming? And I don't see
how I'm going to save that bishop. I guess you could trade it off, but I'm not sure it's
an exchange that White wants to make, Rook takes, and it's going to be hard for White
to castle. Oh, that's a disaster. And Gukesh would be in his element there, so no, that's
a big failure there in terms of moves. So let's rewind and try to work out what is Alireza's
best chance here the question here for Gukesh this is incredible to watch I mean
to take him into this preparation 10 minutes used less than 10 minutes used
on the clock sacrificing a rug going for a full a blown pond storm on the right
flank right now massive fight this one is for Alireza Feroza you know you got to
be thinking right now am I looking at a tree a three lost streak have I walked
straight into Gukeshi's preparation right now. Is there a way out with H4 coming in, 97 coming in,
Queen A5 coming in? Cannot be very pleasant. I love the play from the world champion today
as Abbas Gehza says so. I saw an earlier featured chat as well that Gukeshi's opening looks like
my coffeehouse chess today. That's very appropriate. The username there because
Alariza is gazing into the abyss. I mean, where do you even start calculating? He's going to burn
another half hour in the next two, three moves. I think he spends another chunk of his time.
By the time he gets moved 20-25, he's probably going to be playing on increment,
or well, no increment actually, at that point he's going to be playing on seconds.
And there really has to be something sad about Gukesha's fighting spirit, right? At the bottom
of the leaderboard, he's had a struggled tournament so far here at Norway, chess. He has been somewhere
Am I in the middle? Or most of the time spending time at the pits of the of the standings.
And yet he comes against a player who's been in hot form here. He smells blood, he smells
target because Alireza has lost two games in a row and comes out with skating preparation
with the black pieces in a very dynamic line. He's not trying to play safe, he's not trying
to shut down play, he's not trying to take Alireza into any positional battles. Kukish
is doing what he does best, get a fight on the board and not thinking about the fact
that have I been informed, are things going wrong?
He's thinking, I just took down Wesley's saw yesterday.
I just took down Wesley in an Armageddon
with a black pieces.
Yeah, and we saw that he was embracing
the complications there as white.
So let's get to the heart of the position
and actually try to break down
what is Alireza's best move.
Because we saw like a developing move,
but should be to didn't really cut the mustard.
So what else should white be doing?
Can I make a suggestion?
Yes, go for it, Tanya.
I've just grabbed a pawn.
I can't grab the rook.
We showed all those lines with the black queen coming out
to be six for those of you who are just joining us.
That is Gukesha's idea.
The white queen gets trapped there.
The black queen is infiltrating.
The rook's about to hit the queen
once the knight gets out of the way.
Problems galore for Ali Reza-Farouja and this one.
But I'm thinking if I'm white in this position,
I'm up a pawn.
I want to trade queens.
Queen to C7.
If you play H4, I'll get everything off the board.
If you take my queen, pawn up, end game, happy camper.
to be the first to play. Yeah
this is an escape path now for
the white Bishop. Jumping in
via C seven. You see. Finally
there's a daylight at the end
of the tunnel. Which way? I
officially for. Which way three
and yeah, something to cling
on to at least this would be
Yeah, my move for sure. Now you
said it, Tanya. Chicken chess
club. That's my best the
membership that I've been
paying for for years. I'm a
doesn't lose a piece immediately. Queen's off it's a dream. And if you put that
queen on f6 trying to hide away from any queen trades then Bishop e5 looks even
more scary right? So I'm not really seeing a way for Goukes to keep the
game to keep the queens on the board in a healthy manner after Queen to c7.
Yeah and that's the kind of issue right? But after the Queen goes to c7 no of
course you don't want to take off queens instead you kind of want to keep the
queens on the board so the other Queen e8 which kind of frankly looks passive
always you have to grit your teeth Tanya and just go Queen F6 and then Queen G6
and fingers crossed and the thing is right when you're surprised if you're
alreza Ferozha right now you try to kind of put things back into control you're
thinking how can I go back to safe territory I'm up upon I do feel it's a
very human approach as well in this position to play Queen C7 yeah I mean
he's gonna go through the motions I think the principle is you should look at
He'll spend five minutes in QTXA8, he'll realise it's not right, then he'll look for something safer.
About to make his decision, David.
QT7.
Ooh, it's on the board.
Great call, Tanya.
And the Ivalba doesn't drop, so it is the best move, or one of the best moves.
Farooja there finding it after a little bit of thought, probably a bit of shock, more than anything.
And we'll find out how deep Kukesh's prep goes right now.
We'll leave him to think a little bit, we're expecting a move quite quickly then.
And I just had to check what is the best move in that position for Alireza Feroja.
David, it wasn't going to cease up, it was the knight falling back to D2.
The best move in the position, the best response that Alireza had
to this insane opening prep that Gukesha has played, that's the top left board
instead of the last move to go knight D2 and H4 things get crazy,
but this a different approach by Alireza, but a more human one.
Yeah. And talking about human, we also see that Divya did not sacrifice on e5,
which was an option for her. Instead, she retreats the queen all the way back.
I'm talking about the bottom game in the middle. And also, I got my eyes on Wesley
So against Vincent Kajma. That could be a half game because Wesley trying to steer it into
and draw his variation or is he?
Maybe we can check that one out as Wesley looks pretty chill and then I'd also love to go to Magnus's game because he's 40 minutes down.
Price just delivered a nasty check, but a very quick update on Wesley's.
So we left it after the move.
Bishop to f4 and we said Qh4.
That is the most popular move nowadays.
It's known to lead to various force drawing sequences.
Vincent, credit to him playing on.
He played Nc5, the older line, the old main line here, which is totally fine as well,
but shows that he wants to keep more tension in the position. Wesley Castles,
we saw some exchanges and minor pieces. And at the very end, b6, an exchange on d5 and rook f2d1.
And White does have some shattered pawns. e5 also a bit overextended, so any end game,
very good for black, but of course, God placed the middle game before the end game.
So yeah the Queen's on the boards who's comfortable there. I do remember a game with Peter Wells an English Grand Master
where white won very quickly. I think it was Daniel Fridtman against Peter Wells from, oh god, probably from my teams.
So it was a long long time ago.
The early 1900s.
Exactly. Thanks Daniel.
There were some actually big attacks for White after the Black Knight retreated, I think, too early in that game.
It would be a mistake, for example, to retreat the Knight, because the White Queen was swinging across and there might be attacks against the G7 corn.
So there are some pitfalls. Black didn't have any defence on the King side, so he'll be hoping to find other ways.
He's going to be careful of C4, the Knight a bit loose, but he should still be fine for the Climber.
And I'm also really to add to everything that you just said for why it's going to add that D6 square that looks very juicy for the white knight to hop into
Especially because you have a direct path with night B5 knight D6 plans
I think for Vincent Kaima
It has to be around setting up the battery with the bishop in the queen eye-lining that G2 square
I'm looking at moves like Bishop B7 with ideas of a knight jump then knight C5 knight takes pawn becomes some real big threats in the position
So for Vincent Bishop B7 feels like a natural response here
Yeah it is actually been played before as well and I've got a game right in
front of me between Shakira Mamajarov against Syria Ganguly and I think it is
Syria Ganguly but okay I'm not not sure whether it was him but anyway that game
continued with Bishop to be servant as you suggested and there Shaq who is one
of the world's best attackers to simply went c4. And after Qa5, f3, Nc5, attacking the
queen. And the queen just slid over to e3 and you can see what Shaq is planning. You
know, there's some pointing going on on the dark squares towards the king. And then after
Qa4, he didn't care about the pawn on c4. It was just like let's go all systems go,
to G5. Queen takes pawn, 92, and knight f4, knight h5, rook d4, a shak attack,
a shak attack, in the suit, and life is good for white. So there is danger. If black isn't
able to successfully set up the bishop and the queen battery and create threats in G2
with the ideas that Yogi pointed out, long term I'm kind of liking Wesley's position here.
Yes, you have this c3 soft spot, but you know, I'm on the king side attack now that you've put it on our reader
Yovie just how dangerous it is almost feels like the e5 pawn divides the board into two halves
And you can start focusing on the right flank Queen g3 push that queen out knight b5 knight d6
Does Wesley have something to play for in the classical against Winston here?
He might do and that's what happens Wesley when he wins. It's normally because people have
like forced him to play they've they've woken the bear and
And, yeah, I mean, against Magnus, Magnus had a repetition, said no, suddenly Wesley
totally outplayed him. Early in the tournament as well, Wesley was trying to keep it solid.
Suddenly people were overpressing and he was able to create chances. This one, of course,
Vince, it's just gone into a theoretical position, so nothing too drastic yet, no harm done,
but it might be the slightly worse side, or at least the slightly more unpleasant, unnatural
side of the position for Black. No easy moves.
I just want to make one point here, you know, for Kaima, he was obviously aware that Qh4
leads to all those forcing lines and I think Kaima wants nothing in Oslo to do with another
Armageddon currently. Qh4 would have sort of led to all those ideas, Westley spayed them
a number of times before against Fabiano Caruana, against Yan-Nepon Nishi, would have been a
quick draw Armageddon and most likely Westley giving Winston his seventh loss in that format.
does maybe have to go into an objectively worse option with black trying to keep the
game open trying to keep that classical chance alive right now and that's why Wesley would
bounce with that opportunity because this isn't the best response if you're playing
black against this line.
Yeah psychologically it's tough as well when you know you could have pretty much had a
draw painless with black suddenly you feel a bit uncomfortable you're like wait why did
I do that this is my own doing shut myself in the foot here why why why so Vincent needs
to overcome that. Just look at the position with fresh eyes and try to avoid any danger,
but not easy.
Not easy at all. Okay, we're going to take a break from this game and move on to that
game that you mentioned, Magnus against Prague, because as you mentioned, Bishop to be for
Czech wasn't unpleasant. Czech's air from Prague was blocked by the Bishop, but then
Bishop takes night.
And before we deep dive into this position, I'm just going to point out, Magnus Carlsen
is down by about 40 minutes on the clock.
And again, it's that same narrative we've been talking about, right?
The clock deficit for Magnus.
It's not something we're used to seeing by the world number one in classical chess.
He's, I think, himself said that he's number one when it comes to, well, everything in
chess, especially clock management.
It's not been the storyline here.
No, and it wasn't the storyline of his most recent tournament in Sweden just a couple
of weeks ago as well, a bit slower than normal. That's why he's still kind of in love with
Blitz and Rapid Chess, I guess, because you don't have the time to think you just have
to trust your instinct. You struggle in the opening, that's fine. Your opponents in time
trouble as well quite early on. But here in classical, it has cost him, including against
Prague in the first half. This week, yeah, Prague against Magnus. It was seconds left
on the clock for both. Magnus cracked. So he'll want to avoid the same again, but let's
dive in maybe as Magnus now has been thinking for three minutes, but it's been on the previous
moves where the real damage has been done on the clock, and Prague only having a few
minutes of thought so far. So we left it after 9 to 8.6, we saw 9.8.3 from Magnus, an exchange
in the center, and f6 from Prague. We're speculating probably still theory, or at least
his preparation. He allowed the queen out now after a capture of Bishop d3. If everyone
at home it's a well-known trap in the French you never want to take the spawn
because after a capture whoops discovered attack check and the Queen
drops off and the only reason I mentioned this is because actually in the
game something similar is happening Prague has ficked in a check the blue
arrow appeared Magnus didn't want to move his king and lose castling rights so
he blocked and now Prague takes on a 3 and I think Magnus is considering
bishop g5 that's the only other explanation oh wait but then there's a
check yes otherwise yeah he would take and that takes d4 and is that
compensation the bar seems to imply that there is can we just check this out a
little bit because it's quite forcing here like takes pawn you don't have time
to take that knight on 8 6 because black just takes the knight on f3 with the
check and here if you take on 8 6 setting up that idea I think this this is
critically right on takes bishop your point of either bishop b5 bishop g6
pick your part to win the queen. Which means that after bishop takes knight there has to be an intermezzo
and in between move. Now at first I thought David Howell that's Queen e5 check but the bishop just slides back to e3.
Bishop slides back and d4 here. Queen a4 check. Queen a4 and thank you very much.
Wins for white so can't be Queen e5 so it has to be Queen c3.
Check.
And now you have to be careful with where to
to run with the king because if you go king e2 you're in the way of any queen
h5 checks. So I wanted to go king f1, maybe a lot of
sense. The evaluation bar doesn't move, you always feel the slight judgmental
value and you get it the approval. It's really something as a commentator to get
validation from that. David, every time you put a move on the board we're like
holding our breath, please do not move.
Please do not move.
And when that happens, feels good.
Yeah.
It's like a chess coach or a parent or something.
We're just desperately seeking approval.
We always like, oh, wait, you're not frowning at me.
You're not shaking your head.
You're not mad, but, yeah, I mean, this is crazy.
Why can't you give checks?
Why can't you just, I don't know, H4,
bring the rook up by H3.
Wild position.
Wild position.
And I got wild news for everyone.
We have a newcomer in the confessional.
Frag has visited the confessional.
Let's roll.
Yeah, okay.
I decided to come to Confession
for the first time in this event.
I remember in 24 hours coming every game,
but yeah, some of this time,
It's already a round 8 and this is my first time coming to the game and this is like the
one of the lines which my second
wrote me to check but
As always I forgot to check
But still I could remember some details from
From like looking at it
Few months back, so I remember this
This bishabh d3 bishabh d4 check was important if I'm not if I'm not Mr.
because if this is not the position then it looks really dangerous but I think somehow it works for black and I remember I
could suppose to be fine but it's just a complicated position and his team said we'll get a fight today.
Oh, Frag being very relatable that his coach tells him, check these lines before you play it and you're like,
and you're like, yes, yes, yes, I will, I will.
And then you just never get around to doing it.
And sure enough, it appears on the board
and you have to work out the complications.
And you're like, why did I just not check?
It would have been so much easier
with the assistance of a stock fish.
It's still gotta love the speed
with which he's been responding, right?
He hasn't really burned that much blocks
or playing confidently.
And I think, David, that's a key part
of when you want to surprise your opponent.
You don't want to go into a think every move yourself.
You don't want to show that hesitancy that you have,
that you're not as well prepared as you'd like to be.
So showing that confidence is as important as being confident.
Exactly.
And we'll learn a lot now, Prague,
how confident he is feeling or wants
to look by the speed of his next move.
If he wants to duck the challenge and just castle,
then game goes on.
But he does take the pawn.
So whether he does remember or not,
that's the biggest question.
But Magnus now will believe due to the speed of that move that Prague is still in theory and psychologically that is huge.
That is tough for the world number one. Magnus, I mean, he wants to play night A3 earlier to try and dodge theory, to dodge lines.
He said, OK, I'm trying to find something so stupid that Prague would never have looked at it.
But Prague is barely blinked. And here we are, Magnus, to point out.
Yeah, I mean, it's just great in the mind games as well because it's the most unnerving thing.
when you get surprised in the opening your opponent just keeps on bashing out
those moves and you're thinking yeah you know at some point you gotta stop
playing quickly I have to surprise you and Magnus just thinking so many
options night takes night is what we are expecting what is Magnus gonna be
playing that's the big question is it gonna be night takes night I also want
point out that you can't win that night at the center of the board if you give a
check on a4 it feels that looks like a double attack but the black knight can
just fall back where it came from and the white rook is hit as well. So Qa4
does not work. Knight takes knight feels like the most forcing move and I think
what's going on in Magnus' head right now is that after knight takes knight it's
recaptured. Now you've still got options right? You've got two checks. It's
checks captures threats so if you go according to that order Bishop b5 you're
looking at Qh5 and you're looking at Bishop takes knight. These are the three
moves that you have to go down the rabbit hole with, if you're Magnus Carlsen right now.
Yeah, absolutely. And well, I guess we follow the rules of calculation, right? We choose a check and then the capture.
Okay, which one can we rule out then? We're trying to rule out variations so we can focus a bit more on our calculation on specific lines.
My vibe is Queen H5 is one that we can rule out because it can get locked with a G.
I was thinking G6, yes.
It works. The rook on A1 is hanging, so you don't have time to pick up the knight on A6.
Bishop takes pawn. It just feels like you don't have enough ammunition to make that sacrifice work.
It's a lone queen.
It's a lone queen. The black knight is a good defender.
So ordinarily that would be very tempting for white, but probably not this one. G6.
I'm always curious about queen takes and King E2 and hoping to deflect the black queen away.
but this isn't the 19th century anymore. Players do not play like this. The age of romantic chess is
harder to recapture. Can we just sacrifice first, think later, Morphe? Just indulge me,
because we had a double-rack sacrifice, and I think that you should not have taken the second
Rooks house on offer. That's the only thing I'm going to say about that. Black's done enough
material up. We can bring the Queen back with a check, for example. The Queen takes the Rook.
This is what I was hoping for. I didn't see the mate yet, but I mean I'm looking at Queen
into Cheese 7 for example. I was looking in that direction as well. It should be 5. Exactly.
So always take care of your King, folks. Yeah, and check. And I found a mate. I found
a mate. I don't know what it's called. Almost a Bodans mate. No, no, no. It has a name. Oh,
Yvanka. Yeah, it's almost a Bodans, but I thought it was double Bishop mate. That's the one I
was going for yeah I would have we're very literal chess players double
bishop mate it's quite funny because I'm a load of them others named after
players and then suddenly it just gets really literal like double bishop mate
double knight mate the triangle mate the pawn mate but I quite like the kill
box and that's just like a queen on f6 and a rook on h8 and the king is there
on G8. It's in the box. There you go. I like the epaulette, just like more poetic. Yeah,
exactly, like they're named after the shoulder pads that soldiers wear. What's the epaulette
made? If White had a queen on E6, Black has a king on E8 and Rooks on FA and E8. Oh, you
boxed yourself. Yes. You got yourself into a kill zone. Okay, and this position is wild.
is going to be thinking for a while. I'm loving some of those romantic variations we're putting on
the board. We're unsure exactly what's going to work. Okay, he does take the night. Prague's going
to recapture. Maybe we can come back to this one in a moment because zooming out just for a sec,
the bird's eye view, we do see that the eval bars in general are roughly around the center.
A couple of players with an advantage for Ruzia has got Goukessh thinking. That's the top left
So Goukesha's prep, clearly, finally has run out.
Prag recapturing the piece in the meantime.
But maybe the highest bar, surprisingly of all, is bottom left.
Zouxunnair against Zhu Wenjun.
And this is going to be one of four decisive games this round,
as I knew from the start, of course,
because White suddenly, with a big advantage,
better pawn structure.
It really reminds me of the game Magnus Karsten against Hans Nieman
from Title Tuesday a few months ago,
where White gets the rook active, White has a beautiful bishop,
and black. Yeah just the double pawns alone causing her some grief. And it's
fascinating because we have written this one off as the fastest to the Armageddon
and now here we are you know we speak about the opposite color complex of the
bishop and the drawing tendencies but it's so much about the bishops and the
targets that they have. Look at vengeance bishop on a5 it's gonna do nothing at all
you know we talk about the importance of attack on the black king as well. Once
that bishop lands on c4 the checks that you're pointing out the other rook
eventually coming into play and you can play this super slowly. I think what's
important is that if you're Jena, you want to avoid every single piece
straight in this endgame. You want to keep maximum pieces on the board and
just keep putting pressure, improve the position of that and usually in these end
games you have all the time in the world to do that. No targets for Wenjun so far
with the bishop on a5. Yeah with the bishop out there on a5 yeah I can
definitely see that the bishop is misplaced but why is the white advantage
so high. Because after all, material is level. If the rooks all get traded off, then that
is a draw. But is it really just because, like, has those double pawns?
Yeah, it must be a forcing line or forcing type of moves if the eval bars this high.
Like, I think it's clear that white is the one having a bit more fun, white's risking
precisely zero. But it must be something forcing. And again, just drawing on that game I mentioned
where Magnus outplayed Hans Niemann in this exact opening, actually this exact pawn structure.
It was to do with one rook getting active. There was a trade of one set of rooks, but
then later the white king was actually able to get into the action and was able to kind
of step forward and then later make its way on over to the queen side and start winning
some pawns. So, okay, that's the long way down the line. Let's start with the forcing
moves. She starts with a forcing move. Rook f3 hits a pawn. I was actually going to suggest
a check and, okay, I just realized the black rook can block, but if the king had moved,
I was going to say maybe something about F4 and bring this other rookie and I see the
eval bar drop.
Well, maybe, okay, slightly fine tuning it.
Let's say this line and maybe F4.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
And then the other rookie comes up.
But then can't you go rookie 3 or rookie 1, trying to trade off a pair of rooks, I was
thinking, and that would just force the matters if the rooks lead all the way to the first
rank if you're black.
Okay.
Now I'm going to try and show my plan.
It's crazy how much of an advantage the computer is giving this position for Black, for White even.
And here probably Ruki 7 is necessary because if the Black Bishop just moves then the White King can start running.
And maybe there's better ways to do it.
But the Eva bar is going a bit up and down and I could definitely see this fizzling towards the draw
if Zuzhined doesn't find anything immediate in the next few moves.
