Magnus Carlsen Statement

Ladies and gentlemen, it's currently a wild time in the world of Chess, as the greatest player probably of all time, and definitely of the last decade plus, Magnus Carlson is sort of going on a little bit of a spiritual journey. All right, he's playing some poker, he's not defending the classical World Chess Championship and he's trying out different hairstyles. And well, right now he's playing in a tournament in Poland and it's called the super better rapid in Blitz. And a day or two ago, I made a video called what happened to Magnus Carlson, and I got this idea because I saw this amazing photo on Twitter of him- just kind of, you know, meditating at the board. Show more

By the way, great, oh great, great thumbnail, great title combo- got to give myself a little bit of credit. Look, it's news when Magnus loses and it's news when Magnus doesn't do well, because he is an exceptional chess player. Show more

But for the sake of his career and a bit of my own, I'm hoping that he continues to crush, at least for the next few years, because the world is better when Magnus is at the top. And in today's video, in today's video, Magnus Carlson made an announcement. Show more

Magnus Carlson made a statement as he well, just watch. Oh okay, all right, all right, five games. I'm gonna show you five games that Magnus Carlson was involved in. Oh Boy, Get Ready, Get Ready, this was something, this was something. Okay, magnus's first opponent- well, not first, but of these games, kiril shivchenko, who now represents Romania. Born and raised in Ukraine, now represents Romania under fide flag. Magnus plays E4, plays this kind of peculiar move, order of the Sicilian Defense, which more or less you know, there could be some e5s here. To close it up, his opponent plays into a dragon and Magnus plays a very passive Dragon, Knight B3. The mainline dragon is, you know, F3, Queen, D2, long Castle. Magnus plays Knight B3 and then F3 and he still could Castle long. Show more

But this type of setup that he's playing prevents black from very quickly playing the move D5. I mean, technically, it doesn't prevent black from playing the move D5, but the move D5 would lose a piece. Okay. So his opponent plays Knight E5. The dragon Sicilian is such that these Bishops try to attack, the pawns try to attack, the queen tries to attack, The Rook tries to attack and white tries to attack over the here, over here. So Magnus plays King B1 and H4. There it is, the attack has been launched. Now black really should do something about White's attack, because if he doesn't, White is going to play H5, G4 and so on. So he plays H5. The problem with this setup? I mean H5 is a very logical move because it prevents the move G4, because black controls G4 with one, two, three and four pieces, which is why Magnus plays the move G4 immediately. Show more

It's like Yu-Gi-Oh, you know when, when you think you got your opponent cornered, and all of a sudden you know Kaiba Breaks the Rules and H takes G4. And now, with a pawn standing on that square, none of those pieces can actually go there. So F4, oops, suddenly blacks pieces have to go backwards and when they go backwards, Magnus removes the knight from the defense. Now the Knight jumps to the middle of the board, he removes the knight from its Outpost there and Bishop takes G4. Now had Knight takes D4 with the inblade, we gotta add Bishop D4, Queen D4, Queen C2, King A1 and black would have taken the bishop. But Magnus plays, Bishop takes G4 and at some point Magnus is knocking on your door. The worst thing you can wake up to in the middle of the night is not diarrhea, it's not defaulting on your taxes, it's Magnus Carlson knocking on your door. Pawn to H5. Black tries to come forward. Let me tell you something: right now Magnus does not even need to rush, he just takes right back and his King is safe. All his King did in the last couple of moves was open up the windows in the summer beach house. The king is hanging out over here. There's a little bit of rain, a little bit of wind coming in this direction. He just opens up the windows and takes a breath, while on the other side of the board his Squadron is pulling up the queen, The Rook, the bishop, Queen H2 and in this position facing Checkmate. Show more

Okay, real shevchenko resigned the game and this is game number one. I think you know where this is going. Game number two: Magnus has white against Richie report. Magnus plays a triple Pawn setup. His opponent plays kind of a modern sniper esque position. Show more

