ESPORTS WORLD CUP FINAL 2025: Magnus vs. Alireza For The Crown Of EWC!! Hikaru vs. Arjun For Third!
Hey everyone, I am here with Anish Giri, world number 10 in chess at the esports world cup. Anish, is this your first time in Saudi Arabia? Yes, my first time. I’ve been in the region a couple times. I played in Qatar in UAE but first time in Saudi Arabia. And is it your first time playing an chess as an esports event? I think I’ve played you know on screen obviously Champions Tour had the esports vibe to it for sure. Uh one of the tour events we played on screens as well across each other but you know it’s part of the official esports event so called. Yeah the first time. Are you excited? For sure. for sure looking forward to see and you know the in terms of like content production um you know they’re definitely up up there. You’re going to love the stage that you’ll be playing on. I bet even the qualifier was already quite impressive and I heard it’s going to you know they’re going to move it up. Yeah, it was really cool watching Anishh qualify through the last chance qualifiers. Were you feeling a lot of pressure? Well, it was a big challenge. Not too much pressure cuz you know it was such a long road ahead that I didn’t really even think about making it all the way but step by step got there somehow. Well, we’re going to be putting the pressure on Anish because you have to pick one of these blindfolds and Anish will be playing us in blindfolded chess while we uh try to distract him with some more questions. You know, for me it’s enough to remove my glasses. It’s already blindfolded kind of. I don’t really need to have anything on. Yeah. So, okay. Okay. I’m starting the clock. Okay. I went E4. C5. C5. Uh, knight F3. This Oh, D6. Yeah, please press my D6. I hear that you’re not pressing my Sorry. D4. I’m getting called. Um, okay. C. Press faster. Please press faster. Knight takes D4. Knight F6. Knight F6. Okay, maybe I’ll use two hints. Uh, knight C3. A6. A6. Bishop to E3. E5. E5. Knight B3. Bishop E6. Bishop E6. H3. Wow. Knight B D7. Knight B D7. You weren’t phased at all. I was briefly phased, but now I’m undaunted. All right. G4. H6. H6. Uh, I don’t even have time to ask you questions. Is this your strategy? Queen F3. I think you’re the one under pressure. Can I answer yourself? Yeah, queen. Rook C8. C8. I’m the one under Wait, why am I the one under pressure? Yeah, you you tell me. Okay. Well, look, I got checkmated in about 20 moves by Fabi. So, I think if you’re not going to ask questions, I’ll start asking questions at some point. Did you cast a lock? Yeah, I cast a lock. Okay, take rook C3. Wow, you’re just attacking already. Okay, B takes C3, obviously. C7. C7. So, how did you get in the chess, Nemo, Har? Well, I started when I was three. When did you start playing Anish? Just hopping out there. Did you play the queen C7 or you I played queen C7 for you. All right. King G King B2. Bishop E7. Bishop E7. Um yeah, I started when I was three. You started really young as well, right? Not as young. No, I was uh I tried even when I was five, but I was too little for it. So I really started when I was six or seven. Six, seven. How did uh your first few years of Chesco? Um not as well as the you know, the next few, but um you know, I tried. I tried. E1, rook G1, sorry. G1. Yeah. So, by castles, castles by going well the next few years, you mean you just won every tournament or? Yeah, actually, I started winning everything when I was a kid, uh, the very beginning and I was playing against other kids who are also very bad. Uh, H takes G5. Yep. Bishop takes G5. Oh, this is getting a bit out of hand. Okay. Rook C8. Rook C8. So, you were beating all the kids really young and then you started beating adults. You know, I was growing up in uh St. in Petersburg and uh there there’s a culture of like chess clubs for children specifically, not like in the Netherlands where the clubs are filled with uh grown-ups. So, I haven’t been playing that many grown-ups at first, but obviously played my mom. Nice. And your mom was really good. Uh no, but she know, you know, she was u better than me at first. Rook to G3. King F8. King F8. H4. Okay. Knight B6. Knight B6. King B1. B1. Okay. But not Knight A4. Knight A4. Yeah. I was just going to go bishop to I think I’m still good to go. Am I missing something here? I don’t know. Am I missing something here? No, I don’t think so. I was just going to go bishop to Is that clear? You know who’s missing here? Who’s asking the questions? It’s all It’s all I feel like I’m being quized. Yeah. For those of you who don’t know, Anish is also commonly known as the the draw master. Would you call yourself a master of draws? Okay. The problem is also I have difficulty difficulty on on the board after bishop D2. I have to decide how to how to break it. Uh D5. This was the move I was most worried about. I will play E takes D5. Uh bishop takes D5. Bishop takes D5. Okay. You have 1 minute 40 and I have 1 minute by the way. Uhhuh. I’m going to flag you. There’s two second increment. Did you know that? But you’re still going to flag me. At the pace you are playing, you’re not going to make it. Okay, I’ll go queen to D3. Mhm. Do you feel additional pressure being part of an esports team? Uh, no. No. I feel, you know, additional support. Bishop E4. Bishop to Sorry. Bishop E4. E4. Okay. I heard Fabby wanted like 15 moves or something. So, this is really Did he say 15? I thought it was 20. Yan. How many moves was it? 15. It was 15. Oh my gosh. I thought I made five moves. Okay. Queen to D3. No. E3. E3. D3. Okay. Okay. This is not easy. How many moves did you think you would beat me in? Less than less than the number of moves I’m going to beat you in. Okay. Let’s Who says you’re beating me? Queen C6. Queen C6. Queen to G. Oh, yeah. Yes. I was already hoping, you know, you’ll start getting uh ambitious there. Bishop G6. Bishop G6. Oh. Uh, bishop. You played bishop G6. Okay, I’m going to play. Oh, queen takes. Queen takes E5. Why you’re so excited? Bishop D6. Uh, bishop D6. Cuz I was low on time. Um, queen to E. Queen to D4. Logical. Logical. Um, bishop takes G3. F takes G3. Oh, sorry. I’ll move this properly. Knight to E4. Knight to E4. Um, oh no, I am in some trouble here. Uh, queen. No, you’re still not. That’s a problem. B. Oh, I lost on time. You did? I did. I knew it. I knew it. Oh no. You played very well. It’s very unclear if you play C4. I had C4. I’m not even sure I’m better to be honest. Well, thank you very much. Are you Do you What do you give yourself in terms of percentage chances to win this event? Even if we all had even shot, it would be you know between five and 10 and we don’t all have even shot. So you know what% I’ll my percentage of winning the whole thing 0.6%. 0.6%. Why are you giving yourself less than 1%. Cuz I want to to make uh to make that bet and and cash big. That’s why. Fair enough. All right. Well, Anishh convinced that he has 0.6%. Make sure you’re rooting for him for the east this esports world cup as well as team secret. Thank you very much. Thank you. Heat. Heat. Music playing on the radio. Driving slowly turning. Where do we go? I feel like I’m coming home. Got feel like let it go. Wo, baby. There’s a way to end the sun baby till the sun goes down again. Here we are, final day of chess at EWC and the stage is so big our host came out on the street. Honestly, after seeing the games yesterday, seven game series to wrap up our second semi-final, I can’t wait to see what happens in the grand final today. Enough talking. Let’s get to the grand finals. In the immortal words of Magnus, Heat up here. Heat up here. Hello everyone and welcome to Riad for the final day of chess at the esports world cup. 16 players came to Saudi Arabia. Two remain but only one can walk away with the top prize. I’m your host James Dash and as always I’m join jo jo jo jo jo jo jo jo jo jo jo jo jo jo jo jo jo jo jo jo jo jo jo jo jo jo jo jo jo jo jo jo jo jo jo jo jo jo jo joinedined ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra rather by I am goiowska and GM Maurice Ashley but we also have a special guest in the studio with us today to kick things off. It’s MVL MVL, I got to come to you first, my friend, the esports world cup chess diving into this crazy esports world. It’s been a wild 3 days that brought us to this point. Talk to me about your experience. It’s been absolutely wild, James. And I must say uh coming into into this I sort of understood the level of professionalism that was put into this and uh but yeah this was wild. This was exhausting in a sense because we’re going uh uh right in person and there’s all this excitement also about chess but you know about all the other esports that we’re watching here and yeah I like the vibe and I can only say I enjoy so much that chess is included out there and I hope it’s uh here for for a few years at least and maybe for more. I’d say we’re making a pretty good case for it to return in future years. But I echo the sentiment. Yi, I turn to you because MVL’s exactly right. So many moving pieces and so many new elements kind of here being injected not just in the esports world, but conversely back into the chess world. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, first up, we have chess being played in an arena with those bright lights like bearing down on the players. We have that insane time control, 10 minutes, no increments, so much drama. And yesterday we had comebacks, Armageddons, and you know my favorite thing, the crowd were cheering for it all. And speaking of the crowd, we had a man in the crowd yesterday. It was Gia Maurice Ashley. So once again, I got to come to you about that energy and what it was like to be viewing chess in that way. You know, we in chess, we have this tradition and there are a lot of people who are stuck in the tradition. They feel like chess has been a certain way for a long time and it shouldn’t really change. And maybe this is just another one of those events, but esports is showing a fundamental shift, a ground swell now in a different direction for chess with all the crowd noises, with the vibe, with the arena, with the trash talking that we saw as well. And it is so much more fun, so much more dynamic for a younger crowd who will see the change happen in the near future. And part of that ground swell is moments like these. Hikaro Nakamura, Arjun, Aragi playing in our third place decider matchup. they’re arriving in style here at the studio thanks to J Motorsports. I mean, you could probably speak to that directly. Again, just kind of the the upping of the treatment of the players. How has that been to kind of be treated very much like a superstar? We’ve had some of the guys talk about it almost feels like I’m joining a football club, you know, something that I had admired when I was a kid. Yeah, in a sense I agree. And like it’s uh similar to for instance uh I know I’m watching grand slams in tennis and you have both players arriving and you know uh people get excited for this moment and uh I kind of kind of see why uh when this happens to chess people get excited, people want to see Magnus, people want to see Ku Alvesa and all of 16 players out there. Does it add to the nerves at all of the moment? just I did that the fact that there are people everywhere around you. Uh I Anishh was saying to us the other day it’s like he’s got somebody walking with him every 10 meters and then he gets handed off to somebody else. Absolutely. And yeah, I was feeling kind of nervous especially when it comes uh game time and you’re in the arena, you have uh the audience, you have some you’re alone on the stage but you can feel the the pressure and but I love it. Yeah. Well, uh, and we’ve loved it, too, cuz again, it’s all about what you guys do for us on the stage, and so far the games have delivered every step of the way. Of course, as you know, it’s not just us here who are, uh, you know, bringing all the action. We’ve got commentators all around. What’s it been like as well for you to see so many different voices from within the chess world as well, not just the players, the 16 that came, but it’s really been quite a commitment to bringing a lot of different people from the chess world to create this first inaugural event. Yeah, I think uh that was needed in the sense that uh if you want to make chess look more professional and more watchable, you you need a lot of BTS, you need a lot of um you know experts opinions and you need to make to make it a professional broadcast and uh this is what’s happening here and yeah I’m very excited about that like I feel like this is a direction for chess what at least one of the main directions forward for chess and in the near future you know I I hope that will be become a standard basically hearing from you the players is obviously one of the most important points of feedback but we want to hear from you at home so go ahead and uh scan that QR code that you see at the bottom corner of your screen right there let us know what you think about chess at the esports world cup we will be listening for future events coming back to you though Yobi real quick on that same kind of conversation just how many people have come together to produce this event. Yeah, it’s been absolutely spectacular to see the amount of people who are just involved in the production and also the players and absolutely everything. I have to say it has felt like we have been in a movie at times. I mean, there’s been so many roller coasters and I’m just talking about the chess here. I mean, it’s been super exciting. It’s felt professional. It’s felt like we have leveled up to chess as a sport. And one of those guys on the roster who we’ve tasked with doing all kinds of things, he’s been running from building to building to building, interviewing players. It’s none other than Mike Klein. And let’s go to him now to set up our finals day. We’re finally here. Day four of chess at EWC and four players remain. It is judgment day. In the third place match, Hikaru Nakamura takes on Arjun Eragayi. And then all eyes will turn to the first place match. Team Liquid versus Team Falcons. Magnus Carlson against Ali Raza Fuja. There are so many storylines. Can Ali Raza win and get team Falcons 1,000 club championship points and vault the Falcons into the lead? Can Magnus hand Ali Raza his first game loss of the tournament? Can Ali Raza avenge his loss to Magnus at last year’s speed chess championship finals? And finally, does Magnus have one more arrow in his quiver to shoot down the Falcons and silence the crowd? At the end of the day, one player’s key will become the championship key, and the others will go in the key graveyard. This is the Esports World Cup club championship, the ultimate crossame competition that will crown the best esports club in the world. Let’s break down how it works. Clubs will be able to compete at the Esports World Cup in as many titles as they can qualify for. The clubs will then earn points based on their placement in each title. To qualify for the club championship, a club will need a top eight placement in at least two competitions. But to win the championship, a club must place first in at least one competition. At the end of the esports world cup, the 24 clubs with the highest number of points will earn a share of the 27 million with the winner taking home a staggering $7 million and of course the title of the best esports club in the world. Who will rise above and write their place in history? Watch it all here at the Esports World Cup. Mike Klein said it best. It’s judgment day, not just for the players, but for the teams themselves. And here you have an updated graphic of our EWC club championship. It was Team Vitality that came into the week in first place. But with the points already guaranteed here for team Falcons, Maurice, look at that. They’ve secured first place at the very least. Could go higher if Ali Resa gets it done and snags up to a,000 club points. It’s extraordinary. Chess makes its debut at Esports World Cup and it actually is making a difference this very week. The chess players have to feel excited that they’re making that kind of impact and also that they’re going to be making that kind of money off actually contributing to this event. What’s the What’s the experience been like for you ML in not just coming here on a personal level, right? the idea of okay I want to achieve obviously the best placing that I can but that I now do represent an organization within this larger ecosystem absolutely and uh I’m so glad to be part of team vitality uh I mean they’ve been absolutely absolutely great uh since the beginning of the year since we since we were in contact and for instance I played uh one event from from their headquarters and um yeah you want uh to do your best and seeing uh uh the other members of the team perform so in M Mobile Legends and you know we’re expecting a lot from uh CS2 obviously but I’m disappointed uh obviously that I couldn’t bring uh any points back the nature of esports it’s a brutal format here at the esports world cup and for good reason we like to have bloodshed on the board and on the stage MVL just one of the many players who’s joined a club and now has that responsibility to deliver for them. Let’s hear from the rest of the players on what it’s been like to join teams here in the esports world. I truly believe seeing team versus team is the future for chess. It is so much fun seeing all of these players here with perhaps their teammates or perhaps managers from their teams. You know, one of the coolest things about the esports world cup is that there are these personal rivalries. You know, when you talk about Magnus Hikaru or Magnus Alireza, but also there’s this added big layer of team rivalries, right? You’ve got Team Liquid with the world number one and the world number three with Magnus and Fabi. They’ll be uh facing team Falcons with Hikaru Nakamura and they recently signed Alira Fuja. I mean that makes it the biggest story line. Well, I love playing for the teams. For me, this is dream come true. I really love this feeling. uh you know that you have your partner and you’re supporting them and you have a general strategy for the whole team. So I love that format. I certainly think that we can have a team component here at uh at EWC as well as the individual uh individual thing and a lot of the players are already being signed by top teams which is which is great. You know, for instance, this year I think Liquid versus Falcons would be would be a great matchup. So, and I think the team format can get people interested not only in individual players, but also in in their their favorite, let’s say, sports club or in this case, esports team. Yeah, I think that would be cool. to love uh chess joining the esports world and chess players joining esports teams. But to in my mind is almost like a little bit of a full circle moment here for chess because we heard some of the players talking the other day, you know, back in the day before engines. You did have a whole team behind you. We went a bit away from that as we had the tools to get it all done ourselves. But now we’re creeping back into that world. Yeah, we’re being modernized. I mean, I have to say chess is a really ancient game. you know, it’s thousands of years old and it’s so great that, you know, we have these teams that are knitting together all these modernday sports, all these modern day technologies with chess, and it’s making an impact here on the show. The chess is going to make a big impact on the overall team standings. But we do know that for all of these guys, they want the top prize. So, let’s get a reminder of what’s in play here for each of the individuals still remaining in our chess tournament. No competition is as ruthless as the esports world cup. Its trophy system is no exception. The club championship trophy awarded to the one club that rose above the rest and reigns supreme across all EWC games. The game trophy. When a competitor closes their eyes, it’s all they see. And it’s not complete until it’s sealed with a champions key. Every participant earns a key engraved with their name. That’s their right to compete. This year, returning champions hold a key unlike any other. Only one can place their key into the game trophy and become an EWC champion. The frame of the champion’s key is embedded into the totem, a stone marker of legacy displaying every champion of the year. The keys of the eliminated will be crushed. The champion selects three broken keys as a personal token, a reminder of who they have humbled. Beneath the totem, a resin block holds the remaining keys, a graveyard of fallen contenders. Will your dreams be broken or your name carved in golden stone? At EWC, nothing is granted. Everything is earned. Maurice, we only have two uncrushed keys left in this chess tournament and we will relive some of those key crushing moments uh from just yesterday. But again, who’s going to come out on top? Who’s going to get the final opportunity to press that button is the big question. It is a very big question indeed. We have just a mouthwatering duo of matchups here today and it just couldn’t get any better. All the favorites that we predicted are in play today. Although only one of them will be able to emerge victorious out of the duo that is Alera Fuja and Magnus Carlson. Now I mean a cool little element to all the key crushing in that eventual individual trophy is the idea that the winner gets to pick three individual keys to include in their own trophy. The rest go to the totem. If you were to have won this event, which three keys would you have chosen? I mean first one is obvious Magnus. Um, and then for the last two, I think I would have picked Hikaru. And then, uh, definitely one member of the new generation. Uh, I don’t maybe maybe Arjun. I like it. I like it. Hey, some respect on Arjun’s name. That’s what we’ve been asking for all week long there, Maurice. Here’s the tournament prize pool for the individuals. It’s a total of $1.5 million. Of course, those top four spots are to be determined today, but as you can see, we’ve got four guys. is Yana Pomnashi, Notre D, Nihal, Leavonne, all taking home 85 grand. MVL yourself 65 grand as well. That’s a cool payday for a week here in Saudi Arabia. Talk to me about what it means to see this level of investment into the pro chess scene. I mean, it’s been absolutely great and uh I must say that at least it feels like we deserve it in the sense that chess is coming into a bigger scene and so with bigger scene means bigger money. So this is, you know, great money and I like uh and it’s um the consequences of chess being included in the sport scene and yeah, I want to see more of that. Hey, you all deserve it. We want to see more of it, too. Uh, but of course, like I said, it’s those top four places that are still to be decided today. Let’s take a look at how we got here with Kadia’s top plays of the day from just yesterday. Yi. Yeah, I mean, there was so many interesting quarterfinals and semi-finals. And this was one of the most dramatic quarterfinals between Alza Fuja and Norbec Abdul Satro because it really despite the score line went down to the wire. There you can see Alireza, you know, he’s playing some fantastic chess and these were the moments where Nordbec just blunders a rook, just blunders in time trouble and now he doesn’t win to secure Armageddon. And I love this moment with seconds left on the clock. It’s going to be checkmate there for Ali Resza. Honestly, this is my one of my favorite moments is getting to see the reactions of the players and all the immediacy of it. It feel we feel so much more connected to what you guys are feeling on the stage. Yeah, obviously. And some players are more emotional, but with this time control, everybody shows some sort of reactions. Yeah. From there, Maurice, obviously, we got that handshake at the end. Magnus Carlson versus Hikar, that could have been a final, but we were treated to it in the semis. That felt like a finals and it was so up and down. Magnus taking the lead. Hikaro missing his opportunity before smacking Magnus in the head in game three. Magnus being pissed off, but the crowd was cheering against him and then later winning only to have Hikaru hit him again and then go to Armageddon. Come on, you couldn’t write a script better than that. The way those two played, it just showed the importance of this and how exciting it all is. Definitely couldn’t. Here’s a picture of our quarterfinal results from yesterday. Ali Resa Fuja, Arjun, Eric Gy, and it was Ali Resa Fuja who continues to impress us and prove the point as to why we called him a favorite coming into the tournament. Now, that was our opinion here in the studio. MVL, was he one of the guys on your radar as a real threat in this format out of the the field of 16? Yes, Alza in great shape. I mean, a threat to absolutely anyone and that includes Magnus Carson. um he’s had some phenomenal results uh in uh in blitz and especially without increment. Uh yesterday I was so impressed with so this game we we looked uh against but two of his games against Arjun with so little time on the clock it looked like absolute certain losses and he managed to save all three of them and even won uh this one. So yeah, what what’s not to love about that? And I’m not even sure I consider him an outsider today. Oh, I like that. A little preview of a conversation we’re going to have in just a moment, but that like you say, it was maybe a tougher quarterfinal in terms of the score line overall. Seems like he really got it done in solid fashion against Arjun Aragi. And then we had Magnus Carlson over Hikaru Nakamura. I mean, we could we could relive all seven games and I’d be I I’ll rewatch them all. Yi. Yeah. And this was a moment which drove the crowd wild and that they were cheering in between moves. That moment where Magnus Carlson gets his twe queen trapped and Hikaru Nakamura strikes back. I I’ve never seen the like and I I’m really hoping for something even better today. But uh here again, this is the first game where Magnus makes a mouse slip or a blunder and actually turns to be an accidental good move. Yeah, exactly that. I mean, first of all, they set a high bar for uh matching, you know, again, uh a series like that coming today would just be the cherry on top of everything. Uh how about that though, the crowd, the way that they’ve become now almost a party to the competition, right? We usually talk about how the time element is the third player on the board. Is the audience becoming the fourth in terms of generating energy and momentum for players? Uh I think so. Even though as a player because the noise cancellation is so good. Uh we don’t hear we don’t see so much. I mean probably Magnus saw something as he lost that third game. Uh but yeah that’s fun. We want to see people engaged like in every other sport and um yeah that is that’s a good format and today we have best of three sets. So what’s not to love? Yeah. Well, he definitely heard the crowd when he took his headset off postgame and they were cheering for the fact that Hikaru had pushed the series forward. And we’re going to relive some of the top reactions from yesterday thanks to Sony PS5. But again, Maurice, I think it’s a double-edged sword. You could be cheering for the fact that Hikaro got it done. But Magnus even said in his post game, “That pissed me off and he came back swinging.” You should be motivated by the crowd. You know, there are a lot of players, you watch the NBA, for example, the players will say, I love going into the other team stadium. I want to make those people stay quiet. And Magnus with a finger to the lips, showing that he has that bravado as well. Shush crowd. I’m the man. I’m going to get it done. That is what you expect from sports. And chess is not used to that, but it’s being dragged into esports. And the chess players, as MVL is pointing out, they’re loving it. Maybe some of the older fans might think, I don’t know. But the chess players are looking at this and going, this is the way we want our sport to go in the future. Now, that was a quick look at the playoff bracket. As you’ll notice, there’s only two series left to go. A third place decider and of course our grand final. Now, all week long, we’ve been going with our Ramco power rankings, player power rankings here. And I want to get MVL to weigh in on this. Now, we had three favorites at the beginning of the tournament. We had Hikaru and Alireza Fuja joining Magnus here. As we go to the final, it feels like you still have to call Magnus the overall favorite in the final on paper. Do you agree? I mean, I have to agree that he’s a favorite on paper, but I have a feeling he’s got a feeling. He’s got a feeling that maybe Alireza Fua can get it done. Magnus wants you to keep that quiet. He wants you to not tell the world about that. But we did drop Ali down into the contender just to try to represent again the stakes a bit of the matchup. But now talk to me why why do you have the confidence that today could be the day he takes down the world number one. Aliosa has been very confident and again showing showing his main strength and Magnus has as well but he’s shown some moments of weakness yesterday against Tikaro and Alza could capitalize. I mean, Maurice, are we being are we doing it an injustice to Ali Resa by dropping him down here on the final day? I would have had them as co-favorites. Excuse me. I know it does not by definition can’t be true. But there are just a couple of things you pointed out MVL the weakness Magnus showed. He had not lost at all on his run here, but he lost twice yesterday. Ali Raza has not lost yet. Nobody has bloodied his nose in all those games. That’s extraordinary. and add to the fact that Aliraza is definitely better with the mouse speed. That is a clear plus for him. Now, Magnus is the best player on the planet. So, ability-wise, it’s Magnus, we got to say. But those little pluses and just this moment may be what gives Alarza the chance. It’s a great point because tournament form matters. Form on the day matters. Momentum coming in matters. And here’s our final category. It used to be dark horses. Now, Yi, it’s fallen heroes. We’ve got to respect the guys who put up the fight and made the journey difficult for the ones who are still in the competition. Absolutely. Of course, Hikar Nakamura won everyone’s hearts yesterday. Nikal Sarin, you know, one of the youngest competitors in the group, you know, getting all the way through to the quarterfinals before coming to Magnus. I mean, these guys put on a show. They played fantastic chess. They kept us entertained. And I got to remind everyone that is chess in a nutshell. Sports, entertainment, drama. Now, Nihal’s name was thrown around by a lot of players as somebody who could be really dangerous in this format, but just generally when you think back on the event so far, the 16 players, were you particularly impressed by anybody uh that came out on stage? Not really. Like, uh everybody who made it here, um you know, I had to have shown great skills. Um and we knew about Nal, we knew about everyone. Everyone was a threat. Everyone was world class and everyone’s playing world class chess here on the world stage. Look, let’s look at the schedule for the day. It’s not too complex of one, but we are going to kick things off with our third place decider matchup. This is for a podium finish and a bronze key handed over to the winner. Of course, a bunch of prize money as well. That’s Arjun Airy up against Nakamura Geng versus team Falcons. From there, we will go to our grand final where the top prize will be determined. the world number one Magnus Carlson representing team liquid up against Ali Resa Fuja for team Falcons. I do since we won’t have you later in the day I do want to get a quick thought from you on the grand final before we kind of reframe towards a third place matchup. So I know you’re leaning towards Alireza. Talk to me about strengths, weaknesses for both players and what you think the keys to victory are going to be today in that grand final. So M point pointed it out. One great uh strength for for Lea is uh is um time management when he’s done to one minute let’s say and his most speed. So I think that will play a certain role. Um for Magnus of course he understands the game better than anyone. So in the beginning of the game he probably will get better positions but uh then then again Alza is very resourceful and he showed it again yesterday. All right, from here we’ve now got to reframe totally towards our third place matchup. Again, both of these guys taking the sting of the loss just yesterday, missing out on a grand final opportunity. But it’s Hikaro Nakamura, the world number two up against Arjun Aragi, tied for fifth in the world. These are two absolute heavyweights, Yi. