'MAGNU~1.4

His dreams. Yeah, that's a good point. He was one of the first ones through at the top, so didn't necessarily eliminate other people, but here we have Nihal Sarin arriving to the studio, courtesy of Jameel Motorsport. He's our dark horse pick for the remainder of the competitors in this tournament, but he has a tall task ahead of him. It's Magnus Carlsen that he's staring into. The world number one. We'll see if he can get it done on the other side of this commercial break when we come back for chess at the Esports World Cup. My finalist begins right now, Sandstorm. That's right, Tyler. Aliyah Yakta Est. The die is cast and it has chosen our next two contenders. A king comes down from his throne as a challenger approaches and aims for his crown. Welcome the challenger, Nihal Sarin versus Team Liquid's Magnus Carlsen. A fearless prodigy with everything to prove versus the King of Kings with nothing left to fear. Getting a little overexcited over there. I just want to put that key down right away. Not going to ask you too many questions, guys. Just one simple one. Are you ready? Yes, sure. Yeah. Same question, Magnus. You've been here so many times before. Are you ready? I want to say like for another challenge. Yeah, always. Always. I like it. Well, gentlemen, keys onto the pedestals. Gentlemen, make some noise for your second quarterfinal on the stage. It's Liquid versus SAUL. Magnus Carlsen versus Nihal Sarin. Casters, this legendary matchup is yours. Magnus versus Nihal Sarin. What a pump up! It was fun. And we are live with the moves. Game number one. We have Magnus Carlsen with the white pieces, Amruta. Nihal with black and Magnus has opened with his big weapon. And Nihal, you know, he said that, you know, what's a game strategy, Bola? I'm going to be cool. I'm going to give my best, Bola. I mean, this is incredible. Magnus Carlsen completely in control of his of his body. And Nihal is like, why are you thinking this? But we need it back. Oh, A6 plunder and Bishop, A6 brilliance. Oh no! Nihal Sarin lost. Oh, wait. Oh, RUG D7. Magnus Carlsen showing his brilliance. Queen B3, Queen B7 unstoppable. Oh, can we have the heart rate? Would love to see Nihal holding his head. And Harshit bhai, I think Nihal's run in the event is coming to an end. Seems to be coming to an end. But what a performance he has had, Nihal Sarin, you know, qualifying through the last chance qualifiers, then beating Anish Giri, then beating MVL, making it to the playoffs here. Unfortunately, he was pitted against Magnus Carlsen, the greatest player of all time, arguably, if not. I mean, you know, it's no one even argues that actually. 44, 44 heart rate. I think that's the secret to Magnus' chess, Harshit bhai. Completely calm. Bhai, and look at the position, he's down a piece. It's not very apparent to realize that white is completely winning. But then when you think a bit deeper, you realize that Queen B3 has... Harshit bhai, do you know Injun's first preference? Queen B1. That is, that, 42! Bhai, 41! Bhai, is he OK? 40! How, bhai? How is that possible? It has to be a glitch, yeah? No, bhai, I think it's true. But why only Magnus? I don't see it. And yeah, Magnus is like, yeah, it's completely winning, so. I mean. Wow, 40 heart rate Magnus, my heart rate was 140 while sitting there. And Nihal, of course, and he resigns. Bhai, hats off to Magnus Carlsen. Kudos to Nihal Sarin for making it so far. He definitely made SATUL proud. He definitely made the Indian fans proud. He made us proud. Yeah, and I think there was a lot of positive signs in Nihal's play. He has defeated so many strong players in crushing fashion. Whether you look at their chess skills, their mouse skills, pressure handling, it has been amazing. I think it was only Magnus who could have stopped him. And Magnus Carlsen is like Nihal very quickly. Another absolutely crushing game, Magnus. We've had four of your games on this stage right here, and every single one of them has looked like you are just casually chilling, leaned way back in your chair. Can you explain your thought process to these and how they've had you feel? No, I feel like the first couple of games today were really, really tense. The first, of course, I think he out-calculated me in the opening and I was a pawn down and I was kind of just hoping to survive and then maybe play on the clock. Then I got some winning chances that I couldn't convert. Second game, I felt like I was probably a little bit worse and I just felt that it was super, super tense. But then, yeah, he