So Wenjun decides to put her King on F8 and if Zuzhined wants to get into your line
You could still line up the rook against that H pawn on our live board right now and then push the F pawn
But the thing is you can also go F4 here directly if you believe that trading one pair of rooks you still keep
Maximum advantage here as a player you're really feeling on the board that this is something real for you to fight for with the white pieces I
Would play on just because there's no risk and I love that
Also, there's no 30 move, draw off a ruler, so you've got to play on.
But you know, I started thinking ahead about your plans of attacking the weak H pawn, and
I started understanding that actually the white king is perfectly safe, because using
your idea of going rook h3, f4, then the other rook can lift, and the white king is perfectly
happy on f2.
We should put this fantastic anchor there on this d3 square.
Beautiful Bishop. Can we agree that this one goes on way longer than we were
anticipating at first and maybe another 50 move grind by Jujina. Is it going to
be enough or not? I'm still not sure. I see the bar, I see the big advantage, I
see the arguments, but the opposite color Bishop, level material, rip-on and games,
it's going to be quite something to watch her win this one. I also should
mention I remember a game from 2005 I think it was where I lost from the
the black side in this exact material balance. This is that one structure. So, I was a bit
younger. I didn't really like any games back then, but I can totally kind of picture how
uncomfortable Zhu Wenjun is feeling right now. And yeah, also the game definitely going
on. Otherwise, Zuzhi and I could have played Rook H3, King G7, Rook G3 check, repeated
right there and right then, but she plays on.
Yes. Well, definitely the women's world champion Zhu Wenjun feeling uncomfortable. She's normally
used to play in this type of position on the white side but here she's facing an unpleasant
choice and she has to defend. We are going to go on a mid break but I have a mid break
trivia quiz for you all. Now this is the question who's the only player to reach 2800 in live
rating but not published rating? Is it Yana Pomayashi? Is it Anish Giri? Goukesh? Timor
Rajagolf and you can send the answer in Twitch or YouTube using the hashtag
NoWayToWinChest.com Diamond Memberships.
Use exclamtrivia in chat to know more and all be revealed after the short break.
What I like about chess is that there is actually a lot of similarities.
With the football as well, you need to plan your moves a bit ahead.
You need to stay sharp, you can't lose one second of focus.
If you do, you like it punished.
You have to sometimes surprise the opponent.
Chess, I have a lot to learn.
In life, I have a lot to learn.
So, everything in life you can always get better and you can always improve.
Hopefully chess can turn chess into an even bigger sport for new audiences.
Total Chess is a new FI Day approved world championship tour.
Created by the team behind Norway Chess, it combines fast classic, rapid and blitz into one title.
A pilot is set for autumn 2026.
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and
and
and
and
and
and
and
We are back with day 8 of NoHS and if you're just joining us while you timed it to perfection
because we have a trivia quiz for you when the answer will be revealed, there we go,
who's the only player to reach 2800 in live rating but not published rating? Well, I'm gonna throw
over to David and Tanya because they were very confident about their answer so together...
Why do I win if I get this right, Jovi?
If you get it right.
You win the respect of this person we're about to announce.
That's what I mean. I think it's David's new best friend, Anish Giri, would be my answer
in that one. And I'm very confident about my pick in this one, David Hall.
I believe I think it's the king of social media, father of three three-time candidate,
Anish Giri. There we go. Ghosty 12-11. Congrats. Congratulations, you win diamond memberships.
Yeah, I didn't actually know that, it was Niche.
It was, and there have been 16 players in the history of chess
who've crossed 2800 officially in the rating list,
starting from Garry Kasparov in 1990.
And Niche Girry is the one player who did cross 2800,
but in the live reading and not in the published list.
Okay, the 70th one.
Well, if you're ever at a chess trivia quiz,
you now know the answer.
And talking about answers,
Well, we have some answers on our board because Magnus Carlsen, I'm looking in the top middle
while he did go for a move that I was thinking about, which is to allow this check on c3
and then play Rook c1 and then come out with a queen to h5 check.
So it's looking really exciting there because Prack paying very quickly, very confidently.
And also we have some answers in the game between Divya and Bibi Sara because although
is in the bottom middle, I'm seeing that my takesy five was not played, but Divya is going
for a positional approach trying to make use of the magnificent D five square.
Maybe we do a quick roundup or what's happening on the other boards and then dive in.
Let's do it.
Top left for Jacques Goucache, the green board.
The biggest surprise for me is that Goukesh unleashed a novelty, offered a rook sacrifice,
blitzed out everything, but then suddenly has started thinking for the last almost 40
minutes now.
Goukesh hasn't moved, frozen, we see everything, picture paints a thousand words.
Goukesh deep in thought, Alariza chilling as he was doing earlier in the tournament.
And we'll come to the Carlson Pride game that Yavanka mentioned there.
Wesley So against Vincent Keimer has ended in terms of theory, but it doesn't look like
the equality has ended yet. Keimer doing everything right so far. Zuchin air increasing
her advantage on the bottom left against Zhuo Jun getting a rook nice and active, entering
the black camp now. Divya with a positional advantage and Muziechuk against Humpe is almost
totally symmetrical, literally symmetrical apart from the placement of a queen. So I'm
going to guess that not too much action is happening there yet the eval bar
staunchly in the center as well. Let's jump into maybe the microsoft. Let's go
there because decisions have been taken and let's assess the consequence of this
particular one and first up can we do an action replay of the last few moves?
Let's do it. We left it after okay in this position Pryce started jumping he
grabbed the pawn, Nxd4, recapture, Qxbh6, we pointed out earlier for those of you just
joining us at home that Qc3 is strictly the only move not to lose on the spot for Pragg.
If he had taken this bishop, whoops, the loose Queen drops off due to this check and likewise
Qe5 check would have been the wrong square, the wrong direction because after d4 here
trying to pin and regain the piece, Qa4 check wins the pawn and white here would just be
clear bishop up. So Queen c3 check, making sure that if the bishop retreats to d2, then
this bishop on d3 falls. So White has to part with one of the bishops. Magnus said, okay,
take my d4 bishop please. And he gets a tempo gaining hits on the black queen here. Maybe
the rook is going to dive into the seventh rank. This does look a bit scary for Prague.
But finally, at least he's thinking that's good news for Magnus that Prague is finally
out of prep.
Yeah, Magnus under an hour on the clock and this is the first moment in the game when Prague has slowed down right now and
Understandably so because you're up a pawn, but you're not thinking about the pawn right now
Right, you've got your two rooks and a bishop if you're pregnant under which haven't made a single move the king still in the center
And white having enough pieces is you always say David 3 is the magic number the queen bishop in the rook
Right to jump into an attack first attack on the board on the queen and it's really not an easy decision to decide where you want to retreat
Do you want to go defending that 8-6 pawn, which is being threatened with Qh5, Qxp, coming in next.
A square like Qf6 looks very natural to me.
Or do you want to fight against Theta Bishop to b5, coming in with a check on the other flank of the board,
with Qa5, just making sure that that bishop doesn't jump to the square that you're highlighting right now.
And it just doesn't feel like an easy choice for Pragnananda.
Are you defending the left side or the right side of infiltration?
Exactly, and you actually have to be prepared to defend both sides if necessary, right?
Because I'm thinking if you put your Queen on G7, I think that would be probably a very bad retreat,
because suddenly the Bishop will come to B5, deliver a check, and you can't block that with
your Bishop, because the Rook will come in to C7, and the Evaluation- Ooh, check, check, check!
Oh, for goodness sake, I thought the White King was casted!
I was like hallucination central. I don't know why I assumed it just in my mind. My mind had done some funny things where it was
I would fall for this ten out of ten times in a blitz or a bullet. Because you just think you're winning this with Ruxi Sabin.
Exactly. And your king is supposed to be on E1, it's not the one.
It's supposed to be on G1 and F1. Or there. And then I forgot that. Yes, okay. Okay, so actually this is a trap. Okay, so Ruxi Sabin, not possible.
I mean, I forgot as well as castle there. Actually, if White were castle, this is huge.
If White were castle in any of these positions, I think White is simply winning because it's not three anymore.
It's four and the White Rook would be joining the attack, maybe on the e-file or elsewhere.
White's Rook on h1. At some point, I'm expecting h4 just to get it out, but we'll take Magnus and Tempi.
Tanya, it's six safe squares for the Queen. A3, A5, B2, E5, F6, G7.
There's six faces on a die on a dice. Roll it. Where you going?
So when do you say die and when do you say dice? I've never understood that.
I alternate because I can't pick one.
When you're about to die on the chessboard and resign, then I say die.
I normally say dice. I actually got told off at school years ago when I was studying English
literature for saying dice.
Yeah.
But I still...
But what is your room? Which one is a dice?
I think a die is singular.
singular. But it sounds weird, but you don't go roll the dice, do you? So you roll the dice.
Yeah. Now I'm with dice. I'm team dice right now, but for Pragniranda, you know, that king
in the center, is that about to die is the question that we need to answer right now.
David, you said you highlighted all the moves with the queens. You know, I wanted to put
it on F6. That was my initial thought right now. Just fighting against Queen H5 and Queen
takes pawn because if you're suffering as black here, you want to suffer for something
and at least say I'm holding onto my pawns but the problem that I'm not able to answer
here is Bb5. You definitely want to develop your piece here. You don't want to continue
staying undeveloped. Take that bishop. King takes bishop. Qa4 check. And I'm just not
I mean I can't understand why the board doesn't move but I'm just not loving this position
as black and because of this and the fact that Yogi just pointed out that Qg7 is possible
I'm changing my mind and going with Qg7 now so that I can recapture with my queen at some
point. Just to show that Bishop takes d7, Black can take with the Queen and I
guess you can continue blocking here. Queen to f7 and you still have
castling rights. Not sure which way you're going probably never to the
Queen side as long as the White Rooks on c1 but at least any endgame Black's
King nice and centralized. So my die-dice slash dice roll is for Queen g7. What
about the two of you? What square are you guys picking? I saw a pawn. You shouldn't
and asked me, I saw a pawn.
You know something, Magnus is in the confessional,
but this confessional is only going
to be for Twitch subscribers.
So if you want to be curious as to what Magnus is thinking,
now is the time to subscribe, because we will be playing it.
I'm kind of curious as to what Magnus is thinking.
Is he worried about Queen takes pawn?
Is he worried about Queen to G7, Queen F6?
Is he stressing that he might not have the compensation,
or is he like, I'm confident?
I don't know.
I've got to say, we've been breaking down some moves, but in general, I just love the fact that both players, we said before the round, we want them to go at each other.
What's happened?
Prague played the French, he said, come at me.
Magnus says, okay, I'll stack a pawn.
Now, actually, two pawns, if A3 drops.
And he's saying, I will go for you if you really insist and need the players backing down from this fight.
We love to see it.
This is what we want from this format in general classical chess.
Yeah, sometimes it's slow and stodgy, Petrovs, Berlins.
Not this time, this is fun.
And I also want to give everyone a heads up that Magnus is confessional is a long one.
Oh, what can we read into that?
I'm just going to go and subscribe on Twitch right now.
I mean, that's what you have to do because this position is so hard to break down and imagine
getting insights and a peek into what Magnus is thinking, Jovi.
Yeah, exactly. And if you're enjoying the stream, then please subscribe.
Your subscription, of course, helps support this event.
And I did not know this, it's actually free with Amazon Prime.
And I have been a member of Amazon Prime now for like four years.
Can we talk about the exclusive event Emotes as well as the awesome Amazon Prime membership?
I mean, what are we picking in the amazing Emotes? What's our favorite there?
Magnus Carlstein.
I was trying to figure out who that was. I do quite like the absolute symbol.
And why is Gukish facebombing himself? Why is he hiding his face?
What's going on there?
Someone's just smashed the table in front of him, that's why.
We're talking about Magna's Carl Stein.
Let's hear from Magna's right now.
So all the thoughts I had in here about an hour ago have failed pretty spectacularly.
I briefly thought about the idea that he could win a pawn after Bishop d3, but then I was like,
no, surely that's too dangerous.
And yeah, then when he gave a check, I realized that was his plan, and like to be fair,
everything else looked like a little bit better for White, so I can understand that that's what he was aiming for.
And now we're at a situation where like my intuition tells me that why cannot be worse.
Like I'm not gonna say I'm gonna die on that hill because obviously what the engines say are
gospel so if I'm if I'm wrong I'm wrong. But at least he's thinking now maybe that indicates
that I made a bad move, but I can't really understand why Rook C1 is bad.
My guess would be that this is the kind of prep where it holds for black, but there are
like several decent moves for white that kind of, yeah, that kind of are all equal, so maybe
he's trying to recall stuff, who knows.
Yeah, obviously time-situation
Not fantastic
Knowledge gap not great either, but the position itself. I think must be fine for for me
Magna saying the position must be fine for him I
Would say that he's pretty confident, but I love the kind of like walk back like yeah
But if the engine says otherwise and obviously I stand corrected
but his vibe is everything's okay.
Yeah, very on point with his final evaluation.
It was like shake of his head after going to the labyrinth of variations that are possible in this position.
I think the problem is that every queen move looks either equally good or equally bad, however you see it.
You still have to answer a lot of threats if you're pregnant on that wherever you decide to move that queen.
I think from Magnus addressing that yes, clock situation, not that great.
Knowledge gap, referring to the fact that he's been surprised.
Prague the better prepared here not that great but completely correct that the
evaluation is indeed absolutely fine for him regardless of where Prague moves
the Queen. Yeah I did check while Magnus was in the
confessional pretty much all of the Queen moves a 0.0 which doesn't help us
doesn't help Prague doesn't help anyone but does show that Magnus having
burned all that time has come to the right conclusion. E equals MC squared E
equals Magnus Carlson squared. He's seen it all and scientifically trying to work out all of the
variations. I always thought E was equal to N game and that was equal to MC square. I thought
that's how we made sense of it in the chess world. Magnus Carlson is N game. But I love it about
that meme was clearly E equals MC squared. We made it into Magnus Carlson. I don't know what you
You don't have to be understanding to know that that position is complicated.
What I want to see is on chat, the Magnus Stein emorts all over.
What do you say, Magnus Carlstein?
Something like that.
Get that going.
I think we have to get it going.
I mean, it was so good.
I think it is worth repeating.
And, okay, well, it's very, very complicated up there in the middle.
Where else should we head to?
Well, let's go around the horn.
Let's complete that trick.
We've got some moves coming in from Ferozha and Gakesha as well.
We see a queen trade there.
You know, the Magnus proc board, very exciting,
but I'm expecting proc to spend some time here.
It's just not an easy decision
where you go back with your queen.
Right to that, that's a top right board.
Wesley sir against Vincent Keimer.
The buzzer just said it's in the balance,
but it is quite asymmetrical right now.
Look at that pawn on E5 that Wesley has.
And usually when you get that,
you can a long-term think about a king side attack also opposite color
bishop means that any
power play on the dark squares and wincent will not be able to handle it i
would say
that's slightly better
for westley in that one bottom row it's been a day of
turnarounds in norwich as women david
exactly uh... and i'll start from the bottom right actually humpy against uh...
and the musy truck humpy defending the black pieces
i think uh... she's totally fine
uh...
if you feel a little bit guilty for not going to that board yet but it is
literally totally symmetrical came from an Italian and I think Humpkin arrow will be able to fight out another Armageddon
Even if her luck hasn't been great in those far from controls and a musy trick not
Really able to achieve any advantage divya in the center. I think we'll go there shortly
but I would love to start with Zuzina against you and June because
That's the highest eval bar. It's also the most mysterious. I think for the average viewer
Actually, I say average for myself as well, this is mysterious that white can be totally winning
plus two, but it's opposite color bishops. Blacks' rucks control the only real open file.
Blacks got everything defended. How is this totally winning for white? I think I can see a plan,
but it's just mind-boggling to me that modern engines see so deeply that they understand that
this is a decisive advantage. Let's face it. And also I just want to say that the material is level
and all of those factors kind of really indicate to me that okay everything should be fine for black.
And I just also want to point out that the bishop on b4 nicely anchored holds down the queen side
but the bishop on d3 also anchored and controls the really important rook sorry e2 square.
That's the MVP, that bishop, Tanya, the light square bishop with eyes on both sides of
the board whereas the black bishop is just a purely passive piece right now.
Yes I hear everything, I feel everything but I still don't understand the eval bar.
The amount of advantage is actually ridiculous what we're seeing suggested by Mr Fish, first
name stock in this position.
I think it has to be around just the freehand that Jujina has to activate and maximize her
piece potential here while black struggles right no entry points to the
second rank look at the anchor the bishop on d3 is just like you were
talking about the bishop in b4 allowing no counter play to the black rooks which
look well emptyly active on the e-file you can't go rook to e8 no targets on the
third rank the bishop on d3 cupping off the diagonal but also playing a great
defensive role white basically has innumerable moves here in this position
and you can start with your king to g3, king h3, start with the king march,
maximize your king in the potential all the way to the first rank. Push the g
pawn, push the h pawn, break with g5, lining up the rook and g1. And the thing
is, I say all these moves, I'm not able to find a way that black can actually
pretend to protect any of these ideas or fight against it or create any counter
play here. How are you stopping the simple king advance, the pawn advance,
It's root G1, G5 if you're black in this position.
Well, you're not.
The bishop on B4 is actually trap Yogi.
Yes, yes it is, yes it is, I agree with that.
But okay, maybe, and also the bishop on D3 keeps everything cemento.
Like nothing is breaking through.
So, okay, could you do something like this?
Could you go...
Wow, don't laugh. Ruki 2. Ruki 2 at the right time, but not necessarily now.
Just to show it, it would be good if Black could get this pawn.
I think this would be a great source of counterplay, but unfortunately the White Rook has the ability to block.
In this particular situation, but I'm thinking if the King starts sniffing around on the King's side.
But even then, what I wanted to point out, you could play Ruki 2 with a big flourish.
But you don't need to take it.
There's also that point.
Also if black has to take such drastic measures to find a counter-active idea,
it means that the position is filled with poison for black.
If you're forced to give up an exchange in a position that looks completely harmless for you,
and David, as you were mentioning, you know, I saw you go up with the king,
and again, black's response, you just shuffle around, you're just waiting.
So for Jiu Jina, she can play slowly, she can play fast, the plans are all there.
Line up the rook, h4, g4, g5, strike open. I'm really not sure if black has much to do but wait.
This turns out to be a big, big attack on the black king. White's king, it's got an outpost.
I mean, normally knights, we talk about knights on f5 as an outpost. Nothing can challenge that
square when the white king gets there. She's created the path. I love what she's done,
I think Tsushima actually has been studying this opening and she didn't play it just as a drawing weapon, which I feel guilty now, I kind of didn't play.
But yeah, Juu and Juu hasn't defended well, but this pawn structure with the bishop on d3, control the light squares with the pawns.
Sorry, the dark squares with the pawns, light squares with the bishop just creates an easy plan.
Also, just to mention, swapping rooks doesn't help.
help. Like one pair of rooks leading the board. If anything, this reduces black's defensive potential
because eventually the king gets f5 and something is going to collapse. Either white just goes up,
maybe a bishop will c4 first, and just takes this pawn, or if black ever vacates,
then the rook on the seventh rank, bishop coming. And just easy targets all over the place. Black
playing down a piece essentially with this bishop. And it just goes to show your eyes
can deceive you. The blue side black has complete control but it's white the one who has all the
play and I'm just going to put the blame firmly on the weak pawn structure there on the king side.
Yeah absolutely and you know as a player it's so demotivating to have this position. We see
Vengeon on camera she's sort of just sinking further and further into her chair because you're
just looking for ideas you know where do you make your play how do you stop white's free hand in
this position to continue improving and you're kind of struggling to find it and for Vengeon it
It must have at some point felt like all right confident hold draw we go to Armageddon, but not so quick. I
Think she played a bit too quick in the
Kind of just after the opening those middle stages. She thought draw guaranteed even now
I think going into her head she feels she's slightly worse, but she probably doesn't realize she's dead lost
Which is the hardest thing she probably realizes now. Oh wait, I'm worse and I've got no moves
I've got no plan, but the fact that white has almost a winning plan
that just compounds the misery so yeah she went during something's been off
this tournament no energy really in her play but yeah something went wrong in
the early stages here looks like G1 June might suffer her first defeat in a
classical let's go to the game between Ali Reza Fusha against Goukesh and then
I'd like to go to Divya and Bibi Sara because Goukesh really went into the
tank after Ali Reza's Queen C7 and we left it there and we came to the
conclusion that you needed to preserve the Queen's on the board. Goukesse says no
no no I'm fine in the endgame. And yeah we were saying that Black had options
you can push forward with H4 but everything allows the Queen's off other
than maybe Queen to F6. I think in practical terms firstly burning what
was it? 45 minutes on the clock pretty much. Probably not a great practical
decision but I think keeping the queens on. Had to be the way forward. Knight to D7
was played. Queen takes rook and he's, whoops, Qxd8 and he's recaptured. I think
the lifeboard might be slightly wrong. He's recaptured with one of the rooks.
Is it this rook, the A rook? I'm trying to zoom in on the camera there but he's
captured some way and what do we think? What's the compensation? There we go. The rook's on d8.