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, these are serious chess players. And Arjun Eric, he has such a dynamic style. He’s been called the madman of the chessboard, you know, he just always willing to up the stakes. So, I’m really interested to see how Hikaro will handle that. Yesterday, Hikaru changed his style to face Magnus today. I’m expecting Hikaro to go to rock solid and be that immovable object. Yeah, it’s another best of six situations. So, there’s a lot of games to be played here, Maurice. But how about that? The expected way that these styles will clash and who’s ultimately going to make the first adjustment. I think Joy made a great point. I don’t think Arjun is adjusting anything. He only knows one thing. take the kitchen sink, throw it at you, and then go look for something else to throw at you. That’s what he’s going to do. Meanwhile, Hikaru, he knows that style. He tried against Magnus and it worked, but he knows this kid is just a little too creative and will relish that kind of chaos. What he’ll want to do is shut it all down and show his incredible defensive skills, which he is well known for. Hard to crack him, and if you make a slip, then he’ll come back and bite you on the head. All right. So now MVL, talk to me about what it’s like to sit down across the board or in front of the computer against either of these guys. I mean, against anyone against I don’t try to think about my opponent. I know their strength. I know their weaknesses, but I don’t try to let them get into my head. Uh, but when it comes to Ikaw, I know that absolutely Maurice pointed it out. He’s ready to punch. Is really like that. I’m also a bit like that. Arjun he will just yeah fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight fight for you you have to fight for you have from the very start because he he shows some incredible pre preparations like against he did that I expect some of that today as well what about the setup on the stage right obviously you’re focused on the game for the most part but you have that opportunity to look over and see the other guys see how they’re reacting Hikaro never hides his emotions on the stage Arjun feels like he’s just as Maurice said yesterday living in a refrigerator His heart rate doesn’t move. He has he’s expressionless. Yeah, I was very surprised even that yesterday got up to 100. That that was that was surprising. But um yeah, I don’t know about other players, but I try not to look. I try to focus on on my my screen and I think most of the players do that. All right, couple minutes of game time. We’re going down the line here. I want to know who you think’s going to take it and why. Starting you with you, Yi. Oh, it’s going to be close, but I reckon experience will tell and it’ll be Hikaru. Okay, calling out the experience. Calling out Hikaru. What about you, Arjunge or Hikaru for third? I’ll also pick Hikawa. I think uh too much experience. Too much experience. Experience. Experience. Experience. I I mean, I feel like maybe you’re going the same way, but I almost want to make you argue for the case then of Arjun Eric. I so want to say Arjun, he’s so talented. He’s incredible player. We love watching it. But this is Hbomb. It’s Ikaru Nakamura and he’s hopping mad about what happened yesterday against Magnus. I can tell you he’s coming in hyper motivated to come in third place and prove that maybe he could have been and should have been the champion. All right, so Hikaru wounded but perhaps even more motivated to get it done here today against Arjun Aragi. But Arjun Aragi, he’s won for a fight and I’m sure he’s going to be throwing the haymakers out left and right. Either way, it’s a best of six between these two guys. So, lots of chess to be played and plenty of room for them to make their stand here on the chess board. It’s playing for a podium finish. It’s playing for a bronze key and a whole heck ton of prize money going home for chess at the Esports World Cup. Let’s get in to our third place decider match. I mean I think the main thing is that there are three players who objectively by quality of play are are the top three players in the world in these quick formats and that would be Magnus Carlson, Ali Resa Fuja and myself. It’s not that Arjun can’t play at that level but I think a lot of people don’t think that he can maintain it consistently throughout many games but you know we we play the games and surprise are definitely possible. Yeah, in general having to play after losing a match is at least some motivation because you don’t want to go on a disappointing note. The first time I played Origin probably would have been in India about 3 or 4 years ago. He’s a fairly young player. Obviously very familiar with this game cuz he’s become one of the best players in the world. Even if I face like someone from team Falcon, even if I win, I cannot say it’s like revenge. But I would like to try and end the tournament on a win. For myself, I’m just going to try to be aggressive, try to play good chess, and we’ll see what happens. Oh, heat n Dawn of the final day and we’re starting with the third place match. Two players falling just short of the championship game, but who have one final shot at redemption. That’s right. And with club championship points on the line and the race for the best club in the world still on the line, every match, every move matters. So, let’s introduce our grand masters to the grandest stage in all history of chess. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome representing team Falcons, Hikaru Nakamura, taking on Genji’s Arjun Erici. This falcon’s wings may have been clipped, but he still has talents sharp as forged steel blades, but what can he do against the precise calculated moves of Arjent Aragisy? Fellas, bittersweet day yesterday. You both lost up in this third place match. You going to get a bit bit of redemption here? You playing with anger in this match? Well, I mean, I think uh we’re just here to enjoy the show. I just want to give a big shout out to all the fans and hopefully I can play well in this final match. Arjun, third place decider, still club championship points on the line for yourself and for the club. How are you feeling on the stage going up against the number two in the world as well? Yeah, it’s going to be a tough match, but I’ll try to do my best for my team. All right. Well, gentlemen, for the first time, unfortunately, no keys in the pedestals, but get yourselves ready in those chairs. The third match decider starts right here, right now. Boys and girls in the studio, take it away. Let’s see who’ll get that podium finish. Thank you very much, Sandstorm. Thank you very much, Tyler. This is on the final day of chess at the Esports World Cup. An additional $30,000 in prize money as well. And particularly important for Gengh. The potential for 500 club points going towards the club championship are on the line on this stage right now. Yeah, it’s going to be close. It’s Hikaro Nakamura starting as the favorite as we heard from our analysts earlier, but Arjunary so dangerous on his day. His ceiling is so high. If he gets an attacking position, a position that suits him, do not write him off. Hikaru will have his hands full. It’s experience versus explosiveness yesterday. You know, we got so much drama action. We had the trash talk, the comebacks, the Armageddons. I’m expecting more of that uh today. This is going to be a lot of fun. Hikaru Nakamura, he is one of the fastest brains on Earth. Arjun Aragi, one of the hungriest on Earth. This is going to be amazing. We have a situation where both of these players have had setbacks in the tournament, but they have so much respect for each other as well. You heard in Hikaru’s interview, okay, they might be the three favorites and Arjun’s the outsider here, but Hikaru himself said it’s not because he can’t perform at this level. It’s because maybe he’s a little bit less consistent than the others. But over time, he’s only going to get more consistent. He’s only going to increase that level. And on his day, he can beat any one of those three. Exactly. Still young, Arjuna, just 22 years old. And uh the experience of this event is going to stand him in such goodstead in the future. Look at that. He was staring off at the trophy, wondering whether it will be his Sunday. But for now, it’s all about those club championship points. He’s got to do one for his team. We should remind everyone, team Falcons, they are going to bank the points that Alera is going to score in the final, whether he wins or loses that one later. But uh for Hikaru still a lot of pride on the line. Yeah, the fight for third and the championship battle later. Both generational clashes here. You know, Hikaru Nakamura world number two, Arjun Aari world number five. And for Arjun has been a meteoric rise in the chess world over the last year and a half. While Hikaru’s been dominant at the very top for over a decade and the reasons are pretty clear. This is uh going to be a battle on the board one of speed, accuracy, thrills, all of that. And look at the opening that we have already a lot of trades in the center. Liquidated completely here and the queen moves away. Yeah, it was a double queen’s gambit just as Magnus essayed yesterday in his first game against Magnus Carlson. That ended in defeat, but Hikaru goes back to one of his favorite openings uh a bit earlier, the Queen’s Gambit. White offering a pawn met by black offering a pawn and ultimately the whole of the D and C files have opened up. Nice development here for the white pieces. White’s bishop hitting a black knight, threatening to double some pawns. Hikaro will most likely react to that. This has a reputation of being slightly easier to handle with white, but Hikaru, he is the the leading expert in this system for black. And there’s an argument to say that this might actually be the fastest start we’ve seen at the Esports World Cup so far. Uh by the time we got to 1 minute used by both players, we were comfortably on move 10. Moves have been played very quickly before, but this is the fastest we’ve stormed out of the gates just trying to get to the middle game as quickly as possible. And the reason that white often does better here, even though it looks completely symmetrical, you feel like there have been too many trades to start off with, is that everything comes on with a tempo. The pieces flow easier. The rook lined up against the black queen. The bishop and the queen now setting up a battery on that light square diagonal, eyeing the A7 pawn with already threats of bishop takes knight. And very often, black has to be the one making those defensive moves earlier on. Also having a bit of a problem in developing his own light squared, a bishop. Hikaru Nakamura will find a way. He looks pretty confident has used a little bit of a clock, but the bishop eventually does come out now aiming at bringing the rook to the central file. Already given a question mark though, Hikaru Nakamura’s last move. I’m going to say the most natural human move in the position. This is the obvious home for black’s light squareed bishop, but it is within striking distance. One reason here is that Arjun could do what he’s doing. He could trade off bishops, land a knight. He gets there before I do. He’s attacking black’s light squared bishop now with that knight. You cannot allow a trade on this square if you’re Hikaru Nakamura. You cannot at least allow it to happen when you have to take back with the pawn. That would ruin your structure. Give you no light squared bind. He protects it with his rook instead. But look at the Evalbar hating what Hikaru is doing. Not liking it at all. And Hikaru spent more than 10 seconds on five moves in a row from move eight onwards. And that’s when his position started to deteriorate as well. So maybe that was the point where uh maybe he thought the game was going to go in a slightly different direction and he was thinking more on his feet. The only move he’s played quickly recently is the recapture on F6 and that was a forcing move. Right now it’s not only one knight of Arjun that’s going to step forward, but the other one as well targeting the bishop on the dark squares. And when that lands at the center of the board, knight E4, always a move to look out for queen C2 once again creating that battery. Just feels like the kind of position that Arjun will enjoy playing. It has the makings of all those tricks and tactics on the right side of the board when you know you’ve got the knight best something that Vishan really loves. He’s always a supporter of the knights over bishop and I think Arjun inspired by that means tactics on the board. Yeah, all these Indian players this new generation inspired by Vishy in some way or other. Um liking his knights here. Arjun the big question is whether to trade off his knight for black’s light squared bishop. Either way this opening from Hikaru it feels like he’s just trying to equalize. It’s gone a bit wrong. Black is in a bit of trouble, but he’s just trying to make a symmetrical pawn structure, trying to guide the game towards a draw. I want to see the Hikaru of the latter half of that match against Magnus when he was playing the Kings Indian defense going aggressive. But I think this also makes sense, right? Because Hikaro going for the Kings Indian defense, which worked to perfection against Magnus was the style he needed against the player he was playing. He very well knows Arjun. I think his strategy today is going to be to try to get those positional strategic angles in the game somewhere where he’s seen Archent struggle. So trying to avoid those aggressive combative play might be something that’s part of the plan for Hikaru maybe. But uh it doesn’t look like his position is very pleasant right now. He shuffles his queen across asking for a trade. Will Arjun oblige? Will he keep the tension? A lot of options. Extra minute on the clock. Arjun’s heart rate back down to very uh normal rate. born in a refrigerator as they were saying and uh Hikaru definitely feeling the pressure early doors and now there’s a couple of options of course uh Archent could bring his other knight into E4 and hit both bishops and say okay or he could just take uh the light squared bishop here um maybe there’s a couple of third options as well but I would imagine hitting the minor pieces giving maximum flexibility is useful does he eventually want to take the bishops off in this position I think he does but this is a move I was expecting from Arjun simply because he likes to keep the tension on the board. He didn’t want to rush with it. And that response was not what I was expecting on the board. The bishop came from there. It would make a lot of sense if Hikaru had the time to develop that queen side rook to the center file and then retreat, but he just voluntarily disconnected the two rooks. This looks quite unnatural. Yeah, very odd. It just smells bad last few moves, losing time with his pieces. And Arjun says, “You go back, I go forward.” But the white queen steps to a very very nice square pressuring black’s dark squared bishop which is kind of caught in a bind. Can barely move. Black’s pieces all tied up in knots. This is a dream start for Arjun. Okay, the bishop does in the end shift. Still defended by the black queen, but it still needs a move or two to get to safety. This is just beautiful, right? Look at each and every piece that Arjun has. Everything playing at the center of the board. And usually when you’re able to capture central squares and place them the way Archon has, you can direct play on either side. And that’s why the center in chess is so incredibly important so that you can decide to get to the right flank or the left flank depending on where the weaknesses are. He could also think about improving the diagonal of his light squareed bishop. Lot of tender spots to target to uh this is a beautiful start. And look at that tactics on the board by Arjun. Yeah, let’s delve into this one. That white knight jumping forward very very ambitious. It was a trick that Hikaru Nakamura dodged. And if we just rewind action replay on our green analysis board here, the white knight dropping into D6, hitting the black rook. If it had been taken, it looks free, but it is poisoned. Bishop takes H7. Check. Getting out the way. And look at this. The white rook suddenly pounces on the D file, hitting the black queen. It’s all about the D file. And right now, the two white knights sitting pretty, hitting the black rook, hitting the black bishop. One of them has moved, but the F7 square we’re highlighting there also very vulnerable to white’s army. All of the white’s pieces are flooding forward. Hikaru here barely holding the barricades. This looks beautiful for white. And I think you try to keep that pawn defended. Hikaru moves his rook back to F8. When a player has to put that bishop which has just moved to E6 all the way back to its starting square. When the castle rook comes back to that position on F8, you know that the opening has gone completely wrong for you. Right. Well, let’s have a let’s have a positional question about this opening that I’m quite keen to hear the answer to. The theme of the last five, six, seven moves, lots of knights moving, lots of bishops moving out of the way. Archinis continuing to try and ratchet up the pressure on the board. How do you tell when it’s too much? We sometimes speak of chess players overpressing their position or keeping the tension on the board too long. How is it possible to tell when the right moment to strike is? Cuz that must be such a delicate balance. It is hard. Normally, that’s where you need to back it up with calculation, looking into the future, starting with those forcing moves, the checks, the captures, and the threats. Normally, there’s also a bit of a trigger. And uh the trigger here could be the fact that black has lost so much time. The bishop uh the light squareed bishop on C8 has moved twice only to go back home. The black rook on F8. If you count castling, it’s moved three times, went to E8 back. The black bishop on H6 has moved four times. The black queen has moved four times. The black knight has retreated back. So all of these things adding up, your opponent retreating, that normally is a signal you go forward, you can cash in in some way or other. It almost starts feeling like Hikaru is setting up the board for the next game. Everything retreating to the first rank. Uh you know, you look at him and that’s all you need to know about this position. And meanwhile, Arjun just continues to improve, gain more space, solidify more pieces on the board already on beautiful squares. I mean this position is a dream one with the white pieces for Arjun playing a player like Hikaru completely dominating the board all sides. The outposts here for the knights are really strong as well cuz uh either of the knights can jump back to E4 as well and continue to move towards the king side. You can’t play F5 because it’s pinned by the bishop which leads me to think it it’s weird thinking king H8 might be an active move here. is freeing up that side of the board. The plan for Hikaru to release himself from this bind, he has to find a way. You’re completely right. So, one idea could be to do it on the right flank, but I think the last move by Hikaru sort of hints at how he’s trying to achieve that. He’s just moved the rook away from the white queen’s ey line and wanted to push the B pawn forward to B6 to kick out the white knight. Now, I think, you know, speaking about when is the trigger that, you know, you need to go concrete. That was it. Arjun maximized his pieces, got the trade in, and we’re seeing a forcing sequence of moves playing out here. Yeah, and I was going to say the biggest shock to me is that Hikaru wasn’t making any faces. He wasn’t shaking his head, but it has started to begin. He uh kind of winced as he offered that queen trade. Look at black’s pawn structure now. Doubled F pawns. That is not a nice sight there. Black’s bishop very offside, just staring at a brick wall. In the meantime, if Arjun wants, he can get hungry here. He can trade off knights by winning a pawn. And uh there we go. The whole of the black queen side is about to disappear. Hikaro’s got some tricks up his sleeve potentially. I’m really shocked that he’s not making faces though, Tanya. He is dead lost. He’s busted, but he’s not reacting. Yeah, usually by now you see all those trademark Hikaru headshakes and and you know where he’s really and there it is. At least the slight one where he’s furious with himself, but I think there’s this realization that this has gone absolutely disastrous wrong from the start. something that we saw in game one against Magnus as well. In fact, it’s gone so wrong that Arjun doesn’t need to rush with capturing that second pawn. He instead starts to improve the position of the king because that queen side isn’t going anywhere. What Arjent wants to do is get his king closer to the white rook so that he’s able to unpin the bishop. Now, the clock situation may or may not come into play here. It’s 4 minutes versus 5 and a half. So, it is worth pointing out that Hikaru Nakamura has got more time on the clock. That said, if this position is bust, it means it’s a little bit easier. As long as you can see the plan through to the finish line, you can start playing really quickly. So that minute and a half advantage, it means a lot. If it’s 30 seconds versus 2 minutes, maybe not so much if both players still have more than 3 minutes. Yeah. And Arjun is very fast. He doesn’t like to be lower on the clock. Arjun, he normally tries to use the clock as a big weapon. Uh so yeah, for now I think it’s okay. But if he does get to around the one and a half minute mark, we saw it against Fuja in his semi-final. He can crack under that pressure here. Hikaru is setting up tricks. He wants to line up both of the black rooks on the C file. This is black’s next move pretty much no matter what. Uh unless he’s forced to take a timeout. So Arjun needs a solution. He needs to get his bishop out of dodge here. He needs to protect it somehow or he needs to push his pawns and hope. There we go. He attacks the black rook. We see black slide across and the white pawn’s marching two squares from touchdown. Arjun’s calculated his way all the way through. The black rook comes to defense. But look at that bishop. That extra bishop that Hikaru has is so far away from defense. And Arjun just two moves away from getting that A pawn to support the B pawn. A5 A6 rook A8 B8 queen. Game over. That’s his plan. And I think Hikaru Nakamura is completely helpless against it. This is the first time in my life that I have seen Arjun’s heart rate cross 100. That’s never happened. This guy doesn’t move beyond the 66 mark. That’s the golden spot for him. This tournament we’ve often seen seen him spike. That just goes on to show how much this means for both players. For Hikaru over 100 and there we have it. Mirroring each other now. But this is this is big. A third place fight on the line for their teams. Arjent goes to the gym. Heart rate can’t get above 100. personal trainer doesn’t understand medical science wants to study this. It turns out all he needs is a good position over the board and a conversion potentially for 500 club points and $145,000. I tell you what, that would get my heart rate up. Wow. And he’s dropping by the second. Arjun down to around 80 now. But uh that’s because he’s calmly realizing he’s about to win the underdog in this match. Arjuneri, he takes the point. Hikaru resigns. Hikaru Nakamura resigns. sustained pressure. Amazing knights over bishops in the middle game there. Archent Eric takes the lead in this third place match. Potentially critical for Geng, but also it’s very early days. A reminder to everyone watching at home, this is not a best of four. It is a best of six, but it is Arjent Eric who draws first blood. It almost felt like Hikaru went on self-destruct mode in that game with the black pieces. you know, from the very start sort of retreating move by move, wasting so much time on the clock. And Arjun, every single play by him was an improvement move and then just finished the game off in a forcing sequence, sacrificed it and it was the first threat that was being set up here and this moment Arjun gave up the bishop. The pawns just too strong. Nothing to be done by Hikaru in this one. Yeah, he ended up resigning Hikaru because the black bishop is too far away. The black king is too far away. White’s A and B pawns would have stormed forward to promotion. You said, Tanya, that you’d never seen Arjun’s heart rate rise over 100. I’ve never seen Hikaru react so calmly to what was a pretty disastrous game. He was never in it, Hikaru Nakamura. He cannot repeat that opening. He lost against Magnus in this double Queen’s Gambit. He lost against Arjun here. Both without chances. It It’s really hard to read into that, isn’t it? Because yeah, Hikaru is such an uh emotional player over the board. He wears his heart on his sleeve. you you always know what he’s feeling and he was, I think it’s fair to say, unusually stoic as the position began to deteriorate there. Maybe he does need to let the emotion out to u to to give his chest the best chance to flourish. I don’t know. But at the same time, Arch Eric, uh, Hikaru said, can he keep that consistent? That’s just made this third place match really, really interesting. It’s fascinating. I think the big question here is how much did Hikaru Nakamura’s fight against Magnus yesterday take away from him. How much that drained him because uh that was an epic epic battle. Uh I think one of the best that I’ve seen. It reminded me of that 2020 clash in the Magnus Carlson Invitational in some of the speed chess championship and Hikaru was he just sort of gave it his all. Does he have the energy to take on a player like Arjunari who always brings the fight to you? Will he be able to withstand and put out his best against Arjun is the big question. I think this game two will tell us all we need to know about that. Hikaru Nakamura now starting with the white pieces. Arjun had the opportunity to seize the initiative and to be fair he ran with it in game number one. However, Hikaru is more than capable of doing this in high pressure situations and we are looking forward now to seeing how he chooses to come out of the opening in game two. And uh Hikaru starting with the queen’s gambit met by a Slav defense. Now both sides fianketto their bishops. It’s a bit of a hybrid opening this one as Hikaru jumps forward with a knight. White has small hopes of an advantage. Although black is rock solid here due to the fact that white holds the key to the center. Uh there’s some tension. The white c4 pawn though unlikely to be captured anytime soon. It might do the capturing itself. And uh this is known to be very kind of uh traditional, very classical for black. Maybe again playing against Arjun here. He’s hoping to provoke Arjun Hikar Nakamura as he trades off a set of pawns in the center. This is still mainline theory, but uh who knows their uh openings better. Who’s done their better homework? That is the key question here. And