SUBLIME Sublime Play Magnus Carlsen vs Hans Niemann World Rapid 2025

We have Grandmaster Hans Niemann sporting his endgame.ai shirt here. He is playing with the black pieces against the world number one Magnus Carlsen. This is the 11th round of the World Rapid Championships 2025. What a clash this promises to be. Hans Niemann first one to arrive at the game and there we have it Magnus Carlsen and Hans Niemann. Well they shake hands but you can see Magnus no eye contact. He is here for a fight in order for him to win this tournament. This one is a big game because Magnus has already been on some streak after losing to Artemiev. He's come back, he scored wins and now needs to beat Hans Niemann in order to join the leaders at the top and Magnus with the white pieces will surely try to press here but Hans Niemann is also very very determined here. You can look at his face there, a handshake and this dear friends is the Chessbase 26 recap of the day. If you want to prepare seriously in chess then think about getting your copy of Chessbase 26. Pawn to e4 by Magnus, e5 by Hans Niemann, knight to f3, knight c6 and Magnus gets up. Well he takes off his jacket like I want to fight now and Hans Niemann there takes a sip of water. Magnus gets back in his chair. He plays his bishop to c4. We have the Italian on the board. Hans goes knight to f6 attacking the pawn on e4. Every top player plays this opening so Hans would also be very well prepared here and Magnus now castles. I think black can also castle here. Play d6, a6, many options he castles. The entire Italian opening lies in this one small difference that black knight is already on c6 while white hasn't yet developed his knight on c3. So he can put the pawn on c3 and try for d4. Pawn comes up to d6 and now Magnus must take care of his bishop. He plays pawn to c3 so that his bishop gets a square back here on c2. Pawn to a5 played gaining a bit of space on the queen side also stopping the move b4 and Magnus plays rook e1. Once you defend the pawn on e4, you are already planning to play pawn to d4 and now bishop a7 is getting ready for this d4 move. He first plays his knight to d2. Knight to e7 maneuvering his knight to g6. All this very very standard stuff in the Italian. Knight comes back to f1. Hans Niemann has already played this position with the black pieces against Wesley So recently, the US championships and with the white pieces against Dominguez. Both the games went knight to g3 in this position or first maybe bishop b3 right. He plays his bishop back to b3 and now Hans plays his pawn to c6. Knight g3 looks like a very normal way to play here but d4 played here by Magnus and he is already creating some ideas in the center. He's asking Hans do you want to take here. Hans says no I'm going d5 and look at the tension in the center. If you take on e5, he'll take on e4. If you take on d5, he may even consider pushing the pawn forward. Bishop g5 a very strong move pinning the knight and now the best move is to play pawn to h6 and Hans goes for the h-pawn. Stops for a bit. It's a tough move. You are giving up a pawn but it's the best move. He finds it pawn to h6. Great play by both these players and Magnus will now take here on f6 and then he can think about taking on d5. He takes on f6. Queen takes f6 and now ed5 is what Magnus can play here. Yes, he takes it. If cd, he wants to. This is not a good idea because de5 and you lose a pawn. So exd4 is the correct move. Hans plays it in the center. Things are liquidating. Magnus can take with the knight. He can take with the pawn. Both moves are possible but he pauses a bit and he takes with the pawn. A good move and now Hans should just take here and after bishop takes d5, just play Rd8 to put pressure on the d4 pawn and that would be a very very good position for black but Hans kind of settles down, adjusts himself in the chair. He's planning to play something else. He's taking some time and he goes knight f4. He's trying to sacrifice something here. There's a lot of pressure on these pawns but Magnus is like thank you so much for the free pawn Hans. Pawn takes pawn. But I think Hans is not wrong in trying to feel that there is compensation. His queen is well placed. His bishop is putting pressure here. The other bishop is here but he's playing against Magnus Carlsen and Magnus is ruthless. You make one mistake against him and he's all over you. Bishop to e6. Lovely move because if bishop takes e6, he can take back with the knight to attack this pawn. You can also take with the f-pawn opening up the rook so Magnus may not want to take there. He goes knight to e4. The point is if you try to checkmate in one, I have knight h4 attacking the queen and defending this so you can't go to g6. Queen d8, the best move is found by Hans. He plays it and what is Magnus planning to do? He goes rook c1 attacking the pawn on c6. Maybe queen takes and queen d5 makes a lot of sense. He first takes on b3. I think taking with the queen makes sense here. You can see Magnus being so careful here. He doesn't want this small advantage to slip. He takes queen takes b3 and Hans goes rook b8. He's attacking the queen. He's putting pressure on b2 and yes the d4 pawn is also under pressure. Queen e3 played attacking the knight. Now the knight has to go back to attack the d4 