Okay, I mean the bishop can run now. I should see seven. I would just flee. I would just run as
fast as I can out of the cage that's closing with the pawns but maybe he has other options.
And there is a fursha. Yeah, especially because that square can be taken away with the black
Rook side stepping the next move and then you wouldn't have solved your problem of the bishop and let's point out
There's actually no way to
Solve that with the h4 and moving forward because that would allow Gukesh to
Snap up that bishop on g3 with his knight if you're forced to play move like h3 h4
So David if you're not going in with bishop to c7
Gukesh might be ready to play rook c8 and they're never allowed next
h4 coming in as well
But this moment it's Ali Reza to play he is still thinking considering his options right now
And while he's doing that, I've got a little trivia
for both of your trivia questions.
Are you ready for this one?
Oh, I love trivia.
Yeah, so here's one.
You know, we had that for our audience, for our chat earlier,
the number of who's the player who did not make it
to the published 2,800 rating.
And we spoke about how there have been 16
in the history of chess.
My question to both of you into chat is,
and let's see if they get this one as well,
how many of those 2,800 players who made it
the published reading list a few days to cross 2800 I hear at Norwich S in Oslo
okay and in my pen and paper we got Magnus I think I know the is this
Allie Reza.
Thank you.
No, no, no, no, no.
Sorry, sorry.
We can work it out properly.
Go on, Yumi.
Break it down.
We got Magnus, we got Allie Reza.
Wow.
Allie Reza was 18.
Who's the other person?
One more.
I really hope I'm right about this one.
Where's... No Gukesh went over 20.
Goukesh didn't go out in the 20s, he came close.
Two Indians who've made it over 2800.
Wishy and Arjun.
Yeah.
Okay, so then it has to be Wesley.
What?
No!
But Goukesh came super close, right?
Yes.
He was 27, 90 something.
95, I want to say?
94, 95 I think.
Yeah.
I think Wesley was 2816, if I'm not mistaken.
She's quite decent.
Quite decent?
I mean, yeah, it's quite a lot higher than me, but that's not the point.
very decent. It's pretty strong so three of the 2800 plus club players are
playing right now in Oslo. And in the women's how many have crossed 2600 who are playing?
Good question. I think it's Mrs. Let me also double check that because I also
have a thought but not necessarily. I think it's also three. Yes so it's June
for sure. And I'd say Anamuziche and Humpy. Are these the three names you had in mind as well?
Yes. The experienced ones. And some would argue there's rating deslation. They're still super strong,
but ratings are generally trending down since there are so many strong, low-rated players now underrated
who are taking the rating off the top players. Nobody's weak anymore. But also just showing how classy
I think I played Humpy and Anna when they were both 2600 actually and, um, yeah, had some real fights with them. They were, I mean, still are super strong. And, uh, yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if the younger ones like Ibisara and Divya make it to 2600 Sunday.
I mean, still are super strong and yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if the younger ones like give the sorrow and give you make it
2600 Sunday
And baby sorrow have a career best of 25 27 currently leading the tournament
Okay, let's take a pause from this game. We see that Alireza is very comfortable with his dark square Bishop
Let's head in and see whether
Divya dishbook can chase down baby sorrow
Okay, does look like good chances. Just superficial glance at that bottom central board. Here
we go, jumping in. White is so close to establishing complete domination. White can also potentially
grab a pawn. Maybe we can just recap what we've missed in the last few moves because
we left it after E5 and that was the last break. And we were saying Knight takes E5,
top computer move. This would have been a totally different cuttlefish. This would
would have been a totally different game. 965, the computer says, isn't winning, it's
still a small advantage for White, but this would have put Black under some heavy pressure.
I don't blame her at all for dodging this after Queen 87, I guess she has to go back
with a Queen and White's attack is actually a slow burn one, like Bf4, A4, 9d5, even the
computer, not 100% sure what's happening. So Divya choosing very sensible retreat with
Queen, knight f6, hitting the central pawn. Bishop comes out to pin that knight
via g5, knight d7 and now after a4. Big question, I guess after b4 she must have
been worried about something here because normally you don't want to shatter
your own queen side. I guess knight to d5 and after an exchange, just otherwise
this pawn might drop. Bishop takes d5, e takes d5. Maybe she was worried that this
is a weakness that white will clamp down with a5, fix the target on a6 but I
I think this was the less evil from Bibisara because after taking an a4, her own pawn structure
becomes ruined and 92 nice controlling move defending the center.
H6 a bit surprising to me because white wanted to take that knight anyway.
White's trying to move any defender for d5 square to catch up with the live board.
Here we go.
What do we think?
Does white take this pawn or does white just try to control in the middle of the board?
I don't see an immediate repetition to actually just grabbing the pawn.
That has to be on your mind.
the most direct approach. Again, you spoke about this earlier that blacks lack in development
and to be this are still a move away from getting that castle in. Bishop takes pawn,
the most attractive option. You take that bishop, Rook takes bishop, I'm super happy,
knight's coming to c4, Rook's coming to d1, I'm going to triple down on that d6 pawn. If you
don't take that bishop and let's say you were to move your bishop to c6, which feels like the other
attractive option for black to keep pieces on the board because what you're fighting is with the
the bishop pair if you're black in this position and hoping that someday you get the d5 break
in and get an open position to make a case for that pawn deficit. But you could also
just go rook a5 here David, I'm controlling the d5 break as well. I'm getting my bishop
back on c4 as soon as you go castle, not allowing that. Looks like a healthy pawn to my eyes.
Looks like a healthy pawn to me as well. I would see no reason why not to grab it. And
and she does it and she does it. Oh, bishop c6 played as well.
Only move, according to the blue arrow here. Stockfish saying that, okay,
bishop pair is the only real compensation right now, especially if d5
can't be pushed through yet, you need the bishops on the board.
If black bishop were anywhere else, if it were more active on a feta diagonal,
we would say real compensation. So for now, Divya, a pawn up, and
I've got to say looking good. I'm surprised the eval by is so low here
compared to that's usually a game where the Viva Barsky high level material
here she's up a pawn, but it's lower.
Yeah, that's fascinating to watch.
But I think from a human perspective, this definitely feels like a bigger
advantage for white than that other game that you're referencing,
Tiwen, for those of you who are just joining us.
This is a marquee matchup in Norway, chess women.
So much of the title race weight is on this board.
Totally.
Because it be Missara just to remind everyone at home, if she wins in classical,
This will take her to 15 and a half points and she's more or less running away with a competition
But if Divya wins then do you will overtake baby Sarah and
Then there will be a half point in it between the leaders and there is of course Anna music in the air
She's got nine and a half points if she wins in classical. Hey, here we go
Here we give a clearer breakdown of what is gonna go down absolutely
anyone well not just not anyone but I would say the top four players if they
win in classical they all have a shot well Phoebe Sarah this let's say Phoebe
Sarah doesn't win no absolutely I mean that allows a blow open the women
standings leaderboard going into the final two rounds I mean this speaks this
leaderboard the standings that we have in front of us speaks to the format of
Norway chess right that we're talking the Juvenin who's win less in this
tournament still has a shot simply because of the scoring system. Every
classical win gets you three points but I don't think Juvenin is getting those
three points today. Almost certain that she's not getting three points points
whether she gets one point. Juvenin and Juvenin that's the big question. But we are
back to the bird's eye view. Still no moves since the Queens came off between
Alireza Fruja and Goukeshe. The top left greenboard. Magna still putting
in that in that long meditative state, a long, long think from Prague. And what's
the so kind of not progressing too far either? So it looks like the main action
has been on the women's boards in the last few moves. Maybe let's go to Anna
Mizzichuk and Humpy because you know we've been saying that position is very
symmetrical, not much in it. But how symmetrical is this? It is very symmetrical.
It is. And we won't go the whole way back. They've played a whole bunch of moves, but I
just want to bring us to here because if black had played the move, she actually
traded rooks here, breaking the symmetry, but if black had played Bishop d7 it would
have been 100% symmetrical on move 18. So yeah, it's hard to pinpoint a weakness. Neither
side wants to give up the bishop pair even though it doubles the opponent's pawn structure.
I think this would actually be a big mistake because black's king is going to be super
safe for eternity now hiding behind his pawns. And the only way to blink, therefore, is
to trade rooks and it was humpy rather than again continue the symmetry this
would have been moved 20 and she could have played Qf8. She decides to jump
in so maybe she's getting a bit more ambitious with her knights which are
getting closer to Anna's king right now. Yeah fascinating right Knight jumping
on to h4 coming with a big thread and that might force White to put the
bishop onto the defense via that e4 square trying to guard that g2 point
But if you're playing for ooh, that's a big blunder. Is it Bishop takes my bishop on d7 is pinned to the Queen on d8
Suddenly must be this right. Oh, maybe it's Queen
D3
Tracking a mate and if it's blocked how about this night e2
Love it double attack
You lose one of the two can't save the bishop either because then the night
Would fall apparently I guess you could have taken with the night as well the black bishop's pinned but
Yeah, this is hidden venom.
So actually Rook D1 comes in with a trap.
You know, Hampi was setting up the knight jump, but Anna going one step ahead and countering it with a subtle move.
I think very natural for black would be to sidestep with the queen.
And if you're looking at pure symmetry, you could still achieve it.
Put that queen next to the king, jump with the knight to f5, say I have my own threats,
and then line up the rook on d8, and there we have it.
I was going to say this is actually a really natural continuation.
Like don't laugh, but I feel like the Queen is better on f8 than it is on e8
Mm-hmm where can be hit by the way?
Yeah, and it's better on f8 than I mean e7 is gonna get hit by a knight in f5 f6
It's gonna get hit by a knight in e4 like you don't really have too many safe squares along this diagonal
So it's kind of it's in mirage here. It's
An illusion that the black Queen is actually able to get active. Yeah Queen f8 looks
like maybe the safer square.
So tricky these symmetrical positions, right?
Because you feel like you're fine as black,
but you're always one move down,
you're half a tempo down.
So often, white is the first one to jump in with some tactics.
And Anna's been that one player throughout now,
which has women who's happy to take it into Armageddon.
She's always ready for those bloodied fight
when it goes down to the tiebreaker,
but usually quite cautious in the classical.
I think she's playing against a struggling Humpy today,
player who hasn't had a single win in this tournament. Anna will try to look for small
chances in the classical game. I think she won't rush this to the Armageddon, but with
the symmetry that we have, I'm not sure if she's going to be successful or not.
It's interesting because Anna is also hunting her first win in classical.
Yeah, she is. But she's in the mix, right? She's in the middle and depending on how Divya
the last two rounds. She
does play a little bit. Yeah
and Bebe Sara go. Anna's
uh, fit. Good Take a big jump
on on the result of that game.
Absolutely. And for Anna, you
know, she just wants to move
away from this arm again wins
and get something concrete. She
does play those two in the
final two rounds. Though she
does play a bit. Sara and then
Divya. Wow. So even if she
draws this, Anna will have
some say in how this tournament
goes. It's funny the patterns
the same. You know, it's
been a long time since I've
been able to do this. It
always seems to kind of
converge towards a draw. Um
but then other patterns like
you and June losing all her
Armageddon's you and June and
Vincent Chima have had the
exact same result in every
single round. They both won in
classical in the same round.
They both lost in Armageddon
in the same round. So it's
funny. These patterns you see
in these kind of closed or
play. Autonomous. You will see
whether Anna will be able to
because two games really catch my eye. And they're at the top. We have a decision from
Prague. It went into a really long think and he centralised the Queen. So he was like,
okay, let's cover the check on age five. And also Wesley So against Vincent Kheimer, we
have a pin on the edge of the board. So you've got to understand the consequences of that.
one to go to?
Great call.
Great question.
I think maybe Wesley first, but then I think we will spend most of our time on Magnus anyway.
He's going to be in the tank thinking Magnus is going to be burning a bit of time.
So let's start with Wesley and then we'll move on to Magnus against Prague.
Just some updates here.
We did say that it looked like quite a dangerous position just a few moves ago.
If the Black Knight ever moves, then the white pieces will start to switch their attention
towards the King side.
black knight didn't move yet, bishop to d7. We were saying b7 maybe a more natural diagonal
but perhaps he wants to use his queen on that square as we do see. c4, the queen has to
stay protecting her knight, so queen b7, knight b3, taking away outpost. It's funny because
we were talking about going kingside, queen e3 trying to switch things across maybe h4
or h5. The knight can gravitate that direction but Wesley is such a positional player. He
he's got an isolated pawn, he wants to control the square in front of isolated pawn. Knight
to b3, bishop a4, the pin that Jovanka mentioned, and after queen e3, knight c5. It feels like
Wesley at will can force a draw just by taking this knight off. There's no time to win the
pawn on c5 because the rook is hit, but opposite color bishops here. Without the knights, probably
hard to win any type of position there. So f3, keeping some tension. He says, take my
I'm kind of inclined to say Winston. I'm liking Black's position much more than I did a few moves ago.
The C4 pawn stands out to me as a long-term weakness. I'm also thinking about the concept of visualising the trades that you want in this position.
Imagine the Rooks are off the board, imagine the Queens are off the board and I also take Bishop takes Knight at some point.
I do think that would be a good Knight versus a bad Bishop end game in many of those scenarios.
The Knight in C5 versus the Bishop on F4. I'm picking that Knight as a star piece right now.
The Bishop on A4, you know, you can always trade it for that Knight on B3.
Also in some positions creating a Passer or trying to create a Passer on the left side of the board if the trades work out to your favor.
Rook D8 always on hand to get those majors off the board.
But all the king side attacks and the ideas that we were earlier referring to, points
of Wesley getting and planting a knight on D6, none of that has happened.
It almost feels like Wesley hasn't really made progress over the last couple of moves
while Black has managed to get a very healthy position.
So I think Vincent's on the right side of that equality right now.
And I agree with you, Tanya.
I do think that Vincent has very nice long term chances.
But, but, but, but, but, but, but what?
Big news.
We have a new visitor to the confessional booth and I have no idea who it is, but I'm going to
fur it, I'm going to ask the question to you Tanya, to David, who do you think is in the booth,
who never been before is now appearing. Wow, I feel like a Pokemon trainer, I'm just trying to
catch them all, like we've had Magnus, we've had, I think we had Divya on day one, we've had...
We had Prague today, a new visitor already.
We haven't even had Gukesh the day after his birthday.
Anna's been in.
Anna's been in.
Oh, that leaves only a few.
Could it be Boris?
I reckon.
I'm going to say Vincent.
Oh, I'm with you.
Because we kind of grew up.
We've pressured both Vincent and Wednesday
when they were sat here with us.
In fact, he's one of those two.
We were very shameless with that.
We also told them to go to the Confession booth
and say that we are their favorite commentators.
And if Vincent's Dan, he doesn't say it,
I'm gonna be sad about it.
Yeah, I'll be very sad about it too.
And we will see whether our guess is correct.
Is it Vincent?
Is it Wesley?
Let's see.
So, all right, everyone, I'm back.
I was told that apparently the confessional booth
has been a very lonely place, which I assume means that
with me not being here, perhaps Magnus being not being here
much. I'm not sure how much he's been here. It seems that perhaps there hasn't been a lot of
visits, which is a little bit disappointing from the standpoint. I think the fans wanted to hear
from the players and how they feel, but alas, it is what it is. There's nothing you can really do
about that. But because of that, I felt like dropping in. I don't really have much else to
say. I was trying to think there's anything else, but at any rate, it's looking like a pretty boring
day for me, and that's it for now. So maybe I'll do that, but we'll see.
Well, we'll be back. Yeah. Good one. There you go. What's up?
Yvanka, you can't get any predictions right. Even the producers are not letting you get
predictions right. I know. I did determine that the chat is going
to win. Yeah, well, that wasn't what I expected. That was a shocker.
I wonder if anyone in chat guessed that, because that would be a genius moment by a lottery
ticket. Your chat's very smart. I'm sure they were
like yeah yeah I we know big we know the guys they're gonna search for all this
panel but it's good to have a fourth commentator back with us it's a nice
to hear how you're not in the building my name in the building but he's still
with us we have missed him we have missed him and I don't think that was even AI
if anyone at home wondering that was just previous years where he was keeping
us entertained doing a job for us he'd come at least a minimum of three times
the day to show his thoughts. He was definitely the king of the confessions. Yeah, wish he
was here this year.
I miss you, Hikaru.
We definitely miss Hikaru and his confessionals. But, okay, I'm really disappointed actually.
I really thought it might be Wesley and Vincent and Tanya. You said it up. I was like, oh
my God, oh my God, they might come in.
I was very excited.
They might give us a shout out and say...
I was hoping that that would happen.
This is yeah, maybe next year. I
Think we need to put it in that contract
But Wesley I'm not sure because you know this one right now. He lost his game yesterday
He's trying to make a turnaround. He lost to Gukesh in that Armageddon
Some questionable decisions right there in the classical as well and now on the lead there's pressure on Wesley, right?
He wants to expand or at least keep a controlled situation going into the last two rounds for Winston Kamal one thing's clear
This goes into an Armageddon. It's maximum advantage Wesley
Is this position what we have, the safe approach that Wesley has had?
He hasn't gone for any crazy king-side attacks, he hasn't taken too many chances, he's got this opposite color bishop going.
Do you think Wesley's really navigating this towards the Armageddon?
Well, it's not going to be that easy for him to get to a comfortable equality,
but I also wonder the fact that Wesley is pausing and having to think.
I wouldn't be giving up on the hope of attacking on the King side make it happen
you'll be okay Rick D4 Rova in the air Rick and over so big idea
Bishop H6 Bishop f6 is something that David I know was I was a sniffer leader
anything like it was gonna be win what where is the F1 move somewhere okay
I just saw this mate and I was so happy.
This is over but unfortunately the black queen can defend taking a pawn.
But I like the idea and maybe fine-tuning it like root g4 if black does nothing.
If bishop g5 first, black does nothing.
Bishop in to f6.
Yes.
That is square.
No, that is very scary but I don't think black will be so compliant in the whole plan
and keep doing nothing and check check mate it.
The other idea that we were looking at for Winston Kammer was to neutralise everything
on the only open line on the board, right?
Rukti for Jovi, I challenge you with Rukti8.
I know what you want.
Well, we can go there, right?
Rukti D1.
I take it.
Yes, and I take it again.
With?
With Ruk.
Ruk and Ovo.
Ovo.
Ovo.
Ovo.
But.
I keep going.
Unless I'm walking into something, because David, I'll just pause.
Rukti8.
I'm trying to work out if I can be greedy and grab a pawn.
This was also what I was going for.
Don't care about the checks.
We have the power of take back.
I do care.
I also think the checks will not dry up anytime soon.
G6.
G6.
A Queen G6.
You brave enough?
You brave enough?
Let's go.
H4.
Otherwise, yeah.
Otherwise, it's perpetual check, right?
Yeah.
Otherwise, no escape.
Exactly.
No, we don't want that.
H4.
well. Yeah, he's getting mated. He's getting mated. Probably not. Yeah, this is
Yeah. Yeah. G2 hacking, King in the open. Well, you know, it still kind of continues
because there's another A pawn up for grabs. But okay, I concede it is gutsy, let's say,
to put the King out there on H4. The things we do for pawns. She has to be a pawn up.
Wesley is a pawn grabber.
He is, that's true.
He makes us look like with the least materialistic players in the world.
But he's also a player who cares a lot about king's safety.
I don't know how safe he'd be feeling in those opposite color bishop going pawn grabbing
with the king on h4.
And with everything on the line and the high stakes match that this is for Wesley, I genuinely
believe he wants to keep it a controlled fight in the classical and not do anything
crazy.
I think the other candidate moves might be rook to d6 just because it's a nice square.
although that might get evicted by a black knight going back to b7.
Other moves, when in doubt play h4, like alpha 0 would probably play h4.
Just try and nudge the pawn forward to h6.
If black ever blocks it, then there might be sacrificial ideas.
And yeah, the other one I really wanted to make work was bishop to g5, just immediately
to come in, mainly to take away the d8, where from black to rooks.
But I don't currently see a good response to knight to d7.
Maybe black has something better, but just hitting this pawn on e5, hitting the c4 pawn as well.
It's kind of a double attack and maybe white just doesn't have time to build up,
generate that initiative against the black king.
Feels like the storyline in this position. So far in the balance,
should we zoom out? Because a lot of imbalances on our other boards at Norwich us and we've got moves.
Progg did take a decision that top center board to drop his queen at the center
and we see Magnus trying to create a lift for his king to get his rook into the game
as we just see that last move made, and David, you can take a pick if that's the one that
we go to because I do think that's where you want to go to actually.
Let's do it.
Yes, let's do it.
I said it was a fun game.
I'm not feeling let down at all, these two players really throwing everything at each
other.
Magnus with some big decisions as well as Prague.