But we have a king's Indian defense. This is just now. We're just in a king's Indian. Black has played C5. Black will play for Easter E6 and B5 stuff. There's E6 and after check we have Bishop E3. Now there's a very edgy and weird line here where black sacks The Rook. This is a real thing, this is a real thing. And F take C3 and and basically black gets this kind of a setup. I mean it looks completely ridiculous. But he gets a setup on the dark squares and Magnus plays Queen F2 report, plays Knight E5 report, trades, and now Magnus wants to remove this Knight, which is why it replaces the other Knight on D7. Now you'll notice the computer doesn't think white is better at all. Actually the computer thinks the opposite. The computer thinks that this position is extremely difficult to play for black, for white, because you cannot make any pawn progress and black is Rock Solid. He will just play A6, maybe B6, bring the Rook. So Magnus plays Bishop G4. Why does he play Bishop G4? Because he needs to simplify down a little bit of material. Like if, very arbitrarily speaking, if, like, several trades happen. Look at White's winning chances. Now, right, so the more trades, the better. Suddenly white is plus three. Very instructive back here, material is more or less even, position is the same meaning and and the position is equal. So Bishop takes C3 by report, he damages magnus's Pawn structure and he says: all right, Magnus, you want to play a positional game. Show more

You will absolutely never win, because my knight on E5 is a God. I mean, I gotta tell you that is a beautiful Pony, not like that. It's a beautiful Pony, but Magnus is a principled man. He knows that a queen trade here is likely beneficial for him. But look at Rapport man, I mean reports, just playing confident chess, I mean seriously, just beautiful night in the center of the board. The computer thinks that this maneuver was a little bit too slow and instead of report should have taken on C4. I gotta tell you, I don't know why he didn't. Maybe he didn't like G4, at which point something like this might occur, when magnus's Rook is planted here forever and that Knight is disallowed to move because Magnus just pressures. But instead of that report went for a setup like this where he basically just tried to kill magnus's Play. Here's the problem. All right, we're trying to kill magnus's play, he gonna get you all right. And this end game is winnable for white because at some point he will break through with his Rooks. Two Rooks are better than a rook in a knight, I'm sorry, they just are Rook C1. And here comes Magnus. Show more

All right, give us a check. Here comes the king. Nice and easy, all right, Pawn to G4. And now you may wonder why is? Why is it saying that white is so much better if white can't make any progress and black is Rock Solid. Well, white is going to go G5 on the next move and then white is going to go A5, removing the play, and then white is going to rotate the Rook around and go after the pawns and black just can't do a thing. All right, report plays G5, swaps off the G pawns. Right and Magnus. Look at this. This is. This is some dank stuff here. Magnus rushed a little bit. According to the computer, he could have taken on G5 Magnsays. All right, let's play a rook end game. I now have a protected pass Pawn. I'm going to make this as difficult as possible for you. Show more

Then I'm going to bring my king up. Stockfish could maybe draw this, but it's very, very difficult to play. Look, King G3. Rookie eight: Magnus posing practical problems, making it very annoying. But it is a draw. It is a drawn end game. Rookie 6: check King G3, Rook H1. And here comes Magnus gonna attack the pawns. Rook F1 takes the pawn. Rook F3: check. Report also has two pawns. Magnus takes the other Pawn, F4. This is nuts. How is Magnus doing this? How is he so calculated in his risk-taking? F3 check was wrong. Report had to give this check Force the king back and then play E3 or run that way. Instead he does it like this, which allows magnus's King to be a little bit active. Show more

And all of a sudden, Rook F4, oh The Rook A2. He takes, takes and he's won the pawns and he's winning. Dust settles Rook end game. Magnus got him exactly where he wants him, pushes, and this is a winning King and pawn end game. It's sickening stuff. Sickening. And the incredible thing about this position: only one king move wins. Folks in this position. White has eight King moves: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Only one of them is winning. And it's here why? Because if you go here, black gets opposition and now you cannot make any progress. King F working F6, kinky, forking right up, up, up. I can even run that way. Nuts. King F4 and Report resigned. Because now it's opposition and Magnus wins. What a, what a brute. 2-0. Now this game. Show more

Magnus had the black pieces versus Anish giri and he was finding all sorts of ways to win Knight F6. Watch this game. Anish giri builds up a fantastic positional bind. He expands on the queen side with D5 and A5. Magnus is worse. Queens of B3. Magnus fights back on the queen side but Anish confidently marching forward: Rook B1. And now Anish plays G4. This man is not taking any disrespect, all right, any disrespect. He is clamping the center, he is attacking on the king side and he's got the queen side under lock. Magnus goes back to E7, Bishop C4, Queen B6, infiltrating. Show more