for Hikaru, it’s so important to sort of just keep the game going and maybe not create that chaos himself because he knows, you know, Arjun will find a way to create chances for both players. So, he doesn’t need to rush into any complications. And that’s why we see this very symmetrical pawn structure at the center of the board. Now, a trade and a decision for Hikaru. If he takes with the pawn, that would be ambitious but creates some weaknesses of his own long-term doesn’t feel like the connect for anyone wants on the board. But he does go for it. And David, you’re as surprised as I am. Yeah, this move given a question mark. And uh in and of itself, it looks fine. But if you compare the bishops now, I’m looking at black’s dark squared bishop with a lot of potential on the diagonal, especially if uh that line ever opens up. I’m meanwhile looking at the white bishop blocked. Uh a quick comparison shows that trading those bishops, picking them both off the board here and now, imagine them both disappearing, that would improve Hikaro’s chances. so much and he could have had that. Uh, not only that, but I’ve actually looked at this myself and this is not a pleasant position for white. I just don’t understand what he’s trying to do. He’s doubled his own pawns, locked in his own bishop. Hikaru Nakamura. So far in this match, it doesn’t feel like Hikaru Nakamura. It feels like a completely different player from yesterday. You know, we’re talking about what we have in front of us right now. One of the key plans for white in this position is to go E4 and try to sort out the problem of the two double pawns on that central file. also aim at opening up your bishop, but that can always be met by Arjun pushing his D pawn forward. D4, you deny those trades, you deny those open lines, and you’re the one with a passer. So, you’re basically essentially just stuck with two bad bishops voluntarily in this position if you’re Hikaru. Maybe uh we we have a situ we’ve seen it a couple of times in the esports World Cup. I wonder to what extent Hikaru is playing the scoreboard situation because you’re right, Tanya, he doesn’t have to bring the chaos. he doesn’t have to deviate, but at the same time, there’s always a voice in the back of your head after you’ve lost a game to say, “Well, if I just chill out, and every game is a draw from here on out, I lose the match.” And that voice is always nagging at you to do something. And it’s very difficult to ignore it. And in the meantime, we’ve seen a couple of quick moves. Arjun is going for white’s doubled E pawns. Uh they don’t make a great impression, but Hikaru has got his bad bishop out of the way now. the bishop that we highlighted a moment ago. He’s attacking the black queen. And when the black queen moves, he will most likely start throwing pawns forward. The white f pawn, it feels desperate here. Black’s deep pawn is super strong in the meantime. Look at that. Hikaru exhaling. He knows it’s gone wrong early. This looks like the uh the kind of pawn structure and the pawn pushing that you would expect if they had castled on opposite sides of the board. If you hit the back rank from me and you ask me which side did white castle, I think I might have said I might have been tempted to say queen side. This is absolutely uh how do I put it? Relentless from Hikaru right now. He’s very very committed to this. There’s no going back. It’s relentless, but also feels a bit desperate and a bit premature and a bit wrong. You know, I’m not sure when you haven’t developed your left side of the board, your knight and rook. Your bishop’s still trapped. And look at that Arjun. He does push the bishop. He captures a pawn. The speed with which he’s played right now. And that’s why an inaccuracy on the board. I don’t know why Arjun just rushed through that sequence. There was absolutely no need to do that. He’s now threatening to take the bishop on F6, but certain missed opportunities for black in the last few moves. Yeah, I think there were several tempting options. Arjun saw something he deems to be good. Uh, so he didn’t hesitate. And there we go. Hikaru doesn’t pause for too long either. Hikaru spending only 20 seconds before deciding to trade off those bishops. But he could have traded them off. What is it? Eight moves ago now. He spent a lot of time with his bishop. White is a pawn down. We should mention the black queen has grabbed a pawn on B2. Not just one pawn down. You’ve got double pawns of your own. He has to go for checkmate Hikaru. He’s all in. He’s got to go for the black king. That is not going to be easy. You can push pawns, but you don’t have any attacking pieces yourself. And Arjun, if he defends this well, is a favorite now. Yeah, it almost feels like one and a half pawns up for Arjun with the pawn formation that Hikaru has. And the queen and the knight that white has is is just a little bit too far away from the black king. Meanwhile, for Arjun, you know, there are direct plans. He wants the fanat his bishop opens up the the way to get there. The black knight about to jump to the center of the board. And look at that D3 pawn worth more than a pawn. I will say one thing, the knight on D2 has the potential to jump into C4 with tempo. And once it’s on D6, it’s rather difficult to dislodge. So, if white can find a way to get more than just the knight into the attack, I can see this being really, really dangerous. But I’m sat here thinking, where’s the second piece? Where’s that coming from? And that’s where I’m struggling. The queen on G4 doesn’t actually do much. Not yet. So, what’s the followup that makes this attack have real bite? And I think that’s the problem that Hikaro Nakamura is trying to solve right now. Yep, he has some time at least to try and solve that. Slightly ahead on the clock, but he definitely needs to activate the white pieces. You always need some kind of compensation whether it is an attack or uh beautiful outposts or pawns that are looking very dangerous if you have made a sacrifice like Hikaru here and uh the last few moves we’ve seen inaccuracies from uh inaccuracies from both players. I think that’s going to continue is that type of position very irrational the pawn structure it’s uh one that they won’t have seen before this type of uh this type of scenario. So, Hikaru pausing now. Burned away his time advantage. A shake of the head, but still he’s not out of it. The eval bar even says it’s level after all of those adventures. That’s the most nonhuman evaluation of this position. You know, the evaluation bar gives it because simply the computer can find the best move after a best move. But in these kind of dynamic play where it’s an absolute mess on the board, you know, there’s no direct path. There are so many options and it’s really hard to calculate and try doing that. Good luck doing that with 6 minutes on the clock. Every move is a high responsibility move here. You’re down a pawn. Black’s pawn is on D3. Your pieces are behind. Arjun’s potentially threatening to offer a queen trade. I was about to say from C2, which has just been stopped with the last move, rooks to C1, attacking the black knight. I’m expecting Arjun to jump forward with that knight to either B4 or D4, creating threats of his own. This is a crazy position. 6 minutes on the clock. Lots of mistakes are going to happen, and I think we’re going to see the bar swing up and down quite a bit in this game. Yeah, there’s both sides have potential pursuing their knights forward right now. Obviously, knight C4 can potentially be met with gobbling a rook, but we’re not going to even think about that because the black knight jumps into D4 first. If you’re not going to jump, I’m going to go first. And uh seizing the initiative here is Erici. And I think for Arjun, the point is that your move trying to plant the knight on D6 is just such an attractive thing to do. While knight C4, it also comes in with a tempo. Hikaru doesn’t care about the pawn. And now you can finally see the frustration playing out on Hikaro. You know, he’s reacting to what’s happened not just in the first game, but how is it that after the opening in both these games, I’m in so much trouble, right? After knight C4, Arjun does have the resource of offering a queen trade via E2. If the queens are off the board, Arjun’s a happy man. Yeah. And that’s not a statement we normally make, but it is because he is a pawn up. Better structure as well. Arjuneris, it’s the style of position. It is a bit chaotic. It is a bit unorthodox and that’s normally what Arjun likes. Hikaru likes it when it’s a bit more about maneuvering, a bit more stable, solid foundations and that’s why he now is burning time on his clock under the 5minute mark in a second. Hikaru just not in the flow yet today. He always perks up. He always wakes up eventually. Consistency is his middle name these days. Hikaro Nakamura, but this hasn’t been a great start to the third place playoff for him. He needs to move. There we go. the most obvious move in the position. And now Tanya’s idea of the queen trade offered. At least white has one beautiful knight now to work around. So here, queen trade offered declined, we should point out. Uh so Nakamura maybe wanting to have the trade on his own terms, not wanting uh not wanting the knight to invade into that position. Definitely not with tempo as well. The queen on E2 also prevents the white queen uh from getting to G4 or just generally moving to that side of the board. So, it’ll be interesting to see how the players choose to respond because there’s no easy alternative way to get rid of that queen that doesn’t involve exchanging. It’s very difficult to do that. You know, with the knight at the center of the board, not so many squares for Hikaru’s queen to run to. How long can he allow Arjun’s queen to stay on that spot, which is not only offering a trade, but pins the white bishop on G2, creating some ideas. Imagine that black knight landing on E3 via C2 someday, and that’s game over on the spot. So things to worry about if you try to escape with your queen, deny the trade. But right now, Arjun’s got some questions to answer. Does he keep the bishop where it is? Does he develop it to A6, deny the trade, allowing Hikaru potentially to come in with the rook to the seventh rank? Yeah, big moments, big calculation needed. Arjun, he wants to develop his bishop. The white queen could also come out to A4 though, hitting any bishop on A6, hitting the white, hitting the black knight in the center. Hikaro looks so fascinated by this position suddenly. wideeyed and uh it’s not even his move. He’s getting excited about something here. Hikaru Nakamura maybe starting to realize that it is still a position full rich and uh full of possibilities here. The position’s completely nuts, right? From a from a human perspective here. You see so many ideas, so many threats, so many tactics and tricks in this. Again, every move could just be completely lost for either side. You know, you play bishop A6, you better be sure you have a response to queen A4 coming in with a double attack. You go queen takes queen. Thank you very much. Pawn takes queen. I’m hitting your rook. Super happy to get that pawn on the seven rank. How are you going to respond to this? And I think Hikaru totally locked in zone in. And wow, he does go for that idea. The queen hitting the black knight and the bishop. Arjun, he sensed something in this position. Tactics incoming. And our audience there uh in the arena looks fascinated. They must be looking for ways to stop the white queen winning a piece. Hikaru looks very calm right now. It’s a double attack. The white queen hitting the black knight, hitting the black bishop, and at least according to our engines here in our studio. Only one move for Argentin to maintain his advantage. It’s not an easy one either. And uh he will need to be very creative. Let’s just show the white queen was attacking the black knight and uh the black knight actually jumped, but the black bishop is up for grabs now. Queen takes bishop will allow the knight into E3, threatening checkmate, hitting the white rook as well. The black queen trying to grab on G2. And if the white rook moves, we might see some cool tactics. Knight takes bishop. Rook takes knight. And check this out. A full queen sacrifice. Pawn to D2. Bang. And look at the tension between the queens. Now the white queen hit. The black queen could be captured twice. But if she is taken, a new queen is born, winning the white rook in the process. And when the dust settles, rook for knight advantage. Arjuna, that is incredible tactical vision. That’s very, very deep. And um let’s see if that ends up playing out. Knight C2 was played on the board. So, let’s see what happens next. Knight’s actually gone up to G4 instead. So, a bit of a deviation from what we saw. This game’s about to end. Arjun didn’t take the bishop. Maybe he saw some ghosts there. Maybe there were some issues, but he’s about to force a draw with a repetition. The knight jumps. There’s going to be a bunch of checks. This game is about to be over. Arjun could have taken a two-point lead in this match. He had that option. The line would have played out. Knight takes bishop, rook takes knight, and D2. He didn’t spot it. And this is very unlike Arjun. Usually these kind of tactics is what he lives for. It’s his breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He does them a 100 times a day, but he just rushed through. And now we’re going to see a knight jump back, the king move back, and there it is. It’s going to be repetition. This one ends in a draw. With the tactics on the board to keep the game going for a potential 2nil lead, we instead get to a three-fold repetition to Arjent Eric maintaining the lead in the match. 1 and a half to a half. But uh a very dynamic way to end the game. And after all of that calculation to get to the point where the knight was on the seventh and we were ready to go, it’s interesting that it was only the final blow. I say final blow, but it felt like a natural continuation at that point, didn’t it? Yeah. And our engine here says that Arjun would have only had a slight advantage, but to humanize it looks like a massive advantage. And I wonder whether there will be a reaction from Arjuni. We saw him playing through the game, analyzing it with the computer, but ultimately he went for safety. Maybe because he’s a point up in the match, forcing a draw on the spot against Tikaru. But Arjun, he might live to regret missing that small opportunity. I mean with the black pieces and the thing is that Arjun he’s not a bailout player. If he’s got that chance on the board he takes it. He tries to maximize it. You know he’s not somebody who goes for repetition. It it was a blind spot. It’s something that move the pawn push. It’s it’s a hard move to see. You know you’re hanging your queen. It can be picked up by the rook or your opponent’s queen and you have to calculate quite a bit ahead. But had Arjun just paused for 30 seconds in that moment I have no doubt that he would have spotted it. We should also bear in mind as well that um admittedly thanks to help from a computer evaluation uh if it turns out that he would have had an advantage but a relatively small one off the back of that. Yes, the humans uh the human look on that position looks like it’s a really really crushing continuation, but maybe Arjun has seen, ooh, I have an advantage here, but it’s still really double-edged. Do I maybe just take the draw as black? Maybe it was a conscious decision. I think what happened there, David, was that Arjun had preddecided this line in his mind. He had calculated his way through, seen that he’s given up the bishop, seen this repetition, and just gone for it. And when it appeared on the board, he just didn’t pause at that moment. Right. Yeah, he still had 6 minutes almost uh when he decided to go for this whole variation and uh blitzing towards the end. It’s definitely the match. He’s playing the points. He’s playing the fact that a draw with black is always a good result against Hikaru Nakamura. Exactly. And objectively, if you’re thinking, well, hang on a second. Uh win with white, draw with black. If we continue down this path, I’m happy to do it all day long. It’s up to Hikaru to find a response. That’s how they did it in the good old days, right? a very classical uh approach to chess going for it with white taking minimal risk and just being rock solid locking it down with black. I hear you guys. But had Arjun seen that line, had he spotted it, had he stopped for 30 seconds, he would have at least given a bit of a thought and made his decision and I would not have been surprised if Arjun would have said game on. I think he was just predetermined on this path and and just went for it. You know, he had calculated this entire sequence of moves and then just didn’t stop at that right moment. That’ll be a moment uh potentially to ask about in maybe some interviews after the match regardless of which way it goes. What was the end of game two like and how much of that did Arjun Eric see? For now though, game number three very much on the board. Uh we’ve been seeing a lot of D4 C4 in this tournament and this game is no exception. That’s right. A Queen’s Gambit declined this time and uh we see the K’s bad pawn structure. White with a nice pawn chain in the middle on dark squares. Black with a corresponding pawn chain on light squares. And uh it’s something that both players will be very very familiar with. Some small nuances here. White’s light squared bishop has not developed. And uh there we go. The path opens up hitting black’s bishop on f5 in the process. Hikaru pauses, but this is still wellknown stuff. That bishop’s going to retreat and uh the game goes on. He’s just trying to build that solid foundation we were talking about earlier, Hikaru, that he hasn’t got so far in this match. And the reason Hikari retreats to this square is making sure that Arjun’s knight does not jump to H5 attacking the G7 pawn. But what this move allows and a move that Arjun loves to play regardless of the situation on the board of the mat situation is the H pawn moving forward. H4 H5 would be the dream, but it comes as a pawn sacrifice. And yes, there are pros to that. Giving up that pawn on H4 has ideas of his own, you know, long-term compensation on that H line, potential knight jumps. It needs to be calculated. And Archin, he makes a more cautious move. Instead of H4, he goes H3. And that’s very uncharacteristic of him. Wow. Is that a mouth slip? I want to see Arjun’s face now. He doesn’t react. He looks very calm, but that is such a bizarre move. We see number one fan for Arjuni there arena. Nice to see. Nice to see people taking sides, showing what tribe they belong to. But in the meantime, pawn to H3. That is bizarre. Very passive. and doesn’t really help white’s position at all. Do you want to talk us through a little bit about why pawn to H4 could have been interesting? Because to the untrained eye, pawn to H4, uh allowing that pawn to be taken, I get that there’s activity associated with that, but without a white C pawn on the board, what I’m naturally thinking when you do that is, are we really castling queen side into this? Yeah, let’s show what could have happened if the pawn had pushed forward to A4, Arjun stopping one square short. The bishop could have captured and now white’s knight might uh just leap forward onto H5 hitting a pawn. This is very hard to defend now. And if there were a capture, the white queen would pounce. The black bishop forced to step back and white would have a big potential attack. Yes, he a pawn down, but the open H file for the white rook. The activity of the queen gives fantastic compensation. Black’s king would be caught in the center for the rest of this game. Last question on this position though, uh, David Ortana, uh, where does the white king live after all this? Well, you can’t go to the right side of the board. The good news is queen side castling is always up for grabs here. And then you just slide the king over to B1 and you would be completely safe on this side. Not to mention the white rook eventually joining the attack as well. Nice one. And look at this. He plays the same idea, different order this time. He plays it without having sacrificed the white H pawn. Makes a lot of sense. Now we see what Arjun has done. uh pawn to H3 at least creates a home for the white dart squared bishop to retreat to but still feels like he’s kind of mixing and matching and indecisive uh here Arjunagi I don’t hate it I think that knight might just be captured anyway but less attacking than it could have been you know if it was any other player I wouldn’t bring this question up but H3 mouse slip or not I think so I’m inclined to think that as well because we had no reaction though right we were we were looking for something on his face and he’s Mr. Cool guy for a reason. He Yeah, that’s true. Doesn’t give it away. Heart rate went to 90. That’s a small small giveaway. It’s dropping back down slightly here for Arjun. We saw a trade knight for bishop and now Hikaru offering a second bishop for knight trade potentially as he drops his bishop out to pin white’s knight. Very interesting there. Asking white’s king a question. Well, now now we get to um have one of our favorite topics of conversation I think on this commentator’s desk which is knights versus bishops. Having that bishop for knight trade of course means that Argentinary is left with the bishops. But my man my mind can’t help but think back to the earlier games when the knights absolutely dominated the bishops to give us the first point of the match. So are the bishop pair here is that going to be helping Arjun? I think that’s a great question and I think Hikaru knows that Arjun loves to play with knights and the reason for that is every single attacking player on the planet prefers knights to bishops in a more general situation because they’re just great attackers and of course you know there are exceptions to the rule depends on the position and all of that but knights over bishop when it comes to to your aggressive ability and Archin for now makes a retreating move but to your point I think it’s it’s possible you know he also came in with an idea and a threat. It wasn’t only to take Arjun’s last remaining knight on the board, but black’s knight was about to jump to A4, doubling down on that pinned knight. So Arjun’s mysterious queen retreat takes control of that knight A4 threat, which would have landed on the board. But now there’s another knight jump, knight to E4 instead, and Arjun uses the queen to defend the pinned knight. Vicaro really doesn’t like that knight on C3, does he? We get to see a knight into A4 as well. We got to see a premove there by Arjun on his screen. He did put pawn takes bishop if it would have happened as a move right there. Um, you know, if Hikaru was to choose bishop takes knight, Arjun’s ready with his response. It’s not going to be queen takes bishop. Yeah, I’ve come to realize there’s only two times when a safe move is 100% a safe move, a premove even, is 100% safe. And that’s when it’s a capture. So, you put your own piece onto another of your own pieces. Uh, so that move would only ever happen if your opponent takes something or if you’ve checked your opponent and they only have one legal response. You can play the next move as an immediate follow-up. Anything else comes with a little bit of risk. So that’s why we see some red on Arjuneris’s screen as he gets ready to play B takes C3. Pawn takes whatever lands on that square. Okay, let’s choose a side. Which way is the black king going? What do we uh we’ll see in the future? It’s got to be king side, right? You can do it now. Nice and quick. You’ve got you’re applying a lot of pressure. Uh white’s not about to win a tempo against you. It’s your agenda. Might as well do it in one, right? To me, that makes a lot of sense. And also, given the fact that Archin has this beautiful bishop on F4. So, if you ever went long castle with your king, you know, hiding to safety in the corner with B88 will be incredibly difficult. So, it just feels a lot safer on uh on the king’s side there. How about the white king? That was my follow-up question. How would you foresee? You know, we’re going to throw that back to you, David Howell. Probably to the king side, to the right side. I’m scared about the lack of a C pawn. I get that the king can move to B1 and it becomes relatively safe, but when you have one less pawn, it just makes me a little bit iffy. It’s a bit trickier for me, I think. Ooh, what is going on with Hikaru Nakamura and retreating moves today? Why is he doing this? He’s down on the clock. Last game, same narrative. That is huge. And uh it might not as well. It’s still a normal position, but his knight just came from F6, went to E4, went back immediately to F6. He gave Arjun two free moves. No chess professional wants to do that. And Arjun does go to the queen side after all. Okay. Wow. Arjun smelling weakness in Hikaru. Hikaru is down a full minute on the clock. Clearly playing very, very tentatively here. And uh Arjun wants to strike. And I think that’s the key point. Arjun’s not smelling weakness on the board, but more psychologically on Hikaru. Just the shakiness that he’s shown, not only in game one, but the way he’s approached the opening from here. How many times has that bishop moved? How many times has that knight moved? That’s breaking every single opening preparation, opening principle in chess even. And look at that, another inaccuracy. He brings the queen out. And if Arjun decides to trade the bishop now, that queen would have moved multiple times as well. Yeah. on his first 15 moves. Hikaru made five knight moves. He made three dark squared bishop moves and what was it? Three light squareed bishop moves as well. It’s uh all about the minor pieces for Hikaru. He does eventually get castled. He’s lucky that the center is locked that it’s blocked. So, he’s got away with it. Uh this loss of time, but it’s bizarre seeing a worldass player show such indecision. This has almost justified a little bit uh some of what Hikaru has done because Tanya mentioned that brilliant bishop on F4 makes it a little bit dicey to go queen side. But now that the opposing bishop has come back to D6, okay, we didn’t expect the bishop retreat, but it does a great job of neutralizing the bishop on F4. And suddenly there’s a little bit of justification for what Hikaru has done. It was really the only way to get your king to the queen side where he perhaps feels it a lot safer because if you go opposite side castling then Arjun was ready with the pawn storm. G4 G5 coming in. You know what? Arjun doesn’t care. This is why he’s called the madman over the chessboard. His king is on the same side, but he’s still going for that pawn attack. Again, the the theme when your opponent’s knight is on B6 or on G6. You always have to keep the flank pawn movement in your mind. A4, A5, kick that knight away. Magnus did something very similar to Nihal Serene in uh in one of his successful quarterfinal games. In the meantime, we did see a trade of bishops. And there we go. with the white pawn trying to act as a battering ram opening up the black king. He defends a pawn on the other flank. Arjun does have doubled f pawns so endames might be favorable for black and the knights but shortterm we see the eval bar struggling to uh fully decide who has the advantage. It does look like it’s slightly easier for Arjun just because the black king a bit weaker and the pawns around the king as well weakened now because of that a pawn moving forward. You know, you could always shift your attention moving that D1 rook, which right now stares as its own bishop and pawn. Rook C1. Try and target at the weaknesses around the black king. It just feels like so much easier to be white. You mentioned an endgame. I’m going to predict that’s going to be no endame in this game. Yeah, that makes sense. Like we we could see something explosive happen a lot sooner rather than later. The queen moving out to D7. Uh having half an eye on the pawn on H3, but that’s not really the hottest property on the board right now. Nonetheless, defended. And if the knight or bishop for white move too far from defending the E4 square, maybe Hikaru is looking at planting one of his knights onto the E4 square as well. So there’s not that much maneuverability yet. I feel like there needs to be something to unlock the rest of white’s attack. He goes back. I was expecting him to jump into the center even at the cost of a pawn Hikaru, but uh very very passive play from him. And now Arjun’s trying to hit from all angles. Arjun’s not held back at all. pawns flying forward on the king side, flying forward on the queen side. This last move given a question mark, but it’s very tempting for any human to try and break open potentially with the sacrifice the black king. And the speed with which Arjun played also counts for something. Hikaro’s got to be feeling it himself, right? That the things are just not in the rhythm today in that game one in game two as well. But he’s the one player who’s able to shift these guys really quickly and and it’s far from over this one. You know, we’re talking about that A6 pawn, a huge strength for Arjun, but it can in certain positions also come under fire. That queen from D7 could slide over to C8, and then suddenly you’re wondering, how am I defending that A6 pawn so you’ve got to be watching out for these ideas? Knight C7 on the board and it’s a big moment to sacrifice or not to sacrifice for Argenti. He’s burning a bit of time here and that’s because there’s a huge move, a huge decision that is available to him. Knight takes B6. We’re showing it on our analysis board. The pawn has to recapture because the black queen is hit. White’s queen jumps forward. He doesn’t go for this. The black king sliding in the corner. The key detail here is the black knight on D6 holding the B7 square. So there’s no checkmate. The white queen cannot deliver the killer blow. White’s rook here though could have slid across to C1 with a big attack brewing and long-lasting compensation. He didn’t go for this Arjun. I wonder if he’ll regret it a bit later. And uh okay, we see the game continue. But now black’s knights are in perfect defensive harmony. I would have gone for that. I just assumed Arjun with his nickname, the madman, the style, the fire that he likes to bring, he might have been tempted if he weren’t already ahead in the match. How low would the clocks have had to be for Arjun to have gone for that? I feel like that would have been a function of time. The more time you have to calculate it out, the less likely we would have seen the sacrifice, right? If it was a minute each on the clock, does Arjun go for that? I think also depends on the math situation, but you’re you’re absolutely right. If you’re relying on your intuition and your instinctive play, then you just play for it. if you don’t have time to overthink it. But Archenzi is rushing through these decisions. Even in the last game, he didn’t take knight takes bishop. He didn’t take his chance in that moment. A moment missed. And in this one, another opportunity missed. There has grabbed a pawn. The black queen took a pawn on H3. Now trying to force a trade. And uh to take or not to take, that is the question. Arjun, if he takes that queen, would have allowed the black pawns to connect. And look at this. Hikaru annoyed at himself. He’s missed this last move. A knight retreat. Knight retreat moves are the hardest to see in chess, they say. And now Arjun’s piece about to jump in with some checks. Might regain the pawn on D5. Anyone’s game now. And it’s going to be so much about the clock as well right now with both players around. 