Magnus also 23 minutes down right now, but yeah, we were last year at Rootsy 1.
thought one of the longer things I think this whole tournament so far 41 minutes
almost he spent on Queen to E5 it was a one in six chance that he'd play that
one only six safe squares as we were talking about earlier Magnus now
deciding okay there's no point giving a check with a bishop I guess the black
king is pretty safe for now on a square like E7 although I mean King DA, Bishop E7
still a lot of choice. And that would explain Prague's move to E5 right because it controls
the C7 square so your rook isn't infiltrating on the 7th rank anymore. So this is perhaps
what he had in mind and Magnus keeps all the traps on the board instead decides he wants
to get his final toy into the nursery G3, King G2 idea and Prague continues with development
as well. No more checks for you Magnus Carlson on B5. No more checks but Magnus is one move
away now from completing development. I don't really like where the white king is because
it's on a diagonal. The black
can start attacking soon, but
I don't know if Preg has time
to go for that. Preg does need
to some point connect his
rucks and decide is it King
side? I don't see any
immediate reputation to put
in the king on this flank. I
think that's where he has to
castle and there we go. Just
as I say it. Pretty much had
to do it and the king is going
to hide in the corner
protected by maybe it's
queen as well. Preg is a
pawn up and states are very
high for Magnus Carlson right
now. The stakes are high and
and especially because Magnus has got one thing on his mind early on he lost
against Pagananda so what does he want revenge is also a good salesman because
he wants to sell his revenge merch because take a look at this guys the
Magnus exclusive merch is live is get the new premium tea and matching hat
bundle to automatically unlock a special discount at checkout. So go to go.chess.com
slash Magnus underscore collection or type exclam magnus in chat to upgrade your look.
And on that note, we're going to go on short break where we come back. It's going to be
more of the action. It's going to be insane.
I
You
It's that Avengers assemble time where of course our players are locked in thoughts getting
ready, wrestling to find out who is going to get the advantage.
Look at our heroes, they're all locked in, all fighting desperately for the point because
we've reached the stage in tournament where every point counts and for Magnus it's not
just about the point. It's not just about trying to make that last attempt to get a title here at
Norway Chess, it's also about revenge. And this position is super complicated as we see castles
from Pragnandanda. Pragnandanda being a pawn up, but position, wild. Yeah, position is wild,
but give Prag two or three more moves, just no tactics needed. He just needs to consolidate
maybe a rook on f6, double up those rooks, put the bishop on the long diagonal,
stare down at the white king, the black pawns sooner or later likely to advance
and Prague is enjoying this happy days. So Magnus has this small window of
opportunity, he's also down to 34 minutes so he does need to speed up both on
board and clock. It's got to be threats, it's got to be forcing moves.
The last two moves by Magnus, g3, king g2, duel you to the idea that you're
mentioning right get that rook in you're not only hitting the queen but you're
asking some questions the queen moves to was the left side of the board
white queen gets into h5 hitting some points there if you go towards the
right side of the board you go to g7 there's the rook c7 idea infiltrating
from the other flank so to me rookie one again asks an unpleasant question and
Magnus about to make his move and now on plug again you know the choices with the
queen moves where are you placing it queen to f6 feels like a very natural
response here a bit because you're lining up with your rook you're hitting
the phone on F2 as well. And at least for now, Magnus can't get his rook to the seventh
rank.
Yeah, I also agree that this is the most natural move because if you give Prague another move,
it's going to be Bishop C6, just lock up off.
Sorry, I just saw Erling Horlund's dad, the father of and one of the agent of one of the
best football players in the world. And I got super excited. Sorry, I just distracted
everyone I might have to run off in a second and ask for a selfie but let's get
back into the game sorry everyone. I'm coming with you for that selfie. I'm so unprofessional.
Well I did all have that reaction. Oh gosh they're still here. Okay. Wow.
Drama both on and off the board as we're a little bit starstruck here. Yeah I mean
you've got Magnus in front of us you've got Erling Holland's dad right here by the
I think you can hear us.
Yeah, and Erling did invest, he was one of the big investors, into the total chess lord
championship.
So big connection with Norway, with the Norwegian scene, with sport, chess all coming together.
So really nice to see.
And as a bit of a sports fan myself, I'm really happy.
We're all getting that selfie very soon.
The rookie one, right now let's get back to the chess in front of us for pregnant non-boss
on big decisions.
Alright guys, Queen of Six is the move that we've been talking about, right?
Oh wait, David's got more. What happened now?
I'm kind of getting... I'm assuming this is permission from our producer for me to just...
Okay, I'm coming back everyone. Yuvanka, take it away.
I'm coming with you, David. We're going in for that selfie. Wait, from there, that's the camera!
Bye guys.
And now we have the Yovie show. No, I don't have access to David's computer, so I can't go
maneuvering around or making arrows. But we can have a lot of fun here because big news here for
Bragg. But Tanya, did you come back? There you go, Tanya.
And as I wave goodbye to my fellow two commentators, it's okay. We're here. Big
threat on the board from Magnus. Rook to E1 attacking Queen. Queen has to go backwards.
and my initial vibe was move the queen to f6, get it, to hit that pawn on f2. And I can tell you,
just to give you a running update on Danny, David and Tanya, they got the selfie, they're
blushing like crazy. But who is blushing like crazy? It's not going to be Pragamanda as he's
locked in for queen f6 is something that's very natural targeting f2. The big question is,
Does this allow the Queen to jump into a G4 with check?
That was quick!
How long did that take you? Like 30 seconds?
I'm the selfie king in Anchor.
Did we get a good one?
Can you Photoshop me in?
Do your pictures please?
It's your turn if you want.
We'll help you.
It's okay. I'm not that kind of person.
Look at this.
Oh, right.
Hang on a second.
You need to show it to the camera.
Oh, OK.
Should I?
Send it to the priest so he'll just put it on.
Oh, my gosh.
I can't believe I just got this.
Vic.
And yeah, I remember growing up actually watching Man United against Manchester City Derbies
and Alfie Harland, Erling's dad, was a very good footballer in his own right.
So, yeah, that's, wow, hero moment for me.
Now I gotta get back into the chest to get the heroes on the board.
Ah, playing.
I'm so sorry everyone, that's probably the craziest thing I've ever done.
Well, that's why we're a team.
But I was just kind of saying to the whole crowd that, guys, oh my gosh, we did invite
him on the stream by the way.
Did you?
Yeah.
We said whenever you have a moment.
He said maybe later.
Yes.
Maybe means no.
He must play chess. I've actually almost met him once in a realm of drill game, but I know his son is into chess
Yeah, I'm sorry producer. I'm sorry big and everyone at home back in the game
Rookie one you've anchor you were saying I could actually hear as we were hunting that selfie
You're so quick that I was like queen of six the queen was gonna come out to g4 give a check and that I was thinking tempo
timing is absolutely everything here and here I was thinking well what it has to
have one more move in order just to keep the initiative going because Bishop c6
is coming but Bishop c6 is not coming just yet because there is attack on e6
which gives white a free move you want to be holding things together what is
what is the move f4 rookie to like rookie to let's go David
if you're trying to channel your inner cowardly David.
And I'm just wondering if you can try and set up some tactics here.
You know I'm looking at the Queen being overloaded after Rookie do David in that position
to defend that f3 square as well.
So I'm wondering if I can throw in an e5 at an opportune moment.
I don't know if that's just yet, but trying to make that idea work.
Soon.
The idea just for everyone at home would be Quintet's bishop, check, Quintet's pawn.
I think at the very end, maybe black gets some trouble on the seventh rank.
Talking of the seventh rank though, Prague didn't go for these tactics yet.
He covers that seventh rank with Qg7.
And that's fascinating because the problem with this move initially felt like the rook
lines up on that seventh rank pinning the bishop, not allowing the bishop to slide over
to the c6 diagonal.
Rc7, Prague's got to have his response ready for that move.
Is he, hmm, what's he thinking about here?
Because this has to be the move that you're calculating before you go queen to g7.
Knowing Prague is something really concrete, I don't know, I wonder, e5, you see the very
good or very bad?
It could be e5 and I see why you're hesitant to add to it because d5 just feels so incredibly
losing this position and could come with a check, but David I have a feeling that Prague,
doing his style of play, I think he's setting up the idea of doubling up his rooks on the
f-line.
He's looking at just unpinning himself and that would mean another pawn sacrifice which
means more fun for us.
But let's say you take rook, takes pawn and I go rook to f8, I hit that pawn on f2 and
I'm hoping that again I'm able to get the e-pawn rolling, bishop to c6 eventually and
create some play.
But maybe it's not enough for two pawns.
Yeah, I think it's fine, I mean he was a pawn up to start with so now it's just back to
level material and something black is really well coordinated. Yeah, I quite like this
for black.
But this kind of feels like the G-Wenge and G-Gener game, where white is going to be untouchable
in the light square. So I was thinking Riki 2 is a possibility. Also, I was also considering
going f4 but f4 does allow rook takes f4 and now here rook takes pressure, rook f2
trying to deflect the queen from the pin but rook f2 saves the rook no yeah I
haven't seen that one I was just thinking rook takes e6 that was gonna be my
pièce de resistance but I don't nice well I wasn't sure I was thinking king
at rook f2 check. Yeah, I was kind of taking inspiration from Zyuginay and going king to
g1 and oops, no. The thing is right, these kind of positions we're looking concretely,
we're trying to calculate but on the board, you look at your two rooks doubling up on the
f-file, you see the rook infiltrating by capturing the pawn with the check on that f2 square,
you kind of stop your calculation at that point. You say, yes, I feel I have enough
in this position try for more and if you're Prague you go for it. I actually
really like Queen g7 get your rooks ahead if you're queen and then decide
which square you want to place your queen on. Is it going to be on b2 targeting
the second rank and the a3 pawn later rather than any other square? I think
rook f7, rook f8 is on Prague's radar next if rook c7 was to happen and maybe
that's why Magnus isn't rushing away with it. Just to point out the
difference we were speculating on the squares and I love Prague's choice I
I think it was time well invested because queen f6 was my first instinct as well
Like we were talking about this for quite a while like maybe white can flick in a check with the queen
But let's say Magnus just plays for control a move like f4
White now can put a rook on e5 lock up half the board. Yes, why it's a pawn down
Like it's the d-pawn which is quite a big one
But a rook on e5 then the white pieces can start flooding towards the king side the other it comes to the e file
This pawn chain is very hard to erode
but it's now impossible f4 after Qg7. Magnus can't stop e5 forever now because
after f4 the pawn just drops off the board. So I think there's a tiny
difference there positionally. It's not even a big tactic, the point here, but
the positional point behind Qg7 trying to force through e5 and later the
doubling of the rooks on the f-file. That is the plan behind Prague's idea.
It's also a simple plan to follow up, right? Regardless of what white is doing,
whether you go for Rook to e2 to keep your second rank under control, Rook to c7 or a
queen move right now if you're Magnus Carlson. But Proc the path is clear. The next two moves,
Rook f7, Rook f8, keep passing the ball to Magnus, force him to burn the clock.
Now hard for Magnus to control the dart squares now. If he can get f4 and blunt the rooks on the
f-file, Magnus is doing fine. But if not, it's going to be difficult. e5 actually is a bit of a
a threat right now as well. Can we just dive into that rook c7 idea? Let's do it. Let's
do it. And then we're looking at rook f7, but you also mentioned e5. I really like e5.
I still haven't found a solution because bishop h3, check, is there a threat? Can you just
step back with your king? Just say, well, I'm dodging that one. Thank you very much.
feels like blacks gain something but yeah maybe like it's a bit loose
combining both ideas let's let's take it all because we can I like it I love
last position I've got to say white I think Magnus needs something very
concrete I don't see it yet okay we just follow on just for one more second
Queen B3. Okay, now that's already going wrong. I guess Queen F6 is going to line everything up.
It's not so bad. Queen B3. We're too affected by the bar. It's only a tiny advantage for Black
that's meaningless here in such a wild position. Bc6 is one idea, Bc6, Queen F6 is you say there,
Yavanka. It just looks like a really nice position for Black. You know, we've got a double-double here,
you've got double A pawns, double H pawns, but those censored pawns marching up the
board, unstoppable right now, the light-squared weaknesses around the white king, all of
black's pieces around the black king and also really lined up against the white king.
Actually, I have a feeling that Prakkan start getting ambitious here and in his
mind, this is the best case scenario, the best outcome of the opening surprise
that he had, right? Starts with the French, plays this crazy 986 idea, it's been a
dream outcome of that. I think he's got reasons to be very pleased with his
opening preparation here, the way to turn it out. He's got what he wanted, he wanted
an unbalanced position where he has the initiative, he's also forced Magnus to burn a lot of time
on the clock and there's a whole lot of play left in the position. Let's move away from
this game because I want to cast our eyes on Ali Reza Faroozja against Goukesh because
Goukesh handled the opening like our boss, played super quickly and then we look at this,
the Queen's have been traded off before.
I was going to say before we dive into that one,
how are we all feeling about our predictions,
given where the bars are, given where the depositions are?
Because I have a feeling that somebody is very unhappy.
I'm still confident.
Yes, most of the bars say completely equal.
Yes, I predicted four decisive classical games.
Uh-oh, not happening.
There's going to be blunders.
There's going to be time scrambles for the score.
You had your three, right?
You said we'll have three Armageddon's
three decisive results how do you feel about your chances right now? Wow, wow
normally I'm a positive person right I'm always optimistic but I haven't won a
single one I'm expecting the worst I think that's basically my approach now
it's never gonna happen maybe in 2027 I'll get lucky you know we expect the
worst but hope for the best yeah I'm kind of one one and a half out of ten
I feel like I've heard that number before here but I actually am very happy with my
prediction of four Armageddon, two decisive results and I do think that the Carlson Prog
game, even though it's in the balance, very likely that this one is decisive, it's a game
for all two results and I say we get one of those and Juna, Juba and Juna.
I mean this has been the surprise.
By the way, bottom left, the plans that we were talking about and the problems in Black's
position played out right now right. White all the time in the world simply
improving the position of the king. Notice how every piece on the bottom left
board for Jujina is on a light square. That's what you want to do when you've
got this opposite color complex going. Meanwhile, Devea Asubaeva, a clear extra
pawn for Devea. I think she's trying to get that win in in the classical to take
the lead. That's our Maki match up there. Bottom right board, Anna Muzichuk,
Konero Hampi. Very symmetrical we've been talking about it. The Knights of the
centered the bishops now being traded off. I think this remains in the balance
very likely to go into an armageddon there. Lot of fire on the top row.
Yeah, but Dirt, honey, you were saying you're quite happy with your prediction
of only two decisive games, but you predicted three maybe more?
You know, I will say that as I was talking through it, I was questioning what I just said.
But you know, David, I believe I'm a woman of my word. I will stand by it and I believe in it.
Okay, and I will close the gap just as they are trying to close the gap. Okay, just to remind everyone
David predicted for decisive results Tanya said two and
yours truly said three and of course, yeah, that's the chair the chairs could saying one
What is the number of the chair? I said one chair is
Saying one today the chairs got every other result that we haven't covered. I think that's how it works
Yes, but in the meantime talking of decisive results
I don't think we'll see one in the game between Wesley Serr and Vincent Kymar.
We will go to the Ferozha Gukash board after this, but I mean, Vincent's reacting,
probably because he's not going to win this game,
but I don't think he should be losing either Queens of the Board, Knights of the Board.
It's pure opposite kind of bishops just with one set of rooks, and those rooks could disappear.
Vincent trying to work out whether he can get away with a rook trade with that foursif.
This is Vincent's been trying to avoid going into the Armageddon from the start of this game.
from that moment that he took the decision to not put his queen on h4 early on.
It's the nightmare scenario here. He also has to calculate what happens at the end
when the pawns get swapped off. c4 will be weak as well. But I do think with the rooks
of the board that should be a holdable endgame for black even down a pawn with opposite color
bishops.
Is it so?
Let's check it out.
Let's check it out because rook to d1 looks like it's going to clinch the draw. Rook takes
This is the first time we've seen this
in a game where the white team
can't make this work. First
Bishop, of course, takes and now
we have a little sequence where
the A porn is also falling.
And yeah, for example, we could
see an endgame such as this one
where white does retain an extra
porn. Ultimately, it probably
is a draw because blacks King
will come out to block any
advances the white king can
ever make. But then the white
He doesn't want to risk being down upon at all rook c8.
It's also such a sad way to try to get a draw to give up a pawn in that position and just say that I'm gonna suffer forever and
Hope for a draw there. So Winston wants to keep the material balance right now
Notice how the bishop from a4 stops white from grabbing the open d-line right now
Which means rook b1 is the kind of move that you're looking at and what Winston wants is to eventually try to set up target
Against that c4 pawn, bishop c2, bishop d3 at the S
just to show that the bishop could come in, white can jump but black is going to munch
on this pawn and this should fizzle out now, much safer draw here than the Rookless end
game that we just showed. I don't think Wesley's going to press too hard, it has felt like
his strategy to take absolutely zero risk this game.
Get Winston into the Armageddon, feels like the winning plan now for anyone playing at
Norwich has this year six losses for Kaima in the Armageddon. Wesley trying to get that seventh one in.
Well, Tan Wesley coasted through to first place.
Because, okay, let's just assume he draws, wins Armageddon, he's going to move to 14 points.
The person closest to him is Alireza.
If Alireza wins, we have 13 points.
one point gap with two rounds remaining. It's at least something that makes you feel safe,
right? And then you're also saying that Alireza has to win his game against Gakesh.
I think that Wesley's strategy for this round before the rest day,
I mean, if I had to bet on it is take Winston to Armageddon. Don't do anything crazy in classical,
not needed right now. Which is the reason he didn't push in that crazy time scramble against
Gakesh yesterday as well. Exactly. I think if you offered Wesley before the tournament,
the score he's on now and kind of drawing the rest of his games in the classical.
Here we see the breakdown of all of his results.
He's only lost two Armageddon's against Pragging Gukesh.
He's won the others and two classical wins.
If you gave him this, he would have said yes, definitely.
And Wesley's the kind of guy who sets a target.
If he meets it, if he surpasses it, great.
Doesn't really care about the maximum.
Doesn't want to get 100% in an assortment.
Doesn't really believe he can get 100% in an assortment.
he'd mentioned before that he gave himself what was it a 12-13 point target if he wins today draws
draws the classical he's already there so he's going to see anything else as a bonus but
yeah I mean if Magnus wins the classical would stay up to 12 points only two points behind Wesley
they play each other after the rest day anything's still possible in fact I'd also point out that
if Wesley just takes it to the Armageddon going into the final two rounds he will be in solid
Regardless of what even happens during the Armageddon, he gets a point in, he moves on to 30 and a half, closes the driver like then.
Yep. And tomorrow?
Going out there racing towards a draw. This is move 28, no draw off, it's allowed before move 30.
We'll see a draw off at any second, Wesley is not hanging around, he wants to sprint into that Armageddon game.
And one more move, H4, it's a little play H5.
We'll see a handshake
Surely any second now the most dead-drawn position
Opposite color bishops Wesley doesn't even want to let go of his king there and handshake on again time in comments
Wesley so yogi has to be a big favorite in that Armageddon
We've been talking about the takedowns that he's shown in Oslo until yesterday until his game against good case
He's been raking up the points in the Armageddon format for Winston Kammer. The relief isn't there
Well, Vincent did want more from that classical game considering his track record in Armageddon,
but maybe tomorrow, today, sorry, he's going to finally break the Armageddon curse that
he has been under, but we're going to be seeing a whole lot of action as someone will walk
away with one and a half points and be a winner.
And as Magnus Carlson walks back to his chair, there was a decision on that top center ball
as well the lines that we were looking at. Magnus has soothed all the way inside on that seventh
rank right now. It's Prague on the tank. We were looking at ideas of doubling up on the f-line as a
potential plan and I think if we just move away from that board for just a moment looking at that
top row top left Alireza Ferozha Gokesh a big matchup Alireza the player who's chasing the
leader right now at 10 points against Wesley's 12 and a half currently this game has been one of
surprises and I'm not just talking about the opening surprise by Gukesh because once that whole
dust has settled and David you'll do a full action replay from where we left it last but I just
want to make a point now what we have in front of us it looks like Wesley's navigated his way out
of the opening surprise and has ended up with an extra pawn and I'm not really seeing Gukesh's
compensation yet. Yeah I'll erase up by a clear pawn and he's got easy moves as well F3 will cover
all the squares. The king will sit nice and pretty. His last move, he might want to trade off more
pieces. Bishop coming to c2. You asked for the action replay, Tanya, and we'll just show that we
left it after a queen exchange. In this position, the queens left the board. Goukeshe, very surprising.