This is a vintage Geary game: positional squeeze. No play calling the shots. Magnus plays Rook C7- terrible coordinate configuration here. Anish marches forward. I mean it looks like the game is completely lost. That's it. Magnus is gonna lose. You cannot take this and I'm gonna get to A7 or B7. I mean, this is nuts. Who can play chess like this? Knight D7- one of the only defensive moves, kicking out the queen. Pawn takes A6, but now, oh, you got pinned, Bishop, by five. Magnus has to sacrifice The Rook, but a niche does not even Rush. He does not rush with this move. Anish finds a critical idea here: D4- super important Pawn break, because now the Knight gets in and the Knight is either getting to C6 or F5. Rook B1: Magnus has 13 seconds on the clock and a completely losing position. He offers a queen trade. Anish takes the Rook, drops the bishop back so it doesn't get hit with any Tempo. A little bit passive, he could have been a bit more aggressive. Magnus plays A5, Anish infiltrates with Queen E8. Magnus just plays A4. He doesn't know what to do. It's plus 2.7, plus 2.7. Rook B8 infiltrating Knight D7. Rook c80 hits the queen and now Anish giri is completely winning. Magnus back to the wall, five seconds on the clock. Knight F5 infiltrates. Show more

He also could have played Knight C6 with the same idea to cover E5, Knight F5, Knight F6 and the game is over plus 39. And now it is mate in 17 moves. Now it's not force made in 17 moves, but white has Knight to E7 which wins, because if you take it's Queen f8, it's Bishop D3, it's Checkmate. If Knight E7, King H7, there's this and there's various checkmates. If Bishop takes E7, Bishop D3 is the killing shot. And if Knight E7, if, if, 97, Bishop D3 is even faster killing shot and you win Anish giri, Knight F6, he has 97 check and he takes the pawn instead he's still winning. But now Magnus plays Queen B1 and a niche can take another Pawn for free, but instead he centralizes. Now Magnus gets out of the way. Anish giri is still winning, but Magnus getting activity. Suddenly Anish is respecting his play. Now Magnus kicks him out. Now Magnus is consolidating Queen A1 offering. Magna says no trade. No trade, I'm dancing around. I'm dancing around, Queen to D4 and suddenly the pawn in the center has fallen. The advantage is completely gone. Rookie 4, Queen, C5 and an absolutely devastating fashion, Anish giri hangs a fork and then Anish giri hangs his Queen. Is that right, is it what? No way that I can't even what that's three wins for Magnus. That's three wins for Magnus. Show more

Next game: Magnus with the white pieces. This man is playing the Danish Gambit. This man's trainer, Peter Nielsen, is a Dane. I hope that's what they're called. I hope I didn't say like a racially derogatory term. I'm pretty sure they're called Danes, people from Danish. That, people from Denmark. I'm a chess streamer. I, I, I, I talk faster than my brain works sometimes. He played this to dedicate it to his trainer. Long time, long time coach and trainer, Peter Nielsen. Lavon aronian, commonly known as LeBron eronian, plays D5 and we have a relatively fresh position. Magnus, unfortunately unable to to get his opponent to commit to some sort of Danish Gambit, and so we have this: bishop B5, Queen E7, check and now a trade on C6 and a castle and another trade. Show more

However, the way that this was played, there is still a king in the center of the board and Magnus gives a check and black has some very big problems to solve. The very big problems include the fact that is very difficult to commit the king anywhere. You see, if Magnus had played even one more move slowly, like Bishop to F4, black would have played this and then black would have brought the other rook and black would have brought the bishop and like this and but rookie one check, Bishop B7 and Magnus just takes. Show more

Now I think aronian wanted to open up the G file and start some sort of attack, but Magnus gives a check, very important check, by the way. This is absolutely the best move, because not all checks are the same. That moves. That move not only wins time, it also is able to bring the queen back, and a queen trade here definitely benefits white because he is better now. The best move here is Rook D6 to open up like this, but it's Blitz. Aroniplays Bishop C5 instead and then offers a queen trade. That's a crazy decision to me, because you're down a pawn and the kings are on opposite sides, down upon Kings on opposite signs. You probably should start to create an attack. Why would you trade your most powerful piece? Okay, certainly he had an idea. I understand, but just from everything I know about Chess, I'm pretty certain you ain't supposed to do that right. Like Queen F6 is a wild move. I mean even something like Rook G8. Like okay, White's gonna play Knight E4, but the computer here wanted rookie hate. Okay, apparently, rookie eight is the way I would have played rogier, though. But I'm talking about the game, I'm not playing the game. So Queen F6- Magnus is a pawn up in an end game. Watch how clinical he does it. Knight B3 trade. Show more

Bishop trade. The bishop don't even hesitate. Some of you would have been like maybe Magnus is not interested. Bishop to E3: instant trade. Knight goes back to the center. If you kick the Knight out of the center, I will just centralize and I'll be in a very comfortable position. So you play Knight E4 upon to G3. My king can now no longer ever get mated and I just make an effortless improving move. I just slide my king up one square because I know that in the end game my king is going to be important. You kick out my knight. I play Knight F3. Show more

