Not Interested in Draws || Praggnanandhaa vs Alireza || Norway Chess 2026

Hello everyone and welcome to round 7 of this year's Norway Chess. We have a very nice classical game between Pregnananda and Alireza Firuzja. Both of them are coming off of a loss. Pregnananda, he actually lost two classical games in a row to Gukesh and Wesley So. And Alireza coming off of his loss to Magnus Carlsen. Magnus was able to retaliate for his loss against Alireza in the first half of the tournament. And of course both of them are ready to bounce back and try and still win this thing. And we're gonna discuss the standings. We're gonna see what happened in the other games as well. But now let's focus on the classical section. So Pregnananda with white opens with pawn to e4. We have pawn to e5. Sorry about that. And knight to f3. We have knight to c6 and bishop to c4. So the Italian game is on the board. And who knows where this is going. Maybe we have some bishop to c5 action. But no. Knight to f6. The two knights' defense. Followed by not knight g5 but rather d3. The modern bishop's opening. And we had this maybe a couple of times this week alone. And here we basically go into 10 moves or sometimes even 15 moves of theory. But interestingly here we exit theory almost right away. We have bishop to c5 going for the and now pawn to a3. And this move is almost non-existent. Like there are thousands and thousands of big games in the database with this exact same position. And you will mostly see c3. You will see castles. You will see knight to c3. You will see bishop to g5. Knight b to d2. Many other moves as well. But pawn to a3 is extremely rare. And Alereza follows it up with and even a rarer continuation. And that is pawn to a6. Now at the top level this is almost unheard of. But it has been played by the winner of the Candidates Tournament. And several times actually. Zhabokir Sindarov played this pawn to a3 move. And if he played it, you know, we can obviously all learn from it. So pawn to a3. We have pawn to a6. Bishop to e3. And pawn to d6. Not worried about bishop captures on c5. Because if you go for this, yes, you've messed up black's pawn structure. But you have very nice control over the d4 square. And that's not the way white wants to play usually. So knight b to d2. We have castles king side. And queen to e2. And this knight b to d2 was a new move. Sorry about that. And it is now, or rather it was as of move 8 that we had a completely new game. So rook to e8. We have bishop back to a2. And bishop to e6. Offering a trade of And now we have a trade of all the bishops. We have bishop captures, rook captures. You could maybe consider capturing with the f-pawn to improve your central presence. But as the rook already moved from f8, you might as well capture with the rook. We have bishop captures on c5. D captures and castles king side. And Prague doesn't really have all that much here, other than the initial surprise Alireza had to face when he saw that pawn to a3 move. So as expected, Prague is a little bit up on time. An hour and 24 minutes versus an hour and 9 minutes. We have pawn to h6, pawn to a4, and now pawn to a5. So the knight has options. The knight can come to b4 to d4. We have knight to c4 and queen to d7. We have pawn to g3 and pawn to b6. And it's, again, hard to say if Black should have any problems here. But he does have some issues, like knight e3 coming to d5 at some point, or just putting a knight to e3, this knight to h4, both of them controlling the f5 square. So basically the usual stuff you have in the Gioco-Pianissimo games. We have king to g2, rook to d8, and pawn to b3. So both of them playing fairly quickly. Prague's a little bit up on time, some 15 minutes. Rook to e7, clearing the e6 square for the queen, and rook a to e1. We have queen to e6, and now knight to h4. Still, you could just play g6 and be done with it, but Alireza says, no, we're not wasting a move for that. He goes knight to d4, attacks Prague's queen. We have queen to d1 and rook e to d7. Now Alireza doubles up on the d file, and it looks like a nice idea, as the queen is still on d1. So knight to e3, both knights now have access to f5, and again, you could consider a move like pawn to g6, but no. Alireza says, I don't care, he just goes after that queen side, and he wants to play pawn to b5. So knight to f3, offering a trade of knights, and the immediate pawn to b5. So here we have knight to d2, queen to e7, and queen to a1, saying that, okay, now I'm actually threatening to win a pawn, I'm just going to capture and then gobble up the a5 pawn, and now Alireza seemingly unprovoked plays pawn to g6. Says, you can have the pawn, I'm going to have the counterplay. So Pragnananda has to figure out if capturing and then capturing on a5 is okay, because the knight is already putting pressure on c2, you know that rook to a7 will come, then rook a2, then you will, yeah, I