Hi all. Magnus Carlsen has been playing some brilliant chess recently let's have
a look at one of his recent games this is against Anish Giri. So they had a
lot of banter on Twitter over the last few years let's have a
look the score of Anish Giri has been very good compared to other grandmasters
very very difficult to for Magnus to beat
Anish Giri at the classical time control historically so that's also
interesting c4 from Magnus so English opening e5 we have Nc3
Nf6 Knight f3 knight c6 so this is the English Four knights opening because the
four knights have come out and about okay so g3 d5 cxd5 N takes d5 Bishop g2 and
Bishop c5 this has become a trendy move recently in the past Knight b6 was kind
of the routine move for example white castles this position might plays for b4
which gives that Bishop b2 potential as well as b5. And here this is thought to be
about even so this is an interesting kind of idea in this line
White castles, black castles d3 h6 another move here seen here quite a lot is
rook e8 for example Bishop d2 Knight takes Bishop takes Knight d4 b4 this
is thought to be about equal so h6 Knight takes Queen takes a3 a5 Bishop d2 Queen
e6 we have rook c1 hitting the bishop which is protected bishop c3
now Knight d4 so in fact now after e3 all the knights have disappeared from the
position leaving just the bishops that's quite an interesting scenario the
Knights are quite versatile - they can hit both colors of squares the the bishops
are more simple in nature you know where you are more without the tricky knights so
is there enough dynamic potential for white to gain a significant
advantage? Now this next move Bishop d6 appears to be mainly designed against
d4 you know if d4 here maybe e4 is possible
so it's interesting though that the central tension is kept with quite an
aggressive looking move Queen h5 we have now quite a bit of pressure on the
black position c6 is play which blunts that Bishop takes away the d5 square but
now a really interesting move indeed the kind of iconic move of this game I
wonder if you can guess what Magnus plays if you haven't seen this game
before you might want to pause the video here okay f4 this does weaken e3 and
also you might think d3 is weak as well black took there's some interesting
alternatives to taking here f6 I believe we can rule out white can play f takes
taking here and after these exchanges there's rook c5 and this leads white to
a big advantage so that's too dangerous for black to entertain f6 - e4 I believe
we can also rule out it's only got a little tactical trick - if dxe4 takes that's a
big advantage of white does take care then okay fine this position is
fine for black but the move which really might be quite serious are to consider
is f5 which stops this F pawn it does block in the c8 bishop so this
position maybe you have Queen f7 this should be about equal however in the
game it seems Anish was interested in winning some material he played he takes
exf4 and Magnus doesn't play exf4 here Rather with the G pawn which does
have a big upside that the G file is opens up if you use the G pawn this is
quite an aggressive G file so very interesting position G takes let's have
a quick look at a e takes - check and in fact here okay this is
poison or is it yes it is but black doesn't have to play Queen e3 check
so if black does something else sorry after e takes instead of check.Black
does something else it should be okay here
there isn't too much danger for black perhaps a move like f5 for Queen f7
again might be plausible so what happened then the game is really this
quite exciting G file has been created this road to the black King but yes e3
is hanging that is taken and here it's far too dangerous to take on d3
rook d8 was played if Queen takes d3 then rook rcd1 and just winning the
bishop on d6 so here rook d8 was played Rce1 Queen c5 challenging the Queen
the Queen's before we get into Queen c5 and we just re examine Queen takes d3
here then f5 is dangerous for example Bishop f8 and here this is
absolutely winning - this is skewering the Queen and the rook so that that is far
too dangerous and here if say Queen c4 then actually that F pawn is becoming a
very dangerous thorn form and absolutely winning in these lines with it
especially with the G file it's like for example here double check and mate so it
can be absolutely lethal this position so black dare not take on d3 so
queen c5 Magnus keeps the key Queens on with f5 and also of course this f6 as a
continual idea Bishop f8 - blacks is on the defensive Bishop e4 supports both d3
and f5 Rd5 trying to offer the exchange sacrifice to try and defend
Magnus refuses with a beautiful-looking move Rf3 - this means not only
keeping a support of f5 but the rooks can potentially double with rook g1
rook fg3 later - the alternative if White had taken the exchange bishop takes
d5 this position is actually White has only got a small edge although the
exchange up black is pretty solid here with the extra pawn as well and the
bishop pair so rook f3 avoiding winning that exchange that's offered or
on taking the exchange that offered b5 sometimes is the idea of b4. Black is
kind of cramped as well in this position that c8 bishop wants to do something
rook g1 now white here looks as though there are threats like Queen takes h6 but
with the Queen eyeing g1 in alignment with g1 this is not really possible rook
a7 was played all right let's have a look at a few options here though one or
two b4 there is actually in this position bishop tanks g7 for Rfg3
and then this crashes through for white absolutely crushing as an example
here if we follow this instead of King f8 if Queen f8 you can see how powerful
the attack is after Queen takes h6 this is crashing through so uh rook a7
and it's here it's important not to play Queen takes here. Bishop f6 was played if
Queen takes h6 - then there's can you see what black plays in this position?