Something went wrong with his opening prep. Maybe it was just pure bluff, but he raced into it,
sapped the pawn, suddenly stopped for 40-something minutes, and realized he's a pawn down for
minimal compensation. So maybe Goukeshe a bit superficial his prep or maybe trying to hide
his best prep ahead of the World Championship match later this year. But here just knight
to d2 from Alaraisa. The knight traded off for a bishop, at least getting rid of the
bishop pair. Just to mention that the bishop could now escape so no issues with that piece
being trapped. And if we follow down the variation, just looks like a clear pawn, can't take this
one or shouldn't take this one for anyone wondering Bishop takes h5 there
would be a nasty pin on the h file actually at the very least black could
always block it in with g4 and go win that piece later so greed no longer
necessary not good Bishop to d1 and now 28 minutes should be enough for
Alarisa even though they're just at move 19 no increment for ages what do we
think his chances of conversion here well we don't need to think anything
thing because before you make up your minds let's hear from Goukesh himself as he answers the confessional
interesting game so far and in the opening yeah i came up with this new bishop f5 but he reacted
i think he reacted in the best way possible and i just forgot my my prep and i'm pretty sure i mixed
up something but I feel like it's night day to kind of let me off of the hook I
was really worried about bc7 but but now after I got my rook to b8 and after
king g7 I'm threatening a5 and I don't see a clear way for white to consolidate
It's also good thing is I'm up on the clock feeling pretty, pretty optimistic.
Pretty optimistic that from Goukash, the world champion now later on in the year of course
Goukash will be playing a match against Javakir Sindarov and we have a very long interview
with Sindarov during the break.
That's four subscribers on Twitch.
So if you want to hear that, make sure you get subscribing right now.
I think for Sindarov, the two most interesting players currently in Oslo, Bevisara and Gokesh.
You know, he's of course come here to support Bevisara and we've seen some incredible prep
by her being latched out in every single round and she's at the top of the leaderboard there.
But I'm going to say, I think Sindarov has one eye on Gokesh and his performance and
what he's bringing on the board.
And that makes me wonder about something that you touched upon earlier, right?
prep for the big one coming up and I wonder how much of a play that is for
both Gukesh and Wenjun with world championship matches you know being the
biggest part on their calendar right now being what they've been thinking about
since the candidates got done. Do you think that's something that's the reason
why we've been seeing the performance and the narrative for these two players at
Norway chess? It's possible that's for sure I mean I can't wait to see that
interview, first of all, with Zindarov. I saw a post on social media that he was playing Counter-Strike
and he needed to get his account fixed. I mean, he's got his priorities right, that's for sure,
but I mean, definitely for Gukesh, the fact that he's seeing Zindarov on the rest day on a boat
in the hotel, it's got to be at the back of his mind, eating away. He's like, I can't reveal too
much. I need to look good. I need to impress him, scare him. But that just maybe puts more pressure
Seanish orders for Bibisara definitely inspiring her and probably not health not hurting at
least with the openings. I do think Goukesh and his team should check out Bibisara's games
in a lot of detail before that World Championship match just in case some ideas of St-Darov's
are used. Very interesting also could be a false avenue so who knows but what I found
really interesting is when we had Vincent in the hot seats and Tanya you put him on
must probably say, hey, you're going to second Gukesh again.
There was an awkward chuckle.
He said he can't comment.
I mean, I wasn't really expecting him to give us
a clear answer on that.
You just cannot.
No, of course not.
Reveal that at this point.
Right.
But I just got the vibe.
I don't know about you guys.
It was just more of a feeling.
It was like, kind of, no, don't push me too much on that.
You know what?
Of course, I could be completely wrong.
But I mean, Winston was a very key part of Gukesh's team.
Let me just say that for Ding's match and there were a lot of lines and openings that
were played.
I remember the rookie one idea and one of the games with the white pieces that he attributed
to Winston and it was a very successful opening that he had a three in some of these Queen's
Pawn opening as well.
So yeah, I felt like that chuckle and no comment to me felt like a bit of a comment.
Yeah, I mean, I've heard so many stories about teams recently.
I heard that Syndrov's team was discovered by, I'm not gonna say who, but another candidate.
Everyone who was part of that team was discovered because they accidentally ended up at the
same location for a training camp, two teams at the same time.
So these things, they happen, they happen, you just gotta get on with it in the end.
And I mean, it's all noise, it will come down to form at the time.
Openings will be a big thing, but it comes down to who's in best form.
And I think Gukesh, working on the form is the main thing, regardless of what Syndrome
thinks of him, regardless of who's on each team.
You can have Chima, you can have all the openings in the world, but you need to be in good form.
Right.
And talking about good form, we heard in the confessional that Gukesh is pretty confident
about his position.
We were not sharing his confidence.
We thought, well, just to pawn down.
Every time you've had Gukesh in the confession, the one word that he uses a lot, which I
The thing also gives away of his mindset and the way he approaches chess is that it's
an interesting position and you always see him very happy with that evaluation.
And we use the word interesting a lot in chess and what it really just means is that it's
a position that you can fight in.
It's not that equal.
There's no clear parts to taking this to an Armageddon.
I've got a game and sure I'm down upon but I believe in my chances and I think the chance
that he was referring to and David maybe we just show that one more time because he highlighted
move knight d2 as the one where he felt that Ali Reza could have gone in with
something stronger he was talking about the idea of bishop c7 that Gukesh here
was fearing the bishop gets out of the way and then white not only has an extra
well pawn but also a bishop pair in this position but instead knight d2 and
Gukesh was relieved to see that on the board he immediately snaps up the bishop
as we saw happen moves his king lines up the rook on b8 and now he said what he's
really looking forward to is getting that a5 move in. Trying to open up the a line
and David Bishop d1 it still looks like upon sacrifice to me I do see that
there are ideas of Rook coming on to the second rank maybe Rook to a8 but there's
a c6 weakness on the board as well that's being hit currently. So what
exactly did Gutesh mean and how does he plan to execute a5? Great question I've
been wondering as well I think whichever way the black Rook goes a8 b2 we
probably end up at the same thing. Root to b2. This gives White an extra option, however,
of bishop to b3 shutting the door. I think the intention would be bishop to d3, and that's
why we see the eval bar drop, the rook coming into e2. So most likely it kind of goes in
the same direction. Nxc6, Root takes pawn. We could have got this by the Root k8 move
order. And the question is, like, what is Black really threatening? White could at the
very least castle. Maybe there are other ways, but even if White just castles, it's still
the pawn, actually it's two pawns now and that's quite a big investment. He doesn't
go for a5 because he didn't see the composition here. Rook to c8 instead played. I guess it's
just a defense c6 so the a5 more attractive, more appealing. But this is where Goukeshi's
in my eyes unique. Most of us would be more general terms. We're like, oh wait, we're
a pawn down. Can't play this. Like we're only playing for survival, only playing for a draw.
he, as you said Tanya, he doesn't look at general terms, he thinks hard-core specifics,
so concrete, I have this line, bang bang bang bang bang, at the end I'm fine, this line
I'm fine, this line I'm fine, who cares if he's a pawn down, he's not materialistic
like that.
No, and I think those specifics are still around the move A5, I think this completely
hints at it, right?
You put your rook in C8, you defend that C6 pawn and you're going there next.
The big question for me, Yavanka, is does Alireza have time to strike to get to the
body first with the C4 brake of his own. That indeed looks very, very tempting as well.
Just strike while the irons hot. Because otherwise, as you guys mentioned, A5 incoming, get active.
I think it's now or never if he wants to do it. Should we put it to test, test my fire?
Let's quickly put it to test. And then put it to death, probably. Because it's okay.
Okay, no. Yeah, the reason I want to be quick with this one because there's a lot of stuff happening
Let's do it. Other games. This is gonna go on for a while. I can only we can quickly analyze this one
What is wrong with C4 because evaluation bar kind of said no, I think it's either C4 or it's Bishop C2
Allerys his last move was Bishop D1. I think his intention is to challenge the
The black Bishop but C4. Yeah, I mean the big question is what happens if black just continues, I guess
with his plan that he's dictated. I'm not 100% keen on taking on d5, partly
because the black knight could jump, although I suddenly realized there's a
pawn hanging on the edge of the board, but mainly because black can continue,
and apparently there's some mistake. And yeah, maybe just too slow, maybe white
just takes the pawn, gets castled. Maybe this is the way forward. I would have
actually played Bc2 just because I suddenly see, okay, very leased after
a5 I can probably do anything here castle f3 but the white knight's gonna leap
forward and I'm just shocked that the evil bar says it's only a small edge for
white clip on. Is it a3 in this position here just hoping to get that rook double
up first or go directly in b2 I was thinking maybe double up first but then
it gives you a really nice stronghold on b2 at some point. I mean it's crazy the
evil bar changing every move like where I whatever I play it's changing but it
It does look like white is the one having the first.
Yes, exactly.
And, okay, so really interesting position, but it's getting critical for both sides.
I want to direct us first to Jujina against Jiuwen Jun, because Tanya, your move was put
into operation with getting a king to F5.
And Jiuwen Jun, you can see the evaluation bar saying she's managed to find a resource
because she sacrificed her rook, sacrificed exchange, in order to get rid of that really
powerful bishop. Yeah and I'm just gonna go Yvanka that was an idea mentioned by
you man well done on that. That's the resource that was found by Zhu Wenjun.
And look at that the bar says the black has play right now and David you're
gonna show us how she exactly did it. They just showed how desperate it was
for Wenjun to go for this and it was the best way to get gone to play in this
position under 10 minutes though now. Exactly under 10 minutes and Yvanka
this I haven't finished your day with a prediction game in general because you
You called it that Pryk would play a French. You called it that Rook E2 would happen.
Zuzhune really took her eye off the board here. I'm frankly shocked by her decision.
Like White's plan is to put the king on F5. White's plan is to at some point push the
H pawn, G pawn. Why not start with a move like Rook E1 or H4? She plays Bc4 inviting
Black's only source of counterplay. This is literally the only thing Black can do and
she's allowed Rook to E2. Yes, it's a sacrifice. Maybe she just totally missed it, but now
now C2 impossible to hold. H2 also hanging. And that's how we got to the live position.
And Rook C3, a difficult move. But just for everyone at home, she should be playing this
here and now before white gets time to consolidate because taking the rook would actually lose
the game for white. And you can't stop the pawn now advancing and coming forward. So
Zhu Wenjun in the game if she finds Rook C3. Back in the game if she finds Rook C3, but
is a big if she has to offer up a trade of rooks. Things are also looking incredibly sharp in the
game between Divya, Dishmook and Bibi Sara. Oh, she doesn't find, we just caught a glimpse there.
The rook to E2 was the move plate and Jujine back in the driving seat. But it seems really wild
between Divya and Bibi Sara. Now let's jump over to that. We left it last with Divya having that
extra pawn and felt like she's going to push this for the win in this one. I do see that last move
by Vivisara has been king sidestepping a check and look at that. Divya is giving back her pawn for
peace activity, jumps forward with her knight to d5, gets awarded an exclam on the board
but queen takes pawn. Get that pawn back, material balance restored, what is Divya's follow-up?
Wow, that's a big pawn to give back. She could have defended it with her rook,
with a queen maybe but knight d5 okay it must be something forcing uh some concrete lines
i mean bibisara has to take the pawn otherwise it steps to c7 she can resign
she's never getting rid of that pawn in conjunction with the white knight beautiful outpost okay queen
takes a pawn maybe we'll break it down bibisara has a lot of time so she might think but uh she
will play this move eventually she does it instantly like you said just kind of last c7 on the board
And now the big question has Divya calculated this through and the blue arrow to the rescue before hitting the bishop
getting it out of there and
Then stepping up with the look at that Divya does it she finds the best move in the position
And I was gonna say do you follow this up with a move like rook a6 targeting the d6 spawn next
And black has to choose where to go first Bishop to d4
might just get hit by a move like c3 and if the bishop takes the pawn whoops you get pinned and
and White here wins the Bishop next move.
So after B4 more likely the Bishop drops back and Tanya you're wanting to put the Rook on this square, pinning.
It's more attractive after the Bishop falls back to B6, although I'm still surprised with the pawn giving up of the pawn.
I'm trying to think what's her follow-up here as White.
You're not going to win that Bishop instantly anyway.
That's true, but you've got a lovely little bind, right?
You've got C4, C5 coming and...
Queen B5, C4.
If you try to unpin yourself. Exactly. Not getting away with that.
And actually the more I look at it, the more I'm thinking, well black is in a huge
triangle. You can't actually ever break the pin.
That's true. That's weird. Like you can't get out of this. You can't move your queen
to B7. You drop the bishop. Qb5, c4. This is the perfect construction. Let's say
black makes a random move. You can still play c4 since the black queen cannot
take the pawn the bishop will hang at the end. That's a beautiful idea by the
way to give up the pawn for this play against the black bishop. Wow incredible
she's so good in these kind of unorthodox and balanced positions. And the
thing is right you're going to be forced back to go to b6 you can start with d4
but the bishop's getting hit there anyway so the pin is inevitable on the
board right now. It is inevitable yes I mean how to get out of that one I don't
was the only time he was
able to play a game. I'm
happy to see it. That also
said he was inevitable, but we
all knew how that turned out. In
the meantime, people getting
very excited here in the
library. We're hearing some
players cheering or some fans
cheering for the players. Only
mean wanting to hold. There's
action on some of the boards,
but we will jump to the other
action in a second. There we go.
Buzz. I view just to mention
Divya against Bibisara that was
playoff for the world championship match. She wasn't able to do so, so Bibisara maybe
some revenge on her mind as well, but right now I think it should be survival she's focused on.
She needs to survive a very difficult position as she plays an inspired Divya and we can see on
the top right there is an Armageddon coming just around the corner in just a few minutes.
We will have a kickoff between Wesley So and Vincent Chima. Wesley So with the white pieces
against a luckless Vincent, I would say in Armageddon and how long will you be
unlucky for you know seven is the lucky number for some people this is his
seventh Armageddon so maybe those fortunes will reverse will with colors
reversed as well the meanwhile lot of moves on the board next to that right
we see our evaluation across on the bottom row there advantage they've got
advantage Eugene and music sir kampi in the balance top row I think we have to
had back to Magnus versus Prakrananda. A lot of moves have happened, a pair of
rooks are off the board, Prakrananda still up upon and some light square
weaknesses as well for Magnus Carlson. That's right, just a very quick action
replay. We left it after Qg7 and the rook did slide up to the seventh rank and
Prak had a couple of choices here. He could have pushed forward with e5, he
chose to play a bit more refrained. Rf7 but now the chance does disappear
because Magnus found a better twist on something we were looking at earlier,
f4 first here and now without getting greedy, without grabbing a pawn, before the black
rooks are able to double up, because now black cannot take this pawn despite the g-file
pin because of a deflection rook takes d7, the black queen goes away and white is able
to take the rook up a piece. So after rook to f8, we see Magnus drop back with his king.
No more pin on the g-file, the pawn's untouchable. There's a bind in the center. Preg does defend
everything. He doesn't go to e6 because this pawn may be vulnerable after some exchanges
instead. After Rxf7 he does take with the bishop and now Magnus sliding across, taking
the open file. Prag chooses to create some threats. Bishop f3, a bit of a scary one.
And you know which other threat is super scary here? Rook takes pawn. David immediately
combining the idea of bishop f3. And I was just wondering has Prague blundered that pawn
on e6 because it's hanging? I'm glad you have the checkmate on the board. But now if Magnus
was to grab the pawn on e6, I think Prague does the same. Maybe you start with the check
but just to be a little bit more freshy, I'll go rook takes pawn here, setting up a checkmate.
Nice shot there, can't take the rook because of bishop f3, checkmate, the queen can block
but the inevitable is there. But the bar is fine so there's something else here.
Could it be? I mean, rook e5 doesn't work because of the check first and then I guess
for it takes f4 although there there's some calculation to be done root takes
e6 very natural if white wants to play it safe maybe the queen can come and I
don't know defend some squares but that looks very passive. Can I suggest a move?
Rook takes pawn, if you're magnus. Rook takes pawn, if you don't give the check
first. Bishop takes pawn. I want to trade the queens and win your rook. Exactly all
the deflections queen takes now would be a huge blunder because the rook falls at
the end this is Tanya's point but after bishop takes h7 I guess the king
height in the corner. I hate the bar. I hate it. I thought Bishop takes
barn, it's going to go all the way up. Yeah, well Rook E8 is impossible because of the
Bishop standing there on H5. Everything is covered and you can't of course give a check
with the Queen, because now King takes Bishop. Oh, even Rook.
Yeah, King takes Bishop even better. Ah, piece up for Black. So this could easily spiral
out of control and I mean I hate talking about it so much, but the clock, Magnus, burning
so much time in the opening. He's down to 11 minutes. This is just move 23 and I know some of our
viewers aren't keen on us talking about the increment but I mean it's purely 11 minutes now
for the next 17 moves. Beyond that, Magnus will get 10 seconds per move but does he get that far?
That's a big question. Let's go check out the Armageddon in the meantime. Yeah no extra time on
this one until move 40. The Armageddon started. Winston Kaimo with the black pieces. The draw
means he wins the match for Wesley so he's going to be looking for that must win for that one and a
half pointer. Here Yavanka and we start with a Queen's Indian defense and Nimzo Indian thought
of converted into Queen's Indian setup with Black getting ready to fiat cut his bishop and B7.
And Bishop to D2 played by Wesley design just the fight against the bishop takes Knight just
crippling the white Queen's left one structure. So usually Black is playing D5 at some point but
that incomes might, might eat you keeping the structure
of flexible and I can jump to F4 to G3.
What do you guys think is seven the lucky number for Gaiman?
Oh, and like you said, Tanya, seven.
It's a magical number, right?
Like, I mean, Harry Potter, it was all about seven,
seven books, seven horcruxes, my lucky number's 14,
double seven, and there's something magical about it.
Like, it feels like Vincent's run has to end at some point.
Also, Wesley has to switch gears, Wesley has to win.
Earlier he was playing all out for a draw in the classical, now he's playing all out for a win.
That change could unbalance him.
I think the fact that Vincent doesn't need to win this game might help him a little bit.
He's been closer in the Armageddon's with Black, than he has been with White.
Double or seven for a reason.
Exactly.
The name is Vincent Cardinal.
Okay, and in the meantime, Yovanka was right. D5 did come.
pieces now coming forward blacks getting ready to play the move C5
breakout maybe in the near future this is a very tense position but Wesley at
least showing that there we go bishop dropping back Wesley showing that he
does want a longer battle he will be trying to play against the clock later
and it's very interesting this type of maneuver that Wesley's done with the
knight because usually a knight comes to him and then jumps onto Wesley clearing his
It is quite nice actually that we are really getting that feeling of being alive in the
tournament hall.
And there's not going to be clarification in the position.
I think this is the sort of a long game opening approach that you have where there's no clear
path to trading off too many pieces, not too many open lines.
If you give up the bishop for the knight, which already Vincent does, it's the first
imbalance created already.
The queen moves over.
Wesley can also think about if he's super ambitious David to go alongside castle start pushing h4g4g5 and go for the attack on the right side
Vincent gave up the Bishop pair trading off a Bishop tonight
So he's trying to get rid of Wesley's better Bishop the light square Bishop white
Dark square Bishop right now a bit stuck for very logical move and this is decision time either Wesley allows that exchange and plays very
positionally or he drops that Bishop back accepts that he will not castle
through the black Bishop's gaze here on the diagonal and he's going along.
I'm gonna do that. He's gonna do that. Bishop c2 and Tanya you called it g4 h4
have all the fun in the world. g4 h4 g5 h5 everything five and go along castle
in Europe. Very set for it especially in Armageddon it's on the board this is
gonna be a fun battle for Winston Kammer he already strikes at the center
the knight will come out next, looking for the rooks to line up against the white king
if you're Kaima. Wow, Wesley gives a clear target, a hook at the position, the A3 pawn,
B5, B4 in the agenda, but he had to stop the knight from getting to that square.
This is going to be such a fascinating middle game ahead. I would say the stakes are high
after Kaima, just because now he's got pretty much only half of Wesley's time on the clock,
but also he needs to attack before it's too late. Wesley's got so many easy improving
He's going to slide his king across to B1, maybe F3, G4, all the pawns flying forward.
Vincent is less clear, less straightforward, therefore more difficult.
Number 7, the Armageddon hell that he's been in, the limbo, can he turn it around?
Vincent's rook.
He lines it up against the white king, take a pause, sidestep, puts the king on the safe
square, and setting up G4, G5 next is a Wesley's soul.
Do you trade on D4?
Do you keep the tension?
If you're Vincent Kammer.
Do you also attack the queen and you know try to force the queen on f4 to a more
inconvenient square? Knight h5? Knight h5 is a move to consider but it's risky.
Rook e8, g4 now. G4 possible. Wesley type of move might be f3 just to cover the
light squares. Stop any black knights appearing in the center. Although g4 is
It's so tempting. There we go.
4 if you're Wesley, so it's on the board. G5 coming in next.
Suddenly it's looking very difficult for Vincent. He gives white an isolated pawn, but there we go.
The consequence of not controlling that square means Vincent has some activity.
If we see a bunch of exchanges in the center, maybe the white d-pawn will also drop.
And I'm also looking for ideas for Wesley here. You know, you've got the bishop there.
you want to try to open the position David. We might see a trade on the board, the deep
on moving forward, the bishop lined up on C3, ironing the king side as Winston looks up.
Just under four minutes for Kaima and a rich tactical position.
Wesley, I don't think he should have allowed this, at least in practical terms.
Eval Bas says he's still better, but suddenly Vincent has lights at the end of the tunnel.
