When two speed kings clash against each other ¦ MVL vs Magnus Carlsen

Welcome everyone to the World Blitz Championships 2025. We have Magnus Carlsen versus MVL, a game that we haven't published on our channel yet and we thought this is worth showing all of you. Two world-class players. MVL has been a World Blitz Champion before. Magnus Carlsen the GOAT. This promises to be an amazing encounter. They also played in the Rapid Championships a few days ago and MVL was almost going to beat Magnus. Magnus sneaked out with a drop. You can find that video on our channel. But now this game is super critical because it is in round 18 and this tournament which will lead to top four players qualifying has come to a stage where either Magnus or MVL whoever wins this will qualify. So it's everything to play for. A lot is at stake and you can that's why I see Magnus being super super concentrated. MVL looks calm like he always does. He's Mr. Cool for me. The players are ready. Three minutes plus two seconds increment and handshake there. Off we go. E4 by MVL and Magnus plays the Sicilian because that's what you do when you're in must win. He plays E6. Knight to C3 played and now Magnus goes A6. We have pawn to D4 and Queen takes. Wow! Instead of taking with the Knight he takes with the Queen allowing Black to develop with the tempo here. Magnus a bit surprised. He calms himself down. You know Magnus would be knowing that this is not the best way to play here. But it's new territory. So he's thinking for himself because Knight C6 he knows that MVL would be prepared so he goes B5. Little provocative but he wants to get his Bishop to B7. Bishop to F4 played. Putting the Bishop on this nice diagonal here. The Bishop comes out to B7 and now MVL can he long castle and go all out in this position. He goes for it. Long castle and Magnus brings his Knight out to F6. Black is lagging behind in development. But sometimes you know you need to find the right pieces for your square. Right squares for your pieces. You don't need to just bring them out. So for example if you push E5 there's Knight D5 here. So Bishop comes out to D3 defending the pawn here in the center and Knight to C6 could be an idea. I think he should have kept the D file open. Queen comes back to E3 and Knight to B4. Now putting pressure on D3 and A2. King comes to B1 and Rook to C8 played. The idea is to sacrifice the Rook on C3. This exchange sacrifice is very dangerous and you can see that Magnus already has things flowing for him. He has the Bishop coming out here. The Rook is well placed. The Knight is well positioned. Okay the King is in the center but can White open up the position? A3 played. Now Knight takes is a very interesting move. Knight takes Bishop but Bishop C5 and intermezzo can be played. Magnus is thinking and goes for it. Bishop C5 on the board and now Queen comes back to E2. Knight takes Bishop. Okay taking with the Pawn does make some sense because later you want to push D4 but then if Pawn takes maybe there's B4 coming. You could take with the Rook to double. You can take with the Queen maybe even but nothing looks very appetizing here. He takes with the Rook. I think makes sense. He wants to double down the D file. B4 lovely move by Magnus. Bishop takes and Bishop E5 defending the Knight here. You could see the speed at which MVL played that move. It's amazing. Short castles here by Magnus getting his King to safety. This is why Sicilian is such a fighting opening. Black castled on move 15 but in the meantime has created so many imbalances here. Now the Rook is looking here. The Bishop is here. Queen could jump into A5. The deep pawn which was earlier weak is now no longer that relevant. MVL also low on time. He has 1 minute 20 seconds. He goes Knight to A2 attacking the Bishop on B4 and the Bishop needs to move away but where should the Bishop go is the question. Should it go to A5? Should it go to C5 back? Maybe back to E7. Not a bad idea because then with Bishop E7 it defends the Knight. Magnus is like I don't even need to move the Bishop. Takes on F6. Surprising move. Queen takes. He chops off another pawn but this is not a good move. Bc6. Magnus is playing on his feel but his feel is always correct. More often than not it's correct. Bc6 attacks the Rook. The Rook comes back and now Black in spite of being a pawn down is clearly better. Lovely move by Magnus. Bc5. Now no longer can you take it. I have the two Bishops. The Rook is coming in to attack on B2. The A pawn can run down the board. Lot of issues in this position for MVL and only 50 seconds to solve all of them. He goes pawn to E5. Queen comes to G6 and now Knight to E1. These two Bishops are lined up beautifully and so is the Queen here. Pawn to A4 and Knight to D3. He attacks the Bishop. The Bishop drops back. I think Magnus is enjoying himself here but MVL is such a tricky defender. He goes H4 and Magnus is like a pawn is a pawn. Why not? He takes it and if you try to attack the Queen, I simply go to Qf3. Rg1 played and Queen comes to E4. A lovely move. Takes, takes and Rh3. You can see that Black has recovered the pawn. Rook to C4 by Magnus and now even though the material is equal, the two Bishops dominate completely. There's pressure on the C2 point. Okay, you have to go C3. C3, this is pinned but somehow the Rook defends it. The King is coming up. So, C3 played and if you go A3 now, I can just go B3. Somehow, the Knight defends this pawn. So, Rd8 played. Putting pressure here. Kc2 and these are the positions that get very tricky because while your position is good, you want to try and find a way to break through but it's not so easy. White is putting pressure here. Even if you go and attack this d3 Knight, I can simply go Nc1. So, Magnus, there's a lot to learn here from Magnus. How he breaks through in such positions? I think firstly, you have to defend this. I mean you can be very very calm about it and make a move like Re4 or Rf4 and give up this pawn but g6 is a lovely move and look at this decision. F takes. Why? Because you have the H passer. Nc1 and now Re4 threatening Rx pawn because this is pinned. Very small, very little threats but very strong ones. Re3 and now Magnus like I take, take and boom h5. The H pawn is brilliant. King comes to d2 and how do you make progress? Kg7, bring all the toys to the party. Rb8, putting pressure on b2. King comes up to f3 and g5 played, making space for the bishop. e4 and a check. King comes to e3, another check. The bishops are monstrous and now this Knight is attacking here and here but it's pinned for the time being. I can simply drop the bishop back. Remember, the b2 pawn is also hanging. Magnus goes Bg6. Knight comes to d3, defending b2. King h6 played, just keeping everything together. If you go Ke2, I can take on f4 and then Rb2 comes with a check so I can't go down. 10 seconds for MvL. He goes c4, he has a trump card in the c pawn. Can Magnus keep his cool and calm? Rf8 played, pawn to c5, Be8. Oh, what a maneuver. He's going here, he wants to take this and take here. You can't save it. Beautiful move, stopping the pawn and Bb5. Brilliant chess. Ke2 and he loses a piece and MvL resigns. Look at the relief on Magnus Carlsen's face because with this game, he will most likely qualify to top 4 and this one was really an amazing Sicilian that Magnus played. I loved how he created his chances and he completely outplayed a player of MvL's stature.