They said Magnus is a genius.... this game proves it _ Carlsen vs Arjun Erigaisi _ Norway Chess 2025

On your screen is Arjun Eregaisi, who is adjusting his pieces and opposite him is the little kid who is waiting for the first move to be made. Both of them are waiting for Magnus Carlsen to arrive. Magnus versus Arjun, what a clash we have on our hands. It's going to be absolutely legendary. Arjun, one of the 16 players in the world to have crossed 2800 on the published ratings. It's just an incredible feat by the youngster. And today he's playing the best player on the planet, Magnus Carlsen. And Magnus comes in good mood, shakes hands with the young boy there who's going to play the first move. And Magnus has had a good event until now. He's on 5 points out of 3 rounds. He did lose the Armageddon against VE. D4 by the youngster and look at the smile on his face. Look at the smile on Magnus' face. He's very happy that the young boy is there. And that's the thing about Magnus. He's generally very kind to little kids. And there you see again that smile on his face. Arjun meanwhile is super focused. He's like, let me now get into the groove of the game. I believe Magnus is going to take that pawn back. Yes, he's not going to play D4. A handshake and off we go. Magnus opens the game with the English, 1C4 and gets up from the chair. Arjun adjusts the clock there, takes his time and pushes his pawn to C5. The symmetrical English is what he is aiming for. Of course, once again Magnus' strategy in this game will be to be as less theoretical as possible. Arjun in the thick of things in top level chess in terms of theoretical preparation. Magnus not so much anymore. That's at least the feel we get from the way he talks in his interviews and the way he has been dedicating a lot of his time to freestyle chess. Yes, bishop comes out to G2 on the long diagonal here. And bishop comes out to G7. And now knight to F3. No, he goes knight to C3 here, Magnus. And Arjun will most likely continue the symmetry with knight C6. Magnus taking his time trying to figure out what is it that he would like to do. Rb1 is a relatively lesser played move than knight coming out to F3 and castling there. Rb1 has a clear idea of pushing A3 and B4. So Arjun brings out his knight. He sees that right now Rb1 has no real threat. We will see when Magnus plays A3 and he does it immediately. Now B4 is pretty strong idea because it opens up the rook and in combination with this bishop is the right plan. A5. Arjun stops B4 but it comes at a cost. The cost is the weakening of the B5 square. Not particularly huge but it is something. D3 played by Magnus. You see he is not developing his knight on G1. Later could go to E2, F3 and also keeping the option open of H4. Maybe if black castles, Magnus may want to go H4. E6 played by Arjun. A slightly weird decision here. Magnus brings his knight out to F3. But I guess what Arjun wants to do is go D5 at the appropriate moment. And after knight to F3, Arjun maybe will just castle. Yes, he castles it out here and Magnus now can also castle which is a completely fine move. But there is also this very very tricky idea that Magnus goes for bishop E3. And generally the bishops do not belong on this square. I mean it does attack the pawn but after D6 what next? It could get hit by knight G4. It could get hit by a central pawn push. Queen E7 played by Arjun. But I think Magnus is kind of being very concrete here. If he is not careful, D5 is coming up. So knight A4, I like this move. Now there is pressure on C5. If you play B6, that's already a free pawn. So D6 becomes like the only move here. Arjun plays it. And how are you going to justify this bishop on E3? Not so sure. Magnus decides to castle. And I believe you can go knight G4 here. Also Rb8 feels like a great plan because of B6 that you can play. Yes, Rb8 played here by Arjun. Coming out of this long diagonal here. Also getting ready to play B6. And Magnus now can go knight B6 and pick up this bishop. Which could be a good plan but he plays D4. And here Arjun should maybe just play B6. Bolstering the entire structure here with this pawn push. But instead he decides to take the pawn. And this does create some very concrete play now. Because Magnus takes on D4. The knight on C6 is under attack. Also the B5 square is weak. So maybe taking here makes a lot of sense. He takes it. Knight takes D4. And bishop D4 here seems correct. If you take with the queen, there could be knight D5 attacking the queen. So bishop D4 taken. And yeah, now B5. Very very direct move by Arjun. And this is the way he plays chess. He is very direct. He calculates well. And he makes his opponent's life as hard as possible. Now B5, rook B5. If you look carefully, everything is right with black's position. He has very active rook here. He has now two pawns in the center that can completely sort of push the white pieces. If there is one thing that is not particularly great as of now is that after the rook moves back, this A5 pawn is a weakness. So let's say queen A4 attacking A5. And that's a problem. And you can see Magnus going for it. The rook cannot go to A8 to defend the pawn because this is there. Putting the queen on C7 looks wrong because of rook Fc1. All of these problems for Arjun. And so he has to find a tricky way to save this pawn and he does it with bishop B7. Essentially what Arjun is saying is that let's say for example, take, take queen A5. I want to put my rook on B3. I want to put my other rook here and play for compensation. Magnus actually decides to take on B7. He doesn't let Arjun take on G2. Bishop takes B7. And now queen takes on B7 by Arjun. And now Magnus Carlsen can snatch the pawn. He does it. He does here, snatch the pawn. And I believe Arjun has compensation like with his rooks lined up here. He could even go rook Fc8. But there's a very concrete way to start playing here. E5, yes, that's the move. Attacking the bishop. The bishop has only one square I believe which is bishop E3. Bishop A7 also perhaps technically possible because rook A8, there's knight B5. But he goes bishop E3 which is the safest. And now B5. Could come in, yes, D5. And look at the black central pawns here. Arjun is alive and kicking right now. His position has a