An amazingly instructive Magnus Carlsen endgame Xu Xiangyu vs Carlsen

Welcome everyone to the game between Magnus Carlsen and Zhu Ziyang Yu. Now on our channel, we already have a game between these two in the Blitz section. Where Zhu Ziyang Yu beat Magnus. But this is their rapid game of 15 plus 10. And you can see that Magnus is not too thrilled about starting the clock. He always wants his opponent to arrive. The arbiter starts it. And Zhu Ziyang Yu arrives in 10 seconds there. So not too late. He is one of the strong Chinese grandmasters. If I'm not mistaken, he did come with Wei Yi to the World Cup as a second. Pawn to d4 played by Zhu Ziyang Yu. And Magnus now. Let's see what he plays. Exciting. Magnus tapping his fingers on his elbow. And goes knight to f6. Pawn to c4. For Magnus in such games, he must try to play for wins. And he knows that his opponents who are around 2600 rated are quite strong. You know, quite solid. So how to create something? He plays g6. Knight comes out to c3. And bishop g7. The King's Indian setup. Pawn to d6. And Zhu Ziyang Yu goes for bishop e2. Now, black castles. White plays the bishop to e3. You can see how the knight on g1 isn't developed yet. And pawn to g4. Whoa! Aggressive intentions here. This pawn is being attacked by the knight and the bishop. But protected by the queen and bishop. We have a4 played by Magnus. You can't take this pawn because the pawn on e4 is hanging. But you can push the knight away. g5 is possible. Let's see if Zhu Ziyang Yu plays it. He does it. Pawn to g5. Knight d7. And now, if you take this pawn, then c5 is an excellent move. Takes queen a5 check with the bishop here. My goodness! So, queen d2. Zhu Ziyang Yu is like, Well, I'm not going for that pawn, Magnus. Pawn to c5 by Magnus. Striking in the center. Okay. Logically, push d5. But he goes knight to f3. And Magnus can take the pawn on d4. But he instead goes queen a5. Activating the queen on this diagonal. The bishop is here. The game is getting exciting now. Whoa! Long castles played. Wow! This is something. Now, a3. Can we weaken the queen side? First, knight joins in. Do you think Zhu Ziyang Yu has taken too much of risk? Ah! That's his point. To trade queens. Knight d5. And attacking the e7 pawn. Although, it's defended for the time being. Magnus goes e6. And first, the queens are traded. Rook takes. And now, the knight has to come back to c3. Where else can it go? I mean, knight c7. But it looks like it might get trapped. So, knight c3. He comes back. Pawn takes pawn. Knight takes. Bishop takes. Hey, but isn't the pawn on g5 hanging? Magnus takes. Rook takes. But d6 is hanging. And he takes on g5. Wow! What a rook swing. But now, rook takes d6. Of course. Although, rook g2 is coming in. Ah! That's some kind of a problem. But you know, there's knight takes a4. So many things are in the air right now. It will be interesting to see what Zhu Ziyang Yu does. And he has 13 minutes on the clock. He's playing so fast. Meanwhile, Magnus gets up and looks at other games. To see what's happening. Well, these are the complex endgame. He goes king d2. Maybe after rook g2, he would like to play king e3. Look at this. If rook g2, king e1 defending here is better for white. So, knight to c5. Bad move by Magnus. The rook is getting trapped. h4. Rook doesn't have many squares. Rook has to go to g2. And now king e1 with the idea of bishop f3. The rook is trapped. Oh my goodness. Is Magnus going to lose this game? h4 coming in. If rook e5, there is f4. Wow! Zhu Ziyang Yu has all the time in the world. He just needs to believe that Magnus has blundered. And then he could actually beat him. Ah! He takes on d6. And lets Magnus off the hook. And look at Magnus' expression there. He is shaking his head. He was like wow! I dodged a bullet there. Definitely. I mean Magnus doesn't usually blunder like this. But chess is tough. Even for the best. You are in a position. You have 20 moves. One of them is right. Rest are blunders. You can blunder. f5. Now, the rook is activated along the f-file. He takes on f5. And now, rook gf5. I think makes sense. To attack the f2 pawn. Which is a massive weakness. Pawn to f3. Defending it. The position is now even. It's a very complex endgame. And Magnus first develops his bishop. Very well done. The bishop is coming to c6. Where it would put even more pressure on the f3 pawn. And Zhu Xiangyu has to figure what way to play. Because his f3 pawn is a bit weak. His h2 pawn is isolated. Knight e4. He's going in for the trades. Bishop c6. Takes the knight. Rook takes. Now, actually you can win the pawn on e6. And Magnus goes and wins the pawn on f3. Usually, if you go into rook endgames. They are pretty drawish in nature. Now, double rooks. Four pawns each. This should be a draw. But, let's see how Magnus plays this. c4 pawn is a bit weak. First question. You know, one of the most important things in endgames is to ask questions to your opponent. And Zhu Xiangyu doesn't answer that question. He poses Magnus with a new question. Rook takes c4. Taken by Magnus. And Zhu Xiangyu wants to take here. So, it looks like one pawn got traded. But, now what Magnus has done is he's kind of put his eyes on the h2 weakness. And he's saying that I'm going after it. Zhu Xiangyu. And now, if you go after this pawn, rook h3. You have to worry a bit about your king. Rook fh3 and now rook c1. Because there's a mate here. And even if