'Unbelievable.' Magnus Carlsen Annihilates the Reigning World Chess Champion

Poor Gukesh, this is the calm before the storm, Magnus Carlsen, world number one, sits down at the board at the clutch chess championship day two, takes a sip from his midget bottle of water, wears the true Viking sized glass, he tickles his pieces, he's about to go on an absolute domination of Gukesh, Hikaru and Magnus sporting the chess mafia haircut, slicked back there, the handshake happens and we're diving in on two incredible games of chess, starting with Magnus with white, opening with this solid and steady Bishop Fianchetto, tucking it into bed, keeping his coach proud, there's Peter Heiner Nielsen, Gukesh sets up the party hat pawn formation, so Magnus shatters it, he knows it's overpowered, Gukesh gives night for Bishop here because he's got all his pawns on light squares so it does make some sense, but Magnus now has the Bishop bear, he wants to use them long term, but right now it's solid and steady, one of the most boring pawn structures in all of chess, both players momentarily fall asleep, luckily Yas is there to shout surprise, wake em up, push em baby, we want to see the structure change, Magnus now gets all his bits out, great etiquette at the board, connects the rooks and Gukesh forgets which way the pieces are supposed to move, charge forward, way more aggressive, here he comes, he remembers just in time and Magnus tucks back the Bishop, a master move, just waiting to spring into the game later, Gukesh develops, connects the rooks and Magnus just goes on a bit of shuffle shuffle, F5 weakens the king but bolsters the square, you give something you gain something, potato potato, Magnus does not want exchanges, goes on this manoeuvre, now kicks away this knight, never play F3 or F6 or so says our lord cousin Hans Feingold, absolute legend in the chess world, we now see the knight spawn itself on the C5 square and the queen dodges, puts pressure, so knight D3 back, one question we should ask, can you not liberate right now, often a desirable move, well here not so great, you can put pressure on this pawn, something like this and black's done a bit prematurely, so let's run back, rook C7 prepares to double but Magnus doesn't care, because B4 you can say, here come the men in black, bad position defenders, he gains space with that pawn push, Gukesh doubles up with the rooks, now we see B5, the knight stumbling back, one exchange, they go into the blender and A4, really logical play, expanding on the side of the board where you're strongest here, it's good positional chess, G5 fights back, love it from Gukesh, A6 from Magnus, now weakens the C6 square and after rook C1 challenging the file, Gukesh goes horrendously wrong, he plays the move, Pawn E5, I mean we've not seen a move that positionally irresponsible from a reigning world chess champion since yesterday, when Gukesh played another one just as bad, I'll link that video at the end in case you missed it, although I released it yesterday for games played the day after this one, so it's kind of some weird Harry Potter Prisoner of Azkaban stuff, we see takes played, Queen recaptures, why is this so bad, why should you have just waited with Queen d7 or pushed this one if you want to get really aggressive, well it's because of this, this, all these pieces going into the chess blender and look at the problems now for black, the pawns are weak, you know with great space comes great responsibility, you've just opened up the board for the bishops, the king is weak and these pawns can be a pain in the endgames, Magnus now goes like this, targeting, so pawn pushing, natural, but now takes, opening the king, yes, after recaptures, King g2, you're going to see the world of problems, King g7 played, Queen e2 pressures, now the bishop bounces to d4, but to give you a flavour of the problems, what if black just waits and does nothing, well the problem is you can run these pawns, kick the knight and then set up a battery on this diagonal very soon, you know something like this, you can push more pawns and black is just paralysed to play against these kind of ideas, there's very little counterplay, so Gukhesh does try and play actively with the bishop, brings it round here to e3, but Magnus gets the invasion, he challenges that queen, also hits this pawn here and Magnus doesn't play the best, best was this move, to try and create a passer, but he plays Bf5 saying please take my pawn and what he's judged is that the king will be too weak, he'll start checkmating ideas, now you can actually play like this with black, but white remains better and these ones remain a target for the dark squared bishop potentially, or even think of sacrifices here and pushing if this one ever moved, so that was one possibility, but not played, we get takes, now Bc5 is best, but it lands here, understandably, but it allows here, Pawn d4, he blockades the runner, now Nd7 looking to activate, but Bd6, you're a step behind, you can't even go Nc5, and not because of this, but because of this, this, this, this, this, very very common endgame motif when the pawns are so advanced like this, so Gukhesh is in the house of pain, Magnus is jumping around, the king's blockaded, you want to sit it on f5, but then Kf3 g4, so this fights against that move, but anyway Kf3, Bd2, now Bd5, look at these guys, absolute laser beams, something like that, Be1 is played, and this one marches in, defended, hits the bishop, Magnus dropping here, and he's setting up a nasty, say you try this, well now you can take, take, and land this little trick, because the pawns going through, so that's why we get the bishop backing up to a5, to cover this sacrificial idea after bishop takes knight, therefore we get f5 check from Magnus, can't take, drop a knight, very nasty, Ke7, Ke4, and resigns, this pawns just dropping, you can't defend, or you've got this same tactical shot right, once that goes, well then the king is free to go wherever it wants, you've got an extra pawn, you've got the bishops, the pieces are tied up, the resignation wasn't premature, let's jump here, but just before I dive in on this one though, I want to show you something, this literally came across my feed yesterday, and then again today, love the Remote Chess Academy, I've mentioned it many times over the last couple of years, and they rarely have these sales right, like 70% off, this is GM Igor Smirnov, huge YouTube channel here, and a huge, huge teaching offering over here on the Remote Chess Academy, these are the best selling courses, the boost your ELO to 2000 bundle, at this insane price, under 100 