He could exchange off a bunch of pieces, at least the clarity that he gets
with this last nightjump will help him to make moves quickly and Wesley's
analyzing Ivanka what happens after grabbing everything on e4 d4 is
hanging those complications who does it benefit at the end I think Wesley is
absolutely forced to take that night on e4 I don't think he can just dilly-dally
and allow like to capture the night the bishop on d2 so what I'm expecting after
all of the trades in answer to your question Tanya, I'm expecting some kind of consolidating
move, either the Bishop steps to E3 or maybe to C3 in order to bulldoze the centre with
a D5.
But Wesley slowed down because there's no longer one-sided traffic and calculation is
necessary.
What to do, what to do, I agree that he should be taking this night but a follow-up, there's
There's a lot of choice there and we'll find out Wesley with a think, now speeds up, brings
us to E1.
And you don't want to capture that corner at the centre of the board with your knight
walking into pins and the d-line, then the bishop and the rook combining to hit that
and the best move on the board, knight to E5, that is a stunner but also probably the
most non-human move in this position, it's nowhere in your radar.
Never, ever, ever, ever.
What kind of move is that?
Absolutely.
It's a crazy sacrifice.
For anyone wondering at home, it's because the Black Rook would then, if the night is captured, take the Bishop on C2,
try to draw out the White King where it would get checked by the Black Bishop and other pieces,
and knight to E5. If Vincent finds that, he deserves this Armageddon win.
And I don't think it's possible though, especially not in a situation where you only have three minutes on the clock.
The thing is, unless this is a practice exercise and someone says Black to play, you're not even considering that move right now.
No one's stopping you on your shoulder saying there's something special.
It's not in your candidate's move list currently if you're climber.
Also with under three minutes on the clock, never, ever, ever, ever, ever.
Ninety-five not happening, night takes on, not possible with Bishop C3, Bishop E3 ready
to go on that.
Look at that, Winston getting a bit nervous.
He's trying to will himself to make a move right now.
If he wants to place Bishop C3, there we go.
He will trade off Bishops at least, clarifying things further, but the problem is at the
end when she gets this move without this move black could have maybe set up a
light square blockade but now the white bishop is going to be a glorious piece on
the g on the c3 square and g7 is the target and I'm challenged for the rest
of the game right with d3 not an asset but a liability right now for Kyma that
one's about to fall defy meanwhile stepping up king side attack as well
making this look pretty smooth so far yeah and there's no counter attacking
possibilities for Vincent if he swoops in with a Queen to E2, that's going to be
going to be my hook to E1. And you can see the tension on Wesley, he doesn't know
what beast to pick, what beast to put on the side, hands shaking there. He's always
been a very fitchy to your opponent Wesley, I've played him many times myself,
he's always clearing his throat when he gets nervous, he's always playing with
pieces but ultimately that isn't something that Vincent Kame can worry
about, Vincent needs to think about the clock, he's just too slow, he's only got
One and a half minutes left, he's five minutes behind Wesley in an Armageddon.
This is verging on hopeless, he needs to make quick moves in a difficult position.
He needs to survive somehow.
A position that's only about to get more and more difficult for the Black Pieces.
Right now for Wesley the moves come easy and quick.
Bishop lining up next, D3 pawn about to fall.
Threats against the G7 pawn, Winston make a move, you're falling under a minute right now.
right now and they're only on move 22 so plenty more moves until that 40 move
and that's not a move you want to make off with that long think retreating with
the knight allowing the deep on to move further further with momentum d6 but
instead Wesley lines up gets ready for Bishop c3 attacking this d3 pawn as
well cementing cementing yeah I was gonna say Bishop on c3 and there would be a
the battery against G7, the D3 pawn, that is so vulnerable and Vincent
desperately trying hard but you can just begin with Bishop to C3.
Sit up that checkmateing idea.
Vincent will spot that one, he blocks with his pawn, but advantage gone for
Wesley so. Apparently a mistake, he might have needed to push forward with D6 first.
There were some small subtle differences, maybe the white bishop actually had to go
the other way to F4 to defend its pawn.
Suddenly after D6 the Black Knight goes to C8 to hit that pawn, win that pawn
and he might be escaping Vincent Kramer at least on the board.
And there's no time to get G5 in trying to break on F6 as D5 is under pressure currently
and for Wesley so win is the only outcome that works.
A draw means Vincent Kramer takes the match.
If both the D pawns disappear, Vincent gets closer to that draw.
So Wesley, bearing in mind, Vincent's clock time is thinking how to be tricky. Should he advance the pawn to D6 attack at the night?
Should he be setting up route to E1? He goes for D6, and I see 8, and your idea, Tanya, just open up the diagonal.
If Kymar's ready for the response, he better be. He's around the 30 second mark right now attacking the Queen.
You can give a check, but Vincent can block it with his own Queen. Offering a Queen trade? Up upon right now is Kymar.
Vincent's almost out of danger now on the board. He's getting closer to a drawn endgame
He looked up at the screen to check the move count
But yeah, Wesley guilty of exactly what he was doing yesterday Wesley as soon as the opponent's in time trouble
Begins to rush Bishop c3 was a rush decision when he had over six minutes on the clock
He might be starting to regret it now
He has to win it all over again the hard work only begins now for Wesley
But he can't let Vincent
Simplify further. We can't let him off the hook. He needs to keep some tension.
He's getting fit and some difficult moves. He gives a check first, cleans off the board.
Oh my goodness. This is an endgame.
Vincent Garber not trying to get the rook off the board, but that couple at the cost of a pawn on F6, did he miss this?
I think he missed it. It was just instinct.
Did you see him? He touched his rook and then he hesitated. He was like, wait, I've just bonded a pawn.
Because he's got no time on the clock, he's trying to save his clock. And look at that, Wesley.
He's about to go up a pawn right now, a gift by Kaimo, who seems unsure in every single move.
He pauses, puts the pawn on G5.
It's not out of it. His king is coming, the knight is coming, he's going to regain the pawn most likely,
but it's just a matter of where the white king ends up.
If by the time Vincent recovers the pawn, the white king is already marauding up the center,
maybe going left towards those black pawns, if the white king is active enough,
Wesley with a bishop in an open position will have the advantage.
And the clock, it's all about the clock for Kaimo right now.
He can't go for anything upon end games, the White King getting super active.
He's trying to hold on with his mighty king at the center of the board, making sure the
White King doesn't get too far out.
25 seconds.
This is move 35, no, 35 incoming now, so five more moves to make before he gets that small
small consolation of the one-second increment. Let's say 98 giving a question mark, is maybe
the White King can start running now. White King can certainly make his inroads towards
the Queen side via C4, B5 and A6, so I'm expecting Vincent to hold firm as soon as the King stands
up. Knight C7 try to block those squares. And if Wesley is able to get to the Armageddon
game a win in and we've got a result! We do have a result of 24. Jiu Jitsu against
Jiu Wen Jun won again there. Three points for Jiu Jitsu. I'm about to deliver. Check
me in on that board as well as Black resigned. Defense less against the area of the Rooks
stepping in but it's back. It's all eyes of Donovan leader Wesley Thor trying to squeeze
this one out but makes a mistake David. He makes a mistake and this king of poor N-game
is not winning for Wesley so I think he's miscalculated again he rushed he had
over three minutes he didn't stop he hasn't paused it's all Wesley's got
into a dead drawn King of Porn Endgame it's a race but Vincent's moves easy now
Vincent's move just gotta run he's just gonna push his pawns we're gonna see a
drawn Queen Endgame and Wesley stopping too late this is so unprofessional from
Wesley he didn't pause and what's the point of having two and a half extra
minutes on the clock this is the line that he had to calculate he's slowed
down now but it's too little too late well we see King takes pawn and now it
becomes a question can Vincent play the moves fast enough because let's not
forget that Vincent is only getting a one-second increment per move and both
are going to queen at the exact same time where he still will have an extra
pawn on the board but it is Winston to move look at the speed with which he's
playing Winston kind of trying to get some extra seconds build up on that
extra second post move 40 right now but Dusty is still I'd say for an Armageddon.
Still tough, Vincent actually decors slightly wrong he could have got to a
dead drawn position here it should be a draw but he's suffering. The trick for
Black is to actually try and get the King into the corner, the Queen centralised
first, Vincent mere seconds left, Wesley Oddsah he still wins this. Although
Vincent has memories now of a Queen of Porno game against Blukesh all the way
back at the beginning of the tournament where he was on the winning side and
couldn't win. And Wester you could see it his hands trembling before he came back
with a queen giving but check to the white to the black king. Just the tension
and the nerves and the stakes of this match incredibly high for the tournament
leader right now. The king getting closer to that white young thorn. He's about to double down.
He gets the king forward and then Wesley is just looking for the most
surprising moves to make in order to make Vincent burn that time on the clock
there you go no more checks just offer a trade of Queens make Vincent think and
here we go mistake oh it's a mistake because why can I get the Queens off
the board he can give a check in the center with his Queen the only winning
move and misses it oh the bar still high but that was a knockout on the spot
Queen to D5 and the Queens would have come off that was game over the next
would have forced a queen trade. Winston gets another life.
Can't take it. He comes back.
Oh, and the clock.
Vincent loses on time. Tough defence.
And then, where's he gets the job done?
That was such a nervy encounter from both sides.
Oh, my goodness.
Nervy encounter in...
Listen into both sides.
in the Armageddon for Vincent Wesley walks away with one and a half points moves to 14 points.
We did see a game finished between Eugenaire and Juwen Jun. Can we just see how that game actually
ended? And meanwhile another result coming in, another Armageddon coming in as Anna Muzichuk
Humpey ends in a draw as well. Anna Muzichuk, the Armageddon Queen, gets you once again,
work on magic. That game was not the most thrilling, very symmetrical for most of it.
I think a very fair result that it was a draw. Just before we jump into Magnus against Prague,
as Yavanka requested a very quick show of the final few stages between these two chairs,
it was the white chair that won Zuzina, and she delivered what was about to be a checkmate
against the Black King. It all came down to, I think this moment where she'd sacrificed,
she got back in Zhu and Zhu, but she needed to find this move to paralyze white,
rook back to C3, and it's very hard for white to break through, but she started kind of drifting
here didn't find a plan for black just started moving around with her bishop the white king now able
to improve the white pawn stepping forward and there was nothing to do against this big attack
the black king left all on its lonesome and here we saw a file open up rook to g3 a beautiful killer
the black king is simply trapped and the final blow was here the king side stepping check
and the other rook coming across inevitable almost a pre-move rook to h7 checkmate that's
That's amazing that the only way to prolong it would be to give up a black zurück, but forced mate next
Beautifully done there by a jiu-jitsu in this one, but we have to rush over to Magnus's board
He's down to five and a half minutes in the clock 14 moves remain to be made in that game right now
It's maximum pressure on Magnus although on the camera. He looks incredibly chilled after giving a check
gives a check and
big decision for Prague does he block or does he just hide in the corner at the
Yeah, I was gonna say at the cost of a pawn, but that would allow
Bishop check a double attack. Can Magnus hold this?
I'm gonna predict that Prague hides in the corner simply playing on Magnus's clock right now any other move you go Queen F7
You get into an endgame you go Rook F7
There's even a check on E8 or Rook F1 more pieces coming off the board Bishop F7
Just doesn't feel tempting enough coming in the way of your own pieces
you want that f3 check in the air. I say Prague goes king h8 and plays for Moja.
King h8, I love that move, tucking the king into the corner. If he wants to avoid the
queen trade, I mean is Bishop f7 something as well to consider? Although it kind of
feels a bit weird stepping away. I think Magnus' intention against nearly everything
is to play queen e5, although here may be the least tempting because actually there
There are rookie 8 ideas to trade off Rooks and Black is still a pawn up in the endgame.
So actually, yeah, Bf7 might set that trap.
If we show King h8, maybe now Magnus can play Qe5 and bail out into an endgame where he's
very active.
Black's h4s don't make a great impression.
Maybe it's just the difference that in this position after the Queen's come off, the Black
d-pawn is protected.
So rookie 8 possible.
And the Black bishop on h5 isn't hanging as well in these positions.
So Yvanka, I'm with you.
I wanted to go King H8 to keep the game going, to keep the queens on the board.
But if Bishop F7, no matter how weird it looks as a retreating move, stopping,
blocking your own f-line, you know, normal Bishop F3 checks,
if that's the way to keep the queens on the board,
I'd say Prague finds it and he plays it.
It's that kind of move, right, that the Indian School of Chess is so good at finding.
It just breaks all the rules.
And yeah, somehow it's based on calculation and it works.
about Bishop f7, King h8, Prak thinking what to do. He can take this while though.
Also can I make an argument that the move Queen to f7, you know if you trade I'm saying
that I have an extra pawn in that endgame, I still have something to play for and I don't
believe you can go for the pawn on 8-6 with the Queen as set up to give a big check on
f3, hitting the King, hitting the Bishop, Queen f2, hitting the rook on e1.
Qf3, probably the more accurate of the two as you point out there.
Qf7, definitely possible, Prague.
I think it is the choice between Qf7, maybe a Bf7.
What do we say though?
Is this a two result game?
Because I can't see Magnus winning this ever, really.
So is it just Magnus fighting for a draw, but Prague, thanks for a win, very least
a draw.
You know, I think I'm going to say it's going to be a draw.
Another Armageddon?
Mm-hmm.
this one goes down to the wire and let's remind everyone that Travnananda did take down Magnus in the earlier encounter in the classical at Norwich S
It's definitely decisive because they've already been two classical drawers and I need this one. I need it. Come on, Pravee.
Yeah, I'm also looking at it and I'm thinking there's not gonna be any more decisive games apart from Divya Dishmukh, Bibi Sarasarbeva,
which if we look in the bird's eye view, that's gone on the same way that we were predicting with White setting up this pin against the Bishop on B6.
B6.
That's the bottom centreboard, Divya with a big, big advantage, we'll just, yeah, but
in the meantime, Farouzha losing his advantage despite still being a pawn up against Goukesh
on the top left, and Armageddon imminent on the bottom right there between Muzichuk
and Hampik Nairu.
That's coming up, and it's a big one, especially for Anna Muzichuk, who's really in the mix
of things right now, chasing the leader, that's Bibi Sarasagbhaiva currently in a worse position
against Divya, bottom row there, but it's all eyes on Magnus Carlsen, Prague and also
Ferozha with a big turn around there. Should we quickly jump on to Divya and Bevisara before
we head back to Magnus's game? Let's go there because it's a marquee matchup. If
Bevisara wins this one in classical, it feels like she's running away with a tournament.
If Divya wins, she will overtake and well, we are in for a wild ride.
Yeah, Divya's done everything right so far everything perfect giving back that extra pawn earlier that she had just to create this beautiful bind
So instructive so classy what she's done and yeah, this pin. We said it was eternal
Here Bibisara has found a way to defend her bishop
So maybe trying to get the queen out the way eventually, but that might come at the cost of some material
I don't see immediately how Divya improves
The position that is the big question
I was wondering whether she can play moves like Queen a5 some funky stuff to try and
Double down triple down on this pin to try and get a favorable end game if the Queen's come off white properly in the driver's
Seat winning, but yeah, there are lots of twists and turns ahead. It feels with the clocks ticking down
And the more you look at Queen a5 at least the more I like it right now
You take that Queen you pick up the Queen the d6 spawn is hanging the bishop on a5
Hanks and it's definitely got to be a move that has to be on Divya's radar because Bebesara has set up the untangling of her
own pieces if allowed. Give Black one move, Queen falls back to e8 or d7 and
you're quite happy. You're starting to advance on the right flank as well, you know f4 coming in, f4, f3, Queen h5, Queen h3
Yeah, can you not also
Yeah, I realized now you were talking for Black
I was like, he can take knight takes bishop and then rook takes d6. Also, this is like
an idea that white has in the back of their bucket, but definitely black is getting active.
Yeah, maybe black has to go via d7 and the long way round. So maybe white should just
be taking some time. I think tactically she should at some point give her king some breathing
space. I'm not sure h3, g3, h4, you name it, but now Divya burning some time that she doesn't
really have right now, 11 minutes on the clock.
And if there's a player who doesn't enjoy time pressure, she's rarely the one who's
chasing on the clock. She usually is the one putting pressure on the clock and right
now coming down to about the 11 minute mark. She moves her queen to the other side of the
board trying to get it to H5. She's identified that all of Black's forces are on the left
flank with the king left open there. Queen H5, Queen F3 ideas. And Queen F3 will not
only hit the pawn on F5 but also take a deadly knight of six check.
sneaky tactics in the Bebasara under severe pressure on the board. She's a very resourceful
player, so what can she come up with next? You really want to move your Queen away, don't
you, if you're black right now. This is the opportunity to finally free up your pieces
so that they can move around. The question, where do you go? d7, also supporting the f5
bond? Maybe d7, then the Bishop has to retreat to d8, full retreat mode, just to get out of
these pins but yeah very difficult to to call here the besara big update frog
did take a decision on his board and we just jump straight into that after the
check as we mentioned no Queen trades he slides to the right side King 8 8 on the
board are not yet not yet not yet thinking it looks like from Prague we
see on the camera there the King still on G8 still check looks like he was
about the movie so we will be seeing that move soon but he's trying to spend
time to look ahead into the future he's not getting not getting impatient here
to make moves and pressure magnets on the clock that will come later no
decision yet on this one is Matt and we're getting a confirmation here
indeed no moves by prob the king still on the check you'll be the king is still
on the world he's not only we've arrived at the future to age eight yes you've
the most natural move is of
course it is being played. And
here we were considering
Magnus's plan just drop the
Queen back one square offer up
a trade. And Magnus doesn't
have too much time. I'm just
assuming that move because it
is the end game. Great that is
Magnus Carson. Endgame goats. I
just assume he's going to try
and get the queens off because
it is a bit scary for the white
checks as well. You don't want to risk too much, but okay, we were half right there.
He swaps off something, but it isn't the Queens. It's the Rooks that he wants to get off the
board, and that does make sense too. The White Queen is very active. Black Queen not yet
so. So he wants to get the Rooks off, and I think he's still angling for some kind of
repetition if possible. Right, I guess to decide. Rooks off or not?
Magnus definitely wants to take this into the end game if he can. He wants to take it
the Armageddon if he can. First the rooks, no more bishop f3 check, the d5 pawn on the
fire right now for Pragnan on the hard as he keeps the game going putting pressure on
Magnus' clock. I do spot a check. There is the queen getting into the second rank. I'm
also hitting a bunch of pawns on the left side. Is that what's considering right now,
although it's a bit terrifying leaving my king side completely free with checkmating
ideas around the 8-7 square?
Definitely possible to consider that. Magnus I guess will hide out on h3, something he
he should have done against Wesley in the game he lost, something he did do against
Verusia in the game he won, the king for Magnus. He takes so many risks with his king, so many
liberties. He prioritises other stuff and just hopes to survive in the king-active in the
end game, but yeah, it does look like it will survive there for at least the short term.
Yeah, very interesting decision there for Magnus to offer up a trade. The idea is just
to simply swap rooks and then the pawn on d5 is the ultimate target. So it also begs
the question like will Prague accept that trade or will he simply go rook to d8 or something
to try to keep everything tightly under control. Just while Prague is thinking about this decision,
let's take a peek in Alireza Ferozca against Goukesh because Alireza still
a pawn up but the evaluation bar telling us is completely level. What's happening here?
You know there's a check on the board. So Gukesh will move the king away. I think the
problem for Alireza is that his rook is kind of stuck where it is right with the black knight
threatening to come in to c3 to win that a2 pawn. You need to make sure that threat isn't possible.
The big question after Gukesh does sidestep with the king. Can Alireza have enough time to go
rook a6 and pick up that thorn in the position that's the a3 pawn here?
Yeah, he would love to if he removes that pawn and recentralizes his rook reactivates it. He's just winning
But there will be counterplay
Based on this very strong knight on e4 and the fact that the white pawns can't really kick it away
Like this construction of f2g3 is normally very nice defensively
Apart from against the knight like I've had this myself many times and if you touch the f pawn the g3 pawn falls
If you don't touch anything the f2 pawn the base is hit and the black rook is coming into c2
So Rook takes pawn, for example, Rook has c2, impossible to defend both of these two little foot soldiers here, but
knight c5 is another option and I think the
theoretical view is that these types of positions vary, Jorish, especially because the white king is so passive, the black rook can sit
behind, it can even just sit already, behind the white pawn and whites never really gonna win this.
He goes the other way in the live board, Gutesh with his king, probably doesn't change too much.
And yeah, he's open to more checks, but he's happy with that. This feels like it should be a draw
I think Alarazer at some point the only winning winning attempt might be to bring his own king
Your knight is paralyzed your rook can't move because the lines that you're suggesting
Rook A6 feels tempting
But it allows counter play on the C file the knight can't move because the black rook comes in on B1 and on B2
Which means it leaves you with the deep on moving forward or king to F1
These are the two options going through Alarazer's mind right now. How committal does he want to get D5?
You're kind of putting it under fire. Rook d8, rook b5 lining up against that pawn.
Feels like it will be defenceless there and a bit too rash.
Yeah. The white pawn is defended. I think leave it there for now. It's never bypassing d6 square anyway.