2 and 1/2 minutes for Arjun. 3 minute 15 seconds for Hikaru. And the endame full of opportunities, but I think white’s the one pushing. Rook E5. I like that move. Puts pressure on D5. If you trade, you solve Arjun’s problems off those doubled F pawns. harder decisions for Hikaru to take here. Yeah, the black king is actually in the kill zone. Even with the queens off, that black king is not entirely safe. Rooks are coming, knights are coming. So, Hikaru needs to get pieces off the board. Now, that uh that swapping of rooks there allowed at least a little mini for V formation of pawns in the center of the board. So, uh that’s going to be looking relatively solid. We’ve also got the pawn on D5 looking a little bit loose as well. But compared to how things were before, if you look at the relative activity of pieces between Hikar Nakamura and Archer and Naragisi, there’s not a huge amount of difference because the black rook can move now potentially after a couple of knight maneuvers. And uh it’s not looking as difficult to come up with a plan for Hikaru as it was before. Yeah. And if rooks disappear, I should mention Hikaru wins on the spot guaranteed due to the back H pawn pushing forward. There’s no rival. That is a pass pawn. If rooks disappear, Hikaru wins. Knights disappear, Hikaru has the advantage. But for now, Arjun needs to keep pieces on the board. Needs to somehow combine them and go for the black king. It’s an extra pawn for black. And that’s Arjun offering a repetition. Right now, he jumps back with the knight. It’s an inaccuracy. And this is when Hikaru leans in because he smiles weakness on Arjun. You know, he he knows he’s got that extra pawn. Arjun offering a draw would usually mean with a repetition would mean that he’s not happy with his position. Yeah, you have two choices here as Hikaru Nakamura. You can agree to the draw, bring the black king back, allow it to get checked, and a dance between knight and king, or you just say, “I’m calling your bluff. I’m going to push my pawn H uh four here, pushing Harry, the H pawn forward for glory, trying to make a new queen as quickly as possible.” That is the other one. But risk attached, huge risk attached because white’s also threatening rook to C7, knight C6, rook takes pawn, and that would be just a checkmate. So, it’s not only the D5 pawn that’s hanging. There are checkmating ideas against the black king. If you’re Hikaru, do you not instantly play the king back anyway to repeat once to buy yourself time and then think? It’s interesting that he didn’t even repeat once. Oh, he didn’t. And Arjun has blundered. He was going for a checkmate. The key was not to allow the white knight into this square and allow a checkmate on A7, the Arabian checkmate. Uh, instead, that square has been covered by the black knight. This was why an exclamation mark has appeared and now he’s three squares away. Black’s H pawn is three moves away from becoming a new queen. Arjun might just be too slow now to defend. How do you even bring it? Your knight, your rook, your king, all offside from stopping that H pawn from moving forward. That knight on D4. The only move that Hikaru had to defend the checkmating idea. Of course, he finds it. And you know, we’ve been talking about Hikaru struggling perhaps to find the flow, find the rhythm. It’s wins like these. It’s moments like these that puts you right back into the game. I mean, it’s bullet time now. Look at the red appear on Arin’s clock. He’s tanked. He’s realized he needs to go into reverse mode here. Bring the white rook back to stop the H pawn. But that is desperation. He goes all in. Rook takes pawn. But Hikaru just needs to push. That H pawn is becoming a new queen. Three steps away. Nothing going to stop it. Arjun gambling with his own E pawn, but Hikaru’s queen comes with a check on H1. That is the key here. Arjuni just isn’t quick enough. Black gets there first in this race. Hikaru only has one winning move. The black knight cannot move away and take that pawn as the white knight jumps into C6. He needs to just keep going. He’s going to find this. A minute and a half. Knight takes pawn. Loses on the spot. You get checkmated. And of course, Hikaru finds it. He’s going to check Arjun’s king. Make a queen, a new queen on the board. And then once the king moves away, he’ll go on the defense and stop Arjun from doing the same. Why is he not making a new queen? Why is he not pushing forward? He’s trying to calculate the rest of the sequence, Hikaru. The first move is obvious. You make a new queen now with a check and then you think you do it with a check. Exactly. That is forced and he does it and he’s got to have seen it through now. Now the black queen retreats. That’s very flashy. Any rook check now from white will be blocked by that black queen. It’s going to throw itself in the way. Hikar is going to be a rook up once the dust settles. We see the head bob from him. 1 minute against 24 seconds. He’s about to strike back in this match. He’s entire rook up. Arjun plays on, but it’s not going to be for too long. And there it is. Arjun resigns. Hikaru Nakamura back in the match at the Esports World Cup. Arabian checkmate threatened. We can think of very few fitting maneuvers here. That would allow Hikaru Nakamura back into this match. It is game on. One and a half one and a half in the third place decider. Wow, that one turned so quickly. Arjun here we see him lingering in the arena trying to play through realize where it slipped away for so long he had a big advantage but it let it slip. He gambled. He went for the black king. Hikaru too good in defense. And it was that Horn pushing that decided this game. It was actually a beautifully played game by Arjun until that very last blunder that he did. And he’s going to be kicking himself for missing this opportunity. Losing with white in this match, having a lead I is huge. And Hikaru at this moment had calculated his way through, seen this beautiful defense of bringing the queen back and there was nothing to be done in this position. You recapture, you play another move, but eventually you resign. You’re down a rook. Arjun Erici pressuring for most of that game, opting not to take the sacrifice on B6 as well. And then unfortunately a blunder later on allowing Hikaru Nakamura back. That means the match situation in this third place match is all square. One and a half one and a half. When we come back from this break, we’ll be going into game number four. Level up your gaming experience with over 8 billion playlists only on Spotify, the official audio streaming partner for the 2025 esports World Cup. Heat. Heat. What’s up everybody? I’m Trevor and I’m joined here by Ali Resza, your first ever chess finalist for the esports World Cup in its debut year. First of all, congratulations. Um when you look back on how the tournament’s played out, how do you feel? Cuz to me, you’re the best player. Yeah, I think um it’s a very very it was very tough tournament. I think other Magnus is also playing really great. He’ll play against Hikaro now, but it will be a very interesting match to see. It’s going to be interesting. I love your smile because I think no matter who wins, it’s going to be a fantastic final. Now, I want to talk to you about the club championship. You’re wearing a team Falcons jersey. The two teams that are in the top five, they have not won a tournament yet. Yeah. Team Falcons and Team Liquid. Yes. And I think the expected final is you versus Magnus. So, what would it mean to pick up the title for the first ever Chess for both you and Team Falcons? Yeah, I think we have still chance to guarantee tonight the victory, but if that doesn’t happen, I’ll try my best tomorrow. I think it’s um very important for club championship also. But uh I think already it was a great step to get to top two. Yeah. Can I ask you did you know that before your game an hour ago team fans was third in the rankings because of your single performance you’re now second. Yeah I think Hikaro was also we have same we had same point as Hikaro. Yes. But you you’ve guaranteed it. You did it first. You did it first. Okay. I want to ask obviously I I’m aware um French Persian um looked into a little bit of your background. What’s it like playing under the team Falcons Monica here in Riyad and what’s the local support been like? It’s fantastic. I think people are very nice here. They are so warm here. It’s crazy. And everywhere we go, they are really helpful people. And uh we feel like home here. Yeah. Um tell me about some of the other esports. Obviously, there’s a number of other titles. Do you play any other games? Do you watch any other games? What else are you are you going to be tuning in for for the rest of the event? Yeah, I have PS5 at home. I play FIFA all the time. So um our CEO is actually Mr. Sorry. I mean listen I know the history that’s where the falit started you know. Okay one last question before we move on. Um seeing chess at a stage like this in a period where chess was sort of blowing up in co and now it’s kind of adjusting. What is that like as a professional player? Yeah, it’s it’s here at at least is dream come true I think for chess people because it’s the top top stage and um at least my dream was to always be online tournaments fast tournaments at the highest stage so and this looking at this is just like a dream um for the dream do you want to give a shout out to any of the fans or any viewers at home you can say directly to the camera yeah I really thank the Falcon fans because they are always here. They are always cheering us even things doesn’t go well and just that they are here we feel them and those those Falcon fans are now Ali Resa fans. Thank you so much. Well done. Arjun Aragisi drew first blood in this third place match and the Hence draw in game number two was followed by a strike back from the Falcons in game three. It’s now 1 and a half a piece between Genji and Falcons going into the second half of regulation time I should stress here in the third place match. We could even see an Armageddon here. This match has been very entertaining so far. I mean the story line it’s following is exactly what happened yesterday against Magnus. you know, Hikaru from the back foot finally equalizing the match and and you know, taking his chances and I think this is exactly what he needed. The win that he had from the position that he had, converting it in the end with the position that he had did. Once again, David, he’s gone back to being a favorite equalizing the score with the black pieces. Starts with white in the next game. Exactly. It’s only Halime in this match, but he has two whites remaining from the next three. Hikaru, he’s uh at least historically much more dangerous with the white pieces. Arjun letting the wind slip, losing with white. He’s got to feel like at least some momentum has been lost. I think Hikaru there as we see a lot of his fans in the arena. Uh he becomes the favorite yet again. It was a shaky start to the day for him. But the fact that he’s on level footing despite not being at his best yet, that is a good sign for Hikaru fans. And now we go into game number four. The second half of this third place match is commencing. Blitzing things out very, very quick. We have uh Kings Indian sort of setup coming out. And as we know, Hikaru absolutely loves this sort of thing. It’s the Kings Indian meets the Slav. A bit of a hybrid here. Meets the Grunfeld. Meets the Grinfeld. Exactly. They’re playing everything. Especially after that pawn trade. It looks more Grunfeldesque as Hikaru. He loves moving the same piece multiple times in the opening, at least in the last couple of days. That knight went forward to F3, E5, C4, back to E5, back to F3. Don’t try this at home, kids. White is behind in piece development, but white occupies the center with pawn. So, you have to give something to get something. And Arjun here, how can he compensate for the fact he has no central influence and I think that’s the aim, right? Trying to get that influence into the game. You have to try to break in the center usually, either by pushing the C pawn or the E pawn. And I think that’s the idea that perhaps Arjun will be aiming for. you need to time it really well with black because the moment you go C5, you open up Hikaru’s monstrous bishop on on G2. So unless there’s a concrete line or or you know you’re sure of your path ahead, that’s a move you need to wait on. Arjun meanwhile continues to improve the position of his pieces. Now setting up the battery that’s about to offer a bishop trade on H3. Yeah. And this pawn structure actually gave Alza Fua a lot of success against Arjun in their semi-final. It came from a slightly different branch uh of this opening, but Hikaru maybe taking inspiration from his Falcon’s teammate there. Maybe he asked Alerza, “What is Arjun’s weakness? What should I do with white against him?” And this is what they’ve settled with. Uh you have options here. You could take even more control over the center. If you are Hikar Nakamura, push a pawn forward to E4. Or you can slide your rook across maybe uh to E1 to dodge any potential bishop trades. Instead, he moves his queen. M. And we’re we’re not liking that. At least the Silicon isn’t liking that. Another reasonably natural move. That bishop can’t move out of the way to H1, of course, cuz the rook is very much still on the F1 square. The game continues, but this is uh yeah, white still has a couple of developmental problems to solve. And uh wow, not liking that either. Again, some question marks next to frankly really natural looking moves. Yeah, I don’t think that’s a blunder or anything. Maybe there were opportunities to strike in the center for Arjun that just will no longer exist as uh Hikaro very naturally brings a bishop out. I don’t think we can fault either player, but uh I think just strategically in general, white has an advantage due to the pawn center. It’s that simple. Small advantage is reflected in the eval bar right now. But that’s got to be the breakthrough idea, right? Because if you look at the pawn formation, Arjun lacking the space for his pieces, the majors and the minors. You at some point have to trade the bishops. You know that Catalan bishop that we speak of in G2 on G2 and eventually strike in the center with the move C5 if you’re Arjun here. again needs to time it well, but it’s what he wants to do. It’s also his style of play. You know, rather than just waiting and playing passively, he wants to create his chances. But so far, Hikaru’s just made all the healthy moves in the position. Well, let me ask you, what’s stopping Arjun from doing that right now? Good question. Yeah. From breaking out. Yeah. Taking the bishop and trying to get C5 in before the C line is clear. The rook has gone on to D1 instead of C1. So, maybe there’s an opportunity here. Yeah. And uh black playing the move C5 is very likely in the near future. That will always however be met by a white pawn stepping forward to D5. I’ll just draw those arrows as uh we will see that theme exist for the next dozen moves or so. A question mark instead by uh Arun here retreating his knight. He’s maybe getting ready to challenge in the center with another E5 push. Either way, it’s so passive for black. That poor black queen cannot move. She’s got no vision into this game. And again, Hikaru just playing happy moves here. Uh he’s playing natural moves. Rooks in the center, knights out, bishop out. Looks uh like textbook opening play here from Hikaru Nakamura. Total harmony for white in the center of the board. You control the center with your pawns on E4 D4. You’ve placed everything and all the moves that he’s made doesn’t require overthinking at all. Right? You’re improving every single piece and you’re making them quickly. Meanwhile, because of lack of space, it’s a completely different story uh for for Arjun, who’s not even being able to find a way to connect his rooks. Look at the bishop on F4, making sure the black queen remains stuck on C8. The last move by Arjun, he’s dying to break out right now. He wants to get that E5 on the board as quickly as possible. You can even play moves like B3 and just really clamp down on black’s options here so that that knight on B6 literally has nowhere to go. uh the the amount of prophylaxis it’s Hikaru can just choose at this point what direction he wants the game to go in. It feels like all the initiative is with white and uh at least we got to the bottom of why Arjun’s move rook to D8 earlier was given a question mark because bringing it back to E8 was necessarily a couple of moves later. Um big problem here for Arjun is that he cannot lash out. He cannot strike in the center. Uh the move he wants to play is pawn to E5, but we would have seen some trades and black’s H6 pawn is hanging in so many different variations. He wishes it were back one square. Knight on F8, no checkmate. That’s what they say. But that knight on F8 is just a sad piece and it’s one that he hates. So quick uh quick club level chess question here. Does king H7 solve any of black’s problems if H6 is an issue? It might do in the near future. That’s why Arjun is tying his king down now. the white queen staring down a diagonal towards that black king which is paralyzed. Uh had to defend the f7 point. Uh I think that was maybe next on the docket. So okay, Arjun tries to prevent it. Oh sorry, Hikaru tries to prevent it, I should say. And now Arjun driving his pieces slightly further forward. But another question mark given is now the moment to strike for Hikaru Nakamura. And again it comes down to those trigger points, right? When do you know it’s time to get concrete in the position to create those critical decisions? Every single piece of Hikaru is playing beautifully, is placed maximized to their potential. This might be that moment where he does push one of those central pawns forward, gaining more space, and you know, asking some serious questions to Arjun. Don’t forget though, if he does push one of those pawns forward, it is very committal, so he needs to make sure he gets a concrete advantage from it. Are we looking at D5, E5? Could the H pawn even get chucked forward? What’s the committal move here? I think it’s going to be D5. I like H5 as well. Throw that H pawn, Alpha Zeroes in. Uh but D5 seems like the forcing move here. You’re hitting the knight. There are also these uh this tension between the bishop and the knight. And there it arrives on the board. Hikaru agrees with you, John. Uh it happened. Pawn takes pawn. And now a decision to be made. Do you capture the knight? Do you jump in with your own knight at the center of the board? Pawn takes pawn is the choice. Again, not easy for Arjun where to decide to place his knight. He jumps forward attacking the white queen. You called it Tanya. I mean this is uh this is the choice that Hikar Nakamura has gone. Now this is a a very aggressive counterattacking move with the knight to C5. So the question will be where white’s queen chooses to go off the back of it. If you retreat to C2 then you run the risk of some sneaky pins with the black queen opposing on C7. Yep. The white queen has a few moves but no it’s a counterattack against the black queen and an instant reply from Arjuneris. A very nice intermediate move there as Vishnug we would call it in chess just before you have to react to your opponent’s threat you create a threat of your own and the black queen had to move if she had fallen there would have been a nightfork as well in the process so no queen trade yet and Hikaru can now has a maybe slightly more uh kind of wide variety of choices for where to plant his own queen for safe squares for white and uh which one is he going to choose he’s got to attack the black knight either way you know Hikaru’s body language the way he’s been playing this game. Uh his moves, how he’s placed the pieces. Last game he was back in the match. I think what I see from him, he’s ready to take the lead in this match. He’s attacking the queen, not thinking about defending his own. Now he’s going to move it to an active square. I’ll be surprised if he decides to trade the bishop for the knight. You know, just uh losing the possibility of challenging. And as I say that, commentators cursed. Bishop takes knight on the board. He’s going for some direct ideas here. Attacks the queen. Is Arjun running out of escape squares? Yeah, there’s a fork in the air. The queens might well come off on this next move now, but that white knight is guaranteed to win one of the two black rooks. It’s a material advantage for Hikaru Nakamura. He takes the rook in the corner. He’s calculated this all. One of the white rooks might fall now, but then the black knight would chop off and uh at the end, white would have an extra piece if that white knight is captured in the corner. Hikaru will save his rook. It’s a bishop and two pawns for that rook. Level material for now. But so many open lines. We’ve introduced a whole bunch of new imbalances into this position. This is going to get very interesting indeed. Advantage Nakamura, of course, he wanted to introduce these imbalances into the game. He is now dictating terms to Arjun Aragi. The game is definitely not one, but it’s certainly white now very much on the front foot. And you know, for Arjun, it’s bishop and two pawns for the rook. And if you do the math, that’s enough compensation. That’s five points a piece for both players. But the problem is the black knight on A8 is really stuck there because you can’t allow the white rook to swoop onto that seventh rank. So it’s really about the piece activity. Meanwhile for Hikaru that knight from D2 is about to jump to E4 and further into the position closer to the black pawns creating threats. So it just feels like Arjun’s too late to get those miners into the game to get the pawns rolling up. Yeah. And this is again one area of Arjun Erice’s chess that he might be working on in the near future. He doesn’t like defending these technical end games. Uh it’s not just that. Of course, he’s starting on the back foot here quite heavily. It’s an uphill struggle mainly because of the black knight. The black knight, if it could have be improved, the black rook, if it were more active, maybe there are some drawing chances. He does try to activate that rook. We’ll see the white knight threaten black’s bishop now and defended by its king. Judgment call. Is he going to take that bishop off the board? Tanya, very tempting to do it, but I think he’s going to wait. I like the position of the knight also because it can jump to the left side and attack that pawn on B7. The computer doesn’t love it, but it also looked like the kind of move that you want to make, provoking some weaknesses, eventually trying to target the A7 pawn as well with one of the rooks sliding over to the A line. Yeah, and it’s a provocative move here. If black pushes a pawn forward to B6, maybe the most natural reaction to the fact that that pawn is hit, the white knight will happily retreat. And then look at the black piece in the corner. It will be a block of dead wood there. And uh in the instead in the end he decides to attack the white knight. At least he’s getting active. Arjun he’s given one of the pawns back. So now white does have a concrete material advantage but at least there is some pressure. I do like this last decision at least from Arjun. He had to do it. He has to try to create some activity from his pieces. The knights do come out. It might be time for Hikaru to improve the position of his own rooks. Get them into the game to make the most of the material advantage. We’re all taking a look at uh when the rook was going to come into the seventh. That hasn’t really happened yet, but uh with the rook to D1 here, it’s beginning to look like uh we’re threatening potential for a knight to jump in, for example, trade off a pair of minor pieces and then get in behind. Now’s not quite the right time, of course, cuz the bishop’s defending the pawn on E7, but at some opportune moment, that’s got to be what Hikaru is thinking. Pushing the A pawn forward now, thinking about getting into the endame. And Hikaru now choosing to go in not to the seventh but to the back rank. And it comes with a threat, right? Rook B8 pinning that black knight is the big idea. That square had to be defended. Arjun does it, but Hikaru knows that he should be pushing for the edge. And I think that headshake is more of maybe that small frustration that he allowed this piece activity of Arjun’s. Exactly. That black knight got out. It cost Arjun a pawn, but it’s a very worthwhile investment there. And the black bishop does look like it controls a lot of squares. maybe regretting the opportunity uh kind of not taking the opportunity earlier to trade white’s knight for that black bishop. The bishop on uh sorry the knight rather on c5 is the only defender of the pawn on b3 right now. So bishop d6 looks like such a natural move for black to play as well. So the plan for our generic gy uh looks relatively straightforward to follow. Computer not liking the rook going to e8 though. Yeah, that was the only piece caging the black knight. The black knight was actually trapped. It didn’t have any squares to use. Now it can enter the center. Uh, another idea kicking away the white knight from the defensive B3 that you just mentioned there, John. Also available if the black bishop slides back to D6. Can come forward to D4 as well. Does feel like Hikaru is just losing the threat a bit. He’s been playing quite quickly up until this last turn. Uh, spending 30 seconds there. I do feel that he wants to play a bit on the clock. So, is the idea then that the knight comes to D5 to accomplish the same thing instead. And if white moves the rook uh back to d8 to attack the knight, then you play bishop d6. And now your knight’s out of the corner. Exactly. It feels like this is the key move that we’re showing on the board. Getting the black knight in. Okay. The bar slightly rises after Arjun’s move instead. Maybe small missed opportunity, but uh still in the balance here. Arjun probably should be holding this endame a majority of the time, but the clock is going to play such a huge role. How many times have we seen Hikaru Nakamura grind his opponents down in a long endame with a bit of a helping hand from the time? And when it comes down to those last few seconds, that’s going to be incredibly tough for Archon. Arjun’s a super fast player and he’s usually the one who’s ahead on the clock. But when it comes to time scrambles, I think Hikaru Nakamura is a clear clear big favorite in this one. He’s not as good because he’s just not as used to handling time pressure. Arjuna guys, you just don’t see him coming down to those final few seconds. We saw that how it worked against Alireza to absolute disaster for Arjun. So at all costs he has to keep those extra minutes on the clock to be able to defend this. Hikaru not happy with his position. He’s been shaking his head for the last 30 seconds very very clearly here. Not happy with what’s just happened. The white knight doesn’t have many safe squares. If you retreat that white knight either to C3 or D2, you might just get pinned by the black rook. If you step your king forward, poke its face forward, then you’ll get checked back. You might have to defend that knight with your pawn. We’ll see a check here from Arjuneris. And the white king will be forced back. Karu still in the driver’s seat, but the clock now suddenly not in his favor anymore. Is the idea maybe to zigzag the king via E2 to D3. And the knight on E4 just about holds this together. I mean, it’s looking a little bit ropey, but I think what does it even hold? I’m not even sure. I think that’s the plan. But Arjun wondering whether to even push the white king back yet. maybe looking for something else. The one thing you don’t want to allow is the two white rooks to get into the eighth rank. There might be some checkmating ideas behind the black army, but Arjun does centralize. Beautiful pieces for Arjun, but now pinned by the white rook. And with the speed with which Hikaru responded, it was almost like he was expecting this move on the board. It did come with a trap of its own. The knight on E4 could in some positions be picked up and some forking ideas on F6. Hikaru is continuously looking unhappy with the choices that he’s making, but he still holds the advantage. He’s still doing pretty well on the clock as well as the board. And quite calm, Hikaru. The heart rate down under 90. It hasn’t always been that way, especially yesterday, but uh even in the match so far today. And uh the quick moves coming, the 40 second time difference. Arjun has to speed up. We’ve all been there. We’ve all been checkmated by Hikaru. Lost games due to the clock. He cannot allow himself to get under the one minute mark. The clock has not been a huge factor in this matchup just yet. Through the middle game, both players here, both contenders have done a reasonably good job of maintaining their time management. But as we go on and on, as we get further and further in this game, small differences start to mean a lot. 2 minutes 30 plays 1 minute 50. Hikaru Nakamura arguably the faster player with more time. In another minute or so, this will start becoming critical. Well, if you’re Hikaru right now, you also want to try to get some trades into the position. I think he wants to make that possible. If you can get the rooks off the board, you should be winning on the spot. But that isn’t the case right now. He does fall back with the rook, defending that bishop on B6. How is Hikaru going to make progress? And will 2 minutes be enough to convert his advantage into a full point? You can see the focus now. Hikaru switching modes, switching up the pace. He’s just playing useful moves. Okay, bit of uh scratch there under the headphones. He’s just trying to get into the flow state into the zone and uh the team Falcons player tries to turn this endame in his favor. Not easy to find moves for Arjun. He just has to hope and sit there. Ooh, and sometimes it’s better not to do anything. He’s pushed a pawn forward. That’s only weakened the black king. His pawn structure now those pawns won’t move backwards. Those pawns vulnerable. Just sitting is not Arjun’s one of one of Arjun’s strengths. He he’s a player who always wants to do something on the board. You know, sometimes most times it works to his favor, but sometimes it backfires like when you have to create when you end up creating weaknesses for yourself. Arjunan tries to bring the king to the defense, but that trade of knights could have only favored Hikaru. He’s up material. Any trade favors white. Yeah, especially the rooks coming off the board. Uh some scenarios if the black pawns were further back, you could to trade off rooks, especially if the queen side is liquidate uh liquidated. In the meantime, black’s bishop very, very passive. 