bucks, if you want to kick on this year, make that push, this can help you think like a grandmaster does, that's what these courses will do, the super pack also 17 videos, all bundled in for an incredible price, 76% off, really, really good courses, I've used them myself back in the day, check these ones out, incredible sale, rarely comes around like this, let's dive back to the chess right now, because it just got worse, for Gukhesh D, we see a King Prawn opening on the board, Magnus playing black now, and after this Italian Stallion from Gukhesh, Magnus doesn't do any of these tried and tested moves, he plays Pawn D6, taking a leaf out of Fabi's book, he absolutely spanked Hans Niemann in this line, in the recent US Chess Championships, I'll link that video at the end, in case you missed it, but after Castles, Magnus has something completely different in mind, Bishop E6, what is that, allowing your structure to be ruined, Knight F6 hits the Pawn, defended by the Rook, Bishop developing now, and D4 strikes at the centre, now Magnus is just looking for a game of chess I guess, because he is not better here, or even close to equalising right, D5 is a very good move, not played, but my favourite, because the Knight has to go somewhere, say you go here, you're not quite trapped just yet, you do have a C4 square, but anyway you're playing with fire, but the point is Knight G5, you know you're headed for that massive outpost, something like this, just to secure C4, prepare B4, so B6, but now C4, and that Knight is not going anywhere fast, very dangerous from there, so this was a nice one, but Gukhesh does this, also understandable, leaving Magnus with a structure that only a mother could love, but he's burnt two minutes, you know this is what Magnus is looking for, and now this is just nuts, I think it's this move, Gukhesh spends four minutes in a ten minute game, on choosing between Knight D2 or Queen E2, he goes with the former, and look at the times there, Magnus is six minutes up now, what is he playing at? Bishop C5, very natural, and now you have to go Queen E2, why do you have to go Queen E2? Because now you're preparing Knight F3, and there's no Queen takes, pawns defended, game rumbles on, but Gukhesh has an absolute brain freeze, plays Knight F3, now we've seen similar before from Ding Liren, here he is in the snow, possibly Ding was galloping through Gukhesh's mind when he played this, I don't know, but Magnus lops off the Queens, few of his fans are absolutely loving it, and the big problem is you just dropped a pawn, and it's not like you're winning it back, because there's no Rook E1 or anything, this is about to collapse, can't go Rook F1 here, because after you get a mass exchange, then E4 comes, and the Knight is pinned to the King that would be there, or would be on F2 sorry, so you get this one, but now who's the one with the stinky structure? Unbelievable, just terrible chess from Gukhesh, I mean really bad, even after Magnus gifted him this horrible opening, so the pawn was defended, now why not go Pawn G4, kick the Rook from the defence, well because you sack a Knight, just checking you're still awake, so instead we get Rook D7 played, hitting the pawn, Magnus defends it like this now, we get the double up, and Knight C5 hits that Rook, check is played, now this check back, and after King F7, sorry not King F7, Rook F8, it offers an endgame, what if you take, take, and win a pawn? Now isn't this okay, level material, how can this be anything but level? Black's quite a bit better, and it's all related to initiative, can't go B3 or this drops, so Knight D3, but then as it turns out, Black is just a step ahead all the time here, King somehow gets in faster, this is just one sample line, the pawns run quicker, this one's more tied down, there's so many different rabbit holes you can go down right, but Black's just a bit ahead all the time in these endgames, so Gukesh correctly keeps the Rooks on the board, E4, the Knight springs forward, H5, gives some Lufthansa, Knight D7, forks these two, and it sets the trap, because can't you go here, saying haha, I just won a piece, if you take, I'm going to take your undefended Rook, well no, you flip the Uno Reverso, check the King, pick up the Rook, you're getting fossilised, so Magnus sees it, plays Rook F5, covers his Knight, now we see this and this, Rook D4, excellent Rook lift from Gukesh, he's a strong young man, Pawn attacked, but this is a lovely response, if you take the Pawn, not played, then check, King F2, check, takes here, and okay, you've also won back a Pawn, here's one sample endgame, Pawn's a level, but Black has the better structure and the passed Pawn, so we run back, we didn't see takes on E4, we saw C4, that move was playable by the way, but not played, this was it, and it offers Magnus a choice, do you want to take and go for the endgame, or keep Rooks on the board, Magnus plays, Rook takes on D4, and his judgement is absolutely correct, as so ever, he's entered this endgame a Pawn ahead, saying okay, if you think this is a draw, D Gukesh, prove it, and Gukesh can't do so, the trouble here for White is you run out of tempos, you have to give ground somewhere, make a push you don't want to make, back off like you don't want to do, there's only one winning move though in this position, incredibly, and it's C6, Magnus misses it, he plays this, Gukesh can now go A4 apparently, and create a draw, because he has enough tempos to not have to back off with his King, and then he can win the Pawn, it's very deep stuff, but he does this, bang, it's back to a Magnus win, he takes some time now, goes Pawn B5, C5 is played, but now C6, and it's done, it's game over, G3 on the board, Magnus pushes with E5, and we see resigns, why? Well this is completely lost, you know where to go with the King, like said, you run out of tempos, Black just waits, then you have to back off somewhere, Black steps in, you've got the opposition, passed Pawn, and even if the King ever wins that one, Black then mops up on some other side of the board, it's over, so this is why you've got problems here, if you take, and if you push, well now you take, and if you try and run this, King comes back in time, and the White King just can't get near these, again, this is completely lost, incredible from Magnus, he beat Gukesh five and a half times out of six possible games right, or five out of six, drew one, truly remarkable, and if you want to see their final round games, those are linked on screen, along with the Fabby Hands game, do check it out, thanks very much for watching, and I hope to see you soon, cheers.