MAGNUS CARLSEN WINS HIS 19TH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the 2025 World Rapid Chess Championship. Three days of incredible action spread out through the open and the women's sections and today we will crown once again a world champion. Will it be Magnus Carlsen winning his 19th title? I don't know. Do you know that already because that's the title of the YouTube video? Because we always AB test it? Potentially. So we'll see. I would also like to inform you I have the flu. You cannot contract it through the screen. But I had chills. I barely slept. I'm coughing. My throat hurts. My body hurts. I was throwing up. Not that you have to know any of that. But I'm gonna go full Michael Jordan flu game for this recap and then I'm gonna pass out. I am going to sleep. All right. I had motion sickness just watching the games today. Too many chess moves on the board. Here we go. All right. I'm wearing a double hoodie because I'm cold. I just turned off the heater. Not that you have to know any of that. But I'm here, man. I'm here. The second the games are over, we got some games to cover and we will be covering them. All right. Going into today, Magnus Carlsen trails by half a point. He trails none other than Vladislav Artemyev and Hans Smokey Neiman himself are winning the tournament. They are on pace for a gold. Now, if I was still a betting man, I would bet on Magnus. But he has to get it done. He shows up and plays the move pawn to e4. Serrano plays c5. We have knight f3. And Magnus plays his favorite sideline of the Sicilian defense. Maybe not favorite. I don't want to say things about him that are not true. But nowadays, you can actually play this ridiculous like Italian versus the Sicilian. You generally are taught not to do this because black can play e6. But against d6 specifically, it's actually not so bad. And Magnus plays like this. Now, it's kind of just like an Italian, except black has never played the move e5. I was watching this game and I was like, all right, it's probably just a matter of time. Bishop b3, h3, bishop b7. Serrano just developing his pieces to completely natural squares and makes a break for it with this move d5. Not really respecting Magnus' setup and attacking the center of the board. Magnus plays bishop b5, applying pressure to the knight, getting out of the way. And immediately, things go slightly wrong for black who plays queen c7, rook d8. Two completely natural looking moves. Completely normal looking moves. Computer hated them though. It did not want queen c7. It wanted black to take on e4 faster because it thought this gave Magnus the option to play e5 whenever he wants. And there he is playing e5 whenever he wants and very quickly playing d4 as well. Think about it. Putting the light squared bishop up for an exchange and then putting all the pawns on the dark squares. This is not what we're taught. But when you get to this level, you can break the rules. Now, this bishop eats rocks. Like me on the playground when I was two years old. That's what my mom tells me. And this bishop doesn't eat rocks, but it doesn't really have any sort of bright future and white can actually start some sort of kingside attack. Serrana tries to take. Magnus now has a nice repositioning here with his knight on d4. Rook e8. Very passive from Serrana. And for the remainder of the game, Magnus just sort of squeezes him. He kind of plays knight f3. The main question is, will black play the move f6? Knight c5. a5. He's just putting a little bit of pressure. He's giving him the second bishop. Beautiful little position here. Trying to show that the bishops are not as good as the knights when the position is closed. When both bishops are closed off. Very interesting proposition. And from here, white will put pressure on the queenside, on the center, and at any moment can launch this attack. a6 on the board. I would even consider h4. But e6 is also a very nice move. Now black is going to really, really struggle to get out of the territory. Serrana plays queen c7 trying to kick the rook out. The rook is kicked out. But black doesn't have a lot of moves anymore. Both rooks incredibly passive. You're going to have to start going over here. And the second that you do that, you know, Magnus is going to meet you just on the queenside where you have absolutely no play. Your light squared bishop is not participating. It's not. It can't go out to one diagonal. And it can't go to the left side of the board. Rook b6. Rook a5. At some point, the best move in the position will be the fatal kingside attack. Unless black makes some other mistake. Knight b3. Queen d3. And instead, black just losing a pawn in the center of the board and getting totally grinded down. Knight d7 played. It's just a fork. But the real idea is to get the pawn promoting. You play rook c3. I just take a free queen. Just a free queen. I think Serrana just cracked under the pressure here. He thought he was counterattacking something. He just hung his queen. That is what it is. This is one of the last four rounds on board one. And Magnus just applies a suffocating positional pressure. Just