DUBOV PREPARED 22 MOVES DEEP

Imagine playing one of the world's fastest, most dangerous players and then realizing he knows everything you're about to do. Move after move, Daniil Dubov barely even looks at the board. This is not intuition. This is not luck. This is some of the greatest chess preparation I have ever seen. Just how far did Dubov's preparation go? And how did he completely dismantle a speed demon like Hikaru Nakamura? Hikaru Nakamura, five-time US champion, speed chess legend, one of the trickiest and most resilient players in Rapid and Blitz. Daniil Dubov, rising Russian star, known for creative and aggressive play. He later became a key second for Magnus Carlsen and a future World Rapid champion. Nakamura thrives in chaos, but in this game Dubov did not give him a chance. Little did Hikaru know, but by the time they had sat down, Dubov had already won the game. Let's break it down. In this game, Daniil Dubov had the white pieces. Hikaru Nakamura had the black pieces. The game was played in Moscow in 2018 at the Tal Memorial. And fittingly, Daniil Dubov played in the style of the great Mikhail Tal. The game started with the English opening, and a variation that I call the anti-Nimzo variation. White very quickly bringing the pawn out before black can land a bishop on b4. For those of you wondering at home what this might be, if Daniil Dubov had started, for example, with d4 instead on the first move, Hikaru Nakamura would have been able to play his favorite opening, the Nimzo Indian defense, which is all about black bringing out this bishop and pinning the white knight. White therefore unable to push another pawn into the center here. So if we go back to the game, c4, and it was Dubov who, before the bishop comes out, was able to step forward in the center. We see quick tension and Dubov very aggressively pushing his pawn forward. This is still well-known theory. This is met by a counter-attack. And back in 2018, this was all the rage. This was fashionable stuff. Hence why Dubov was able to guess Hikaru's choice of opening. We see in exchange of knights, both sides now just recapturing the pawns that have entered the opponent's halves here. And d4 occupying the center, met by a strike in the middle of the board. We have to give credit to Nakamura. He was playing very strong principled moves, the moves he wants to play. But unfortunately, that means that they are obvious. They are easy to predict. And here we see the first real action after bishop to e2, a capture. Dubov says, no, I'm not simply going to recapture this pawn. Which would allow a bishop check. And this would slow down white's development here. Instead, he prioritizes speed over everything. He brings his bishop out, attacking Nakamura's queen. The queen is forced to step to the side. And the first novelty, the first new move of the game. Back in the past, everyone, everyone was capturing this pawn in the center. But Dubov likes to go his own way. He is a creative force. And he simply castled. He's already one pawn down. This is a second pawn sacrifice. And Hikaru happily says yes. He accepts the gift, taking this pawn. It's currently now four pawns to two on the queen side for Nakamura. But Dubov doesn't care about that. It's all about speed, all about development. The white bishop steps forward. Note how every single move comes with a threat, forcing Hikaru's reply. The fact that these variations are so forced, so linear, makes it, again, easier to look further into the future. The black queen doesn't have many squares. She slides across. This allows a check. The black king hit here. Black has to block. And now an incredible move. Another pawn sacrifice. Already two pawns down. Dubov throws more fuel on the fire. He gives a third pawn. Pawn to c5, attacking the black queen, kicking her to a slightly worse square, a vulnerable square. Nakamura, again, greedily, you would say, accepts the gift. But now the point is revealed. Bishop takes bishop, a trade. And now, again, time-gaining advances for Dubov, hitting the black queen here, forcing her back. So in return for that investment of the third pawn, Dubov gets two moves in return. He advances his rook. Now he lands a check. This check is really annoying for the black king. You cannot block with your pawn as you would want to because the pawn needs to defend this queen in the center. Therefore, Nakamura brings his king across. The white queen lines up now. Look how Dubov is attacking with not just one, two, three, four pieces. A fifth piece is about to join the action. Meanwhile, most of black's army still at home, tucked up in bed, still asleep. Nakamura, again, found the best move. This is 18 moves in. Both sides have played perfect chess, 100% accuracy, nothing to fault here. But Dubov is testing Nakamura. He's forcing him to walk a tightrope. Suddenly, the road is getting smaller here. Nakamura has to find some clever moves. This counterattack now, not moving the white rook, instead hitting the black queen, was Dubov's choice. And the queen cannot move. If the queen moves away, we would have seen a check. The black king now caught on the back rank. It would have to run. Another check, this time on the diagonal. And a beautiful checkmate on the side of the board. The king would have been caught by the mass of white's army. Instead, going back to the game, Nakamura decided it's time to give the queen up. Pawn takes rook. And now 99% of humans would simply capture a queen. We see a queen. We take a queen. But not Dubov. Another incredible move here. He simply chills. He just takes a pawn. Who needs a queen when you can take a pawn, right? Knight takes pawn here. And he's keeping the black king cage. Note how the knight controls an escape square. So again, if the black queen moves, this would have been a checkmate. This time on the back rank, the king would have been caught. Nakamura instead perhaps should have tried to throw a spanner in the works. Deflect Dubov's queen away by pushing his pawn forward. Pawn to c2 here. Getting closer to promotion might have been the best try for Nakamura. The whole idea after rook takes queen is not to promote and make a new queen. This would have been a check, yes. But the white rook would have blocked. And again, there's the problem of the queen hanging and a problem on the back rank later. This would have been winning for white. But instead, Nakamura could have simply recaptured the rook. And now there are threats of this knight hanging and promotion on the next go. This would have been anyone's game. Three results possible. Instead, going