mean, for the price of one pawn, maybe it's allowing black a bit too much. But he does play it. The engine doesn't say it's a mistake or anything, the engine prefers some other moves, like queen to c1, or maybe even just pawn to h3. But okay, a captures on b5, we have c captures, and queen captures on a5. Prag says, all right, let's see it, let's see your compensation. So Alireza goes rook to a7, attacks the queen, we have queen to c3, and rook to a2, putting pressure on c2. For the moment, it's defended by the queen and the knight, so we don't have to worry that much, but the queen might come under attack once b4 is played. So knight to f3, we have pawn to b4, queen to c4, and Alireza trades on f3, we have king captures on f3. And I really like this position, I will probably use it as a thumbnail, as the king on f3 looks really bold, and, you know, just leading the army. We have rook to d4, attacking the queen, and now queen to b5, followed by queen to a7. And looking at this position, you might feel like, well, okay, I mean, we certainly control all of the useful squares. Rook a5, this is, we're either trapping the white queen, or, you know, some weird perpetual will happen after queen c6, and then we just repeat going after the queen. And if you're thinking that, you're actually right, because here we have king to g2, rook back to d8, and now pawn to f4, Prague says, I've calculated everything, and you have nothing. And Alireza has to go for it, he has to go for e-captures on f4, but he went for rook to a5 right away. And it seems like a great move, but there are some problems here, because you have to play e-captures on f4 first. I'm going to show it to you, and then I'm going to show you why the way it was played in the game doesn't really work, because if Alireza captures on f4 right away, then after rook captures, you have this knight h5. You go after the rook, and then once the rook moves, now you play rook a5. Only square for the queen is c6. You could go for queen to c4, but then rook to d4. So queen to c6, and now rook a6, and that will be a repetition of moves. There's no other way to play it. Again, here you go rook a5, and that's it. Like I said, queen c4 will run into rook to d4. So that's the way to do it. But here, rook to a5 was played, and now it's a little bit different, because now we have queen to c6, and now rook to a6, followed by a move that would not be possible if the knight was not on f6. We have rook to a1. And this is now a problem, and there's no good way to handle this problem. Trading like this, rook captures would be just terrible, and just game winning for white. For example, e-captures, g-captures, and this is a really, really terrible position for black. It's objectively winning for white. Pretty much whatever you play will be winning for white. But after rook captures on a1, now you have queen captures on f6 with a tempo on the rook. The rook on b8 is undefended, so rook to f8. And now Prague declines the trade, just plays rook to f2. We have e-captures on f4, and queen captures on f4, attacking the h6-pawn as well. And here, Alerez is already down to 15 seconds on the clock. He needs to make two more moves to reach time control to be eligible for that 10 seconds increment. And he played pawn to h5, which makes sense. The pawn was attacked, but the way to go here would actually be pawn to f5. I mean, with so little time on the clock, it's, I would say, impossible to make this move, because it really makes no sense, and you open up your king severely. But the point is, let's say you play pawn to e5, or captures, it doesn't really matter. Then he has queen b7 check, and then after, let's say, king h3, you go king h7 first, and now black is just winning. For example, queen to c4, you shouldn't rush with pawn to g5, but still queen c4, and now you're going to go queen to c8, and this is a big, big trouble for white. For example, king to g2, you're just going to go rook to e1, and that's a terrible position for white. Or, after pawn to f5, you could also just capture on h6, that's also perfectly fine. But now, queen g7, and you're fighting. I mean, white has to play some perfect moves in order just to keep the game going, like queen g5, you're going to capture on e4, rook captures on f8, king captures, and then even queen captures on c5, queen e7, and you are okay here. You're surviving, and no worries there. I mean, you are up an exchange after all. But after queen captures on f4, h5 was played by Alireza, and now we have knight to d5, now with access to f6, this is becoming a very dangerous territory, and now maybe you can survive with rook a6, but he played pawn to f5, and now there is no return. His king is just too open, and there's just no good way to defend. Queen g5 is the best move. Pragnananda even plays queen to e5, which sort of allows Alireza to get back into the game, but again, playing only