absolutely no chance in this game for Serrana who ended up having to play an angry Magnus on board one. Meanwhile, on board two, Niemann is playing Artemiyev. Now, if I was a betting man, I don't do that stuff. But if I was, I would bet on Artemiyev making four draws in the last day. A lot of these... And I'm going to show you. There's a bunch of players who toward the end of the rounds of the World Rapid Blitz Championship, they just make draws. Because the most likely outcome of two 2800, 2700s playing is a draw anyway. It's too risky for them to risk the money. Because one point down, you might lose $20,000 to $30,000. And this is the most important tournament of the year for these players. Which, you know, is kind of big picture talking about the ecosystem of professional chess. But we're not going to open that Pandora's box right now. So a lot of these players just make quick draws. Now, I think Hans was actually trying to play for something. But absolutely nothing happened in this game. You know, Hans played an Italian. Artemiyev played a very solid line. The boys clashed in the center. Hans played an interesting approach where he had doubled the opponent's time and sacrificed a pawn. Look, he sacrificed the pawn. No, he didn't. Never mind. I thought he was just down a pawn when I looked at this earlier. But I guess I was delirious from having a low-grade fever. No, it's just equal. Rook d7. It looks a little bit unpleasant here for Black, who has 30 seconds. But Artemiyev is a very good defender. And despite Hans putting a little bit of pressure, ultimately, this is simply a draw. Mutually assured destruction of the pawns promoting. And the boys make a draw. That means it's a three-way tie. That means it's Magnus, Hans, and Artemiyev leading the tournament, which has three rounds to go. Which means that Magnus plays Hans. Just like we all wanted. Final three rounds. Magnus, Hans, baby. Now, Magnus here gets white again because of the way the pairings work. I guess Hans was due Black because he had just played white. And because Magnus had double Black earlier in the tournament. Two games usually are alternating. So we get Magnus versus Hans. And I mean, really, the winner of this game will likely win the tournament. Because like I said, Artemiyev is just going to probably make draws. He is a very, very prudent player. He's not going to take massive risk on the final day. And he's happy to just take his half points and secure a top three, top four finish. Which really, it makes a lot of sense. But this is really the game right here. If Magnus is clutch, he's going to beat Hans again. Like he did in the World Blitz Championship last year. Like he did in the Speechless Championship. Like he did in a lot of important tournaments over the last couple of years. The viewership doubled live for this game. And Magnus played the Italian. So an opening that we have seen many, many times. Knight f6. Not going for the fried liver, but playing d3. And then playing h3, c3. Seen before. a5 is the move that Hans chooses. Not h6. h6 is the move that Artemiyev went for. Instead, Hans plays this line with bishop a7. Knight bd2. And now, Black here can just play h6, bishop e6, uber solid. But not Hans. Hans plays a pretty ambitious move. He immediately repositions his knight. So the idea here is to reposition the knight to g6. And quickly go for c6, d5. This is very ambitious. Because you waste a lot of time moving that knight with Black. And, you know, it's still equal. But there are much more solid choices. But clearly, Hans, you know, part of it is like a little bit of psychological warfare. He kind of wants to play something aggressive. All right. Now, knight f1. The typical reroute. Knight to g6. And sensing that this isn't coming. Magnus simply backs up to b3. And baits Hans to play c6, d5. Which he does. c6. Now this position, if I look in the database, has been reached a few times. Including in the game Wesley So. Hans Niemann played in 2025. Maybe even in this very tournament. But yeah, earlier this year. Maybe in the US Championship. d4. Chosen by Magnus. d5. And now the move, bishop g5. The idea here is quite simple. Put pressure on the knight. And the center loses defense. The best move here for Black is to play h6. Which is what Hans does. And to simply go down a pawn. To simply allow White to take this. But slowly win the pawn back with active piece play. Rook. Rook coming. And the bishop putting pressure from the a7 of two diagonal. The thing is, Magnus at this point. You know, by all intents and purposes. Has sort of figured out the way Hans plays. It's just the truth. Now, not every single time. Obviously, Hans does get the better of him. But he does kind of take a lot of Hans' aggression. And general combative style. And he's very good at just blowing out the fire. So he takes on d5 here. Hans takes back on d4. Trying to mutually open the position. And Hans here could have just played pawn takes d5. And played defensively. He could have went bishop e6. Played it solid. Instead of that. He plays knight f4. This is a very aggressive move. Voluntarily giving up a