back, Nakamura brought his bishop out. This is 20 moves in now. Dubov had not paused for one second playing every move instantly. Nakamura must have been crumbling psychologically. Still playing great moves. This time giving up his queen, which was finally captured. And after a check, the black king stepped forward. This is 22 moves in now. And this was the first moment that Dubov really paused. He didn't pause for long, around 30 seconds here. He landed a check on Nakamura's king. And imagine being in Nakamura's shoes here. It's just check after check, threat after threat on every single turn. Barely a moment to pause. No time to recompose himself or chill. The stress on his face was visible. Nakamura down to two minutes when he replied to this move. He replied by blocking with his bishop. A queen check now. And the king, again, doesn't have too many safe squares to go to. If it moves, if it tries to run, this would allow a nasty check, among other strong moves to white. I can also grab this pawn with a nasty double attack on two black pieces. If he'd gone back, for example, he would have walked into the firing line of this bishop again. And now the white knight could have stepped back, discovered check, and a win of this black bishop. So Nakamura forced to give up material. He had to throw his knight in the way with a block. This knight now walked into a pin, a self pin, and therefore pawn to g4, winning this knight on the next move. And finally, on move 25, Dubov with 23 minutes left. Nakamura with just two. This was the moment that the crumble began. Nakamura unable to keep the pace, unable to keep the accuracy that was required. He was walking a tightrope and the only move to save the game would have been pushing this pawn forward. This would have been incredible in itself. This one might have forced me to record a totally different video praising Nakamura's brilliance because pawn to c2 is supported by an incredible idea. It is a sacrifice, giving up the knight. Now a trade would have seen white a whole bishop ahead. Queen and bishop far superior to two black rooks. Also the black king open, vulnerable, but now it's all about this pawn one square away from touchdown. The queen currently protects the promotion square. You cannot push it forward, but Nakamura, if he had more time, if this was a classical game, might have found the incredible move. Rook to c8, another sacrifice, giving up the rook, which actually shouldn't be captured. White should continue going for the attack, for example, by dropping his bishop back with a check. And this would have been an equal position, chances for both sides. But capturing this rook, the most natural move, would have actually lost for Dubov. A capture now, and suddenly this pawn cannot really be stopped. You have to throw your queen in the way to block it. The pawn now protected by its rook. And dropping back the queen would paralyze her majesty here. She would have been totally immobilized, stuck, and the pawns start advancing. This is one sample variation showing exactly what might have happened next. The pawns will advance. Next move, pawn to b3, followed by pawn to b2, kicking the queen out of the way, and Nakamura could have turned the tables. But this is the beauty of rapid chess. Perfection is so difficult to achieve. If we go back to the game, the losing blunder on move 25 was this one, rook to d8. I'm going to say we can't blame Nakamura here. It was the most natural move in the position, trying to capture this knight, which has actually trapped itself in black's camp. Here, the game continued with a capture, the black knight disappearing, black's best defender, being cleaned off the board by Dubov, the white knight disappearing, but suddenly the black king finds itself yet again in the firing line. A check, a block, another check, and 28 moves in. Dubov still had 22 minutes out of his 25 that he started the game with. Incredible speed and accuracy. Still perfect chess to this point. Another check, and this is the closing stages of the game. The king march begins, and Dubov shows some real class, real quality with his next move, simply dropping his bishop back. He could have done this in a variety of ways, but now the bishop will control the light squares, the queen will control the dark squares, and the king is going to die. Nakamura brought his rook across now, allowing a check. Continued walking with his king off to the edge of the board. Another check. This pawn is poisoned. You cannot take it. If you do capture this pawn, the white queen would have swooped back and we would have seen the king caught on the edge of the board. Checkmate now coming in an unstoppable way. Instead, Nakamura decided to try a different path. He put his king on the edge. The white queen now swooped back, threatening a nasty checkmate. This was blocked, but now the finishing touch. Pawn to f3. There's not much to do here. If you ignore the threat, rook takes bishop, then this would have ended in checkmate. The white queen doing the job on her own here, supported by a humble pawn. Instead, rook to d4 by Nakamura. The white king simply stepping forward. How calm, how cool is that from Dubov? And pawn to c2, again ignored. Simply captured the threat here of rook to d2. Check is not dangerous at all. The white king would have slid back and rook takes bishop again would have allowed a checkmate. So Nakamura panicking here. We could see it on his face. The stress finally getting to him, letting his clock run out, losing on time while playing the move rook to f8. This would not have helped anyway. Dubov would have brought his queen forward with a check, a double attack, picking up the black rook. Nakamura instead losing a different way, the clock falling. But what a masterpiece from Dubov. When I first saw this game live, I was watching the live feed, watching the players' reactions. My mind was blown. I knew Daniel Dubov. I'd played him many times online. I'd played him in the World Rapid Championship not long before this. And I knew he was a great attacker, a great sacrificer. I thought it was more bluff rather than substance. And 2018 was a golden year for Dubov. He later became World Rapid Champion. A few months after this game, and this was his big breakthrough in his career. I just felt it was art in the form of chess. I just thought it was a masterpiece. And the fact that it was at the Tal Memorial added that extra bit of destiny. It just felt like he was honoring the memory of former world champion Mikhail Tal. And yeah, I hope all of you enjoyed the game and learned as much as I did.