My Best Game vs. Magnus Carlsen

This is me, absolutely terrified because I was about to face the strongest chess player in the world, Magnus Carlsen. You see, Magnus had traveled to Stockholm, the city where I live in, to do a simul at the lovable offices and I decided to sign up to the simul. Magnus Carlsen was going to play against 10 people at the same time and at first the idea was that he would have 10 minutes plus some increment per move but he thought that was too easy. So he wanted to make it a really big challenge and have to beat 10 people in 10 minutes with no extra time. I really wanted to make this my best ever game against Magnus because I knew that this time I maybe maybe maybe had a chance. If I could just play a complicated game that would last a long time, maybe I would be able to get him low on time and make it more complicated for him. After some presentations, the game started, I shook hands with Magnus and he played the move 1d4. I was kind of looking around to see what other people were playing but I knew what I was gonna do. I was also smiling because I knew quite a lot of people at the simul and I was also vibing to the music. I played the move d5 but then I realized that Magnus had gone somewhere else. He wasn't by my board and I also realized that I was allowed to make moves without him being by the board which is typically a rule in simuls. So he went c4, I instantly replied e6 and I now realized that I could really try to flag him with this new format where I can just make the move whenever I want to. His time was ticking and I was feeling good. He played knight c3, I went knight f6. I was right now probably talking to Virtual who was sitting to my right and I was looking at his board as well. Knight f6 he took on d5, I took and everyone started laughing because I actually was trying to make another move because I was so used to Magnus coming up and me making a move when he got there that I out of mistake made two moves in a row. So David Howell, Grandmaster David Howell the presenter was saying that Anna Kramling was trying to cheat of course with a joking voice because it was a mistake but everyone was laughing then. He went e3 and I decided to go bishop d6 which is the place where I typically like placing my bishop in this line because it's a little bit more active pointing towards h2. He went bishop d3, I went h6 this is all theory, I'm kicking away the bishop and now the bishop will typically retreat. I realized that I never really sit still, I'm really just moving around the whole time. What am I doing looking back at this? I was looking a little bit at his time because I thought okay maybe I'll have a lot more time. He went bishop h4 and I instantly castled because I know that that's theory and now he has to make a choice will he move the knight to f3 or e2. It was now eight minutes to go on most of the boards. Everyone was laughing here probably because he was already beating someone. He went 92 and now I had to remember what it was that I wanted to do but I realized that I want to put my rook on e8. The rook is really good there because it kind of prevents the f-pawn from moving and it's on a very open file. He castled and I was thinking here okay where do I go? There were many people around us that were looking and that were very interested in the games. I went b5 because I wanted to get a little bit more of well expansion on the queen side to put it that way. I wanted to start pushing those pawns. He went to my board, he went rook c1 and I was quite sure of what I wanted to do I think. I mean I was a little bit worried that my pawn was a little bit weak but I felt like I knew what I was gonna do here. I was also quite mesmerized by just how fast he was moving around to all these different boards. I ended up going knight a6 which yeah I'm not actually sure now if it was such a great move. He instantly went bishop g3 but I just wanted to activate my knight so I wanted to move it again but then I thought okay do I really want to move it again but I decided yes I'm gonna go knight c7 and now my plan is to move it to e6 and then my plan is to move it to g5 and then my plan is to forever have control of e4. That was basically my plan. Was it a good plan? It might have been a slow plan but he took now my bishop I instantly took back and he went h3 just to get his king a little bit of air and that's always a very useful move to do for him. Also so that I can't place any piece on g4. So now I was thinking okay should I go for my plan knight e6 knight g5? Should I go a5? Should I move out my bishop? What should I do? I was also you know always looking at all the other boards because I wanted to see how they were doing. I really wanted to make sure I was not the first person to lose. I decided to go knight e6 and go for that plan that I mentioned and he went knight g3 so now I knew that his knight was on its way to going to f5 which was of course a place I wasn't so happy about the knight going to and at this point Magnus won his first game one checkmate down nine go will we see a shock I was thinking quite a bit here I ended up going knight g5 which was my initial idea and he instantly went knight e2 and I was just kind of wondering how does he know so quickly what he's gonna do it was very impressive I went knight