pawn. Which Magnus takes in five seconds. And now we have this position. Where Magnus is just a pawn up. Now, if you simplify this down. What's going to happen is. These pawns are likely going to be traded. And this b-pawn could be decisive. That's ultimately what Magnus has to work with. Are you so confident in yourself? That Magnus is not just going to immediately outplay you in this position. Like a surgeon, right? I'm a surgeon! I am a surgeon! Knight, he's probably screaming it in Hans' face. Knight g3. He's going to e4. He has rook c1 ideas. He's going to put pressure on c6. And, you know, there's a solution to this position for white. There's a solution. Like, black has counterplay against your extra pawn. But there's a solution. It's 0.7. If you play all the right moves. You're going to consolidate your advantage. The knight goes to e4. The rook goes to c1. We have a trade. The queen drops back to the center of the board. b3. And at this point, you know. He's giving him this pawn. With the intention of pinning him. And this is Hans' final moment, maybe. To take. He has to take on d4. He has to play rook b4. There is a sequence here where he does hang on to his knight in the center. But it looks a little perilous. And instead, he kind of believes Magnus and plays this. And now, after a very nice, swift execution of the position. Rook d6. Queen f3. Takes, takes. This is the endgame. This is what we have to work with. Now, at this point, I was fading in and out of sleep and barfing. Just like, you know, a fantastic average Saturday. But I was like, oh, I think Magnus is going to win this game. I don't exactly know how, but he has an extra pawn. And it's just kind of standing there. It can't really move forward. But this is a typical Magnus school of chess type of game. And I mean, Hans has lost like a dozen games like this to Magnus already. Where, you know, he just has sustained pressure throughout. And he's going to convert this advantage. But what I'm about to show you is really, really just like. It's really incredible. So Hans plays rook e8, puts the rook in the center, pressures the knight. Magnus plays g3, bringing the king up to g2 and plays knight d6. The idea of knight d6 is very simple. He just wants to trade into a winning endgame. That's it. This computer on chess.com is not high enough of a depth to even understand this idea. Takes, takes. Magnus understands he can trade the knight for the bishop. He can trade the queens and he can trade the rooks. Now, of course, you can trade everything. You just win because the pawn is on the outside. But even with a rook, this is just a winning endgame for white. Completely winning. Hans plays rook b8, king g2, rook d8. Like I just said, trying to get a pair of rooks off and getting more after that. Hans goes here and this position is just a losing endgame. There is absolutely no way to defend this position with black. There's no way. It's plus four immediately. This doesn't even understand. This is a losing endgame. What happens now is white walks the king here, promotes the pawn. This rook cuts off the black king. The black king can never cross the line. The only chance that black has is creating a little bit of counterplay with these pawns. Watch as Magnus just absolutely does not let that happen. Look at the absolute fortress he creates with rook f4. And out of nowhere, the computer's like, oh, just kidding. I knew it was winning the entire time. Just king c3. And it's just, you just win. You walk the king up. You get the king all the way to the other side of the board. And now you do something called building the bridge, which you've already built. You dance out this way. And the rook blocks the check. And the pawn promotes. Absolutely flawless chess. Like, truly, you know, they ask me sometimes, like, can you compare the styles of Kasparov and Carlsen? You cannot compare the two. They are completely different. Kasparov won unbelievably complicated games. Carlsen just makes it look easy against anybody. Like, this style is just brutal. It's like a person who gets a takedown in a fight and just gets a submission. And there's nothing you can do about it. Nothing. The best comparison I draw to Magnus is how Dagestani fighters are in mixed martial arts. You know the game plan. You know the strategy. And you cannot stop it. You just, there's nothing you can do. You know what he's going to do every single time. And even in this game, in the clutchest moment of the tournament, he just defeats his arch nemesis, not rival, but nemesis, for another win at the World Rapid and Blitz Championships against Hans. Not much you can say. Now, he's in the clear. He's in the clear. He bursts out. Why? Because my guy Artemyev, like I already said, this is probably somewhat out of order, but Artemyev is playing all his games. And you know, Lanier is also an incredibly solid player. Taking risk against him is not very recommended. But this game, Artemyev-Lanier, look at, look at, this is move 18. Move 18, all the pieces are gone. The boys agree to a draw in this position. Artemyev just got nothing. I mean, Lanier played very