lot of potential. Magnus goes bishop G5 and his threat is simple. Let's take, take and take the pawn. I believe rook Fd8 is a great move. But D4 is again very direct. And Magnus' point here is that after bishop takes, what I want to do here essentially is put my knight in the center with knight D5. That is what I would love to do. And Arjun has to remain careful because imagine if Magnus gets something like rook B8, B4, B5, A4. I mean it's just lost position. So bishop G5 stops first rook C1 from coming into the game. The knight is well positioned. The queen is well positioned here. But the threat is clear. Rook A8 next. The queen has to keep an eye on the knight. And then the other rook could join in. And already before you know it, black is really aggressive. Knight B4 played. And now this is hanging. So rook E8 definitely makes a lot of sense. Queen E4 also not a bad idea. But bishop D2 again. Arjun finds the most direct and forcing way to play things here. Queen takes E5. Magnus is like okay Arjun, I'm going to take your pawn. Arjun takes the one on B4. Magnus takes back the piece. And it's time to now assess this new position that has arisen which is four pawns for black and five pawns for white. Now this B2 pawn and E2 pawn are weaknesses but this B pawn is also a passer. Magnus goes rook D1 and attacks the pawn on D4. I believe Arjun is going to go rook E8. The engines think Arjun has made a very good decision which is to give up the pawn. And queen D4 is met with rook E2 when black has good compensation. So Magnus goes queen F4. And these are the decisions that Magnus really takes well. Rook E2 and now rook takes D4. Yes, so rook takes D4 played. And now just going back queen B7. Seems logical. So the plan now is rook E8 with the idea of rook E1 and you will see the queen takes away the escape squares for the white king. So Magnus goes queen F6. And again a very important point if you play rook B2 then I can go rook D8 check, takes here. Queen D8, king G7, check and win the rook. So that's the reason why Arjun goes rook E6. Maybe a better idea here was H5 making a square for the king here. Because H5 takes, takes. This position gives enough counterplay for black. But rook E6 now checked by Magnus. And Magnus, the main thing that is going well for Magnus right now is that after queen takes D8 by the way we are on move 32. Magnus has 41 minutes. Arjun has 14. Generally Arjun is the one ahead on time. But here Magnus is really pressing him on the time. Queen D4 check. Centralizing the queen. And B4. And you will see that the position has become a huge upgrade over what it was. B4 by Magnus. Playing it very calmly here. And look at Magnus, he is so calm, cool and composed there but so focused. He really wants to get this point. H5. And now pushes the pawn even one step further with B5. Next move B6. You need to stop that pawn from moving ahead. So Arjun does put his rook on B6. And now a very very good move for Magnus is rook E1. Because you can't take the pawn. Rook E8 is coming. It's those moves where you change your advantage from one to another and Magnus finds it. This is what Magnus is all about. Magnus is all about these incredible decisions. And that too he takes them with ease. That very few people... Like look at this move. Makes it with one minute on the clock. Now, if I was playing with white. I will tell you why this decision is so tough for someone who is not right up there at Magnus' level. That's because now you see a check here. King up. You see another check here. Which is what Arjun is doing. You see another check here. And then suddenly you are like Oh, if I go king H3 there will be another check. Queen G4. And if I need to come out of checks I need to come to F1. But am I really going to escape the checks? Because now queen D3 check. And my king is coming out. But my queen is far away. And these assessments are really tough for even a strong player. But for Magnus, he knows that there will be no perpetual. And his king will actually escape like this. And go here when his queen would block. And the B pawn will win. And it's not an overstatement when I say this. That Magnus is by far the best queen endgame player in the world. Like there is no comparison with Magnus and anyone else. Because queen endgames are more based on feel. On understanding where should the queen be. You can't calculate everything. There are so many checks. There are so many possibilities with the king. With the queen on the board. And here you can see how Magnus is bringing his king up. Absolutely fearless. And king E4. 27. He reached this endgame with 28 minutes on the clock. He has 27 minutes. And he's essentially just calculated that king E5. And there are no more checks here. Have to be slightly careful here that you don't get checkmated. King E5. And there is no check on E6. If you go queen C3. I am going king D6. So king G7 played. Maybe prepare. No, there is no F6 as well. The queen controls this square. So maybe king D6 now. Already seems like an interesting move. But Magnus again. H4. Just improving. This pawn is controlled by his queen. And Arjun plays queen D3. Taking away the entry points for the white king. Maybe there is queen F5 check. Next queen C5 played. Another classy move by Magnus. This again. These moves. Which are just little moves. Improving the position. And Arjun by the way played this last move. With 1 second on the clock. And Magnus. Just the queen plays king to D6. And the king is running away. If queen F6 check. He just goes king C7. And Arjun resigns here. The B pawn is queening. And Magnus talks about this bishop E7. Some E7 moment there. And Arjun really was equal through the early endgame. And so on. Like maybe very small edge to Magnus. But this is what Magnus is incredibly good at. And I feel this one game that Magnus has played. Really shows him in perfect light. With all his strengths. Arjun couldn't make use of his strengths. Of impeccable calculation and active play. But he will have another chance to go at Magnus. With the white pieces. And that will be interesting to see for now. Magnus snatches the sole lead in the tournament. With 8 points. And it will remain to be seen. How things pan out after the rest day. But for now he is on the top.