okay Queen takes g1 check takes away that pinner of the pawn for black to
be winning so White has to tread carefully Bishop f6 constrains the F
pawn as well and can start to build up the pressure again g6 is played here if
b4 then actually in this position rook takes and queen g4 for Rg3
converging on g7 without any F pawn because that cramping Bishop f6 so this
rook cannot indirectly defend this position is absolutely devastating White's
getting a big advantage so g6 was tried trying to exploit the pinned pawn on
f5 so now the Queen drops back there is actually a combinatory solution but it
requires extreme accuracy here - the combinatory solution instead of dropping
the Queen to h4 is rook takes g6 after this white - let's say rook g7 - Bishop
takes this is crushing because of g7 winning the exchange being the exchange up
absolutely winning position but there's some tricks here on Bishop g7 White has
to find it seems Bishop c3 here - that renews ideas of f6 but White has to
find this if white plays for example Bishop h4 this gives counterplay after the
check this position Queens takes b2 check for example Queen e5 and there
is counterplay here for example f6 there's actually Queen g5 check so this
is showing black has some resources behind the scenes so rook takes g6 would
have to be calculated very carefully and accurately
so Queen h4 instead is more practical we have rook d6
Queen h4 pressures still hugely on. Here if d4 rook takes this position - White is
also getting a big advantage that's also interesting for d4 maybe. Rook
tanks fxg6 - on Bishop takes h3 you might think there's actually G takes a wonderful
tactic the King's taken out of its cave and then as discovered a check yeah
Bishop takes d4 so I ends up with a big advantage there
so yeah it's interesting this d4 resource as well here so Queen h4 though
it was played - and Anish gives up the exchange rook takes f6 if Rad7 fxg6
fxg6 Rxg6 - Queen takes this position White is getting a big
advantage again yeah it's really quite crushing attack so rook takes f6
Queen takes Bishop e7 and now here there's no solution with a combination
for rook takes g6 but there is a just picking up this pawn for a winning
endgame which is what Magnus Carlsen did. Queen takes c6 have a brief look at Rook takes
here the king is escaping basically.Black is
getting a big advantage there's nothing much going on there
there's too much counterplay in this position as well with that active Queen
so Queen takes c6 get the Queen's off and this is the exchange up this
position of course and in fact after F takes g6 - are fixed there's another
target that g6 pawn so a4 d5 b4 for Bishop e8 targeting the g6 pawn
now here also there's an idea of rook f7 check and then that's potentially
leading to other good things so in fact g5 wasn't played but in fact Bishop g5
shielding f7 but now tactical move h4 so the bishop can't go
to e7 without allowing rook f7 and also it's shielding g6 at the moment so black
grabs this pawn rook takes g6 check King h7 rook c6 and there's not many places
useful for that Bishop here the bishop goes to g4 if it interferes with the
rank then check is crushing it's going to be taking off that Bishop soon so
Bishop g4 but again these are loose pieces now in the position if the bishop
had gone to b7 by the way then again check and then in fact there's a kind of
mating that here threatening rook h5 mating so I Black would have to give up the
bishop that's hopeless. so yeah it's become a pretty hopeless
position Bishop g4 rook f4 yeah targeting these bishops Rg7 and the
game ended that I believe that Anish Giri lost on time but it is a lost position
An example continuation forcing things further off would be Bishop g6 check. Rook
takes rook takes King takes rook takes g4 - the exchange up mopping up these
pawns it's all over bar the shouting - so yeah a nice attacking
game from Magnus Carlsen there. The dynamism of the position despite the
Knights coming off was quite interesting and I believe both players discussed
that a little bit in the post-mortem how maybe they weren't expecting it to be
that exciting after the four Knights of this variation all got swapped off and
yet white with this kind of dynamic attacking gambit created huge pressure on
the black position I hope you enjoyed this game video if you did please click
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