prudent. Queen's Gambit accepted. White could have maybe tried some stuff. Artemyev started the game with 14 minutes, went down to 30 seconds, and after 20 moves, had to make a draw. There was just nothing you can do. Some players are extremely tough to beat. They just don't lose. So, Artemyev is drawing, which means Magnus now leaps out to a high position. Now, there was a very important other game I need to show you because it sets up the very next matchup. It sets up the matchup, Yas Khan versus Magnus Carlsen. Erdomush, the strongest 14-year-old in the history of chess. Yes, we have to do it that way because a lot of players have been 14. You know, Gukesh was once 14. Magnus was 14. Firuja was 14. Wei Yi was 14. Super prodigy. Nobody has been as good as Yas Khan at 14 years of age. It is scary. And his opponent is Arjun Aragaisi, one of the best players in the world. Yas Khan plays a sideline of a Sicilian defense, just like Magnus did. Plays some thing, whatever this is. And now just kind of has a relatively dry position where, you know, both guys have their claim to the center. But obviously, Aragaisi is going to play for a win. He's the better player, probably. Probably. Honestly, it's very close. But he's going to have to try to take a little bit of calculated risk. And on top of that, he has a seven-minute time advantage, right? So, let's see what happens. Bc6. At some point, Aragaisi is going to make a run for it. He's going to make a break for it. Look at this. There he is. The calculated risk taker. Aragaisi's style of chess is like the Joker. He just blows things up, all right? And then he kind of figures out the rest as he goes. Aragaisi walks into a room and is like, you want to know how I got these scars? You know, Rd1, Bb5, total chaos in the center of the board. For a moment here, Erdomus finds a very nice sequence. Gives away his rook because he has a total bind of the position now. But then he gives up the advantage because he only has like 17 seconds on the clock and the game is back to equal. But this is hardly equal. I mean, this is like the Hans game. White is just the pawn up here with pressure on the king. Nh5, Ne6. You can't play either of those moves, but I'm just saying like that's where the knight is looking to go. And yeah, d3 is a losing mistake. Black needed to go rook e8 and play defensively. Aragaisi pushes a pawn. And now he's gonna make a queen, but he's gonna get checkmated. Rf7, Rg7. Erdomus finding this move with 10 seconds remaining on the clock. You cannot play d2. You have to play here. Now I will take the pawn on d3. Sike! No, I won't. Ng6 incoming. If you take it, Rg7 and Rh7 is a mate. And this is game over. Erdomus takes all of Aragaisi's pawns. Has a two-pawn advantage in the rook endgame. And in an unprecedented turn of events, after some 50 moves, 60 moves, Aragaisi resigns. And the best 14-year-old chess player on the planet right now is a game away from the gold medal. The problem is, he straight up in his next game has to play against Magnus. That's tough. Meanwhile, here's what's happening in the other games. So remember that previous game that I just showed you? Or Tammy had the white pieces. He drew linear. He couldn't get anything in a queen's game but accepted. Here's a game against Djavahir Sindarov. They drew in nine moves. I don't really know what to say about stuff like this. On the one hand, both guys are just trying to secure points in the standings and get a top five, top seven finish and win a lot of money. On the other hand, what the... What? Like, are we just... We not even fighting for the gold? Like, we just... But that's like... This happens every year. And I'm not criticizing either of these guys. But chess... It's hard to compare chess to any other sport when stuff like this just happens in the World Championship last couple rounds. It's just true. You know? You let the boys kind of take first and then like, you know, you fight for the money spots. These weren't the only guys. Here's Maxim Vasilagrov versus Wesley Tso. It's a mainline Berlin endgame. Now, MVL actually tried in this game but the most common result in a game between two 2700s is a draw. And they just drew. They just drew. MVL didn't spend any time at all. Okay. Here's another game. This is Shimano versus Linear. This game was over in 11 moves exchange. Slav, over. Just draw. Like, all these games are going for draws which means, you know, now we are in the territory of... Over here, you know? This is what we have. I have a duplicate game here. So now, Erdomush has to beat Magnus. Magnus just won two games today. They were very classy wins. Will he try to make a draw against the young man? Or will he try to beat him? That is the question. Okay. We have a Spanish, a6, Nf6, Bb7, all normal, b5. This is a mainline Spanish, h3, Nb8. Breyer variation. Trying to go Nd7, Bb7, Re8, etc. Very, very solid system. Now, I think Magnus went for this because this is kind of old man chess. Breyer is not particularly popular anymore, all right? Nd7, and he's like, all right, will the 14-year-old be able to outplay me from the Breyer? How are his Breyer