You bring your king, take, take night end game. Baby Magnus is so confident he knows that this end game is probably easy to win. That's so crazy to me. He understands black has nothing for him in this end game. Knight D3- and the reason why Magnus is winning here is the split pawns. There are so many pawns on the board that he will bring the king forward, expand and win. Rook A8, rookie seven, check rookie two, back Knight E5. And in this position, Levon blunders, Knight, takes Pawn and for signs because after Knight F7 there is a fork and you do not want to play Magnus in a rook end game down two pawns. We already saw a report: play an endgame equally and lose. Imagine playing an end game down two pawns and then Magnus ended his day playing the leader of the tournament, young shustav dura, the local from Poland. Show more

He has the black pieces and he plays Pawn to D4. We're gonna have what's called a reverse benoni: Knight F6, Bishop G5, Knight D2, Knight E1 and F4. A very tense position is arising as Magnus is restricting his opponent on this side of the board: Bishop D7, Queen Knight A5- all right, Rook A6- edgy little move. Maybe looking for Rook B6 like this, maybe looking for Rook D6 and he has the option to repeat moves. Show more

Why is his Rook on D7? Can somebody explain that to me, bro, how he got his Rook to D7 without moving his bishop or his Queen. This man is a magician. You can't spell magician without mag. All right, Magnus plays A5, A4, Rook A6 brings the bishop back. Rook D7- ridiculous. Here comes the Knight. The Rook slides over again. Yo, I've never seen something like this. How did this man get her Rook to E7 without moving any of his other pieces? Houdini, Rook D1, trade and now a structural Improvement, F5. Show more

This is such high level move. It's completely preventing white from expanding on the side of the board. And now he's gonna build behind his Pawn structure. And now he's gonna play E5, take, take. Now dude is fighting back. With Pawn to B3. We have Bishop E6 coming. Rook has been forced back. Now this bishop slides forward. You know where the bishop slides forward, because the a file and also Bishop 2a5 is under pressure. If the Knight Falls, that falls, maybe bishop D5 will trade the bishop. And then Magnus plays G5. Oh, this, look at him. He's just, he's extracting the maximfrom all of his resources. Pawn to G4, F4. It's like nothing can stop the Avalanche. Rook H5, pressure on the king. Rook F4, take, Rook takes B5, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Can we see that once again, Rook takes F4, hits the queen. The Rook is hanging. The queen is guarding the Rook. Take sacrificing to get that. Magnus takes on B5 instead. If you take this, I get this. If you take this, I get that. So we have Rook F1 and now it's time to play an end game: Rooks and Bishop versus Rook. Bishop Knight, check rugby two, rookie two. Now it's an opposite colored Bishop end game. Nobody should be winning this opposite color Bishop end game. All you gotta do if you're white is trade the Rooks. All you gotta do if you're black: don't trade the Rooks and pose problems. H5- Rook A1: nope, nope. Now that pawn is menacing. Rook A2: wait a minute. Oh, oh, oh oh. Show more

Bishop D6. Rook F5. Rook A4: okay, well, the king is safe. That's a good sign, right? Magnus builds his little barrier. That was King's getting closer due to tags. Bishop D2: oh, my goodness, The Bishop's getting in. Terrifying, absolutely terrifying. Rook H2: okay. Bishop F4 holding everything together. King to E5: night game is hanging on a knife's edge. King F1: Rook takes H5, has fallen, but it's probably still a draw, or is it a drop? How is Magnus going to possibly win this position? Ruchi five: okay. How's he gonna win, though. Oh, here comes the king. Oh, the king's coming and The Rook is is booting this king. Oh, it's been booted forward. Here Comes, oh my goodness, the black king has arrived. The black king has arrived. This king is getting booted out. Now the King has arrived on F2 to escort The Pawn King E3, and Magnus is going to threaten a sacrifice of Rook for Bishop because that is the only way to win this position. Rookie two: and there it is. If you do this, I go here. If you do this, I get two pass Pawns. He wins on demand 90 move game. It took a few days, but the goat is back. Folks, Magnus didn't win a game for like seven or eight rounds on this tournament. He won five in a row. He's back to second place. He's back to second place. He just beat the tournament leader. I think there's a chance he wins this tournament, despite not. Somebody find this for me. When is the last time Magnus Carlson started a tournament without a win in the first seven rounds or the first six rounds? Be back, in the words of Anderson Silva, the mixed martial artist: I back, trust me, I back. Show more