1 minute plays 1 minute 45 though. That is the key factor in this position. Pieces now continuing to move a little bit faster now. We’re feeling the sense of urgency. Hikaro and Nakamu are forcing Argenti under a minute now. And even though it looks like white is a bit stronger on the board, anything can happen in a time scramble. Here we go. But this is all turned around. Arjun’s about to win a pawn on H5. And that’s a big pawn to win. You know, you move your king back, the H pawn starts moving forward. You can imagine the four versus two on that right flank will give you something to play for. Counter play to play for, which is why Hikaru boxes up the black king. Now a check on H1 would be game over. Rook C1, rook H1, watch out, Arjun. Well, he trades off rooks in desperation. Arjunis here. Maybe it’s an inspired decision, but look at this. He’s dropping one of the pawns he just picked up. Given a question mark from Hikaru, but I think the most natural move in the position. Now it’s three versus four in terms of pawns. Black king very very active. Can I Hikaru maneuver his rook to win black’s pawn on the queen side? That is the key to the position. Arjun scared of those checkmating ideas. Gets the rooks off the board, but turns out that is a bad decision right now. He needs to defend. That bishop just stopped paralyzed from getting active. And for Hikaru, the good news is the B3 pawn cannot be targeted by that bishop. Arjun attacks. He’s activated it. Now the bishop will defend it from B4. Black King is actually cut off on the edge of the board as well. He went the wrong direction. Hikaru tries to open up a path for the white king. It’s all about the clock though. And there we go. Hikaru might have clinched it with this last move. There’s a big weakness on the F5 square. That black pawn is doomed potentially. He just needs to move his king here. Waste a move, Hikaru. And the black bishop is stuck. Whichever direction you go, you’re going to lose a pawn. The black king coming. 15 seconds though. It’s just physically impossible for Arjun to make the rest of these moves. You can’t even premove because the white rook is going to hunt down that black bishop. 10 seconds he loses the pawn and Arjunari resigns. Hikaru Nakamura with the fist bomb takes the lead. Hikaru Nakamura he was a point down in this third place match managing to win a second game now to go two and a half one and a half up. Team Falcons now have the upper hand in this third place match over Geng putting Arch and Erici in a high pressure situation. Nakamura now just one point away from taking it. Hikaru, he has upped his game. He’s fully awake now and he smells weakness in his opponent. Arjun just couldn’t really fight Hikaru from a level playing field in that one. The opening went a bit wrong. Hikaru getting an advantage and never let up. Eventually pressure on the both the board and the clock was decisive. Very impressive I’m going to say from Hikaru Nakamura. But Arjun needs to rediscover the magic that he had at the beginning of the day. Hikaru’s won the last two on the trop with both the white and the black pieces. It looks like whatever he’s changed, whatever’s going on, he’s not only woken up, he is smelling blood and he’s now one win away from taking it. He’s just found his flow into this match. you know, a little shaky at the start, uh, you know, the first few games, but then ever since getting that win with the black pieces, finds his rhythm. Uh, the Falcon is soaring, Hikaru Nakamura definitely back in the game, feeling himself. You can look on the screen and you know that this is a different Hikaru from the start of the day. And now, uh, with game five and game six to go, we need to see one of those be a win for Argenti. Ideally, the next game uh, they can draw the next game, but then it will be a must-win situation for the final game. and Archent Eric has white now. So, he would be realistically looking to strike back immediately. This is so important for the club championship as well because those 500 points for Gen could prove critical at the end of the esports World Cup. So important uh also for the team. But on a personal level, Arjun, he struggles to beat these top guys. He’s fantastic at uh beating players lower rated than him, at getting inside their skin, attacking them. But the likes of Magnus, the likes of Hikaru in match situations, he’s yet to really do it on a consistent basis, and he wants the breakthrough in this in his career. Uh it felt like this might be his day the way he started, but the last two games, it just feels like he’s running out of steam a bit. Uh something’s just been a bit off with Arjun, just lacking the energy we’re used to. And I think one of the reasons for that, why he struggles against the very best in the world, has been also Arjun’s biggest strength, his brand of chess. you know, when he brings on those attacks, those chaotic positions which require players to calculate and be precise, Arjun’s awesome at that, but he finds it difficult to be a more universal player, you know, to hold, to play safe, to play maybe that to have that cautious approach when it’s needed. It’s been sort of a struggle for him to kind of develop that more universal style of play. And against guys like Hikaru, you need to be playing every aspect of the game to the best of your ability. Now, let let me ask you a follow-up question to that, Tanya. Speaking of slowing things down, knowing when to hold back, are we going to see Hikaru go for the throat here and try and get the full point with black, or is he saying, “Actually, I just need two draws. Let’s calm it down a bit.” Yeah, it’s a great question. I mean, Hikaro has got so many wins with black in the last two days. You know, his first one against Magnus with the black pieces and the Kings Indian. The only defeat that Magnus Carlson has had here in Riyad was uh was that game. And for Hikaru, you know, even in this match coming back with that victory that he did in round three with the black pieces. So, I think if he gets that opportunity, if he gets the chance, he’ll take it. Okay. But will he try to create those chances himself? I don’t think so. I think he’ll he’ll keep it as he knows that Arjun’s the player who’ll make it happen himself on the board. You know, Arjun, he needs to Arjun doesn’t have an option. Hikaru doesn’t need to take the fight to Arjun. It’ll come to him. So, in other words, Hikaru knows that Arjun may need to take a risk. maybe needs to play one or two sub-optimal moves on purpose to try and shake things up. And Hikaru knowing that that’s coming, it helps him understand where those critical positions will be. It helps him understand where he needs to slow down and think and he will try and pounce and turn that inaccuracy, deliberate inaccuracy I should add into a full-blown mistake and really try to punish Arjun for it. Exactly. That’s his favorite role these days. Hikaro Nakamura, just the counter puncher. He just waits. He’s super patient. He loves his end games. Note how the two games that Hikaru won were after the queens came off and it was only then did he press an advantage. And uh I think he’s going to wait for that to happen again. If he gets a chance to make it slower or if Arjun goes full guns blazing at him, maybe sacrifices uh incorrectly, then Hikaru will uh wake up and try to score this full point. Hikaru would love a draw though. Let’s be honest, he would love this game. Uh he would love to take it to game six with the lead with white pieces 100%. And I think that strategy that you’re talking about, Hikaru, it works with against everyone in the world, right, except a certain Magnus Carlson. I think with Magnus, you need to create those chances yourself. You need to try to create the chaos on the board. But for Hikaru, you know what he does, this waiting game, it it’s it’s perfect. And I think especially against a player like Arjun Eric, I see. That’s weird, isn’t it? Chess is a game of complete information. You know exactly where your opponents and your pieces are at all times. And yet somehow some things work against some players and not others. It’s part of what makes the game so beautiful. And uh in this situation, we have uh Arjun being the wilder of the two players and also basically needing to win on command. Nakamura will be thinking of ways to shut it down, but I’m looking forward to seeing what the potential counter punches could be. And in the meantime, uh this position, wow, p5 is very, very committal. opening up the black king somewhat. A very loosening move there, but Hikaro is fighting against this. I was going to say it’s going to become very symmetrical, but white had a small advantage now. Maybe white still has that small advantage, but anything but symmetrical. White has three pawns in front of his king. Black has two. Hikaru in his attempts to shut this game down and uh prevent any active play feels like he’s weakened himself. A big big shake of the head. Prolonged one this time. Yeah, it feels like no matter what you do in the middle of the board right now, that E pawn currently on E6 is looking like a long-term target. No matter who you’re playing, no matter what the position is, that is an a very obvious question mark/target in the middle of the board for the white pieces to direct their attention to. 100% that E6 pawn is weak and if there’s a D5 p trade and that pawn lands there, that’ll be weak there as well with the white queen land up against it. I think there are some practical problems for black in this position to solve. You know if you trade the bishops on Arjun’s term bishop takes bishop rook takes bishop huge weakness easily easily can be taken on and what we see right now the trade as it’s happened after pawn takes pawn the queen lines open up bishop takes knight in fact d5 is hanging immediately might be forced to capture with the bishop which means a long-term weakness the isolated queen’s pawn this is going to be a lot of suffering ahead from Hikaru maybe it’s not too dramatic yet the evalar says nearly plus one for white really surprised Arjun didn’t uh take the opportunity to open up the D file for the white queen there. Maybe he’ll get a second chance. But ultimately, it is a few things is the fact that black’s pawns in the center of vulnerable plus the fact that longterm the black king slightly open. And uh here Arjun with a big time advantage as well. Dream start to the game here in his quest to come back. Maybe uh maybe it’s cuz he doesn’t have to. Maybe the C pawn can’t be pushed to C4. Also doesn’t want to take on D4 and ruin the pawn structure. And white actually has time. There’s no need to take on C5. I can take whenever I want. I’m just going to improve the position of the rest of my pieces and torture you a little while longer. You know, one of the hardest things in chess is to keep tension on the board. It’s something that that I’ve struggled with a lot in my career as well, and I think players of all levels do, but I think these top guys, and I’ve seen this especially with Arjun, that if there’s an option to just keep the trades as they are and not rush into it because that dynamic cannot change in the near future, he won’t do it until it’s absolutely forced. He will want to keep that tension, keep improving the position of his pieces, you know, get that rook out to D1, then think about capturing on C5. Meanwhile, Hikaru continues to activate some of his own pieces. But I’m going to like the the counterargument to that is maybe taking a look back at game three. Tanya Arjun kept the tension on the board, kept things really complicated. He was pressuring from an advantageous position. And there’s an argument to say that partially because of that, Hikaru seized the opportunity to turn that game around. and he ended up making it a victory. That’s a great point, but you got to stick to your style, you know, because more often than not, that will work to you. And to decide when to do it, when not to do it is the tough part about chess. The last few moves that have happened, David, the king sliding over, I think at some point that tension in the center will get released. Maybe now with the bishop sniping across. Yeah, now might be the moment. Very uh committal decision there from Hikaru. He didn’t want to spend time invest uh investing uh to calculate there too deeply. As you say, Tanya, the white bishop, I’m just going to show on the same diagonal as the black king. So, watch out. Hikaro Nakamura, you have to keep your eye open for tactics a bit later, but for now, everything’s covered. And black in return had some counter threats on the F2 square. A little bit less forced as well because queen takes D5 no longer came with check, I suppose. So, just trying to force the issue a little bit and relieving a bit of the tension. And we’re just adding a defender now to the F2 square. And once again, that pawn continues to look like the center of attention for good reason. Yeah, that bishop on B2 just reminds me of the bow and arrow that Magnus was referring to yesterday in his winner speech after taking down one Falcon. The white bishop. It’s like a like an arrow staring across the board. But for now, Hikaru has everything covered in a bit of a trap. Queen takes pawn would be a losing blunder here. Uh if the white queen were to capture on d5, we would see a gameending skewer and uh you cannot allow that for Arjun. Of course, greed is not good here. We’ll just show it on the board. Queen takes pawn. The black rook would slide across and whoops, you find your rook undefended at the bottom of the board. The white queen would be forced out of the way and rook takes rook check. Black has extra material and a deadly attack against the white king. So, Hikaru here defending his isolated queen’s pawn with tactics with some tricks. And uh yes, this is kind of chess 101 when it comes to uh back rankers, but all important as you try to turn the middle game in your favor. The knight jumps forward to block instead. You know, there are two strategies when your opponent’s got the isolated queen’s pawn. Either you go for a direct attack against it, which Argent cannot recapt, cannot capture it, cannot win that pawn. And the second strategy is you block it. You use a piece square in front of that pawn which is the strongest spot for you in the position to replace your pieces to better squares. And usually the one that belongs there is the knight. Place that knight in front of the isolated queen’s pawn. It can’t be kicked back. It’s the strongest position for that knight and that’s where he finds it. Also comes in with a threat. Knight to E6 at the right moment. Watch out. And this is another big moment. Arjun uh in his desperation to avoid any tactics on the D file might have opened up some tactics on the F file. Right now, Hikaru, we saw him kind of frown for a moment. He spent a lot of time. It looks like he might be tempted to give up his knight on the F2 square. He can take with the knight or the rook. And look at this. After the black knight gives itself up, we would see some trades. The white king coming forward. And it’s the black queen now able to swoop in, take on H2. The black rook is coming next move to F8. The white king uh lacking shelter. The black bishop pins the white knight. Suddenly we could see a full turn of momentum. Black also gets two pawns for this sacrificed knight. It looks like the eval bar says this is the best way to go. Still a small advantage for Arjun, but this would be a real shock. Hikaru, will he go for this variation? Huge moment. If he doesn’t, he might just find himself a bit passive. This might be his chance to strike Hikaru Nakamura. What do we think? Is he going to go for it? I mean, he’s thinking so long of this, right? 4 minutes now play 6 and a half. And uh I I get that these guys are super quick on the clock, but if this gets up to something like a 3minut advantage, not only are we going to have to commit, if we choose not to commit, we’re then just playing the game out 6 minutes versus three. That’s going to give Archentric a renewed sense of confidence. Yeah, very to make that decision. And he goes for it. Knight takes pawn. It’s on the board. He wants to wrap this match up here and now. Wow. This is a three result game. Hikaru is going to get a ferocious attack in return for the piece he’s just sacrificed. He’s even got those couple of pawns we mentioned. He spent a long long time, two full minutes pondering over whether to go for this. But Arjun looking calm. The heart rate still low. Can he react? It’s so scary now for white. You never want to play chess with your king out in the open like this, especially if you’re the one trying to attack. If you prefer being on the front foot, I think this is inspired by Hikaru Nakamura. Absolutely. This is this is taking the fight to Arjun. This is the kind of stuff that Arjun does against his opponents. Huge threat on the board. Rook F8 check. It’s not just a check. That G2 pawn is thunder. That’s a soft pawn. Queen takes pawn. Would be game over if it’s allowed. Archin has to find a way to not only defend the king, but do it in such a way that he doesn’t lose his queen because queen F3 would have run into rook F8. Queen H3 offers a trade. Defends that pawn. I don’t believe Hikaro trades in this position. He’s going to keep the queens on the board. He’s going to go for Argent King. No trades. White has the extra knight. Black’s pawns are not so impressive right now. And uh Okay, it was just one check. The white king’s actually trying to run away to the left half of the board. Give white two more moves. The white king will find safety again. So, Hikaru needs to keep the queens on. Needs to keep creating threats. And uh what do we think here? Tanya, you know Arjun so well. Your teammates for India. Do you believe he’s going to be able to defend this one? I’ll tell you one thing, Arjun’s not going to be stressed or tensed about this position. You know, it’s the kind of position which is crazy on the board, but this is where Arjun feels the calmst. This is where his nerves are absolutely chill. Um, it’s what he does for a living are these kind of crazy chaotic positions. But can he save this with the time on the clock? The good news, he’s got the extra minutes. Hikaru continues with the checks. Arjun can use his queen to block it, offer a trade. Remember, any queen trade, great for Arjun. Game over for Hikaru. So, it’s pressure on Hikaru to keep the attack going. If he doesn’t, Hikaro’s lost. Don’t forget the clock pressure as well. It took uh it took him 3 minutes for that. The queen actually going back to H2 saying, “Okay, maybe the path forward isn’t so clear. Are we interested maybe in doing any of this repetition stuff, but Arjun doesn’t have to say yes to that.” Yeah, Arjun will not be agreeing to a draw here. We’re not repeating moves by sliding the white queen across to H3. He’ll look for something else, look for something better. Um, ideas could include sliding the white king across, trying to bring that one to safety, although it does look a bit slow. You can defend that pawn with your queen, maybe even with your rook. It does feel like white has enough control for now to be able to defend, but he needs to find a way, right? Because if you don’t, it’s a bit scary to face this as well with the black queen and the rook. You know, yes, you can run with your king, but you’re essentially giving black at least three pawns, which is more than enough compensation. So unless Arjun finds a good way to defend G2 and stop that check on E5, he might end up repeating and and bail out in this position. And here the allseeing engine, the computer, our silicon friend says that this move is by far the best for white. Bring the queen to G5. And the key detail is you defend your pawn on G2, but you also attack this black pawn on D5 from where you also defend G2. This is the move we’re looking for. If he finds it, Arjun a big favorite. Oh, he does. It’s two multi-purpose moves in a row. It’s watching the G2 square. It’s watching the E5 square. And guess what? The only other square the white queen can do that from is D5 after capturing the pawn. You know, not just that, it was three. Even G7 was a tender spot. Hikaru kicks the queen. He wins the pawn. Hikaru reacted. He kind of leaned forward as if he might have missed this one. The black queen slides back and there’s a huge threat now. The black rook is trying to infiltrate on the second rank. The white king in the kill zone this time needs to run away as soon as it can get it to the left side of the board. Rook F2 is a massive threat that will end in checkmate. Arjun locked in. Moves the rook and that’s a blunder. Hikaru Nakamura has a winning move right now. Nakamura, he needs to find the fact he can move his bishop to attack that rook. We’ll just draw it with an arrow here. Bishop to B4 is a winning move that would tip white’s defenses over. And no, he doesn’t find it Hikaru. Instead, he’s going to trade rooks. This could be decisive now. White with an extra knight. Wow. Missed opportunity. That was hidden. It’s not obvious. I’m going to say from Hikar Hikaru Nakamura. But he’s chasing the white king now only towards safety when he had the option to give a check to make a small quiet move with the bishop taking away the escape route for the white king. Not an easy spot, but a huge huge miss there by Hikaru, which has now gotten in fact Arjun back on the winning advantage as his king runs to safety. An extra piece on the board. And once it’s Arjun on the attack with that bishop on B2 and the queen on D5 combining the knight jumping to E6, that would be game over. Hikaru has to continue giving the checks. Look at this. The white king hiding amongst its own pieces. This is beautiful defense here. A lot of shelter for the white king. No important checks here. The only check black can give is from the queen, but that will be blocked by the white knight. Hikaru is running out of ammunition. Look at this. The eval bar slides all the way up in white’s favor. Hikaru reacting. He’s down at 1 minute as well. This is all gone wrong. Ice cold defense from Arjun. Such a difficult position. We can forgive the players the mistakes, but uh it’s all about what’s left on the board. And Hikaru out of threats. And throughout this madness that happened, Arjun’s heart rate did not go beyond 80. Again, it comes back to this point. These kind of positions, he’s just missed the cool guy. It’s just so hard to get him tense. And that is it. Hikaru Nakamura resigns. Arjun Aragisi equalizes. Two and a half. Two and a half in this third place match. We are going to be going to a game number six. And that game number six is all square, which means a draw in the final game. Tipping Armageddon. Wow, what a topsyturvy game that was. Arjun ice cold in his defense there. Hikaru had his chances. He was the one who went for it. Fair play to Hikaru. He wanted to be the master of his own destiny. Ultimately though, he missed this key move. Bishop to B4. He would have turned the tables there. Would have won. Might have even just banked that third place on the spot. In the end, this chase of the white king only helped Arjun. And in the final position, white with a full extra knight. And with that, I think this match now is certainly on the stream. I don’t know if it’s on the esports world cup so far. Definitely the match with the most decisive games. We have seen some fire on the board here. Uh very very decisive. Very few draws. In fact, just the one I believe getting to this point. So, incredibly strong stuff from both players and it’s fitting that this goes all the way down to game number six. Four punches traded in this one. Two by each of these. I mean, this is just the fire firework of of a match that it is. But that’s what’s expected when you’ve got players like this, right? World number two Hikaru Nakamura taking on world number five Arjun Aaragi here. Experience versus exclus explosiveness. For Hikaru, you know, his legacy is on the line in this match. Yes, he’s not fighting for championship, but it’s third place. It’s glory. It’s pride for team fal team falcons. For Arjun Aragi, he’s writing his legacy right now. You know, it’s just the beginning of his chess career at the very very top. So this means a lot to him playing for Janji trying to get that third spot for his club. He wants this to be the passing of the torch moment. And this is very very knifeedged in game number six. Folks, we’re playing for three results. You know that in chess, of course, you’ve got a white win, a black win, and a draw. But as far as the match is concerned, as far as third place in the esports world cup is concerned, we are also playing for three results with this very game. And Hikaru Nakamura perhaps inspired by his opponent in this one. He tries to set up with the white pieces just how Arjun Eragisi set up in the previous game also with white. We see some quick trades in the center. Uh Hikaru still clearly reeling from the shock of that previous defeat. And big moment Arjun decides to capture with a pawn establishing the first imbalance. IQP the isolated queen’s pawn. The pawn on D5. Hikaru loves playing against it, but it does promise Arjun some active play with his pieces. And this is a knife’s edge sort of a match, right? Because how much risk do you take? There’s no margin for error. If things go wrong, it’s match over. Do you have a safety first approach? Do you say I want to delay? You know that take it to the Armageddon, make sure that I have that safety net of being able to shut down the position or will Arjun, even with the black pieces, stick to his brand of chess? I I was trying to avoid talking about Armageddon, but I think Tanya, you’ve brought it up at the perfect time because the question we have to ask ourselves are is is Hikaru actually much more favored if we go to Armageddon. Is he happy for this to fizzle out? It’s difficult. They had uh I think mixed history in Norway chess just a few months ago in the Armageddon. Surprisingly, in Armageddon chess doesn’t have an amazing record. It’s decent, but you would think for such a speed specialist that it would be much more impressive than it is. I think it’s going to be pure 50/50. Hikaru might depend on his bid yesterday against Magnus. Went so low on the clock. 