The Most Stunning Chess Game Played Today

It's unreal scenes. You've got these absolute clowns over on YouTube saying Nepo's washed, he's passed it, his rating is plummeting and then he goes and does this. Fights back today against Arjan Eragaisi. What a phenomenal game it was. We've got to dive in, wait till the final, beautiful combination, a true brilliancy. There's one to come already in the opening. It's prawn to see ships from Arjan. The Karakhan defence. This is the Uzbek Cup being played in Uzbekistan. Well done if you deduced that. Now Pawn pushing on and if you take the Pawn, you're not holding on to it. Black will win that one back. So we don't see it taken. Nepo develops. Classical time control of course. Time's on the left there. Queen's in the game, kicked out. That's why you don't normally bring the Queen out too early, but she finds a home here. White's got more space, bit of pressure already and so sits better. How to fight back, build a banana hammock. Very sensible. We get this pony joining the game here and now this is a risky move. Pawn d4 and it's one of the top engine moves, don't get me wrong, but the difference is Arjan's done his homework, sat there with a computer deep into the night doing his prep. But when you play such moves so early in the opening, you give squares, you allow counter attacks. This is what Nepo does with the first brilliancy of this game. If you capture that noble steed, it's not actually Queen takes, but Bishop takes that's most precise. The King's only got one square and this is how you shut the trap. You've got the beautiful diagonal controlled by the Queen. King's boxed in by all its own pieces. That's the game, excuse me. So what was played? The Bishop developing here stops the Queen from sliding through with this one. In response, the Knight moves back. That is three times attacked now. You've got to do something. Bishop h6 is the response. Arjan's playing all the top moves, including this one. Bishop takes on c2. Now this is some wild stuff. He's obviously prepped this, but at the end of the day, you're nabbing pawns when your pieces aren't yet developed. How's this Knight getting in the game? How's the King getting castled? Now we see this one castled from white and although these are the top engine moves, very difficult to play from the black side. The Knight now has a square, could go to c3, goes to f4. Also a good move. e6 is now best, but Arjan goes wrong and this is the problem when you're trying to just recall these engine lines and it's not that intuitive. This was played in the game. It allows pawn e6 as a very powerful move. Black then has to go f5. Not played though. Instead Nepo takes. Queen recapturing. Hitting a Bishop here, but Bishop takes on d3 is played. Restoring the material and if you try and take here as an in-betweener, remove the defender of the Bishop, then win a piece. Well, white responds with their own in-betweener. Check. Lovely little swish and zoog. And after the King moves, Queen takes. Materials level, but look at that black King. Not having fun. This is a great pawn. White's better. So we didn't see takes. We saw this move. Now Knight takes. Rook d8 is played. Top move once more. The piece is going to drop. The Rook defends. This is a pin of course, but soon broken. Bishop takes was played. Why would you help white develop? Well, black also wants to develop. This is the problem for Argent. He does develop with the Knight here on the edge of the board, but headed to the centre. Queen f3 is an excellent move. Precise. Because you cover this Rook here and therefore threaten to move the Knight somewhere and you hit a pawn. And this is why you can't go b6. Knight e1 or a Knight move of some kind is a huge threat. The Queen would have to move. You take with check. The King can't castle. The Queen heads to c6 because you pushed b6. Not fun. So castles is best, but it allows this. Nepo's gobbled a pawn and it's a clean pawn. He's just one to the good. I don't know what Argent found when he was home cooking this up and he thought the position was playable for black. It's pretty unpleasant. White's a pawn to the good. Now Nepo's going for the Queen exchange and look at this. It's like that annoying friend in the playground that just won't leave you alone. Please play with me. No, I don't want to. Please play with me. No, I don't want to. Please. No. It gets very, very demoralising after a while. So this lady gives up. A different move is played. The pawn's pushed on. Looking to wreck the position here. Then jump with knight e5 if you were to take with the rook and the Queen had taken here. No longer on the square. Therefore f6. Very stinky upside down bathtub. This is not an ideal pawn structure and Nepo starts to pounce. Playing very precisely this game we must say he covers a2 now. Opens up access to d5 and look at this. d7. What a rook that is. Seventh heaven stuff. Hard to say when you're feeling kind of blocked up. I've got the allergy stuff going on. Maybe a touch of a cold. I'm not sure. That's three kids for you. Bringing all sorts home. Queen e5's now played. Sneaky checkmate in one threatened. Arjan looks all over the room to try and bamboozle Nepo. Never look them dead in the eye if you're threatening mate in one. They're more likely to miss it. Nepo spots it. Builds that lift for the