So I think he has to play Kf1 unless there are any tactics.
I don't really see how the black rook gets active yet. Maybe it is that
one of those ideas you mentioned Tanya, the rook coming up via b5 f5.
How easy is this position for Goukash as we see King F1 make an appearance?
Not easy, I would say.
Like I see the Eval Bas is 0.1, but that means it's very best.
A little bit of pressure for Ruzia.
I should be able to draw, but I don't see any direct path.
Is there no direct path?
That's the type of player he is.
He needs something concrete here to force it.
The policy might be to try and bring the night round to B4.
It takes a long time though, that journey.
And if you guess that luxury.
And Gukesha has always got these decisions, right?
If and when and how does he push those pawns on the king side?
Do you want to go H4, trying to create a weakness on G2
once the trades happen?
But that means that Alresa solves the problem
of his own double pawns.
Do you want to play F5 and then push those pawns as well?
That's another question you want to answer.
I think it's definitely easier to be Alresa right now,
even with less time on the clock, easy improving moves in the possession.
So Gukesha that's always a challenge.
You have to watch out for that rook on the 6th rank either falling onto A6 or to A6 winning
one of those two points.
That's definitely a game of two results.
Ali Raza will either win this or be a draw.
But we have a decision from Prak against Magnus.
I asked the question, will he trade off works?
And the answer was yes, he did.
It's there on the right.
can see we're in exclusive queen and bishop end game. What do we make about this one?
Because Magnus' queen is so active there on E6. 12 moves, 4 and a half minutes for Magnus
Carlson right now. I think that's the biggest talking point right now. Magnus has enough
time to play for that pawn deficit currently. Bishop takes the rook on the board, but as
long as queens are there, you know your king not feeling safe and you have 4 and a half
minutes on the clock, the world number one needs to be extremely careful.
Yeah, still care needed, but it does depend on Prague being able to find some way to apply the pressure now.
How to save the deporn, how to stop some checks on the back rank.
He needs a very clever move, it feels like. Otherwise, Magnus might be clinching the draw in the next few minutes.
I actually think it's easier for Magnus to draw this than it is for Gukes to draw his game elsewhere, also a pawn down.
Agreed, but I want to talk about the mindset, right?
Because for Magnus and Prague, a draw just doesn't make the cut.
and somewhere in your mind you're thinking how can I just keep the game going hoping for my chance
hoping for my mergel even if you're Magnus Carlton so making peace with the fact that the position
doesn't have enough juice I need to take this two words that Armageddon might be a tougher battle
for Magnus here it's the queen and I think the idea is to fall back with your bishop just making
sure that no queen trades. Prug wants the game. He definitely wants the game he is after all a pawn
up and it is a beautiful pawn sitting there on d5.
Beautiful pawn and I just want to highlight how happy that black king is right now.
It's saying thank you to its bishop, thank you to the queen just for keeping it so safe and cozy
in the corner. I was going to say do not move that queen away from the diagonal. If you take
that queen away, for instance, if you were to make queen 2... I'll make it happen somehow.
are. Yeah. Queen takes and then I don't know. Yeah, like this move it far away and you can
see, oh, dear, things stuck in the corner. So there always has to be some care.
Well, and our chat there equating this to the legendary battle between Mohammed Ali and
Azure Fraser, it does feel like a boxing match currently between these two players. So much
history at Norwich as Pradhananda also getting his first classical win against the world number
one of this tournament which made all the headlines in India wins the first of
their encounters here this year at Norwich as Magnus looking for that revenge
but more importantly looking to climb up on the leaderboard. Looking to climb up
what is Magnus gonna do in the meantime? Does he have any good waiting moves? Can
the white bishop be improved somehow? Does he have to watch out for the black
queen checks? So many questions, so little time, three minutes, tiktok goes
that clock. We've been here before. We've seen this storyline. Prag knows as well that Magnus's
Achilles heel this last week or so has been the clock. Can he use it? Magnus reaching for that queen.
He might bring it the whole way back. C5 is another square. He goes behind, probing at the pawns.
Actually, this was the move I wanted to show in that variation where Yvanko delivered a checkmate.
So understandable to want to go to the dark squares, but Prag can defend by pushing a pawn.
And the one thing you don't want to do if you're Prague is go Queen B to check and then pick up either of the two pawns.
Another way to show Yavanka's idea of the beautiful checkmate with the king suddenly trapped because of its own pieces.
The danger is always present and even more so when the clock is ticking down and you're not quite thinking straight.
But I don't think that will happen at all because both players will understand the danger.
But it's always there and it's something that Magnus can use to slow Prak down.
And we have a two board view as we see Ali Reza Ferozda against Koukesh and Ali Reza.
He's made big improvements, right? You know, the rook is on A6 targeting A3.
And suddenly, on the right side, we see King H3, a misstep there from Magnus.
Big mistake from Magnus Carlson in big trouble and the blue arrow appears.
Now, Black's king needs to get out of that corner.
We were joking about the king getting mated in the corner.
Nobody wants to see a king like that.
But that frees up the Black Bishop to do some nasty work checking.
As he finds it, Preg, Magnus suddenly in big trouble.
This is such a Preg move to play just free up.
And look at that, he leans back right after that.
Magnus Carlson has to solve all these problems
with two and a half minutes.
Bishop E6, a big threat.
Yes, you can give a check.
And C7, Preg will simply block it with his Bishop
and keep marching up the board with the king
till he assists that bishop check on e6. Magnus uses his favorite square for the king, the one on
h3. But this looks like it's going to come back to bite him. The white king in huge trouble. Bishop
f7 and the king will also start to work its way up the board getting out of potential pins.
And let's not also forget that it's not just about king safety, it's also the deep form can't
start running at the right time. It's coming. Magnus improves his own bishop right now.
That 8-7 spot. Still very tricky, David.
Yeah, very, very tricky. Bishop takes pawn on h7 in some positions is a threat. But the
white king is just in the box. The white king is stuck, can't escape, can never really
move off h3. You don't really want to push g4 ever because you only open it up further.
He is human as Walter Weitz was saying there. And Biscayza is back as Magnus is staring
down that abyss and the goat going to lose to Prague twice in this tournament, it's
very possible. The key here is to be really patient for Prague to not move the Black
Queen, which is perfect, to keep it eyeing the second rank, to keep it defending along
the B-file, to keep the diagonal covered as well, the most beautiful multi-purpose Queen
ever. And just slowly instead, close the door on Magnus's King, push the H-pawn forward.
Maybe at some point the Black King will be able to run away, hide, and if the Bishop is
ever freed. The white queen is stuck in the meantime pinning it because the bishop would
deliver the killer blow. And Pragananda was all of 18 years old in
Stavanger at Norway chess, where he took down Magnus Carlsen in his first ever classical
win against the world number one. He's looking for a second in one tournament here. It feels
like Norway is the country where Pragananda seems to be the biggest challenge for Magnus
Carlson a big advantage can he put the finishing touches to this one can he put
the finishing touches it requires a lot of patience and calmness as well just to
understand that white is in a bind but Prak he's a positional player at heart
he can find this concept Prak he should just move to Norway beautiful country
always seems to be
Make that next step become more champion who knows but okay one for the future if pride wins this game
I might pose in that question, but in the meantime, it's just about improvement
I think the biggest ghost here that he might see is that Bishop takes pawn
Is in the air and it is indeed an option, but actually that pawn pretty irrelevant right now
Black would only gain a few 10p. Black will not get deflected with his king.
Doesn't have to take that bishop, of course. The black queen can swoop back to some squares.
It's all about the white king. Magnus takes huge chances with his king, and this is the time to punish him.
This is the time to punish him. Let's bring up the bird's eye view because I just want an overview
on what is happening in the other two games. As we see that Ali Rezaf, Fruja, again,
said Goukesh there's been a trade of nights the evaluation bar now firmly in
the middle whereas Divya look at the clock times two minutes against 14
minutes against Birisara. Can she keep control? And that's an absolutely wild
position Divya with some light maneuvers coming in there maybe we get our
two-board view at some point it is the marquee matchup off our Norwich has
women and Magnus Carlson as well in that two-minute 14 a second mark right now
David Divya's game. I love her advantage. She's setting up each five ninety six check ideas huge pressure on baby Sarah
Huge pressure Divya has apparently gone slightly wrong, but still big advantage for her
It's just about whether she can handle the clock and be bizarre. They're allowing the bar to go higher there
We see on the bottom purple board
because the white knight is about to close a meeting that around the black king and it might not come into effect now on the
15-20 moves but long-term big issues for Bibisara. Let's dive back into the
Magnus board though because Prague the clock is ticking and this is a key
moment. It really is. You can feel it right? Under 14 minutes now for Prague. The
good news is he's got those extra minutes to work it out so very wisely using the
time right now and not just focusing on Magnus's clock to get those moves in
rash and quick and lose out on his advantage. Something that we've seen
the players do when you start playing only the clock and not the player not the
board. Bishop d3 by Magnus. Prak cannot afford to pick up either of the two pawns on the
left side. The white queen will jump in with some checks on the middle of the board. The
black king will be under fire. But what will be Prakrananda's decision here? All he wants
is to give a check with his own bishop on e6. How can he make that happen?
Yeah. Well, he has many moves. You know, he doesn't just have to go h5. Another idea
that Prak could do is to slowly improve the placing of his queen, get it to the center.
But I hesitate because I suddenly realize, is Magnus planning Bishop takes H7 as an idea
to neutralize?
I think he wants to play that move, but there might be some tactical reasons that he cannot
on the, yeah, we'll come to that in a moment, break it down, but on the other board, Divya
brings her rook up to the center.
We'll see inaccuracies there because Divya is in huge time travel, the most severe of
all under one minute and yet to get that increment I believe and she is really in a race against
herself against the clock race before Bibisara is able to activate her pieces which came to jump into
and most importantly she's a race that she's in the race against Bibisara herself a win would
propel Divya as the leader with only two rounds remaining it is advantage to Divya but there's
still two more moves remaining to be made if you're white right now with 49 seconds on the clock.
Stay on this two board view because both games are so incredibly exciting.
Bebe Sara has to find a way to just defend the pawn on f5 that's under attack.
Whereas for Prague, he has to find a nice way to slowly improve his position.
They can do that by h5, you can do that by Qd4.
You can also make other small incremental improvements.
And if your bivis are right now to defend that pawn on f5, she's trying to make a decision.
Does she do it with her queen? Does she do it with her rook d6 under attack as well?
I'm going to say one thing, our right side of the screen, Frog, he's taken a lot of time in this moment.
I think he has to make his decision in the next one minute.
It just feels like you can't give Magnus this much time to be thinking about his response.
and I do believe if Prague plays move h5 he wins. I think Bishop takes h7, it's
actually a huge trap there and it would backfire immediately on Magnus
Carlson. I do believe Magnus wants to play that move because what else? He's
otherwise stuck. So h5 would be a devilish trick, a trap. Should we show it?
Maybe we show it because if Prague plays this move and it is the best
according to the computer, this is so sneaky, let's jump into that Prague
board. Just for a second, we'll come back out to check in on Divya in a second, but
H5, if we see this from Prague, Magnus, with his last move creating the threat of Bxh7,
would actually not be able to play this any longer.
If he takes this pawn, Bxh7, the black queen slides into E2, and I just want to show you,
the white bishop is trapped, it's pretty much trapped, there's only one safe square to escape
to now, black is threatening to give a check via f1, defend the black bishop and just pick
up white's piece, and the bishop has to come back to c2 for example, if it wants to save
itself suddenly like pushes d4 and Magnus is frozen. He can't stop the
advance of the d-pawn. He can't stop his own king getting caught in a mating net.
Qf1 in the air, Qe6 in the air. Magnus would just be able to resign here.
So h5 closing the net and actually putting the other pawn in h6 soon to
cover the dust whereas is the winning plan. You know once you put it on the
board it feels and looks incredibly strong. You can't unsee it but it's not
easy spot. To figure this geometry out, to understand that the bishop gets trapped there,
look at that, Prug, he's willing himself to make a move right now. He realizes he's taking too much
time. He needs to put pressure on the board and on the clock. You need to combine every single
advantage that you have when you're playing against world number one to take him down. H5,
David, I'm with you. If Prug spots this, he takes the win. But the problem is there are so many
other attractive options as well. You've got these queen moves that you can line up. But that queen
on d4 as Yvanka earlier highlighted. Maybe make a waiting move with one of your pawns on the left
side. But h5, super strong here by Prague. And it's a beautiful geometry as well to understand
that the bishop on d3 is needed to stop a queen arriving on e2. And everything just works because
of timing. And meanwhile Divya, look at the clock time. 22 seconds, one move to go. And this position
actually is not that easy as you feel like black is on the verge of actually with a retreat move.
Oh, what's he paid? He hasn't paid H5, Queen B6 on the right from Prague.
All right, Mr. Wynne, opportunity. It's not a bad move. He still has the advantage.
It's definitely not a mistake, a blunder or anything like that. Magnus cannot trade queens.
Black's king is nearer the center. So Magnus, the endgame genius that he is, might be tempted to go
go into a pure bishop ending but he should resist that temptation. The Black
King so fast to run and we see Magnus centralise instead. Giving a check,
Prague is going to block that with his queen. Again the same dilemma, Magnus
cannot trade so the pressure continues. Magnus understands that all
bishop on end games here would be lost for him and I think if he wants to
bail out right now he needs to keep that bishop pinned. Magnus can't trade, he goes
back not allowing the bishop E6 check ideas that we were earlier looking at
And again, Prague. Where is his progress? Does he feel that now he's got all his pieces connected time to start pushing that deep on up the board?
Maybe and
Does he have half an eye on the B7 pawn? Maybe that pawn's just not relevant. Why is
Miles away from creating a pass born after all
I would love to see the move Queen to B2 from Prague because we've actually had that position
But with black to play hey, he's done a bit of triangulation literally in a triangle B6 B2 F6
maybe back to B2, he passes the move to Magnus in time trouble that is really
uncomfortable. Magnus doesn't have any obvious moves there and might fall into
the trap of moves like Bishop takes H7 as we saw but difficult. But all of that
only depends if Prague realizes that Bishop takes pawn is not exactly a
threat and he's got this idea of Queen E2 taking away all the squares from the
light-squared Bishop that Magnus has and I don't think Prague has spotted it yet.
I don't think he has figured it out that he can make Magnus fall into the trap of
Bishop takes one in this position. He would have played h5 otherwise. Yes somehow
you have to switch from this whole mentality of defending pawns and making
that gradual improvement to understanding that white's king not very safe there
on h3 and also big news it looks like Ali Reza is turning things around he is
is slowly working his magic and it is looking like everything is going to go towards Alireza
winning this. Have a look at the evaluation bar as it goes up and up and the big difference
is that Alireza Foujah has managed to reroute his rook behind his passer which will then
start moving up the board. Rookie of three ideas in the air as well to make sure that
your king goes towards the center and you can deflect Black's army David.
Yeah, black is going to be totally stuck. That's the board on the left right now
Goukeshe does move his rook across
to target white's extra pawn
Ferozha that white a pawn all the way on the left there will be defended. He's going to put his rook on a3
It's going to be a active rook versus a passive rook
Still not easy. I think there might be some turns ahead
It's going to be difficult for whites king to activate past the barrier of the fifth rank
But yeah, it's definitely Bukesh all out defense now question five minutes from magnet find most to be made by Magnus in
Just about a minute and a half and look at that a slow move by Prager Nanda. He simply defends that B pawn
He moves it up the board to B6
He's inviting Magnus to distract himself with the Queen taking the pawn on a seven but that will put the Queen really offside
I don't think that we will be fast enough to defend the white King. Oh
You never want to separate your Queen from the her King
especially so drastically like that. We joked about it the other day, a Queen and King, the divorce
between them, when one is on the H-File, one is on the A-File, never ends amicably there and it
would surely end in checkmate. Magnus has fallen for that type of thing before though. I have seen
him lose positions where he gets his Queen a bit sidetracked. He decides not to this time. I think
his Spidey sensors would have told him it was just impossible and therefore he waits, but upon
on the light square that could become a target if the queens come off the board.
Long term, long term that could be a move that comes to haunt you right now if you're
Magnus Carlsen but he has to keep one eye on the club, get those moves fast and in quickly
right now. For Prognan on that again, H5 he's done it, it's on the board.
Well now the white king is going to start to feel uncomfortable as maybe it can take
a step back to G2, just be in a safer square and you know what Prog does then? He goes H4,
He goes all in. He's going to try to blow open the king's side armor that Magnus has
around his king. Magnus make a move, 40 seconds, no king g2. He goes on the other side.
And now, well, big decision for Bragg. How is he going to resolve the tension that on
the left side does he take? And this might allow Magnus to capture on a7 so many possibilities.
But not easy. Not easy at all for Magnus to hold this one with 41 seconds on the clock.
Yes, he has a 10 second increment, but he's literally living on his instinct.
He's living on instinct so far, so good though, defending very well Magnus Carson.
One player not defending well is Goukesh, who has much more time than Alarazer,
but it's just made a terminal blunder and is now dead lost in that rooking game.
game. Goukeshe, walking his king across, he wants to blockade that pawn with his king now,
but unfortunately that's just going to leave the other side of the board all open. White's king is
stepping forward. Also, White can switch focus at the right moment and go with his rook to start
winning some pawns. Goukeshe, yeah, some elementary mistakes, I would say, to even allow the white
rook behind the pawn earlier. He should have kept the white rook on the other side. And now,
no matter what, the white pawn is running through, unless Black makes a piece passive.
This is the deflection strategy here in the rook pawn end game with that a pawn everything under control by the world champion and then somewhere choking to get into this mess that he has for Gukesh this has got to hurt right now and for Alireza Farooza he knows that Westy so has failed to win his classical he can really narrow the gap with this win
Definitely, he can't narrow the gap with a winning classical with three points in his
pocket.
Also, just to update you on a result, it was a draw in the Armageddon game between Anna
Muzichuk and Hampi Canary.
Hampi was playing black, she walks away with a one and a half points.
Big for the standings.
Anna Muzichuk will feel that she left some points on the board there.
Hampi, she hasn't been so successful in the Armageddon, so a big win for her.
That's a win after a long gap for Herbert. A big question. Can Prague do something about the little advantage now that he has in his position?
We see another trade, more pawns coming off the board. Magnus getting closer towards that draw.
Oh, but peace sacrifice. Magnus is saying, please take my bishop.
The white pawn would then run through and probably black would be forced to give up a pectoral check.
That would be a draw off an hour essentially. If Prague takes this white bishop, that's all the risk. No reward.
don't get tempted he should be taking back the b6 porn instead either with his
queen or with the porn there we go big blunder in the game between Divya and
BB Sara if we can quickly go and check in on BB Sara could extend her lead as you
see the evaluation bar go down Bishop takes porn and BB Sara will be turning
it around. Wow that is a full rook sacrifice she needs to sacrifice the
rook on B8 and that would give her a winning attack I think she finds this
I think it's very kind of straightforward in terms of all focus on the
white king Bishop takes on E3 the white knight would then drop the white king is
all on its own in the corner and it won't be the first time the Vissara
sacrificed that rook and it's on the board she does it she's about to take the
and look at Divya's clock 10 seconds she gets that extra time on the clock but
completely lost checkmate in one coming up rookie one Divya no defense her rooks
so sidelined and the Queen steps across now the black Queen is gonna swoop in
so many different ways into the attack here Divya completely underestimating the
power of that doc-squared Bishop killing all escape routes for that white
Queen, take that pawn on C4, bring the Queen in. If you're Bibi-Sara, she can take her
time as well. She can line up the Queen and rook on the E-line, threaten a deadly checkmate
on E1. That's good enough. Basically, this is domination and the White King has no cover
whatsoever.
And Defea was completely winning this game.
Oh, but this is a pattern I've seen in so many of her games. As soon as she loses control
a little bit. It spirals quite quickly. Bibisara did so well at staying patient, patient, patient.
She finally got a chance to strike and she took it instantly and she just needs to deliver that
killer blow now. The White King is so open you can't push eight points forward if you know your
enemy pieces are coming. She just took her eye off the ball, got too deflected with her rooks.
You need to keep nearby defensive pieces intact. And very impressive by Bibisara. One opportunity
and she's all on it. She's such an attacking aggressive player, doesn't care about material.
It's all about going for her opponent's king. I do love the idea of lining up the queen and the
rook on the e-file, forcing Divya's rook to retreat. You could also place it on e7. Am I
balling the h4 pawn as well in so many of those tactical lines? But the problem of Plenty,
so Bevisara, she needs to make a decision. She's just taking her time, perhaps calming her nerves,
you know because this is an important point. She takes the pawn and now Tanya your threat is on the
board. Queen c1 is going to be deadly which will be spotted and stopped by the rook moving back and
I think what Bibisara is also a hinting at is the rook stepping into the second rank on e2 and next
lining up against the white queen threats on the g2 pawn meanwhile lots of moves on the Magnus board
as well. Magnus has been consolidating though the white king suddenly so much safer now it's off
the edge of the board. Also the white pawns on dark squares control the advance of black's pawns.