6 minutes 12 I want to say. Yeah. Came back to haunt him. That was a very surprising decision. And I think Hikaru said it earlier here in Riyad, right, that the Armageddon win just depends on the decision that you make on the color that you want and if you’re able to get it. Yesterday he wanted the black pieces desperately but went perhaps just a tad bit too low. But still the Armagadens’s a game away and I think this game’s going to be quite the one. You know the imbalances are there that isolated queen’s pawn. And look at Hikaru’s last move that knight from H4. Yes, it offers trades but it’s also headed to that F5 square. And if it’s allowed to get there then we’re looking at the m at some at the makings of some attacks. If black retreats with the bishop, avoiding the trade, defending that square, that gave Hikaro the possibility to jump further with his bishop targeting the D5 pawn. I don’t think this is so simple for Arjun to handle. Yeah, and the fact that Arjun has paused so much here that the fact that he’s burnt over 2 minutes is worrying. This is still well-known theory. This is still a very typical idea. The white knight going to H4. It’s kind of borrowed from colors reversed, the Nimzo Indian defense where there’s an identical idea against the isolated queen’s pawn. Hikaro, of course, he’s familiar with it. Super experienced in these fianetto lines with a white bishop on B2 is his bread and butter. He plays it day in day out on chess.com when he’s playing blitz. The fact that Arjun hasn’t prepared, the fact he’s not enjoying this position, the fact it’s about to become very strategic with black the only side with a weakness. All seems to favor Hikaru and Nakamura. The bishop goes back. It’s the bishop pair as well for white now. And Tanya’s move bishop to F3 hitting black central pawn already looks fantastic for white. very very quick uh to move that back and then premoving of course recapturing Archin Eric Icy here. We’ve seen him work wonders with the knights in the middle of the board. Maybe he’s not panicking over the loss of two bishops or anything like that. But when we see the center potentially opening up like this, we do have to ask ourselves the question, are the bishops just the more powerful piece here? Arjun loves his knights, but again it comes down to the position that you have. You know, this is going to be a defensive one for those knights. Usually if you’ve got the knight pair, if you got a knight versus bishop imbalance, you want the position to be closed. Knights are short-range pieces. They jump around, but they can’t make that far route too quickly. So you want more pawns on the board. This one absolutely blown open. The bishop’s beautifully placed for Hikaru on the longest diagonals on the both both of them. The light squad bishop will not be challenged and has a a clear direct target on D5. This is a dream position for the side with the bishop. Exactly. Dream position for Hikaru. Arjun’s last move given a question mark. Maybe this is the moment that Hikaru will try to open up the center even further. He can push his E pawn forward. Maybe uh another tempting option would be to move the white queen, slide the white rook from F1 over into the center. Arjun’s knights very very passive. That’s the key. Whatever configuration you like, and the queen does move. Uh it is about active pieces. Bishop’s active, knight’s active. That tends to be a necessity in these types of middle games. Missed opportunity. Maybe it was better to open the center. Yeah, the red X appearing, but Hikaru’s position still preferable. Queen Queen Queen D2 looks very very sensible indeed. So, I was very surprised to see that red X in the corner. Uh it it must be something to do with uh opening the center being potentially better. Don’t know. It looked that way. And now Arjun trying to force the issue. Not enjoying the position too much. He trades off dark square bishops. At least the pair of bishops is gone. But the black queen slightly offside for now. will have to burn an an extra tempo going back in the near future. And again, Hikaru, his move given a question mark. I will tell audiences at home, the computer has been crying out for the move E4 over the last few turns just uh to open up white’s light squareed bishop, but that has now been prevented. Not anymore. Yeah, the rook lines up against the white queen. So, no E4 for now. You know, for a long long time in the chess world, uh there’s been the feeling that at the start of a match or the start of a tournament is when players feel maximum nerves, maximum tension because they’re still not sort of found their rhythm into the game. And I think here at the Esports World Cup in Riyad, all of that’s been confirmed by our heart rate monitors. At the start of the day, both players over 100. Crazy things happening on the board. And as the match has progressed, you know, we see them come down. Arjun reach his more usual heart rate. We’ve seen Hikaru go under that 100 and and that just shows how you settle into the battle. In that case, I’m glad this is a third place match. Otherwise, in 2 days time, they’re both going to be sat here with a BPM of 50, just chilling on the sunbeds while playing these, I’m sure. Uh, so D5 still a long-term target. And the rooks have piled on on the C file. Now, I’m guessing, but I don’t know. Maybe you guys can tell me. I’m looking at ways to blockade the pawn uh on d5 because you know ba basics of chess if you want to play against the isolated pawn you sort of want to maybe play a knight e2 kind of mood. I’m guessing knight e4 straight away if that happens is preventing white from doing that. It looks like that would have been a very logical continuation from both sides instead going the other way from Hikaru. It just feels like something’s a bit off. I don’t understand why he’s put his rooks on the c file blockaded by the black knight. why he’s put the white knight back on its starting square when it could have been going to fresher pastures. Black queen retreating. Apparently, it’s advantage Arjun right now according to the eval bar. Very slight, but h you can see why black’s pieces now centralized. When you’re the side with the isolated queen’s pawn, you have to play for activity and attack. Now, what Arjun set up, which was impossible before, is that jump that you were earlier talking about, knight E4. It’s unstoppable now with the black rook lined up against the white queen. The queen gone back to defend that knight. Knight E4 is almost a premove that you want. He might make it now or on the next move. But the moment that knight lands there, the other knight getting to E5, you can see the makings of some initiative in the position. A big threat. Meanwhile, rook and queen lined up against the white queen. Watch out. D4 is Arjun’s idea. Yeah, D4. Watch out. There might be knight D4 ideas as well in the near future. Hikaru is hating what has just happened. It was a bit of a shake of the head. He’s telling himself to calm down. Look at that gesture. He’s saying you still got this. It’s still roughly a level position, but white’s advantage from earlier. Big big advantage of the bishop pair of the better pawn structure. It has disappeared. White’s knight is so badly misplaced right now. And black is ready, poised, all the black pieces centralized to blow open that center. It does feel like uh we’ve we’ve lost the maybe losing the thread a little bit. Those rooks on the Cfile targeting the knight that can’t be moved. Like you said, David, the knight going back to B1, it’s starting square uh instead of developing elsewhere or going to E2. It’s not necessarily that any of these are bad or losing moves. It’s more that we’ve been uh we’ve given Argenti the time he needs to put his own plan together and it’s like giving him a couple of moves to get his pieces into better positions. And now it feels like it’s Hikaru responding to Arjun rather than the other way around. 100%. You know, like we said, two two plans against the isolated queen’s pawn. You either attack it or place a piece in front of it. Hikaro has not managed to make do of any of these plans in the last 10 moves or so. While Arjun, he’s made all his pieces active. Knight E4 always incoming that G5 hinting at G4 at the right spot. And you know, we saw Hikaru tell himself to calm down earlier. And that’s something that we’ve seen a story line with Hikaru throughout in Riyad. you know, he updalks himself and that’s been fascinating. Forces himself, wills himself to make a move. When things go wrong, he tells himself to take it easy that, you know, he’s still got this. There’s still everything to play for. I am the most resourceful player on the planet. When he’s frustrated, you can see those headshakes. But the one sign to look out for for every player is when Hikaru raises a finger. That’s when you know that it’s game over. When he starts twirling his fingers, making them go round and round, telling chat, you know, I got this. That’s bad news. I haven’t seen that happen this game so far. Yeah, he hasn’t got it yet. Hikaru, although the last few moves have been a bit better for him. The white knight at least has developed. Black knight now hitting the white bishop. The white bishop moved. Then black would have been pushing forward in the center. Now things are getting spicy. The white knight stepping back allowing a doubling of the white pawns. Arjun said no. He’s trying to open up lines towards the white king instead. This is a race. If white gets the knight on d4 stabilizes, white has the advantage. If black gets the knights in, gets the black queen in, white king might be in danger. Clock’s looking relatively equal as well. 4 minutes 37, playing at just over 5 minutes at the moment. So, less of a discrepancy than the previous game. It’ll be interesting to see how that plays out, too. But this from a positional battle has become very tactical. And Hikaru stops the move queen H4, which would have threatened a deadly checkmate on H2. He’s very unhappy that he’s had to do this. It weakens a lot of light squares around the white king. The black knight can reroute itself to that F3 square. Lot of ideas. The queen can jump onto G5 and then target the H line. Queen G5. Queen H5. Also a plan. Arjun’s on the attack. Arjun on the attack. This last move given a question mark. It’s not obvious what could have been better for white. It does prevent the black queen from landing on H4. White just needs two more moves. You need to get the white queen to a better square. You need to get the white knight into the center. But that is not easy to achieve. Okay, the black queen is slides across. Black rooks could jump up as well. Use the sixth rank to lift and slide towards the white king. Arjun, he’s got to nail this with an attack though because longterm white still slightly for choice with the isolated queen’s pawn still living on this board. If the mages come off the board, Hikaru Nakamura would be close to winning the endame, but the endame is a far far way off right now. Arjun’s getting ready to set up some checkmating ideas. Is he going to rush through with it? Queen H6 comes to mind right now. Also always in the air is neutralizing that isolated queen’s pawn with D4. So a break that needs to be timed well. Arjun first threatens a checkmate in one. That’s what I was about to ask because uh the knight moving away from the E2 square. There we go. Means that we open up to D4. Exchange of queens is going to happen first though and uh that’s going to be I actually don’t know who that’s a bigger sigh of relief for because potential checkmating attacks were there on both sides of the board but there’s still plenty of life left in this game. A pair of knights and two rooks per player. Lots of danger still around and white is the first to get to the seventh rank where there are still a bunch of targets the white rooks can infiltrate right now. We’ll learn a lot about Hikaro’s mindset over the next couple of moves. If he’s happy to just try and trade off a set of rooks, maybe trade off the knights, it will end in a draw. But Hikaru could still go for it. Maybe he could trade off a set of rooks in the process. He can go to the top of the board. He can go to the seventh rank. Those two white rooks, he’s going to move one of them. And uh still not over. There we go. He tries to trade off black’s more active rook. And when the black knight retreats, he’ll land on the seventh rank. This isn’t over. And despite the fact the evalar says 0.0, zero despite the fact it’s symmetrical. Hikaru does enjoy these positions. It’s going to be a bit of a grind right now, especially cuz he’s got the extra seconds. Who’s happier with everything that’s happened the last few moves, you know, with Arjun neutralizing that weakness at the center of the board. If you’d asked this question 10 moves ago, it would definitely be Arjun. But the way the game was developing, you know, with Arjun creating those ideas, Hikaru not looking happy on the camera, I think he’s happy to see this endame right now. He knows he can play it on forever. It’s absolutely safe for white. Um, and I think he likes what he’s gotten. Very similar time situation to a couple of games ago where the time advantage is roughly 45 seconds right now, which is fine in the middle game, but once we get to the end game and we start seeing the players go below 2 minutes starts to become pretty critical and the player with more time here, Hikaru Nakamura. Just want to point out Hikaru’s won a pawn. You cannot defend that pawn on A6. If the black rook had come up, there would have been a check, some knight forks, and uh, there we go. Hikaru Nakamura, a pawn to the good. That’s a very healthy pawn. Black’s threatening to come in with his own rook, but notice how the knight on H3 defends F2. The rook on A6 defends A2. So, sure, you can infiltrate with your rook. If you’re Arjun, he first stops any knight jumps on G5. Creates a lift for his own king to come towards the center of the board, but you get into rook E2. That really doesn’t help you because everything’s defended for white. Yep. Everything held for now with white. Uh the white rook slides across trying to kick the black knight out. given a question mark. If rooks disappear, it’s going to be a clear win for white. The white pawns are going to be too strong on that left side, especially the white a pawn. So, he needs to get rooks off, but Arjun cannot allow that. Is the pawn given back now after knight c1? Because wherever the white rook goes, the knight can either capture a pawn or the black rook can come in to help via e2 or a8 depending on how white responds. Is this just the pawn right back? Does look like it. I’m very surprised Hikaru moved his rook away as it’s needed to defend anyway. Maybe he’s hoping to deflect the black knight, the black rook in order to get the white knight over to F4. He’s actually going for the black B pawn instead. But this can be held. The black rook can defend that one. You just slide it over, do a rook lift, defend your pawn, and the A2 pawn still under fire. Hikaru reacts just missing this last move. It appears giving back the advantage, the small advantage he had claimed. Okay, the pawn survives, but it won’t survive much longer. It’s about to get caught by the black rook, the black knight. The white knight, meanwhile, so offside. That is the biggest problem for Hikaro right now. You know, you pick up that knight, put it somewhere in the center of the board, and Hikaru is close to winning. But that knight not coming to defend. Yes, you can fall back with your rook, but then it’ll be Arjun’s knight that’ll start chasing it around the board. I think this is about to neutralize liquidate and we might be getting an Armageddon sooner than we thought. I think that looks like the most likely outcome. You can see the paths the black knight can take uh to try and support the pawn. Not even going to go for that. We are just instantly grabbing it off the board. And now it is rook knight and two versus rook knight and two. This is as equal as the position has been pretty much all game. There are still some fun things to do because white’s knight is significantly more centralized, but that list of things you can do starting to dwindle by the second. Now, the white knight wants to land either on E6 or H5. And uh the black G7 pawn is the target, but ultimately that pawn can move, can maybe be just defended. And uh there we go. Arjun defends the other pawn, allowing the G pawn to step forward. If the white knight moves, the black knight is out of its box. And this game fizzling towards a draw. 1 and 1/2 minutes. Do we expect Hikaro to try and hustle on time here? It’s still risk- free for white, but ultimately not many resources left on the board. I think he’s going to play on for just a little bit more. Uh, you know, with Arjun 125, if Arjun takes a couple of seconds every move, that might not be ideal. And Arjun’s still sort of struggling finding the right place for his rook and knight. Arjun’s king feeling a little bit tied down to the white rook and knight. Something to play for. White’s king has a clear path on the light squares to come forward and maybe even potentially create an attack. Hikaru there starts with a pawn move tying down uh black’s pawns there an attack on the knight retreats some checks watch out knight E6 would win a pawn I think Hikaru plays this on yeah Arjun’s not liking this again he doesn’t like playing the role of defender in general especially when he’s got no chances to win the game and the white knight could still use some squares the black rook currently can slide across the fifth rank potentially to defend some stuff but Hikaru will he keep testing his opponent it’s a bullet game essentially for Arena Neragi down at the 1 minute mark. He could well get this Hikaru. He’s well within his rights to play on. It’s not dead drawn yet. All right. Huge threat. The pawn on G7 about to fall. Will Arjun take a big decision. You can move it, but then you’re really weakening your king and also leaving behind that F pawn. Hikaru is ready for the fight. He does target that F6 pawn which is not easy to defend. Hikaru for the second time about to go up a pawn. It’s impossible defend uh to defend that pawn. Arjun suddenly leaned forward, panicking now. The black pieces should still be able to hold this thing together, but G5 so weak right now. There are going to be some checks. This game’s going to be a long grind. And Hikaru starts with an extra 35 seconds as well. He’s got the board position. He’s got the clock position. This is Hikaru Nakamura’s bread and butter. Is he going to get it though? Argentine needs to get the rooks off the board. He needs to get all the pieces off before he runs out of time. Aaro has won thousands and thousands of such positions. Technically a draw. Should be an easy hold for a player of Arjun’s level, but puts that mix of a 40 second on the clock. Both clocks gone red. It’s going to be a time scramble. The only one who can come on top, but you have to watch out. There are knights for both sides, but it’s Hikaru who’s feeling he’s playing for two results here. The white king is soon going to come in. The white knight is going to improve itself. Hikaru should not lose this. Watch out, there are knight forks. The king is coming. As soon as the checks dry up, the black king might be checked backwards. Hikaru though, can he find safety? Where’s he going to hide his king? Checks continue. He’s moving further and further away from the area of the board he wants to be on. But this is all about the clock. 30 seconds versus 40 seconds now. And Haro such a beast when it comes to mouse mouse skills right now. Definitely the better of these two players with more practice. Has played hundreds of thousands of such games and come out on top 99% of the time. He does keep the pressure. Attacks the rook. And look at that. Arjun’s taking too long. He’s down to about 20 seconds. And there are so many knight forks in the air. Hikaru, he’s so good at avoiding those knight checks. The white king is coming. White’s got the perfect setup. Black can barely move. The knight is fixed. The black rook is fixed. Hikaru is going to create those threats. 17 versus 26. Look at they’re darting all across the board. He’s fully aware of every single square. He knows he can give a check at the right time, and he will do it. But he’ll wait for Arjun to go down on the clock. And that was a blunder. That was a blunder. that the white king can step across now. The black rook is forced to give way and there’s going to be a pin. Arjun’s defenses have been tipped over the edge. Fist pump from Hikaru Nakamura. He’s getting closer. He’s about to win the black knight. This game’s about to end any second now. Arjun will play on, but he will not save this. And look at that beautiful finish. He wins the rook king pawn ending. He’s going to win this. 6 seconds. He could have an or Arjun could. It will be Hikaru Nakamura who gets that third place. Hikaru Nakamura in a time scramble doing what he does best. doing what he is famous for, what the entire world knows him to be the best in the world for and he thrives under the pressure. He thrives under the pressure of that clock and in the final game takes the victory in this third place match. Welld deserved in the end. Hikaru, what a roller coaster he’s been on in the last 24 hours alone. He made it through to the semifinals, got knocked down by Magnus by the narrowest of margins in an Armageddon. He had warmed up, however, and in this clash for third place. Five decisive games out of six. Incredible. What a battle between these two fantastic warriors and Hikaru Falcons coming out on top. And look at the amount of respect shown here. There’s no overriding emotion, no storming of nothing like that. They immediately go talk to each other about the games. They recognize what a high level, what a fantastic match that was. Five decisive results out of six honestly really proves that this format is delivering what we want it to do. An absolutely incredible series of games. Greatness recognizes greatness. Those two the worldass players and ultimately Tanya it was the clock but it is also masterful maneuvering from Hikaro Nakamura and beautiful mouse skill as well. Right. Just the speed and the accuracy and finishing it off in style eventually with this rip check. Give it up. go into a pawn end game and this is easy easy clap for Hikaru right there. Arjun resigning. Hikaru with the fist bump showing he’s the boss. Final position definitely easy for Nakamura but earlier on in that game nay earlier on in the match anything but five out of six decisive results and extremely high tension in every game. Hikaru Nakamura though for team Falcons walks away with the extra $30,000 in prize money for third place. Let’s go ahead and hear from him on stage right now. Ladies and gentlemen, we have our third place finisher in Hikaru Nakamura representing team Falcons. I know it’s not the result that you wanted. I know it’s it’s a consolation prize at the end of the day, but still I would love to present to you the third place and podium finish in the chess tournament here at EWC and your bronze key. Ladies and gentlemen, one more time, your third place finisher representing Falcons, Hikaru Nakamura. Come on, make some noise. This is one of the best in the world right here in Riyad. All right, Haru, you started these games a little bit rough in the beginning. Seems like you were kind of thinking about yesterday a little bit. Um, you pulled it out at the end. You showed some passion. You were excited. Did these mean something to you? I think, uh, it was a big wakeup call. I started off just really sluggish. I just wasn’t there at all. I mean, I think I I think yesterday I played a role, not only cuz I lost, but uh, it was a very long match. I didn’t get back till midnight, so I felt tired. But when I lost the first game, I tried to get into the rhythm, but I think really the big moment was the third game when I was also losing. But I turned it around and won. And from there, I felt good. Although the fifth game was uh, shall we say, a bit of an adventure, too. And then finally in the sixth game, I got back to my roots and I was able to to run my opponent out of time. And so, it’s a nice win. Not the way I wanted it, but I’ll take it. That you will. And, you know, I want to give this opportunity. Is there anything that you want to say to the fans that are here cheering you on, cheering Falcons on in Riad in the S&P Arena? Yeah, I think it’s really nice to see all the fans here. Uh, you guys made a lot of noise for me both last night as well as today’s match. And um hopefully you guys can make even more noise when Alireza plays the final later and hopefully can beat Magnus. So show a lot of love and support and thank you once again. Thank you once again, Hikaru. Ladies and gentlemen, we still have our grand final on the line, but first let’s head on over to the studio and prepare for the final match of the day. Thank you so much there, Sandstorm. We asked for everything from these two guys and they put everything on display. It went the distance six games, but Hikaru Nakamura showed us why he is considered one of the world’s best, particularly when it comes to bullet time. When his time is ticking down, when everybody’s hands are shaking, this guy is super cool, super quick, and super determined. And there he showed exactly all he needed was a slight edge. He didn’t even have much. It was even material right near the very end, but he had a time advantage on the clock. That’s all he needed to squeeze his opponent, confuse him, and then finally snatch a piece and t turn out the lights. And how about that, Yi? His response to Tyler’s question about kind of the the way that the the series developed, saying, “I felt sluggish.” And we saw that taking the decisive loss early. It really did feel like that game three was a turning point. Yeah, totally. I mean, he was on the rocks. You know, he lost game one, he should have lost game two, and then suddenly on game three, he was worse, but he managed to turn things around. And, you know, it just goes to show the strength of Hikaro because he not only did he win game three, he also won game four as well. And it just also speaks to his resilience. And for me, it’s game six, which is the style because, okay, won him third place, but also, you know, he just did that coming back from a loss. Exactly. Right. It really was. I mean, it was a show of resilience uh from uh from this man here, Hikaro Nakamura, because game two, I got to be honest, I was worried even that even coming away with the draw, I was still deeply concerned for him in this series. Well, actually, once that game was over, I said, “Oh, Arjun is going to regret the fact that he didn’t hit him in this one because Hikaru is known as the comeback kid. the guy, you’ve got to kill him once, twice, three times, and then look back again and shoot him some more to make sure he’s actually dead because he just always knows how to play defensively, make sure that he’s always in the match. His ability to be aware of the meta game in the match and understand I got to calm down and just keep on playing. And that’s exactly what happened to Arjun. He just couldn’t keep up with that kind of tenacity and ability to be totally defensive rock solid until the time comes for him to cut your head off. And that’s the thing right for Arjun game two probably the moment where he could have really shut the series down and he did come out playing in very much the way we expected him to do to take the fight to Hikaro try and put him on the back foot just wasn’t enough. Well, the problem is is not only do you have to come out swinging once you get your advantage, you got to be precise. You got to switch modes, you got to be technical, and unfortunately to make that transition. Well, you know, these players are pushing you to the limit. Hikaro is one of the best players in the world. And he just kept on requiring Arjun to find those elite level moves. And I got to tell you, that first game was elite by Arjun. Put some respect on this young man’s name because that first game, it was clinical. It was clean. It was beautiful. It was crushing. I saw him playing like that and I was leaning back like, “Whoa, this guy’s playing god level chess.” But even then, you’re It’s not enough. One game good. You saw Hikaru like, “Okay, kid. I see you’re a baller. I see you could play, but let’s keep it going. It’s a six game match. One game’s not enough.” Yeah. Can confirm in the green room. It looked like Maurice got hit with hurricane force winds there in that game number one because it was so the calculation and the understanding to know that I can give up the bishop in that first game and still come away with a victory. That’s why so many people love the style that Arjunge is able to put on the stage. But I want to talk about a couple of those key turning moments because while Arjun definitely had Haro on the ropes through those first two games, it was game three that Hikaro said first time I felt like I was playing a little bit more of my game. woke up into the series, but his queen, I think for me, was the piece that it was about. It went on such a journey across the board and found the right attacking movements, found the right geometry on our 64 squares. Yeah, absolutely. And there we also saw that Arjun was the one that was pressing all the time. He just pressed a little bit too hard. And this is Hikaru strategy, right? You encourage your opponent to step forward and get them on the counterattack. From here, we already have our third place match up decided. Hikaru does take home that bronze heart for his key. It’s a podium finish. And it’s good to see, of course, uh, you know, his gratefulness, his graciousness towards the crowd. A lot of support here for team Falcons. And of course, already turning the attention, uh, to his teammate who will be stepping on stage in just some time. But that fist pump there. I mean, again, Hikaro never won to hide his emotions. But uh for as much as this might have been a consolation quote unquote and not the result he wanted, I think he’s still pretty happy with it. Hikaro gets a lot of love in the online community when he’s streaming all day long. He knows how much his fans adore him. But to be able to come into an arena and then have a team that you have signed up for and represent and then have him cheering for you in person in the building. We don’t get this in chess. This is not normal. So to be able to get up from a chair, pump your fist, and see the fans going wild because they love you so much and they were rooting for you. And then you were able to deliver for your team, that’s a special feeling. And I guarantee you the two players who are going to come in the finals want to get that same feeling as well. Yeah. So for Arjun, while he does exit in fourth place, he was the only representative here for Geng. So still coming home with some circuit points and a ton of prize money should, I think, hold his head very high. Absolutely. I