King. Not the most precise but it does the job. He's still much better here. The knight's kicked forward. Could have gone backwards too. But this is the game. Queen moves check. King g2 and there's two pieces pressuring the e7 pawn. So you've got to do something. If you play rook e8 it gets terribly passive. Playable but passive and that's why rook c8 is selected. You defend the pawn via the pin of the knight here to the queen. Best move now is not a3 but it's not bad. We see King f8 to add some protection to the pawn. Rook d3 now. You're about to see the point. A little bit of repetition. Some tickle. Both players giggling but Nepo puts a stop to it. Slides the rook to f3 setting up some very nasty exchange sacrifices. Remember once that knight disappears not only do we have a structure that only a mother could love but then e7 is ready to collapse either with knight or with queen and it's why after Queen d2. Not the most precise by the way. Not by a long shot. Queen d1 was a lot better apparently. Didn't look deeply into why. Queen c5 is now really powerful because it hits the pawn twice and it hits this a5 pawn which threatens then get the queens off and you'd be another pawn ahead. Sometimes as well from c5 it supports the attack. So best move but not played. Nepo pushes the pawn before you can say there he is eating some nuts. We do miss him. Legendary player. Hope to see him back at the board soon. Takes his played. Pawn recaptures. Queen d1 and it sets up, excuse me, choking on my own bs. An absolutely gargantuan attack. The rook joining in. Picture checkmate with the queen on h1. This is the big battle now. Nepo is clearly better attacking the black king. Outside passer but black's got the big counter play. Now queen a4 is actually best. Apparently roughly level once you attack the knight. I mean I don't know. Looks crazy scary for black with the outside passer but that wasn't played. The more human rook a8. You know played with less than a minute on the clock now. This is the thing here. You've got to go for the tricks. Nepo could take on f5. Technically best but it is very complicated after rook a1. He doesn't do it. He goes for the second best bet by taking on e7 there. Now if you take you're dead. Queen's in. You're getting killed. King here. What's the finish? Something like this. Pawn could be running through. If you try and set up the mating attack you get mated on the back rank. Many similar lines. Less backup. You can't touch that knight and that's why knight d4. Now you double whammy the rook on f3. Set up the tricks and it really is a tricky position. You know let's take that step back. If you're playing white here what are you going for? Your rook's under fire. How natural does rook f4 look? You move it out the way. You hit the knight. That's a threat. Very good. Knight d5 coming soon. Then you converge on f6. Pawn can push. Queen can invade. Looks amazing but this is a losing move. You're about to get mated in 8. This is why elite level chess is so hard right? You could play an amazing game and still lose. Now mate in 7 because you just can't stop this. You know you have to start going some kamikaze stuff but none of it works. Here you get mated. Sample line. So don't go rook f4. The winning move is rook takes on f6 and it gets the brilliancy. Audience going nuts. What a shot by Nepo. Takes from the king. Knight d5 check is the point and king g7 should be played. Far and away the best defensive try. Although this looks the best attacking move it's actually not. This is. It's a bit subtle but when the king moves you can now check from f4 is the point and then from here and then run the pawn and it's very good. You don't have these same lines if you go from e7 and check from g5. All a bit subtle. So after the check here you should go king h8 then there's queen e5. You know here we see a big difference between checking from c7 and not e7. King h7 played. Game goes on here but black's just about surviving. White's still better. Black's got to prove it. But don't get mated yourself. Let's run back. King g7 not played. Arjun gobbles up the pawn and he's saying hey if I'm going to die I want to die with a full tummy. This is now played and basically the king is flushed out like poop from the river Seine in readiness for the recent Olympics. True story. Way too much feces in the water there. Had to bring in the big machinery. Get rid of that stuff. Pump it out. This is where we saw resignation because there's a double threat. To take on g6 with check and then wherever the king goes land a mate using knight and queen. Deadly attacking combo. And let's say you go queen d3. Fight against that. Maybe look for some counter checks or something if this knight ever moved. Now there's a check here and when the king goes you lose an entire rook. It doesn't work out and of course you couldn't play rook a6 to defend. Queen takes or maybe there's something even more brutal. Dunno. So this is resigns. Move 51. Great bounce back by Nepo. I'll be honest I'm just licking my lips at the time he sits down at the board in this tournament to play Hans Niemann. It'll probably be a draw or something but it'll be fun to see whether they shake hands. Hope you enjoyed this one. Do have a look at the video on screen if you want to see some more epic chess and thanks for watching. Cheers.