you lose this pawn with a check. That's okay. Yes, good move. And Magnus going for that pawn. You could see his hands were reaching there. But then plays rook f4. He doesn't take that pawn with a check. Because he realized after takes king f3. This has to end in a draw. So, rook f4. He keeps it going. And Zhu Xiangyu goes passive. He's like okay. I'll defend the pawn. And if Magnus repeats, I'll go back. But Magnus doesn't repeat. He pushes his pawn to g5. b3 played. And g4 even. So, now the pawn is so close to queening. This is how Magnus puts pressure. Rook takes a4. Now threatening this pawn on a2. Phew, even with less material. My goodness. Rook b2. He goes on the defensive. Okay, what's next now? He goes rook to f3. Activating his rook. Now remember if g3. You cannot be too afraid. King f1, king g2 would save the day. So, rook f3. King d1 played. Now the rook on b2 defends both these pawns. King g7. Don't forget your king. Your king is a powerful piece in the endgame. And now the king can come up. Wow. He first goes rook a6. So that if there are many checks. On the third rank there won't be any check. Rook e5 played. Now cutting off on the fifth rank. We have Magnus' king coming up. King g6. h5 next. With such reduced material also. It's so easy to play as black here. And that Magnus recognized so soon. Rook e2. Check. Ah check and you lose the pawn with a check. No no no. Rook e1. Rook e1 is possible. Yeah. He has to play rook e1. But he goes king d2. No way did he give up that pawn with a check. Takes. And now rook takes e2. I mean rook takes e2. King takes e2 is a draw. I mean closer to equality. So you have to keep the two rooks on the board. Magnus has to recognize that. I think Xu Xiangyu didn't blunder the a2 pawn. He just felt this was the better way to push. But Magnus goes rook a3. Check. King to c4. The king no longer on the last rank. So it cannot be mated. But h5. And the good news for Magnus is that there are no continuous checks for his king. His king can hide at the h4 square. Rook e8 played. And now rook f4. Check. He gives a check. King comes up. And now Magnus goes king to g5. Rook goes to h8. Threatening a check and winning this pawn. Let's see what Magnus does. Oh! He goes to h4. And the point is if you go rook e5, check. I have check and I defend everything. So king d6. Rook comes to f3. So nicely done. Rook e5. Rook f5. And rook h7. And the final blow. Rook f2. If you trade the rooks, h2 is hanging. And Ziyang Yu resigns. What an endgame by Magnus. What an endgame. Really really stunning. And look at Zhu Ziyang Yu. With a smile on his face there. Saying to Magnus that, you know, instead of king d2. Rook e1. Rook takes e1. King takes e1. Rook a2. And then maybe there is some discussion. Let's look at that position again. But I love how Ziyang Yu reacted with smiles and amazement after the game. Well, Magnus also has a smile on the face. Beautiful game. Beautiful endgame. Lot to learn from it. And definitely an amazing amazing play by Magnus. He is truly the endgame goat for a reason. Now let's have a look at the moment the key mistake happened in the game. In this position, Zhu Ziyang Yu played king d2. And after rook a2, he lost the game. But Magnus instantly showed that after takes. Takes. King takes. Very important. Not rook takes. Rook a2. There was this very nice defensive move. Rook e2. And this is a draw because after takes. Takes. The problem here is that black cannot reach h3 without moving his h-pawn. If he did that, he is winning. So just to show, let's imagine king g5. King f2. King h4. King g2. And now you have to make a move. Like imagine that here you make a waiting move as white. King h3. King g1. Now I have a choice between putting my pawn on h6 or h5. Depending if the king is on h1 or g1. Like for example, here h6 wins. Because after h5, here h4. King here g3. Takes. g2. And black wins. But the problem is that if I here play the move king g2, I stop you from coming here. You already have to decide h6 or h5. And let's say you play h6. Now you have one extra waiting move. So I will play king f2. King h3. King g1. h5. King here. h4. King here. g3. Takes. King h1. g2. And a draw. And by that same logic, if you played the move h5 here, then I would not go to f2. That's a losing move. Because now I get the position that I desire for after h4. King h1. Takes. And g2. And I win. But I will first waste, without wasting a move, I will go to g1. King h3. King h1. And now the same position we reach, which is a draw. So, you know, what black would love in such positions is to reach the ideal position, keeping an option to go one square or two squares. But here, he cannot do it. And so that's why it's a draw. And Magnus actually spotted it instantly and told Zhu Ziyang Yu that this is a draw. Truly instructive moment. Freedom begins with a choice. In 2008, we made ours. Freedom knows no borders. Step by step, we became part of the global financial system. In 2019, we went public on NASDAQ. In 2024, we built a digital ecosystem. Fintech, lifestyle, telecom, everything comes together in one unified digital space. Today, Freedom is a system that shapes markets. $2 billion in annual revenue. $9.3 billion market capitalization. 11 million customers. 11,300 plus employees. 230 offices worldwide. Freedom begins with a choice. And every day, we make it again. Freedom Holding Corp. One ecosystem. Many possibilities.