skills? Magnus goes for typical Breyer counterplay. I've been saying Breyer quite a lot, all right? But it's called the Breyer. Breyer. I don't know. Anyway, Bd2, c6, Nf5. He goes for a plan on the queen side. That's apparently inaccurate. It was apparently better to focus on the queen side with moves like a3, but it's probably the first time that he's had to play this structure, Erdomus, against somebody like Magnus. That's the incredible thing, is that you could be 14 years old, you could be 2700 level, but you don't have a lot of experience playing Breyer at the top level. And imagine you have 15 minutes, now 10, to figure out this ancient structure of the Spanish against the best player in the world. Not so easy. And what you're about to witness over the next few moves at some point, Magnus will begin taking over. This one pawn push drops the advantage for white by half a pawn, because black now establishes a very strong block on the c5 square. White needed to fight for that square a little bit faster. And now Magnus establishes the knight on c5 and repositions his pieces, trades, and just dominates this game. Nine minutes to six. Old man chess taking over here for the best player in the world. f6, stabilizing everything. We have a trade of knights. The position is only getting more and more difficult. Five minutes remaining, a4. Magnus is encroaching. Heart rate is escalating here for white. Rd8, every move for black is easy. Kg7 he's going to play. Always a useful move in the endgame. And Erdomus cracks under the pressure. Instead of Qc1, which was a pawn sacrifice, he could have kind of tried to go f3, Kh2, just kind of also pass back the moves. But you do feel like at some point, black is going to launch into your position with Rd3, Qd6, etc. So he gives away the pawn, but it just doesn't work. He goes for c5. Maybe he had ideas of Rb6, Ng4. But Magnus, none of these ideas actually work. There was a moment here, Erdomus could have went Rb4. That was the last chance. But he misses it. Magnus locks it down completely. Infiltrates. King is safe on h6. And just like he always does, the Rook endgame is winning. Five pawns to three. Erdomus, on the 52nd move of the game, resigns. Three positional masterpieces from Magnus Carlsen. Against Alexei Serhana, against Hans Niemann, and against Yaz Khan Erdomus, the 14-year-old superstar. And that sets up a final round matchup with Anish Giri. Lo and behold. 10 points for Magnus out of 12. Last year, the champion Mursin had a 10 out of 13. Magnus only needs a draw with white. I was actually getting annoyed at just how many people in the live chat, and even the commentary was like, oh, you got a perfect opponent to make a draw against. This Anish Giri draw narrative... I've got my own problems with Anish Giri. But the draw thing is... I don't know. It's a little bit played out. But winning with black on demand to ruin Magnus Carlsen's gold medal, that's going to be really difficult. And he goes for the Sicilian, but hey, if you need a draw with white, you're going to get it. And Magnus goes for the Aleppine, and he's just at a level where it doesn't really matter that black knows 15 moves of theory in the Aleppine, which is actually what Anish does. He plays, you know, a flawless opening. This is just, you're not going to get a game. If white at 2800 does not want you to get a game, you will not. And so after 24 moves, the game ended. Magnus Carlsen, 10.5 out of 13, winning five games in a row after losing to Artemiev and shoving the camera. And the crybabies, all right, out there started losing their minds, even though it was a Norwegian camera guy. And I'm pretty sure they made up literally 20 minutes later. Shoves the camera, wins five games in a row. Yo, it's like Djokovic. I have compared Carlsen to Djokovic. Stop getting him angry. He's going to wallop all of you. Meanwhile, the only players that could have maybe caught, or even gotten close by half a point, Wesley Tso versus Artemiev. And this was a game for a little bit, but every single piece gets traded. And after some 20 moves, this is a draw. And I think Artemiev finished the last day with four draws. He did. He drew his last six games and he got nine and a half out of 13. Hans also drew his last round. And so the standings are Magnus wins by an entire point and a four-way tie between Artemiev, Arageisi, Niemann, and Dominguez. And now you kind of see why these guys make draws on the last day, because you let Magnus take the gold. And now something happens here. I don't know who's going to have the gold, silver, or whatever, bronze, but these boys are going to win a lot of the money. And all these nine-pointers are also going to get theirs. Now, on the women's side of things, things were crazy. So the defending World Rapid champion, Hampi Konaru, I mean, she's not really the defending in the sense that she's not defending her title. The title is open. Like, you can win it. If she was defending it, she would be playing it against somebody. But she won last year. This is her last round game. She wins this game. She wins the tournament with nine points. She's playing