pawn. There's no time to take this pawn on b2. He goes back knight e6 and now b2 is hanging. d4 is also attacked thrice. He goes b3 and Hans can simply take if rook d1 here. For example, there's rook b4 or even c5 but he doesn't play it. He plays a4. He doesn't take this pawn. He should have. He should have and Magnus now can defend the d4 pawn by playing rook to c4. He can also take the pawn on c6 and he chops it off. He takes on c6. He takes the pawn and now he's two pawns up. Hans first takes the pawn on d4. Rook d6 played attacking the queen also the knight. You have to take on f3. Takes takes and one can literally feel it that Hans is super close to getting an equal position because after pawn takes pawn takes the b3 pawn would be weak but Magnus is like okay I'll play rook d1. I have knight here. I have some threats. I have some threats of rook takes h6 as well. Pawn takes pawn. Pawn takes back on b3 and that's the problem. It's not just this extra pawn. It's also certain threats on the king side which are keeping black busy here. Knight to c3. He goes rook d7. It's an excellent move keeping pressure on f7 a7. Knight could jump into d6 at the right moment. He goes bishop b8 taking into control the h2 square. So if the knight moves there could be rook e1 even leading to a checkmate. Notice how the queen is keeping an eye here. Magnus classy move g3 just blunting this diagonal making a square for the king to come up to g2. Queen comes to e5 attacking the knight on e4. Magnus can now defend the knight. He plays knight d6. Okay this is attacking the knight and the pawn. I think taking the knight makes complete sense here and Hans Niemann has two minutes on the clock. Magnus has three minutes 18 seconds. Magnus is nurturing this extra pawn carefully here. He knows that Hans Niemann's pieces are sort of uncoordinated. Rook takes on d6 and now should you trade the queens? Maybe queen e4 makes a lot of sense to trade queens and go into a double rook endgame. But Hans wants to keep the rooks. He plays rook b8. He wants to keep the queens and tries to put pressure here. Magnus calmly plays king g2. He's so good at making these moves that are generally useful. And now if you try to attack the b3 pawn, I can always defend it with rook d3. He goes rook b4 and rook to d8. Back rank issues. If you take on d8, take here and the f7 pawn is hanging. So he goes queen e4 offering a trade of queens. Now Magnus can trade rooks and the queens. He can go into a single rook endgame. Take, take on f8. King takes and somehow you have the b extra pawn. He goes king f3 attacks the rook on e4. The rook goes back to b4 putting pressure here on the b3 pawn. And now Magnus takes on f8. King takes and a beautiful move coming back. And he's understood that he can go king e2, king d2, king c3. Push the rook and start pushing. Also his rook is cutting off the black king. So king e7 played. King e3 on the board. And now f5 by Hans. King d2. He goes back rook b8. And Magnus Carlsen now just trying to see if king c3 there's a check. He just wants to make progress in the most natural way. Check to the king. Where does the king go? Do you move ahead? He goes backwards. Rook b8 stopping the pawn push. Rook d4 one step ahead threatening b4. Maybe black wants to come up with the king. He goes king e6, pawn to b4. If king e5 you have king c3. And a check is met with a block. So he goes g5. And now Magnus comes ahead with his king. What a maestro he is in the endgame. And you know what? Hans Niemann really played a great game. He played excellent chess. But somehow Magnus did not give him even a single opportunity here. Even now h4 just classy move. If you take, I take with the rook. Attack the h5 pawn. If you push, I go to f4. He pushes. Now rook to f4. He goes king c4. Now Magnus knows. And look at Hans' time. 6 seconds. King e5. He plays his rook to f4. Keeping an eye on the f5 pawn. Check. King goes to b5. There's nothing much you can do. He jumps in with his rook to c3. And now Magnus can go king b6. Push b5 step by step. Keep moving ahead. King b6. And he goes rook to c1. Pawn push. Rook e1. But what's your plan Hans? You can't even go rook e4. You don't even have the time to trade the rooks. So king c7 by Magnus. Again planning to push the pawn forward. Rook check. King here. And he pushes the pawn forward. Rook b2 waiting. You can improve king c7, b7. Plays his king. Rook to c2. Just perfect how the weakness is protected. Weakness is attacked. And the b pawn is rushing through b7. And now the most perfect form of Lucina here. Because you can go king c7. King b6 when you give a check. King c6. King b5. And then eventually block with the rook here. Check. King c6. And now your idea is rook c4. Rook c5. Rook b5. Otherwise if you give a check, I go king b5. Another check. I just block with the on b4. And Hans Niemann resigns. Magnus Carlsen wins. What a game this was by Magnus. Yeah really a classy one. And I must say this entire play by Hans to give up a pawn was perhaps could have worked against any player on the planet except Magnus Carlsen. And truly an insane and incredible positional game by the maestro. The all-new chessbase 26 is the ultimate way of managing your chess databases and becoming a better chess player. 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