perfect moves will save you the game maybe. Queen to g7, queen to e6 with check, we have queen to f7 and queen to d6. Of course, Prague will not trade, his position is far superior with the black king wide open like this. Queen g7, we have e captures on f5, g captures, and now rook to e2, getting ready to bring the rook into the game. Also, knight checks are possible, so very, very hard to even consider a move. Pawn to f4 was played, but this is now dead lost. Pragnananda simply plays knight captures on f4, we have queen to b7 with check, rook to e4, and now rook to e6, going after the white queen, but queen captures on c5. We have rook to c8, or you could go for rook to e8, but you cannot go for rook to e8, as that is covered by the rook, so rook to c8 was played, attacking the queen, and now queen to f5. Rook captures on c2, Prague even allows this, we have king to h3, and now we have queen to f7, offering a queen trade, but I'm pretty sure you see it now, it's completely winning for white, but there is only one way to do it, and maybe, just maybe, you're looking at it from the wrong angle, so feel free to pause the video and win the game for Pragnananda while I give you a couple of seconds. And I know what you're gonna say, whenever you're solving a chess puzzle, it's never the check, it never starts with check. Well, this one actually starts with check, Prague simply played queen g5, and that is the only winning move, it comes with check, and the problem is, you cannot go to the 7th rank, rook e7 would just win the queen, and if you go to h8, then you go queen d8, check, and again, if the king goes down the board, rook e7 wins the queen, so you're gonna have to play queen to g8, and then rook to e8 again wins the queen. Alireza's king is just too open, he played king to f8, and now Pragnananda again, extremely precise, queen to d8 with check, and he was in this position, unmoved, 51, that Alireza Piruše resigned the game, as there is nothing more to be done here. So Prague, after two losses in classical, wins a classical game, and Alireza now two classical losses in a row to Magnus Carlsen and Pragnananda, you know, like I said, it's no shame losing to Magnus and Pragnananda, but here everyone is a super grandmaster and no one likes to lose two games in a row, but yeah, it will happen. The problem is, of course, you can move the queen and lose it, or you move the king and then rook e7 just wins the queen, and that's pretty much it. So yeah, Pragnananda takes this one and shakes the standings a bit more, because I will spoil the results a little bit, and I will show you the standings, even though I might show more games from this round, so if you're not interested in that, stop watching right now, but here are the standings. It is Wesley leading the tournament with 12.5 points, followed by the former leader Alireza with 10 points, Magnus and Vincent and Pragnananda now tied with 9 points, and in last place, world classical champion Gukesh Damaraju. Gukesh defeated Wesley So albeit in Armageddon today, so that was also a very nice game, and Magnus and Vincent drew their classical game, and then Vincent had the white pieces in Armageddon, he couldn't beat Magnus, offered a draw, and Magnus just accepted, because, well, that's how you win Armageddons, with black, so Magnus won that match. And yeah, it could be interesting, anyone like Magnus, Vincent, Pragnananda, if they win their next classical game, could easily catch up to Wesley So, but with 12.5 points, it's important that he's 3.5 away from the pack, like, okay, 2.5 from Alireza, but from the other guys, 3.5, so that means that even if they win a classical game, they will still not catch up to Wesley So, so they need to push harder, and this is already round 7, we'll see, we'll see how it goes. But yeah, very impressive stuff by Prague, I mean, and that's, I mean, the gioco pianissimo, you can play anything but A3, a move that no one plays, and then Dzauhir Sindarov, the winner of the candidates, somehow makes it work, and then Prague picks it up. You have to be ready for everything, but it's impossible to be ready for everything. You can be prepared for most of it, and that's why you should definitely download Lotus Chess, first link in the description below, it will teach you how to prepare and avoid such lines, but yeah, I mean, no one can be ready for everything, but you can make your life a little bit easier. So yeah, really hope you guys enjoyed it, I would like to thank Piano724, Henry Ton, Harald Sispol, Jurgen Langli, and Adam Schindler for a contribution to my channel, thank you a lot, really appreciate it. As usual, you can check two of my previous videos here, thank you for watching, and I will see you soon, continuing to check up on your wonderful suggestions, and whatever else happens in the chess world. Thank you all, I will see you soon, and have an excellent rest of your day.