another Indian superstar, young star, Savi The Street. Hampi plays mad... Uh, I just said mad solidly. She plays super solidly in the opening. But then she gets a little bit, you know, she gets a little bit combative with it in the four nights. And after some 30 moves, she built up a, you know, a nice bind, started taking over the center, playing on all the sides of the board. Rook e8, f6. Look at this. Rook d8. Her young opponent at some point will probably be feeling the pressure a little bit. And I said 30 moves, and here it comes. White starts slipping up. White allows a lot of counterplay here. And the position is looking extremely dangerous. Hampi doesn't have a lot of time, but neither does her opponent. Queen c6 threatens mate. White plays d5, queen d6. Hampi's just up a pawn. Just up a pawn in a bishop endgame with a dominant position. White has some chances to save, but nothing crazy. She just has to play. That's gonna get a, it's gonna get a little iffy here, right? Bishop, bishop c4, not the best move. Now, bishop a6 wins for black. Tough to play that move to go into an opposite colored bishop endgame, but that's what happens. That was the best plan. But okay, we just trade the queens, and now we use all that candidates level experience to outplay the young opponent. You got two passed pawns, but the game is a little crazy. Bishop c3 back. Bishop c1. White's not going away. King c6, b3, but it's looking a little dangerous. You gotta take this, and then you gotta play b2, and that's apparently the way to win. b2 is played, and here you need to go g4. And after pawn takes, you have to go f3. It's a famous position where the pawns make a breakthrough and the h-pawn promotes. So Hampi has a bishop endgame here and the gold medal back-to-back champion in hand. But she goes bishop d4, and this one move allows white to stabilize, and now it's just a draw. And Hampi probably just thought it was a draw to begin with. Probably quite annoyed at herself, and the game ends in a draw. Wouldn't be a World Rapid Championship without some controversy. This time it has nothing to do with who wore what. Hampi Konaru does not get to play for a gold medal playoff. So the way this used to work back in the day is if there was a tie for first in these tournaments, sometimes there was no playoff. They did something called a tiebreak system. In a tiebreak system, various criteria are used like how did your opponent score in the tournament, who had the highest average rating, who had the head-to-head win, right? What they started doing recently, especially in the open, was if there's a four-way tie for first, they play each other for the gold, or the silver, or the bronze. But in the women's section, they just said the top two on tiebreak. I don't know why the rules are inconsistent. I'm sure they had a whopping 40-minute meeting about this and decided. So Hampi Konaru, despite being the defending World Rapid Champion and tied for first, gets bronze. And instead, the bronze medal, the gold medal, and silver medal are played out in a blitz playoff by Aleksandra Goryachkina, who's one of the best women in the world, and Zhu Jiner, who is from China. She's had an absolutely incredible year of chess, and Hampi just gets bronze. Now, I think she does get an equal split of the prize money, but I mean, I'm kind of done, like, aggressively talking about how I don't understand anything FIDA does. It's defeated me. So I will not. We have a three-minute game to crown the champ. We have a Spanish. Goryachkina won a couple of kludge games on the final day. Typical structure. Trading the dark-squared bishop, looking for that nice juicy square on d5. There it is. And the game already is in a scramble. Two minutes per player is not a lot of time, and Zhu Jiner here makes a bad simplification of trading, and then putting the knight on e7, and Goryachkina just sneaks in and is like, are you just giving me this pawn? And the answer is yes, she is. And she's going to hang on to that pawn, and then she's just going to be completely winning. Her king walks to the middle, totally safe against any attack. Just has to convert this position. It's a little bit of a scramble. White actually under some serious pressure here, but bishop c6 was wrong, and Goryachkina forces a queen trade. And this is child's play. Gets the rook to move, promotes, and that's it. She won the first playoff game. She did not lose the second one. Her opponent went b3, played a bird, but Goryachkina just was very solid. Played very well. Clearly the more experienced blitz player managing her nerves very well. Get it to an equal endgame, and this was the end of the game. Just a drawn queen endgame. And Goryachkina is your gold medalist for the Women's World Rapid. Zsuzsina gets silver, and Hampikonaru gets bronze, and doesn't even have a chance to play, because that makes a lot of sense. Magnus Carlsen wins with 10.5 points out of 13. He wins his 19th World Championship. I don't really know what else to say. Run, hide, brace yourself. Still the best player in the world. See you for the World Blitz Championship tomorrow. Get out of here.