e4 he took it with the bishop and I took back with the pawn I wasn't sure if I should take back with the knight or with the pawn but I decided to take back with the pawn because I thought that my knight could maybe at some point go to d5 here still I was feeling very good he went queen c2 looking a little bit at my pawn on c6 I had to defend it now now Magnus on most boards only had six minutes left so he had many games he had to win in these six minutes he had nine games to win still I went bishop d7 to defend the pawn on c6 there were always people shouting go like Niklas or whoever it was that was playing people were cheering for everyone participating he went queen c5 Magnus is scared on Anna's board he wants the queens off and then David Howell said that Magnus is scared on my board and wants the queens off I went queen d5 because I thought that would be good for me if I am able to take it uh either well probably with the knight actually I thought if queen takes queen I can take with the knight and then get a very active knight so that was my idea he took it and I was quite happy actually when the queens were off the board and I ended up taking with the knight I don't know what why it took me so long to take with the knight it's the obvious choice to be able to bring that knight to the queen side and now he played rook c5 but I was really excited here because I thought do I not soon have a move such as knight b4 so I started out by playing f5 defending my pawn but now my plan was to go knight b4 at some point Magnus was now down to five minutes on most of the boards this is also a very random thought but I'm not sure what happened to the cardigan that I'm wearing in this video I haven't seen it ever since this day he went rook c1 here and now I really thought this move knight b4 has to be strong I just I could feel it in my body that knight b4 was probably a very good move threatening to go knight d3 but also threatening the pawn so I got very excited when I saw the move knight b4 and so I had to calculate a little bit more but then I did it knight b4 was on the board here Magnus said that he actually had missed that move which gave me super confidence he went knight d1 sorry rook d1 and now I was wondering should I take the pawn on a2 or should I not I was worried that if I took the pawn on a2 he could perhaps push d5 so I wasn't sure if it was something I wanted to do that's his idea with rook d1 so I decided instead to go knight d3 and place my knight on a much more active square he went rook c2 and now I thought wait a second if I just go back and forth am I not able to maybe repeat moves because if the rook is on c5 I can always threaten it again so he went back I went back as well he went back and now after knight b4 if he goes back it's going to be a draw but he did not go back instead he went rook d2 with the same idea I now decided to take the pawn on a2 I was a pawn up against Magnus Carlsen and I was feeling very good now I thought black must be better in this position and I was better here it was minus one for me which is a full pawn up so I rolled up my sleeves because I knew it was time to really play the best game of my life he pushed the pawn d5 I went c5 it was now fully serious d6 I was not gonna joke around this game this was my chance to beat Magnus Carlsen he plays the knight on f4 and I saw his ideas of being able to get in with his pieces and now I went g5 which was actually a mistake this I think was maybe the biggest mistake in the game for me because I now gave him a very nice square on f6 and I shouldn't have done that I should probably just have brought up my king or done something more calm but me calm at this point I was not calm at all I was as excited as a girl can be I was better against Magnus Carlsen another game finished people were applauding he played at 95 and I now realized that I was in trouble because that knight on f6 would become so strong I wish I could play something like moving my knight away but I just I just can't because he's threatening knight c7 he's threatening knight f6 and the problem is that if I take that knight he will be threatening both my pawn on c5 and my pawn on f5 so I was faced with a very difficult decision I decided to take the knight because I didn't see another way even though perhaps it wasn't the best choice maybe would have been better to play moves just rook f8 he took back and I went f4 but now once again he had knight h5 and this move was very annoying because he was threatening both my pawn on f4 and knight f6 check so here I realized my mistake with going g5 earlier so I went king f7 my king had to get active but now my position wasn't as good as it was before I was losing my pawn on c5 I was the pawn on f4 was hanging too I was in deep trouble now and I realized that this great position I had a few moves prior had completely changed so I went g4 here my idea was that if he takes I can take that pawn back he took and I took and I was threatening now the knight and the rook but the rook can just move he was now threatening my c5 pawn I didn't know how to defend it David Howell was saying that now everyone has to work as a team and everyone has to play moves when Magnus isn't at this point Magnus was also winning against virtual on the board next so I knew that now