Now Pragg is playing only with his queen. His bishop can't move, his king is stuck,
he's pinned in the center, Pragg. I think Magnus is closer to the draw than ever before.
It's an extra pawn but it's a paralyzed pawn. How far are you going to get? How will you get that
deep on up the board and Magnus slowly but surely making sure that even if the pieces get off the
the board the white king close enough to the deep bazaar and the black king is
something that pregg will have to worry about and all occasion he will have to
make sure that his queen protects her king makes environment and what is
happening in the trivia this bizarre game rook to e2 not the most accurate
but still winning for bb sara maybe not the most accurate but most human a move
kicking that queen out and now the black queen will try to find an inroad to that
H4 pawn. Get the bishop out of the way but you've got to watch out for that F5
check as well. She keeps chasing the queen. I think she wants to line up with
her own queen to E4 if given an opportunity if your bivis are all right
now. Queen E4 if allowed. Magnus meanwhile keeping everything under
control on the right side of our screens. Watch the clock for Divya. Oh she
just made a move with four seconds left Divya and suddenly the bar drops. It
turns all black. It's checkmate forced within a few moves. She finds the key
Bibi Sarah checkmate threatened now in just a while a couple of ways rookie one back rank mate rook h3
Pin on the G-pawn
No way for white to save this suddenly and all she's watching to a different type of checkmate rook h3 now is the killer
And handshake Bibi Sarah turns it around Divya heartbroken
And the Bibi Sarah this is a huge three-pointer one effort towards that trophy of Norway chess a huge win
extending Halide and Magnus surviving the game so far and I think feeling very confident about
his chances. He loves to play with the king and that's an active piece right now.
Walking forward bravely into the center, allowing a check from the bishop as well,
but Magnus, the fact that he relinquished the pin on the seventh rank surprising,
but he has realized that he's stepping to safe squares for now. Can he continue? It's like a
a minefield if you step on one mine you get mated. This is playing with fire if
you're Magnus Carlsen right now and it's a dangerous game to play the Queen and
the Bishop you can give some checks with your own Queen. Magnus has got to be
careful only one move, King to E2, everything else it's checkmate. Only one move now for
Magnus Carlsen it has to be King E3 when he goes forward! It's a Maiden 7 if you got Queen D4 check.
That's the most natural move on the board it stops the White King going
forward, it controls the dart squares, Prague closing in for the kill here,
Magnus, Blunder, only 20 seconds left and you saw it. He made the move and
kind of hesitated.
But Bragg's got 25 seconds to forget the serve. Can't he find his way? Get him
calculated. We talk about the Indian school of chess. Calculation over
everything. Does Bragg find Queen D4 check? Anne, checkmate the Queen D4, he finds it.
Surely now.
Made it six.
The Bishop is coming first, it's a Queen check. Also the most accurate.
I'm meeting five now.
Oh my goodness, and you've got to give another checkup from Dito, make it four now!
Magnus is done, it's checkmate, there's no way forward handshake!
World number one crashes to defeat Preg, kicks him down!
And Magnus knows some time I'll believe it!
But Pregna wants his second win in a row!
Here I come, which has taken down the world number one!
Wow!
And he got a comeback there from Fraglander to defeat Magnus.
He won twice in a tournament.
And at the end, the way he held his nerve and just kept on playing,
hiling the pressure on the world number one.
Magnus can't quite believe it how it quickly collapsed like that.
Magnus is furious with himself right now.
And David, you will show us why Magnus resigned.
There was a forced checkmate in four in that one.
that one. Prague had it all figured out and you could see the relief on Prague but there's no
relief to be had for the world champion on this board. We're going to more detail on that game
a bit later in the meantime. Ferozha swooping in with his rook. He's played the ultimate deflection
game here. He lured the white sorry the black king forward to b2. The black rook also got
sidelined on a5. They're so far from the action now. Yes he had to give up his extra pawn Ferozha
but he has so many targets. The black pawns here on the king side on that right flank
just lined up ready for the picking and no way to hold them. Gukesh is dropping all of those
pawns. He can trade one but he'll be two connected pass pawns down. This is game over. Perfect end
game technique from Alereza but Gukesh does he have one final trick in him? That is the question.
Gukesh's pawn. He's going to desperately try to look for them but with the king in the rook so
offside. So Gukesh, I don't think he's finding this for a player of Ali Reza's
caliber. It feels like this should be trivial, this Rukh Maan game. It kind of
just plays itself, right? Defense test on the king side is Gukesh right now.
One pawn, F5, about to go down as well. This is safe too. I was reluctant to
triple up my pawns but three are better than one and Gukesh here is falling
more pawns down. The white king, any checks and it can actually hide around the
other side of its own pawns via G1, H2 and safety.
Now the pawn drops and we're ready for a 4 seconds though, we've got a move, there we go.
Now give a check, actually going back the most natural move, not winning, he has to keep his rook.
Only two winning moves, he has to keep it on the 5th rank.
He finds it, he finds one of the two moves.
Making sure that the Black King remains cut off, you don't want it stepping over to the 5th rank, closer to where it's that pawn.
You don't want Rook A5 vining up against the G5 pawn, Alarizah finding all the right moves, the Rook comes in
So few seconds, so five seconds, he's got to decide, he's about to push his G-pawn, oh two seconds
He's sacrificing it, you take that pawn, he finds a way for the king to get into the game and up to 12 seconds now, denied access
Hey Greg, you're from Gukesh there, Alarizah waits, that's a pass that will gain more time on the clock, the 10 second increment
He can keep waiting with his rook here.
Alaraisa, at some point though, he's going to start pushing his G pawn.
Is there any hope for Goukesh? You know, maybe drive the white king backwards and then pounce on the G pawn.
Well, that's the only chance that Goukesh has.
There, he goes for it.
The whole idea is to go rook to G3 and if you can smack on G4, it's a draw.
Mm-hmm. Big moment. Rook G3, a huge threat.
Alaraisa down to 15 seconds. Apparently only two winning moves.
He has to go for it now. G6, this is the opportune moment.
He can also slide back with his rook, but he might have to find that G6 later anyway.
And he's going for it. Oh, he's just in time.
The white rook is going to blockade and control the advance.
Rook behind a passport is so strong.
Very strong indeed.
Beautifully and clinically done here by Alireza Fruja, showing the path.
Rg5, a massive threat right now. Gukeshe, the seconds are ticking.
All five. He goes back with his rook, stopping the advance.
But Rf7.
Now the white king is free to walk forward.
Get the king into the game.
You can do anything. You can put a rook on f6, support it with a g-pawn.
Gukeshe, his king's cut off.
Even if g6 falls now, it should be a win for white.
The black king is so poorly placed in, it's a handshake.
Alarazza gets the win to an end, he's losing streak.
Winning end, main game play there from Alireza, Ferozha, making it look easy.
Tripping these forms, he had it all under control.
And a big comeback win as well for Ferozha.
He gets a three-pointer end going it down in that previous round
round to Provena Nandal, getting the win in against Gukesh, narrowing the gap with Wesley
Soak with just two rounds remaining here at Norwiches.
Wow, breathless action, so much to unpack but these were the results.
And it was another decisive day, four decisive results, four wins in the classical, just
two Armageddon's and wow, what a day it has been.
I absolutely cannot believe it. David Howell, you need to make some more predictions of
decisive results. We get drama like this, but once again, the winner of the prediction
game is David Howell. It is David Howell, but I'm going to put David on the spot and
can we replay that's those final moments between Magnus and Pragnananda, because suddenly
it all just went wrong with that misstep with the king. Exactly. Let's do it. Magnus, I
I was praising him, I said he defended so perfectly.
And just at the moment when the draw was finally within his grasp,
he started to slip, and I'm going to attribute some of it to this move.
In this position, Black is struggling to make progress.
There's a pin against the bishop on the seventh rank.
There's also a pin against the D5 pawn.
So if Magnus just makes a pass here, a neutral move,
it's very hard for Black to make progress.
Magnus first played a move that was fine,
but allowing the Black bishop to potentially move, breaking the pin,
I think this was a step in the wrong direction, and suddenly all the checks started flowing.
A check against the white king here.
Maybe Magnus getting too brave with his king.
A bit of a weakness of his that others have now latched on to and started to realize
maybe just hiding, King G2, hiding around this side of the board would have been safer,
avoiding any checkmates that we see in the game, but King E2, he walked to the center,
centralizing, but a check, another check with the bishop this time.
This was the downside to breaking that pin, and Magnus found himself
in only move territory. It was here, we were talking about a minefield.
You go one step wrong, you're punished. He walked the wrong way. He had to go to
E2, which is counter-intuitive, very difficult, because then the Black Bishop could join the
party and Magnus now would have to find the only move again. King to D1 and he survives.
This was tricky. He had no time, but going forward was fatal and much credit deserving here,
that pride. He found the only
way forward. Queen d4 check
forcing the king back. Now it
was another check with the
queen getting his queen to the
dream. D2 square. It's
important now that the king
can't go forward again. Mate
in one. But when the king
retreated in this position, it
was the bishop that was about
to join Magnus resigning here
because this would have been a
checkmate or going back to the
back rank. Same thing. The
bishop joins the party and it
sensational scenes here in Oslo. As we see Ali Reza there being interviewed, Ali Reza
with a win in the classical against Goukesh now in clear second with 13 points, Wesley
still in the lead. What a sensational day it has been for decisive results. And by the
way, chat has an explanation why David keeps on winning the prediction game. He's a time
Traveler Tanya. We only got the explanation for the whole thing. You're on four points now,
I mean you're running a game with it. I prescribed those decisive games to those players.
There's Doctor Strange and there's Doctor Dave. Thank you Coffee then. Confirmed, confirmed.
I mean we looked at the positions, all the eval bars were level at some point, apart from maybe
one Zuzina, but the positions were wild. The positions were so promising, full of life,
that I took a punt. I was lucky that that prediction was still open. I was going to
go lower, but fortunately, faith is a brave. I have to say, I mean, the biggest
shocker of a decisive result has to be Magnus versus Prague, right? Prague
playing with the black pieces, he gets it done under pressure, under chaos, time
trouble, ice cold finish at the end, finding that check meeting idea with
maximum pressure and I think with these two back-to-back victories, though
Pragyananda, we speak about Wesley in the lead, Ali Reza in the hot shades, but
Prague has just taken down Alireza and Magnus back-to-back, that's a big
statement win at a big point in the tournament. Yeah absolutely it has been
a day of making statements we are gonna go on a break we're gonna hunt for a
willing participant to sit in our hot seats get interviewed by us and during
that break don't go anywhere because we have a lot of interviews for our
that's what you should subscribe to, so stay tuned.
I seem to remember you planning this today, Wesley.
You wanted to get Vincent in the Armageddon
because it's not so good there.
Well, it worked really well, you know, to be...
I'm very happy to win the Armageddon.
Well, it's not exactly my dream,
but I was really tired mentally from game yesterday,
so I'm really happy to win the Armageddon at least.
But yeah, I'd like to apologize.
Of course, I want to fight in the classical game,
but not so easy to get opening advantage.
Well, it will keep you.
If Magnus wins, you're still that important three and a half points over him.
But that makes a difference when you guys play tomorrow, right?
I play him last game.
Well, you played last. I thought it was the second to last. Maybe I was wrong.
Yeah, I played him on the last round, yeah.
That's building up.
I think, yeah, today is Tuesday, right?
Yeah, I played him on Friday. I played Firoja first.
So it's important then to keep that extra half point
to not give him the chance to just be three points behind,
or do you think about that at all?
No.
I try not to think about their soul too much.
I just try to focus on my game, try to improve as a player,
because as Vincent said to me,
if you think too much about their soul,
then you can't play the game.
But I certainly would be my dream to win Norwich.
I've never won it.
I think Magnus has won seven times, he's won other tournaments 100 times, but I'd like
to win it for once, but I know it's not over until the very last game, I mean in the last
round I still played Magnus and seriously of course I had Black, so.
It sounds like a thrilling suspense for the end and good luck to you, Wesley.
Hopefully, thank you so much, yeah.
Vincent, there was the Queen end game in the end, do you think there were some short chances?
If you have enough time, maybe yes, with one second increment.
I think it's impossible to defend.
That I didn't blunder an immediate double check
was already a miracle, but to defend such a net game,
even if it was drawn as I think possible.
Are you happy to go to that end game from that position,
like middle game, to know that maybe there are some chances
with the queens on the board?
No, I'm pretty sure I did something wrong.
But that's the usual problem.
Like, I know my position is fine, but when to spend the time
to actually make it fine.
And I think at some point, I just touched the rook
play rook d6, which clearly was a very bad move, but well, that's how it goes.
And talking about the classical game, how that went for you?
Well, I think it was quite normal, nothing much happened.
It was kind of a theoretical line, this e4 in Qc2, but it's also known
to be a rather solid and drawerish line of back nose.
And I think I didn't make any mistakes.
So that was, I guess, the latest move for Drow.
Well, thanks a lot for talking with us and have a nice rest of the day.
Thank you.
Jener, first question, how happy are you to win the game from 1 to 10?
Maybe 4, because I think most of the time I won this game by lucky.
And have you won already against Benjune before, or is it your first victory in classical?
I think I won in some Chinese national competition before.
Now we have two more rounds left. Are you motivated to win the last rounds to try to get to the top of the leaderboard?
A lot, I'm a bit hesitant because in before games I played not so well. I made a blunder in three games in a row, so yeah.
Best of luck to you. Thank you.
A good result today with the black pieces. Hampi, how would you summarize the day?
Yeah, I think today I played much better comparing with all my previous games and of course in
the whole tournament my Armageddon was out of control everywhere so but today I managed
to do well here.
And now you're going to have a rest day to take the good experience and then two final
rounds.
Do you look forward to them now?
Yeah, of course.
Good luck to you.
Thank you.
Welcome back everyone to day 8 of Norway chess and boy has it been wild sensational and one
of the biggest music of the day was this gentleman, Fragmanda the win over Magnus Carlson not
Only did you win against Magnus once? You did it twice. How are you feeling?
Yeah, I feel happy. I think it's more important for the tournament that I get this win than thinking it's Magnus.
Of course, it's great to do it against Magnus, but I think winning any game at this stage of the tournament is good.
And well, tell us about your game, walkers, through the moments because your opening was
pretty inspired.
You went to the Confessionals, thank you very much.
Yeah, I was trying to get a fight today and I think I was happy that I managed to get
it.
There's something I looked at, I didn't look at it today but looked at it sometime back
and yeah it's something just to get get a new position early on and I managed to
remember this one detail where I need to take this default point which can be
tricky if you don't know over the board and then I think I was putting a lot
of pressure both on the board and the time and that he different really well
But it is surprising that he blended in this way to a stand.
And were you ever confident you would win or did you always just think, okay, I'm a pawn up, but maybe best play at least it would be a draw still?
At some point I started to get really optimistic, especially when he started to go low on time.
Yeah, I felt I have good chances, but yeah, he did really well.
I
Yeah, I didn't really see a
See a way where I could have played played better. I just looked like a
Yeah, I just looked like a very high quality game. I think it starts with King D3. This is already
It's already like surviving just put the King on dark square and it's just yeah, it's just a draw
And at the end there was this beautiful checkmating pattern that happened that I think you calculated
Calculated till the end Magnus resigned before it was played out. We were showing it on the board
The thing is when you're playing against a player like Magnus, it's never enough to just get a better position
Don't miss feels like to us that you have to beat him in every move and you can't lose control of it
I want to ask mentally. What was the hardest part about playing and converting today's game?
Yeah, I wouldn't really say that I converted in a
In a good way, but I mean just that I was putting a pressure and then at some point he cracked
in a surprising way. But I was happy that I managed to not lose my advantage completely
but keep putting pressure. I thought it was a good game. Compared to my previous games,
I thought it was a good game till the end that I didn't manage to mess it up.
And speaking about your previous games, you had two back-to-back losses and now suddenly
two wins and then you're up there right at the top almost challenging first place yeah that's the
this that's the interesting thing about this format that you can always bounce back
yeah i mean i i said like i'm happy that i got this win at this stage of the tournament it's
important so yeah a three-pointer win right now quite a big statement puts you right back in the
mix plug i just want to follow up a little bit on your answer because in the chess world there's so
so much attached to winning against Magnus. It's the big question, how does one even achieve
that, do that? You know, you got your first classical win against him in 2023, Norway,
chess, I want to say. Yeah, 24, yeah.
24, sorry, Norway chess, and then twice here. Is there something that you've figured out?
Are there certain positions that you aim for when you're playing against Magnus? Certain
type of positions maybe. Yeah, this, I mean, now I'm like wondering
if I have good score only against Magnus in this field or because I have had some bad
results against Gukesh, maybe Ali Reza is like 50% for both of us but yeah it's just
crazy like I have lost to all of them recently so.
What have you figured out that the rest haven't?
I don't think there is anything specific, you just have to fight until then and be alert.
Magnus is always tricky, so you have to be alert throughout.
And Prague, it's another rest day tomorrow, the last one of the tournament.
The three of us are going to the sauna.
What are your plans tomorrow?
Do you want to join us?
No, I'll probably rest and we'll see.
maybe with my second we'll play some sports or something. It depends on my mood on the
morning of the rest day what I want to do.
Which sports would it be if you do play?
Maybe padel or pickleball or something.
Let me know if it's paddle, there's some nice courts nearby.
Maybe they should organize a tournament, a paddle tournament.
Who do you pick as your partner in paddle here?
I don't know, I haven't really played with a lot of players so I know Jauho can play during candidates so I'll probably take him.
Interesting pick there, well Prague, Reste coming up and as you said two more rounds remaining, how do you look at your chances in this final as the finish line is inside?
Yes, still I'm behind the leaders. I'll try my best. Two games are going to be difficult
to two games. I'll try to come well rested and try to fight in both the games.
Well, fighting is all we can ask from you to do and trying your best. Thank you very
much, Prag, for joining us here in the studio. We wish you the best of luck in the last
games. We hope to see more
confessionals as well. So thank you very much. Thank you. Congratulations to
Pragnananda who defeated Magnus in the classical two net three points.
And after a very bloody day on the board, let's look at the standings. We see
Wesley So in Norwich as he's still in the lead. It's 14 points, but suddenly just
one point ahead of Alireza Fugitia.
You know, you look at that top to bottom field with Wesley at 14, Gukesha at 8.
It is so incredibly tight and I would say, well, Magnus, I think mathematically still
has a shot to make it.
If he wins two classical games, it would depend his fate not on his hands, will depend on
the other results.
But I'm looking at that top three that you highlighted, 14, 13, 12.
And I would say that this is a three horse race.
wants to take and the matchups that are coming up after the rest day. It's going to be super spicy
because they're all clashing against each other. And in the women's BBsara, 15 and a half points,
what do we think? Is it almost all clear for her? Yeah, she's five full points above second place
BBsara. That means that one point will clinch it at this point and that means a draw in one classical
game out of the last two. I think she's almost home a dry. I think today might have been the last
big challenge for her where she was up against the ropes but still managed to find the power to
turn it around. And it would have been a completely different narrative had Divya converted while
close to a winning advantage right there right the field would have blown open completely
anyone's tournament to take very similar to what we're seeing in Norway chess but
Norway chess women feels like a one-horse race compared to the other one. Yeah well let's take
a look at the pairings after tomorrow's arrest day and here we have the exciting matchups that
we were all hoping for. Wesley so this time leading the tournament but his opponent is going to be
one Magnus Carlson. Yeah that's a big one and so much of it comes down to Magnus Carlson's
mindset after everything that has gone down today going down to Kragnananda getting checkmated and
that is going to be an angry wounded Magnus who comes on the board. Will he play a spoiler to
Wesley who's on the brink of one of his biggest career wins of his tournament so far. You know we
We spoke about Alireza. He's totally in the mix. Just one point behind a Westley. He takes on a struggling Kymur with the black pieces.
I say Alireza goes all out.
Yeah, Alireza, if he goes all out, might be rewarded with the tournament lead if he's able to defeat Kymur.
Yeah, it feels like this is going to go to the last eight, at least in the Norway chess itself.
It feels like the last round there might be still be two or three players in the mix.
mix, but down in the women's it is first place against second place, Bibisara Asobaeva
against Anna Muzitruk. If she draws the class school there, she wins the title.
And starting with the wife pieces, against a player, against Anna, who's been taking
so many of her games into that Armageddon, and I feel like Bibisara has got to start
feeling very good and very hopeful about her chances taking Norwich as woman, and this
was her debut. And she's been convincingly dominating the field from that first round
win that she had. She took the lead and she hasn't really given up on it, but we will see can her
nerves hold for those last two rounds. Well, that is the big issue. What is going to happen as we
enter the final stretch? The finishing line is inside today. It was a spectacular day. Big thanks
to David and Tanya for all of their wisdom, the fun, the vibes. It's been so much enjoyment and
excitement here in the studio and a big thank you to everyone at home for those of you who subscribed,
our subscribers and of course all our viewers. Well you've been with us every move of the way
and it's much appreciated. See you after tomorrow's rest day, same time, same place. It's a big finish
lined up. See you.