made one bad move. And after that, I don't feel like I gave him a lot of chances. And yeah, in the last game, I felt pretty good. It's kind of it's a kind of position where which I like a lot, where you just have relatively simple play and it's safe. And yeah, that went pretty nicely. Now, regarding your next matchup, it is going to be up against Hikaru Nakamura, a rivalry that we all know. So talk to me about that going into your next matchup. Yeah, of course, I didn't expect anything, anything else. So, you know, Hikaru has been a little bit shaky in a few matches, I think. But, you know, the best often prevail in pressure. So expect a tough match. But hopefully I can keep the same groove as I had in the last game. Then I should be in good shape. Well, ladies and gentlemen, we have our four semifinalists and we're getting ready for the first one of the day here at the SNB Esports Arena. Congratulations once again, Magnus, for making it to the next stage. Let's head on over to the studio and prepare for the first semifinal. Boys and girls, take it away. Magnus, a very convincing match win against Nihal today. Tell us about it. Yeah, first of all, I was not shocked to see Nihal here. I thought he certainly was one of the top eight competitors on paper in this format. And I knew that if I wasn't quite on, then there was a very good chance that he could punish me because I played him a lot in Blitz. I feel like when I'm on, I'm a bit better. But if I'm not quite on, then he's extremely dangerous. And that kind of showed in the first couple of games. The match was really hanging in the balance, I think, in the second game a lot. I wasn't feeling fantastic about the position. I offered a repetition, which he didn't take. But then he made one crucial mistake, allowed me to take over the initiative. After that, I didn't really look back. And the second game as well, I felt, sorry, the third game, I felt really comfortable. I didn't necessarily expect it to end so early, but... Yeah, this Bishop takes A6 was very nice. Yeah, but it was kind of, I wasn't 100% sure it was winning, but I'm trying to keep up the pace here and play a lot on intuition. So I just went with it and fortunately, the game ended immediately. Against Nihal, we saw that you were keeping up the pace and the clock. Will it be the same against Hikaru? I think Hikaru and Nihal are a little bit similar in the sense that they both, they're not the fastest players necessarily, but they play very fast in positions that they feel good about, that they're comfortable with. And both are incredibly fast in time scrambles. But yeah, overall, I expect it to be a very tough test. I mean, Hikaru hasn't had his best tournament so far, but he's here in the semifinals. So I expect a difficult test. Thank you, Magnus. Congratulations and best wishes. Thank you. Nihal, it was your first proper match, I think, against Magnus. How was the experience? Yeah, I mean, I'm very happy that I got an opportunity to play Magnus. Like, he's my biggest inspiration and also, I mean, in my opinion, the greatest to ever play the game. So, yeah, I'm just very happy that I got to play a match. I think I had my level up there for the first one and a half games, probably. I think I was playing really well. I was able to match him for a long time. But then in the second game, around middle game, I started to falter. And then I made a really bad mistake. I missed the chance to win a pawn. And also I followed up with a really bad mistake. And yeah, that is enough to maybe I could still come back against somebody else, but against someone like Magnus, that is generally like case closed. So, yeah, I mean, I just wish that I could play my best chess. I unfortunately, I didn't play well enough today at all. Did clock also become a factor, you thought? Because I think in most games, he was keeping up a good time advantage. Yeah, definitely. I mean, I was trying my best to keep up on the clock, but it's just not easy when your opponent is making very good moves instantly. So that's what Magnus does. Nihal, either way, it was a great journey for you here at the Esports World Cup. Any message you would like to share to the S8U fans? Yeah, like I just want to thank all the fans for the massive support. It means so much. I cannot really express it in words. Yeah, just thank you very much. And I hope everyone enjoyed the games. Yeah, I'll hope to do better next year. Thank you so much, Nihal. Best wishes to you for next year's campaign and best wishes to everybody. Thank you.