Magnus was probably getting really good positions against everyone and unfortunately that was including me too I was not happy with this position at all I went rook d8 and now my idea was to put some pressure on the d6 pawn he took the pawn on c5 and my idea was basically to just take that knight so that after the rook takes I can take the pawn on d6 at this point Magnus won his fourth game out of the 10 so there were only six games to go five games to go rook takes rook takes rook takes I was now a pawn down but the good news was that the pawn well he had a double pawn so I thought maybe there's some chances for me to being able to draw this but of course drawing a worse end game against the strongest chess player in the world is not so easy especially when I'm not incredible at end games so I was definitely feeling nervous now but I also knew this was the best game I've ever played against Magnus so I thought okay Anna let's keep going rook d8 I was trying to defend the pawn he checked me I went with my king up he moved this rook and now now I maybe had some chances I thought because now after taking his rook it would be easier to attack his pawn and maybe I'd be able to win it so I went check king up these were the best moves and now this position is actually a draw I dropped a piece on the floor but someone helped me pick it up but I was really nervous because I knew that this is maybe potentially theoretically a draw but I don't know exactly how to draw it of course it's a lot harder for me because I'm a pawn down but it was a big choice where do I go with the king I wanted to go up and so I did he went g3 check I had to make sure that I didn't get checkmated I went king g4 this is still a draw king g3 I moved my rook threatening his pawn this was my chance to draw Magnus Carlsen it became a checkmate in virtual sport I took the b2 pawn and in this position David Howell says Anna has reached a drawn position rook endgame so I knew that a grandmaster was saying that this was a draw I knew for a fact that this position right now was theoretically a draw but I had no idea what the best way was to draw it and I knew that Magnus was going to do everything in his power to make it as difficult as possible for me and I got really nervous and in this position I actually have to I should keep my pawn on h6 to make it as easy as possible but I moved it up to h5 which even though it's still a draw makes it a little bit harder for me he went rook f4 and I now had to figure out the way to draw this and I didn't know where my rook exactly should be so I went rook b3 he went king h3 I went king g5 he moved the rook down and I went rook b2 and this was now a losing move apparently this was a losing move I had to go rook b1 probably to try to check from behind he went f4 I went king g6 and Magnus probably knew at this point that this was winning for him I still wasn't sure how this was I had no idea I just thought that it wasn't so good that I was now allowing the king to be able to get to h4 because I was afraid that my pawn on h5 would fall and now after king h4 I realized in what a bad position I was because if I move my rook up he's going to well probably be able to go check and then win my pawn at some point he went check I moved my king he went now rook e6 which is a great move trying to go rook e5 to win my pawn and I didn't know now how I should defend this I realized at this point that I was losing every time I kind of clap my my knees it's because I realized I'm in a bad position that's what I realized from this video so I moved my rook he went rook e5 and I knew now the fate that I had in front of me probably so I moved my rook he checked me I went king f6 he took the pawn and I was now two pawns down versus Magnus Carlsen and I realized that I had messed up and that previously drawn endgame was now a lost endgame for me so I was playing out these moves pretty fast because I wanted to at least try to flag him but the truth was that at this point I had I think less time than him or the same time as him so I did not even have a lot more time Magnus won another game now and I was the final game left so all eyes were on me now and here he checkmated me and I lost the game versus Magnus Carlsen I was just very happy though that this was the final game I lasted the longest against Magnus and to be fair I had great chances in this game in one point I was better I was a pawn up and then in the end game in the very end game I was in a drawn end game and actually after the simul Magnus was very kind and showed me how I should play this the next time to actually draw this end game so he actually gave me a bit of a lesson even though this was not filmed so I really appreciated that hopefully I will not mess this up anymore that's how I know that my pawn should have remained on h6 I wouldn't have known that otherwise but this was such a great opportunity and I'm really proud of this game and I think we can all say that this is my best ever game against Magnus Carlsen so I hope you enjoyed this video and let me know if you like this format where I do voiceovers thank you so much Magnus for the game and one day maybe I will be able to get a result that's not a loss against him we will see thank you so much for watching this video and don't forget to subscribe bye