mean Arjun superstar this event and also super nice to see the Geng crowd all cheering on their teammate. I mean that was absolutely fantastic because Arjun just put on the performance of a lifetime for them. Let’s walk through those last couple games just so we can remember and relive it all before we refocus towards the grand finals game four. This is where I felt like a bit of a m momentum and energy shift as a result of that game three. Right. Ultimately, it ends up going in the way of Hikaro. And now, for the first time, Arjun heading into game five. He’s got to generate something. And it looked like he just doesn’t have no chance. Like, you’re just done now. You started strong. You punch your strongest punches early. You hit him with the first punch, you missed with the second, and then you should have maybe hit him with the third, and he’s back. And then he hits you two in a row, and it looks like the legend has you. You’re done. And for you to come back and win that game, let me tell you, Arjun, next year when this event occurs, you can bet we’re going to be putting him in contenders at least because we did not give him a lot of love this year. Our fault for sure. I love that analogy of throwing those first punches and then being exposed cuz it was the king that was exposed on F2 in that game five and then goes on the most magical journey. Absolutely. And you know what? It was planned by Arjun cuz he literally said to Hikaru, “If you want to come at me, you are going to have to sacrifice. You’re going to have to burn those bridges.” And yet, that king walk, I mean, that is the boldest thing I’ve seen in a while. He could have tripped and died. There was that one missed chance, right? That one bishop move that could have ended it all there. Caro didn’t find it. So, we go to game six entirely equaliz. And again, this is where we come back to Hikaru finding the form that he is known for. just pure defensive mastery. You know, I was watching Hikaro play bullet once and he was trash talking as usual and he playing bullet at the same time and I’m like, how are you doing this, sir? But he would say, oh, you know, there’s a 2700 player coming up. I should be able to beat him easy. I’m like, easy? And you just watch him play and he’s still talking and the position’s kind of even and then slowly but surely, oh, sorry, I just take that. I hit you there. Boom. Boom. And then the guy slows down and then boom, it’s over. That’s what he does. He is so comfortable under the extreme fire of no time on the clock and maybe it’s tricky situation, the biggest stage, but he’s just so cool calm and he had that edge on the clock and he never let it go. Yeah, absolutely. And just to add to that point, I mean, you saw how his chest changed when Arjun didn’t have any time on the clock, you know, he didn’t commit anything. He kept the tension. He kept the threat, the threats and the pressure. And he just moved his king all the way to the other side of the board. And he was like, “You got no time on the clock, Arjent. Let me put pressure until you crack.” There’s an art of not doing. There’s the art of not doing. In chess, everybody wants to do something. You want to be active. It’s my turn. Let me push C4 instead of C3. But the art of saying, “No, I’m I’m actually going to sit here and I’m going to do it better than you.” And that is so difficult to do. I’m going to tell you because we’re all wired to make progress, but sometimes progress is just chilling. Let your opponent sit there trying to figure out how to keep up with you. And just when they can’t, then you hit them with something that for forces them to pause. And you cannot pause in this time control because it’s ruthless. Like a fighter dancing around the ring, conserving energy, absorbing blows, Hikaru was weathering the attacks from Arjun that entire time. And his conservation of energy was conservation of time on the clock. just enough of an advantage that once we get under a minute, you’re always betting on a car. Yeah, he totally used the clock as a weapon there and he totally used it just to keep on putting that pressure on Arjun and there we saw it. You know, Arjun through no fault of his own because of the clock just simply gave up a piece and that was it. It was over. I I see that as a weakness in myself. I am not as clock aware. I love to play bullet but I just keep playing. I’m not as clock aware. It’s as though Hikaru has his eyes on the board and somehow peripherilally he knows exactly how many seconds are left on the clock. How he does it. It’s incredible and that’s what he manipulates and he knows when he has a 5-second advantage, 3second advantage, 1 second advantage. He knows to the second how he’s going to destroy you. With the car taking the podium finish, Arjun Erici will exit our tournament in fourth place. But we got to get a word from the man as he exits the esports world cup. We’re here with Grandmaster Arjun Aragi who finishes in fourth place. Now your match against Nakamura started out great. You got a win, but overall Nakamura expressed frustration with his own play. How would you rate your own play over the course of the six games today? Uh yeah, I think the first two games were good and the third game uh parts of actually until towards the end I thought it was fine. There was some missed opportunities but it wasn’t too bad. But yeah, once I lost this uh I think my played slightly absorbed and yeah, fourth game he played really well. Didn’t give me much of a chance. Uh and the fifth one I think I think he had a uh if not when he was better like this when he went for the sequence like sacking on F2 after queen H2, queen H3, rook F8, king E2. I think after queen F4, I’m in some terrible. I thought I have queen f3 but I realized later that f8 rook is protected so he could go like queen g5 but yeah I was fortunate to win that game and yeah last game uh yeah in the middle I thought I even got slightly better but okay it should have been a draw and perhaps for me most practical was to just take on f4 and sack that exchange and just sit I have some good news for you actually after the knight takes f2 move in game five it’s totally equal yes he should have played queen f4 but it was still equal after queen f4. We won’t get into the lines, but you were never actually worse. But that brings me my next question. You showed great defense. You played perfectly after the sacrifice. And then in game six, you were probably a little worse, but this counterattack starting with G4. Do you feel like defense is an underrated part of your game? I I don’t think so actually. Like I think it’s one of the areas where I have room for improve, like a lot of room for improvement. And how can one improve on defense for all the the aspiring chess players out there? What can you do to improve? Yeah, maybe try to like uh play positions which are worse, you know, but like try to play such positions with someone of equal strength and try to hold it. Uh we talked to Nakamura just before you and he said that the cameras were actually bothering him in game five. They were a little too close and he thought they might have come at a key moment. But how did you handle the bright lights of the stage and all the camera crew around you? Did it bother you at all? cuz I noticed in the final game your heart rate was still at 80 beats per minute which is a lot of people’s resting heart rate. So tell us how you handled all of it. Yeah, I think it the lighting and all uh it didn’t really have an effect on me. Yeah, the only thing it w I like I I had a problem with was the headphones like I I don’t prefer headphones in general. It aches my ears but I guess like for the tournament of this stature it’s it’s understandable to have that. Yeah, that makes sense. And what about Genji? I mean, I know they came out and supported you a lot. I asked you about it yesterday, but did you have any interactions with Geng fans today or or teammates? Uh, no, at least not as of now. But it’s really nice to have that support. Uh, like many fans have come from like different countries to watch me and support us. So, I’m really thankful to them. And finally, Geng is doing very well in the club championship. Are you going to continue to follow their progress in the club championship even after the chess event is over? Yeah, like before I came here I had no clue but yeah midway during this event I got to know that we are doing quite well and I think at some point we were second and now we are third. Um yeah I’m happy with how we are doing overall and yes I’ll keep a track of how we are doing. Are you becoming a fan of any of the other esports now that you’ve seen them being played? To be honest I didn’t follow much so not much to say on that. Always great talking with you and congratulations on fourth place. Thank you, Grandmaster Arjun Arages. Massive respect for Arjun Aragi for his finish here at the Esports World Cup. It was a back and forth matchup, but in the end, Hikaro Nakamura stands tall and gets third place. We’ve only got one more series to go. Two places yet to be decided and two competitors to step on stage. It will be the world number one and Magnus Carlson and his challenger here on your screens. Ali Resa Fuja looking to become the first ever esports world cup chess champion. We’re going to a quick commercial break on the other side. We’ll be back to preview all of the grand finals action. You won’t want to miss it. Heat. Heat. This land is calling. Heat. Heat. I just want to just Heat. Heat. We are here with Grant Russo, the global esports director for Team Falcons. And this seems to be a lot of stuff that you guys won. Care to tell us about what all these trophies are? Yeah, we um we’ve got a lot of trophies here. Many of them local Saudi in the Saudi leagues, but we’ve got a couple international ones as well. We’ve got another wall behind us. Yeah, we’re trying to we’re trying to catch up on our trophies in esports now. As I understand it, your CEO is a player CEO. Yes. Uh and he’s famous for FIFA. Yes. And is that is that what brought you on the map? His success in Yeah, exactly. He uh he won the FIFA World Championship in 2017 or 18. He’s going to kill me for not getting that right. and um kind of propelled him to stardom and celebrity status in esports here and from that he went I’m going to create an org and created team falcons and since then we’ve been pushing forward. Now we got a big one over here. We got a giant cup and I think this one might be near and dear to you. Tell us what this is all about. Yes, this is a this is a a major uh Dota 2 championship trophy. Uh we won the major in Birmingham and it’s dear to me because that’s in the UK where I’m from and it was an event where my parents came along, my family came along and then we picked up this giant trophy stage. I got to go on lift in. Ah, it was just it was the best feeling outside of winning last year’s EWC. Did you drink from it? Like a lemonade or something? I uh I Yeah, it’s it’s very heavy. So, I think it would have been dangerous to try. Now, it’s well known that Grandmaster Yan Nepomnishi played a lot of Dota. We’ve talked about this a lot in chess circles. Did you know that? And had you known that, would you have tried to sign him maybe? Uh, I don’t know if that would have changed if we’d signed him or not, but I was aware of a couple of players. Weirdly, there’s a lot of links between chess and do because it’s so tactical and strategical and knowledge based. So, I’ve heard a few players do play it quite a lot. Are there any players in all of esports history that have played multiple disciplines? It’s very rare. There’s a couple, the most famous one probably a guy called Benji Fishy who was top in Fortnite and now plays a game called Valerant. But admittedly, you play your discipline and that’s what you’re good at. Finally, we’ve got two really shiny plates here. Uh, tell us about the first one, then we’ll walk to the second one. Sure. Yes. So, this is a a free fire first place at EWC last year. We won two events last year as part of the EWC with 1,000 points. Uh Freef Fire was one of them which is play here and then you’ll see Call of Duty War Zone at this other play here. And look, if all goes well today, there’ll be a chess plate to go right here as well. Definitely. Now, I’m happy to say I’ve I’ve heard of Call of Duty. I am Team Boomer, but I’ve at least I’ve at least heard of this one. Now, do you ever get in there with your players and play just to have them shoot you up? It’s like uh no is the answer. And the reason is is, you know, it’s like me going and sitting with a car and go, “Let’s play a game of chess.” like it’s not fun for them in the slightest, you know? It’s it’s a they would destroy me. So, no, I mean, I love a lot of these games. I play a lot of these games, but um I let the pros stick to being the pro. All right. Well, we’ve got two plates and as noted, space for one more in the middle. We will see what sits there at the end of the day. Grant Russo, thanks for your time. Appreciate it. Thank you. I got my bow and arrow ready. I’ve shot one falcon. I’m I want to shoot one more tomorrow. Yeah, you’re on live. Welcome back to the esports world cup and chess where we have only one battle to determine who will be the top dog in our inaugural chess event here at the Esports World Cup. That’s the world number one in Magnus Carlson. His challenger Ali Resza Fua, two titans of the chess world. Two titans of formats like this. Ben Fineold is w or is joining us back in the studio to help preview all of the action. But before we get to that, can we just take a breath and appreciate what we just saw on that stage? Arjun Aragis and Hikaro Nakamura kind of setting us up with the right kind of energy for a grand finals bout. No, I mean that was great. We have we have Arjun winning the first game, setting this look looked like he was in doing well in the second game also. And then all of a sudden uh perpetual check out of nowhere instead of playing the winning continuation. Then Hikaru took over. Arjun fought back and we had only one draw in all of those games. Five decisive games. A really exciting match. It was incredibly exciting, right? I mean, I’m still trying to recover from such adrenaline, right? because Hikaro Nakamura just making it, just making that comeback win, you know, managing to turn things around and uh finally getting that bronze key. Getting that bronze key, getting that podium finish and now rightfully turning his attention to his uh teammate who’s going to try to take down the world number one, Magnus Carlson. Get it done for team Falcons when it comes to that club championship race. We’ve got a lot to celebrate here at the Esports World Cup and I think we could use some help in that celebration. So, we’ve got a special guest joining us in the studio to help break down a lot of the action, what we’ve seen at the Esports World Cup and to prepare for this grand final. It’s Anna Kramling. Good morning everyone. My name is Anna. I am on my way to the Ael Tower right now and I’m going to be playing some chess against random strangers. Taking it easy. My dream has always been to play against my mom in a chess tournament. Mom, you have 2 minutes 20. She’s a grandmaster. She’s rated over 2400. Let’s get mom here. You and I have played chess so many times. I have invented my own chess opening on A7. No. No. Hey, Anna. What can I do to improve? You squiggle me out of that one. I’m going to put the fire on you now, girl. Anna Crarling, welcome to the studio. Uh Ben, perhaps we could pass a mic over to her just for a moment as we get one sorted out and flown onto the set for you. I know you landed just a couple days ago and you’ve been thrown right into the whirlwind of the whole entire esports World Cup, but what’s your experience been like so far? It has been amazing. It is an absolute dream to be here and to join you all for the finals. I feel like I’m coming in at the very best moment. And yeah, I mean the whole venue, everything has been amazing. The fans, I haven’t seen a crowd like this in such a long time. You grew up in the chess world, so you’ve seen the evolution of the chess world for quite some time. Did you ever think that this would be what chess would look like at some point in its evolution? In my dreams, in every single one of my dreams, this is what chess looks like because I’ve always thought chess should be an esport. For me, it’s always been very obvious. Chess, in my opinion, has the whole recipe to be an absolutely amazing esport. And I think that here we’re proving that it’s correct. Now, this is a massive venue. It’s not just chess that is taking place. We’ve got tons of other gaming titles happening at the same time. multiple studios. We’ve got the whole of the boulevard outside. What have you been able to experience? It’s probably too much available to have experienced it all, but give us a little bit of insight of what you’ve done over the last 48 hours. I’ve actually been walking around quite a bit. Um, I’ve wanted to see some of the other esports that have been taking place here. I I watched some Overwatch, which was a lot of fun, and I got to hear the crowd. And for me, the best thing about esport is the fact that the crowd goes crazy. Like hearing people chanting, hearing people’s emotions, rooting for their team. I think that that is what it’s all about. So, it’s been a lot of fun. And I also saw that there’s a place where uh there’s there’s dogs, there’s puppies, you can basically play with puppies. I didn’t know I would find that here. Well, you’re going to have to take some time to go. They basically have everything. If you can if you can dream it, if you can think it, they’ve got it here and they’ve managed to get it all on one place. What about that though? Massive crowds and lots of cheering coming from other esports. We’re starting to see just the inklings of that here at this event in chess for Magnus making him a little pissed off that people are rooting for team Falcons but Hikaru there very grateful for the fan support. How has it been being in the audience or just around the studio as the audience is figuring out their role in chess? I think in the past we’ve seen audiences being kind of nervous to make a sound because we’re used to chess tournaments being very quiet. But I think the more tournaments we have like this, the more the qu the the crowd is realizing that it’s allowed to be loud and it’s actually encouraged to be loud. And I love it when the crowd is cheering so much that we even see Magnus, I mean kind of saying, “Hey, what’s going on here? Why are you cheering this much for a car?” I think that’s really really fun. So being in the audience has been amazing and you can see the emotions that that the people feel that the crowd feels that the players feel and that’s for me what chess and esports is all about and it’s creating drama. It’s creating incredibly heightened moments. And speaking of heightened and dramatic moments, I think it might be wise for us all to reflect and maybe pick a favorite moment from the event as a whole. Ben, I’m going to start with you. When you think back on everything that we’ve seen played out on that stage, what strikes you? You know, it’s hard for pick one thing that stood out from so many brilliant moves, so many games, so many back and forth. Um the two that I think of I give honorable mention um to the mouse slip which was shocking everybody and we had to rush back into the studio. Um but my favorite was when Aronian played rook takes C3 sacrificed the exchange always sacked the exchange one of my sayings and totally crushed Yasapenko. That was that was a great game. Um it was Aronian’s month but unfortunately he ran into a buzzsaw and Nakamura and um well it’s easy to lose matches here and everybody lost matches except the final two guys we’re we’re looking at right now. Yeah, but this is exactly the kind of play uh from Leavon Aronian that people were talking about Yovi when saying he is having the best month of his life in chess and it’s because he’s playing true to himself. Exactly. I mean Leavonne said it himself. He was just so happy to be here. here. He just was relaxed. He just wanted to enjoy his moment there in the spotlight. And I had so many good memories here. It’s really been an adventure. I mean, it’s fantastic to see how chess has progressed. I feel it to the next level. For me, chess is all about like the drama, the entertainment, the sportsmanship. And for me, a very very special moment was the very first time that I literally got out of the chair and started screaming, shouting at the t at the the screens. And I can tell you I was not the only one. It was uh in that incredible game too between Hikaru Nakamura and Wayi Yi. That one I mean Hikaru was in complete control and then he just lost the thread and he started bashing his head and he was like, “Oh my god, he’s completely tilted.” And then it all came down to this particular end game. It was played with seconds left on the clock and the players were just blitzing it out where you trying to win and Hikaru, you know, would he manage to hold on? And yeah, it was full of drama and it was all about what chess is, you know, it’s about that sportsmanship. It’s also about the fact that you got to hold your nerves in the final moments. And this is the thing, you know, Hikaru just held his nerve. He knew exactly what he needed to do to survive. and a bit of foreshadowing for the kind of holding of his nerves that he would need in the game six here against Arjuni to lock up third place. Now, I don’t want to put you too much on the spot. I’ve picked a bit of Actually, you know what? Sorry. I know you’ve got a secondary favorite moment, which comes more from the reaction of the players themselves. It’s not just the drama on the board, but the drama that the players have shown us on the camera. Hikaro being one of the most emotive players out there. Banging of the head, fist pumping, everything. Yeah, absolutely. you know, the the banging on the head that came in that game too, you know, when he realized that he had lost control and that he didn’t know quite what he was doing and it was that just whole readjustment, right? And he just readjusted and was like, “Okay, I need to flag. I just need to survive here.” And he just did it with just a switch. And uh it was also, you know, kind of like a setting of a scene for Hikaru’s match. You know, Fuja, he did the exactly the same thing. And also against M Magnus, you know, that one was also pushed to the brink. You see, this was it. We’ve we’ve gone from hitting the table to hitting yourself on the head. Things things have changed in the chess world. But we all been there, right? We’ve all had those games where we know we were winning. We know we were so close to getting through and then through our own faults, we’ve just completely messed up. And the only person we can blame. And this is the cruelty of chess is ourselves. And uh Hikari just showed it to us there. Yeah. And this is where I’ll turn to you in and I don’t want to put you too much on the spot, but I have a feeling you might agree with me in what feels some of the most special for me about this event. It’s seeing my first home, the home, the world of esports and my second home now, the world of chess colliding in just the way I imagined it would. Yeah, it’s been absolutely amazing. And I think one of the things that I’ve also found so cool here is that because the players are not sitting right in front of each other, I feel like we get to see even more their facial expressions because when there’s a screen, it becomes a little bit like maybe how they would react if they would be at home. You know, when we when we’re playing online, we get this uh I feel like we get like more facial reactions simply because we know there’s nobody judging us right in front of us. And that’s when I think that we really get to see the raw emotions of the players. And that’s what we’re getting to see here. I love that point. And I think we’re going to see it more and more as more of these events come through. Ben, this is just the beginning. Every single one of these guys is largely interacting with all of these environments and circumstances for the very first time. No, it’s new for everybody, not just for us, uh, James, but it’s new for the players. And, you know, we talk sometimes about chess boxing, and if any of the players want to do that, fact, I saw there was a there was a piece on that. And we didn’t think there’d be chess boxing where you’re punching yourself. But but that’s what happens. You get you get very emotional when you’re playing. And obviously in the esports world, you get more emotional than when you’re playing like over the board and your opponent’s right in front of you. You don’t want to show them anything. But in the esports world with the with the fans, the audience, the live coverage, people show their emotional side and that’s what we want to see with pride, prize money, cir or points, club championship points on the line. I mean, it really does just continue to add to the intensity of the moment. But okay, let’s talk about the moment that sits in front of us. It’s Ali Resa Fuja staring down Magnus Carlson. And I think to set the stage, we first got to take a look at the journeys that each of these guys took to get to the point that they are. And let’s start with Alireza Fua because he I think is the star right now of the esports world cup when it comes to chess. He has not dropped a single game across his entire journey. Draws and wins only. Anna, absolutely incredible. I mean, that’s for a test player what really feels like the highest feat when you’re able to just keep winning, keep drawing, and not lose a single game. Not losing a single game. It feels like he’s poised in this format to execute every single one of the strengths that we’ve highlighted of him as a player. Yeah, absolutely. As a player, he loves that controlled chaos. He loves just like pushing his opponents to the very brink. And I what’s very impressive for me especially is the fact that Ali Resza was indeed also pushed to the edge in some of his games where he was really skirting on the edge of losing but he maintained his cool just played those incredible moves with just seconds on the clock and just kept everything alive. A world class player playing world class stage on the world stage world class chess on the world stage right now. Let’s relive all the top moments for Ali Resa Fuja on his way to the grand final. Alireza Fuja’s route to the finals was a very interesting one. He got drawn into the same group as his teammate Hikaru Nakamura and he was drawn directly into that group by Magnus Carlson. He survived and actually came out of the group in first place as well and then faced all of the youngsters on route to the final. In the quarterfinals, he had to defeat Abdul Satarov, which is no easy feat. He was able to take advantage of a blunder capitalized punching his ticket to the semi-finals and then he went up against Arjun Era. It’s absolutely incredible to think that we’re still calling these people the youngsters even though they are all so strong and have been on the chess team for so long. But the reality is they are all still very young and very early on in their chess careers. So, I’m excited to see what happens in the years to come. But first, he has to get through the grand final, and he’s got the toughest task of all, facing off against Magnus Carlson. John Sergeant says it’s the toughest task of all, but honestly, you wouldn’t want it any other way if you’re going to become the first ever esports world cup champion for chess. And this is the road that it took for him to get there. Again, not dropping a single game. It was first Weii Hikaro Nakamura, then not Abdorv, and Arjun Aragisi. All of his opponents that he dispatched. Ben, when you reflect on this journey, the opponents that he had to go through just to earn this bid against Magnus Carlson, what stands out to you? It’s amazing. Not only did he win every match and not lose a game, but against the strongest players in the world and doing it with increasing his score every match, one and a half, then two, then three, then four. But is he going to get five out of eight against Magnus? Yeah, he that that’s that’s the progression. But yeah, he he hasn’t lost a game. He’s clearly uh playing the best at at this tournament. And we’ll see if he can keep his form against number one Magnus Carlson. And I think if he went five out of eight over Magnus Carlson, that would flip the entire chess world on its head. I would go crazy. I would start running around and screaming and shouting. That would be incredible. But I mean, chess is such a psychological sport, right? And what we’re seeing here, um, Aliasa just doing such an amazing result, not losing a single game. Maybe he just feels like he can win against anyone and that he can win as many games as possible. So maybe this definitely going to be in his favor now in the finals. And talk to me about that as a chess player, the momentum, the form, just the the the feeling, the confidence that I can do it, that this is my time. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you need confidence here if you want to do well in chess. It literally is one of those secret ingredients and Alireza has that in spades. And also the fact that the momentum is on his sides and look at Magnus there silencing the crowd saying actions speak louder than words. But that is of course the ultimate opponent for Ali Raza. He is the big boss and Ali Resza simply is going to have to play out of his skin if he wants to match one of the world’s greats. Look at that though. I love I actually love all this because it’s playing exactly into uh the fandom around team Falcons and the support of kind of feeling like this is their home crowd. So yes, Magnus was able to silence them once, but Ali Res is going to have to try and prevent Magnus from silencing them again. Yeah, like Magnus said, you know, he’s got his bow and arrow ready and he wants to shoot down another Falcon. So I I love the fact that he said that. I like I love the fact that there’s fighting words there from Magnus and yeah, Ali Rza, he’s got the support of the home crowd and that’s so important. So, one of the those of you in the crowd, you really do need to cheer on your hero. They’re going to absolutely need to do that. He’s going to have to feel like the world is behind him, Ben, because one thing we always talk about when we talk about Magnus Carlson is the Magnus Carlson effect. how just his presence in a match can sometimes warp the way that we perceive the matchup that we perceive the you know someone’s approach to the game right and this is the matchup not only have we all been waiting for the one Magnus talked about two years ago he said if he’s going to continue playing in the world championship he wants to play Ali Resa Fuja so now he’s getting what he wants and we’ll see if his if he can back up the talk with a with a a victory in the match that’s a great call out because if anything maybe Magnus is looking not you know not infallible in this tournament. Arguably a tougher road or more tumultuous road I should say Yovi for Magnus from the group stage to the grand final. Yeah, I mean he did look absolutely invincible but yesterday Hikaru Nakamura in the semi-finals defeated him so drew blood. So that’s something that Ali Resza can look forward to. He can just take inspiration that actually Hikaro was able to unsettle him in very sharp positions. Also the fact that Magnus in the closing game did make a big blunder. So so many things to draw from. Of course, Anna, we can talk about Magnus maybe looking a little bit wounded, you know, the most vulnerable he’s ever looked, but the reality is he’s been one one for, you know, a decade or more at the top of the chess world. So, uh, come on. Absolutely. I mean, that we all know that Magnus is Magnus Coulson and he will never stop being Magnus Coulson and just being so great at chess. Speaking of the Magnus effect, my mother, she faced him a few weeks ago and the Magnus effect happened. Then he sacrificed that piece against my mom. It wasn’t a great sacrifice, but she immediately thought it was the greatest sacrifice in the world and she got very nervous and then lost the game. So, the Magnus effect is very real. It’s the reputation. It’s that reputation at play that Ben Fineold’s always warning me about for Magnus. It has not been an easy road to the final, but yet he is here to try and establish himself. or I should say reestablish himself as the world number one in any format in chess. Let’s relive his journey from the group stage to the grand final. Magnus Carlson came into this tournament as the number one seed and the number one player in the world for good reason. He’s been on top of the pile for a very long time now and he continues to demonstrate every day to us why he is so strong. Magnus Carlson will get it done here in our fourth matchup of the day and his debut here on the esports world cup stage up against notbec Abdu Satro. In the group stage, he was arguably drawn into the group of death that also contained his teammate Fabiano Carowana, which was unfortunate for Team Liquid, but he battled through and came out in first place. Yeah, we like to say that Magnus will only ever give you one chance, but we forgot to say that if you give Magnus one chance, he’ll always take it. In the quarterfinals, he’s playing Nihal Sarin, who’s one of the most exciting players in the world because he’s so unbelievably quick at bullet chess, but maybe didn’t have quite as much experience at this level. Magnus Carlson, he ramps up through the match. He’s ramping up through the tournament, and once again, he’s proving the point as to why he’s considered the favorite. And he was able to overcome Nihal quite convincingly, but still keep an eye out for Nihal in the future. Going into the semifinal, Magnus versus Hikaru. That was an absolutely amazing match. The number one and number two players and at this sort of short in time control, the gap between them is tiny. Hikaru also gave Magnus his first two losses of the tournament. Magnus hasn’t dropped a game until Hikaru delivered two different losses. They still went to Armageddon, though, and Magnus was able to come out on top. But the semi-final was nothing short of thrilling. And now in the final against Alireza Fuja. This is going to be an absolutely titanic battle. The three favorites were in the tournament before, but two of the three are contesting the grand final. It’ll be interesting to see if Fuja can dethrone Carlson here. That’s the story. Now, let’s take a look at the picture of all of his opponents and what it took for him to reach the grand final. First, it was Abdul Satro that he had to take down. And then Yan Shistov Duda before taking on the Dark Horse and Nihowsar and dispatching him. He goes up against Hikaru Nakamura. And what a fight that was. Goes all the way to Armageddon. And it’s everything we wanted to see out of the world number one and the world number two. And yet the world number one, he continues to cement himself as the guy to beat. Absolutely. I mean, many people call that Eláico of chess. Magnus Carlson faces Nakamura. And it was just such an exciting match and it was almost like the world wanted it to become even more exciting and taking it to Armageddon. But then like you said at the end Magnus Carlson prevailed. He did prevail but Yobi I think that’s one of the matches that people are going to look at and say okay there were some mistakes. There were opportunities and not necessarily opportunities created by Hikaru in all cases. Right. Magnus a couple times he opened himself up to possibly losing that match. Yeah. Magnus himself said that in the Armageddon, you know, he was shaking with nerves. You know, he knew exactly where to put the pieces, but he wasn’t quite sure because of the tension. And yeah, that is definitely something that Alireza can look forward to and perhaps even use to his advantage. But I got to say one thing about Magnus, he’s like King Midas. Everything he touches turns to gold. Oh, and he’s going for gold here today on this stage. Coming back to you, Beno, because you already kind of teased the idea that for Magnus, Ali Resa Fuja has been his pick of the young generation in saying if I’m going to defend my world title, it’s going to be against that guy. Alireza hasn’t been in the position to challenge him and so Magnus has not had to defend it, but I mean this is a very interesting match up where he’s now staring down his pick to be the next top in the world. That’s right. And uh he already beat his teammate Hikaru Nakamura in that thrilling semi-final match. And now in the finals, he has to beat another Falcon. And we’ll see if Fuja can do better than Akaru and bring home bring home the 1,000 points that their team is desperately wanting. And by the same token, Anna, for Ali Resa Fuja, you’re the guy who was picked at the mere age of 14 and 17 to go to training camps with Magnus Carlson. He did say, “If I’m going to defend my title, it’s against you.” That’s a I’m already feeling the pressure of Venali Resa that now, okay, I’ve got my shot to challenge the world’s best. Do you think he’s feeling it? Absolutely. I mean, it must feel very strange to sit in front of that person that said, “You, I want you to be my pick for the World Chest Championship match.” So, I think that Ali is coming in here with all the energy in the world and he wants this more than anything. And I honestly think that both players are going to be quite nervous. I mean, these are the finals of the esports World Cup. We haven’t seen this before with chess. This would be a huge title for both players to obtain. I hope they’re both nervous or we’re not doing something right, but I have a feeling they will be. All right, with about 3 minutes to go before we get into this grand final, I now want to talk about what it looks like. So, Yobi, I’m going to come to you first. Let’s talk strengths, weaknesses of both of these players, where are the openings going to be for Ali Resa in this matchup against Magnus Carlson? Yeah. So, when it comes to strengths from Magnus, that’s pretty obvious. You know, he’s just such a great classical player. you know, he knows the game inside and out, but uh he does have a small weakness, I would say, in those sharp positions, but I would say it’s very very small in the armor. When it comes to Alireza, Alireza is just full of this chaos. He plays an unconventional almost like a genius way. If again there’s a very small weakness, I think it’s going to be maybe in the endame, in the technical side of things, but we are talking about very small margins here. Well, now Ben, that’s a little scary. If the weakness is the endgame, I feel like while Magnus has plenty of strengths, most people point to the end games as being his absolute top strength. No, no, I completely agree with with Joy. Um, Magnus’ strength is in the endame. On the other hand, in most end games, especially in classical chess, you have time to think about your moves. And here, both players have less than a minute in the endame. Um, that’s probably advantage for Roua. He’s really good on the clock when he has very little time. He’s the best ultra bullet player in the world. So Magnus better get a winning endgame. If he’s worse, he’s going to have trouble in the time trouble. And that right there is the esports element. Uh you were a big part of bringing chess to the forefront of the digital world. How much of an advantage, if anything, is it for Fujia to be one a young player, fast on the mouse, and to have the so much experience playing o uh over online rather than over the board. I think it’s a huge advantage here. I think he’s going to feel very comfortable with this format. And I think that it can change anything. We’re seeing here that there’s no increment, which means that being good with a few seconds on the clock is crucial. And Ali Resa himself said that he’s amazing at it. So, I think it’s going to be a huge advantage for him. And I’m excited to see if it means that he can take it home. All right. I just want to know from each of you who takes it. Just who takes it? Is it Ali Resa Fuja? I’m coming to you first or or Magnus Carlson. I was once told to never bat against Magnus and uh I’m going to say that Magnus Carlson will win. That’s my prediction. All right, it’s Magnus Carlson here. here. Ben, who you going with? I I need to borrow a coin from somebody so I can flip the coin. I’m I’m going to go against the grain and go with Ali Resa Fuja. Ali Resa Fuja pick here. You’re the tiebreak on the D. Oh my god, I don’t want to be put in this situation. But okay, Magnus. A Magnus Carlson. It’s a two to one Magnus vote here. He is the number one in the world for a reason and our desk reflects that. But Ali Resa Fuja is someone that cannot be discounted here on the esports World Cup stage. It’s three sets, two best of fours, then a best of two if it’s not decided yet to see who will be the top dog for chess at the Esports World Cup. Let’s get in to our grand finals. will be crazy. 10 rapid games is very hard, but yeah, it’s final. So, it’s the last last push. I thought from the very start that Alireza would be one of the main competitors here. He has been very good at times, a little bit shaky other times, but you can see that he’s very, very good. To beat Alerza, uh, you have to play fast and you have to play well. Magnus also gives chances. You get chances, but it’s important to use those chances. I’ve shot one Falcon. I want to shoot one more tomorrow. I am not at all surprised to be um facing him in in the finals, and I’m really looking forward to it. Heat. Heat. Heat up here. Heat. Heat. Heat up here. Ladies and gentlemen, the moment we have all been waiting on two beasts clashing it out on the chess board in the grand finals. The young underdog trying to shock the world against the greatest chess player of all time. Representing Team Liquid, the face of chess, Magnus Carlson. The king of the game, the face of an era, a world champion who bent the game to his will. versus team falcons. Ali Resza Boua, the young prodigy forged in fire, fearless, fighting for the crown. If you come for the king, you best not miss because in this arena al nothing is granted. Everything is earned. Will you beat Magnus Carlson? Yeah, I got a good shot. Speaking of that, I have one question for you. Is your bow ready? I’m ready. Um I’m a bit nervous as if you’re not nervous for a final, I don’t think you’re alive. But I feel good and uh I’m going to do my best. All right. Well, gentlemen, ladies, make some noise for the grand finals. Gentlemen, keys onto the pedestals. A falcon circles above, ready to sink its talents. But the king has his bow at the ready. Will he strike two, or will he be dethroned? Casters, let the grand finals begin. Here we go. Oh, it’s the grand finals of chess at the esports world cup 2025. We have Alireza Fua of Team Falcons, the reigning club champions going up against Team Liquid’s Magnus Carlson. This is what everybody wanted to see and it’s going to be an absolutely incredible final. This is the moment we’ve all been waiting for. After the Eláico in the semis, we get the king versus the prince right here fighting for the crown at the esports world cup. This match has us all at the edge of our seats. I cannot wait. Yesterday’s semi-final, Hikaru Nakamura against Magnus Carson was electric. That was the appetizer only. And uh today, yet again, it is Liquid versus Falcons. Aller has been flawless this event so far. Unbeaten in any single game. He’s coasted through getting better day on day moving up through the gears. Magnus it was close getting through that Armageddon against Hikaru. He knows he needs to bring his agame. The goat if he’s to maintain his spot at the top of world chess. Alresa Fua has not dropped a game so far in the esports world cup. Magnus Carlson. The only games he’s dropped were against Ali Res’s teammate, Hikaku, Hikaru Nakamura. And now we move on to the grand final. Even though Fuja is currently unbeaten, I mean, he’s facing off against Magnus. Are we we must surely see his first defeat at some point during the finals, right? Magnus a favorite, but you know, if you have to beat the goat, you have to play like a butcher. And that’s what Alira Fuja has been doing in the entire esports world cup so far. undefeated in the tournament. The run that he has has had absolutely fantastic. The way he took down Arjun Aaragi just the confidence with which he plays, the speed that he brings on. Magnus said it best to take Aliza down. He’ll have to be fast. He’ll have to be good. And also there’s a wider question as well for Rua representing some of the brightest young talent in the chess world. How much longer is Magnus Carlson going to sit on the throne? Today might provide us some of those answers. And the start to this match will be so important. Whoever gets the first win will wrecky themselves. Will assume that they are the favorites. Magnus starts with the white pieces in set one of this final. He employs the Catalan opening, something he’s been doing for a long, long time now, many years. This is his pet line. Now, we should explain uh the scoring system is going to be slightly different uh in the grand final for those of you in the audience and watching at home. We have the grand final as a best of three sets. So, set one is going to be a best of four like you have seen for example in the quarterfinals of this tournament. Whoever wins that goes a set up. They then have to get two sets to win. If it’s tied one set all, we go to a third deciding set and that’s going to be a best of two. Any set can still be decided by Armageddon. You know, the first surprise of the match for me has already been done. It was on stage when Magnus was talking. An admission by him that he’s nervous for this match. And that’s not usual at all. Even if Magnus is feeling the tension or the nerves, I’ve never heard him say that right before an encounter. Me neither. It’s a historic moment on the board. Off the board. Magnus nerves did almost hinder him against Hikaru Nakamura, but he’s hoping to shake them off. If Magnus strikes first, he is so hard to catch. Hikaru one of the few who has the ability to strike back. I think Allar, he will want to be at least holding this first game with the black pieces. As we see the first big decision, the Queen’s Gambit, the Catalan opening is a branch of that has been accepted. Magnus trying to go pawn hunting with his queen to restore the balance. E5 D5 being played now. We’ve seen a similar position with lots of tension in the center. We now have the pawns being pushed next to each other. Still a very similar position to one we’ve seen many times in the esports World Cup, but we’re going to start seeing some subtleties now, some nuance differences. And this is the first moment in the game. Aliraza goes into a think. There are options with the knight. Where do you run to? Three squares that I’ve seen play on in the board. You could move it forward to D4, B4, or retreat to E7, trying to get the knight to the other side of the board. And the one chosen by Alira, an aggressive one, getting the knight to B4, disconnecting the white queen, saying, you know what, you’ll still have to sweat to recapture that pawn. A very ambitious opening play from Alira Fuia, met by equally ambitious play by Magnus Carlson. This is a deflection tactic. The black dart squared bishop caught in two minds now. It can take the white knight that’s just jumped and captured on E5, but it would come at the cost of black’s knight on the B4 square. We see that one uh is a bit loose right now. And uh Magnus forcing Alleraser to think for the first real time in this game. And if we get an early uh time advantage on the clock in game number one of set one, that’s going to be fantastic. And what a move. It’s tactics galore. Double exclamation mark landing. The Black Knight might have been doomed anyway. He was trying to throw it away for the highest price possible. The white knight was also attacked. That one has jumped back. And we see Magnus’ screen, the red there, showing his premove. Knight’s leaving the board. The dust is settling. It’s still level material. Who will that little melee have favored? And it comes down to the pawn structure one more time. Right, pawns are the soul of chess. And here we see with everything else equal is going to be the attack on that C3 weakness that Magnus has, but in return has opened up certain lines for his rook. Let’s point out that beautiful bishop on G2, eyeing the B7 weakness. Once the rook slides over to B1, Magnus is going to try to get into Alireza’s camp. So now we’re in a situation both sides of course have the bishop pair. They’re jostling for position, trying to improve the positions of their pieces. the queen ducking away from the D file as well so that it’s not forced with tempo if white decides to put a rook on the D file for example. Uh white would obviously like black to take the bishop on E3 so that the recapture with the knight could be possible and starts to improve the position there. But otherwise the real difference here does come down to pawn structure and we do see white with those two isolated pawns on the A and C line. Not a problem at the moment, but that could be a longerterm weakness definitely. And in the meantime, Magnus looking very calm on the camera. He talked about nerves, but his heart rate is down at 66. Let’s take a note of everyone’s baseline here. Alerza started the game with a decently high heart rate. It’s gone up to almost 100 already. It’s a huge momentous occasion. Who will come out on top? Magnus improving his rook in the meantime. It’s his type of position. It’s uh very technical. No big attacks on either side’s king. uh mutually uh kind of lots to be excited about Alarza with Magnus’ weak pawns, but Magnus with his active pieces. And I like that last move you were speaking about active pieces. Alireza blunts that bishop on G2 with C6. And right now Magnus offers his trademark queen trade. Every single player on the planet must think not twice, but five times before getting queens off the board against Magnus. It’s interesting, isn’t it? cuz typically you think, okay, queens off the board, that means uh there are fewer dynamics in the position to play with. There’s the possibility of uh easier draws in the game compared to when queens are on. Yet, Magnus is very happy to do that every single time and find small and subtle ways to get the wins despite this. It’s absolutely incredible. And that’s probably the reason why Fuja is moving the queen away. I love it. It only took him under 20 seconds to decide whether to take the queens off the board or to keep them on. Alerza, he sticks true to his guns, playing to his style. He’s a very attacking player. Needs the queens and uh he’s playing against Magnus’ bigger strength, the endgame. Take the queens off there. Improve the white pawn chain. And you are suffering for the rest of this encounter. All wants to go hunting for Magnus’ king. The black queen standing on the edge of the board. Will this threat be blocked? Will she run away? And uh there we go. The bishop jumps out. That’s a pawn sacrifice. Magnus grabs on B7, but Alarza will restore the material balance now and with in a big way, right? Because you end up putting your queen on those light squares. Looks extremely well placed there with a black knight jumping in. Queen takes pawn to come in next, but Magnus has ideas of of his own. That knight can jump to the center of the board as it does with a double attack on the queen. Pawns are getting off the board here. Is this fizzling out? It looks like the game is being guided towards equality, but there are enough ingredients left for both sides to get optimistic, especially here. I’m going to say Magnus Carlson. The white knight is super powerful. It’s a bit of an octopus right now. Its tentacles over eight squares, covering some important uh jumping points for the black rooks. The white queen active as well. It looks like it should be level, but it’s up to Fuja to prove it. Well, Fusha has got one big trump in the position, his own queen, right, which can start targeting not only the pawns on the left side, the one pawn Magnus has remaining and a big hello to our live audience there. Um, you know, this has been so awesome. Chess feels alive here in Riyad. But talking coming back to the position, you know, Alza takes a pause right now. That queen can go pawn hunting as it does and also defends his own pawn and a big blunder. Wow, Magnus frowning. There’s a huge move right now. He can trap black’s rook in the corner. This is so hidden, so difficult. But will Magnus Carlson see it? He’s frowning. The white knight can go to the B8 square. The black, he’s found it. Magnus Carlson. He’s winning the black rook due to some back rank issues here. Double exclamation mark given. Fuja, he hasn’t realized yet. Hasn’t reacted. But suddenly he finds himself lost. Fuja in shock right now. That rook trapped from innocuous position. It felt like this was fizzling out all the trades that happened and a one move blunder and look at that. You can take the queen but the rook takes queen comes in with a massive check. It’s not checkmate. Peruja can drop back with the queen but he lose big material. Magnus Carlson with a winning advantage here. That is unbelievable. And out of nowhere we have an incredible tactic and suddenly this is all Magnus Carlson in game number one. uh almost uncharacteristic of Fujia there. Not but it’s very difficult to spot as well. We’ve been talking about knights back to the back rank. Your opponent’s back rank is what won that piece for Magnus. Incredible. Yeah, it was so hidden. It was a queen sacrifice. So maybe we show in a slow action replay what just happened. What could have happened if Fua had taken the queen in this position. It was better for the black queen to step elsewhere. Maybe give the black king some breathing space instead because after a queen slide to A3, we saw knight to B8. Such a rare pattern, almost unique, trapping the black rook in the corner which had to take the knight. Had to give itself up for the highest price possible. And then the queen sacrifice, queen takes rook. If the queen had been captured, we would have seen a rook land back rank checkmate had to be blocked by the black queen and ultimately rook for knight advantage. That is the status quo in the current position as well if we catch up with the current game. But it’s the queens coming off. Might be ending very shortly. Magnus Carlson is going to pick off black’s pawn. The A7 pawn is going to be rook versus knight. But no fortress here. Three pawns versus three pawns on the same flank is known to be a winning endgame. Magnus knows it too. This is this is busted for Fuja. And what a gift this has been in game one in the very first start where it looked like Fuja knew everything that he was doing and doing it absolutely right. keeping control on the clock, taking the pawns off the board, having his own activity, and then a one move blunder. Unbelievable. Magnus was in shock. It’s out of nowhere. And while that’s unbelievably shocking at the same time, how many times have we said it’s come out of nowhere when we’re commentating a game involving Magnus Carlson, he generates these opportunities. He generates his own luck. It’s incredible that that’s happened. Now we need to look at the reaction of Fuja. He knows that this first game is probably a loss. However, what can he do about it? What does his mentality look like? He has to recover from everything that’s happened. I think he has to calm himself down. He’s not resigning. He’s going to try to fight this out, but in his head somewhere, he’s getting ready for that fight in game two. Rather than rushing to that after a blunder, many times in our own heads, we’re sort of accepting the reality of what’s just happened. getting ready for the fight that’s coming on where he will be playing with the white pieces. But how trivial is this endame? As Fuja tries to set up a fortress, it still takes time. Magnus will stee at the moment. He’s trying to break through with his king. He’s going to have to use teamwork here. The white rook and white king need to target the base of black’s pawn chain. It’s all about the f7 square. Black’s got to keep it defended with his king. He’s got to use his knight to shield and shoulder away white’s king as it tries to approach that pawn. And if this is a theoretical win for white, how does how does he break through? At what point does black no longer have any defense against this? It’s when that pawn falls simply, it’s when the white rook lands on the seventh rank and when the king the white king is able to approach. At the moment, it can’t get any closer. But Magnus now taking away squares from the black knight, liberating his rook. easy to kick the black king away, but it’s the knight and the jumps there you need to be careful of. You know what was so impressive was that pattern, the tactical motive that Fuja missed on the board and allowed his own rook to get trapped in its starting position was spotted by Magnus in under one second. The moment Fuja moved his queen to the wrong square, Magnus, you could see it on him. He leaned forward. He was locked in. He knew that Fuja had made a massive blunder. Look how the black knight is actually trapped on its back rank. No squares. Magnus almost with a head bob uh kind of shaking in the chair now. He knows this is a dream start to him. I’m not going to fault for at all. That was the most hidden trick, most sneaky tactic I’ve seen so far at the EWC. And there we go. It’s the first result of the grand final. Resignation in game number one. After an incredible tactic out of nowhere, Magnus Carlson wins game one in set one and takes a very, very strong advantage. Don’t forget it’s a best of three sets in the grand finals. So the comeback mechanic is still there. There’s plenty that can still happen. However, it is very much advantage Magnus and comebacks are something that Alira Fuja is used to. We remind everyone and you know of this moment where Magnus again endgame that’s easy play for him. Give him an extra rook against the knight. He converted it flawlessly. Beautiful technique there. just dominating that black minor piece. But it all came down to that move number 21 by Ali Raza Fuja. A huge huge blunder there. Alira Resza now has to make a comeback. But David, it’s something he’s done before in 2024 at the Champions Chess Tour. You know, winning the grand final in an online massive event against Magnus where the stats were 93% given to Magnus in the winning odds and Alza did it then. Can he do it again? That is the big question now, isn’t it? But with a 1- nil advantage now, you have to imagine Magnus has the overwhelming odds, at least in the first set, what I will say is that because of the way we are scoring the grand final, you can absolutely blow your opponent away in set one. And all they have to do is edge the second set by the finest of margins, similar to how it would score in tennis, for example, and you’re actually all square going into the decider. So, the comeback mechanics here on this biggest of stages is actually quite incredible. And Fuja is definitely nowhere close to out of it yet. Even if he loses this first set three to zero, he will know it’s just a total wipe and set two is all important. Of course, he will want to strike back. Fuja is especially dangerous when he has white. He starts this game with the Italian opening and it’s the two knights defense. Look at this. The white knight going pawn hunting. White is going to win a pawn. The black knight pushed to the edge. This is such a trendy line. Fuja found himself on the black side of this just yesterday in his semi-final against Arjuni and he’s taking inspiration from that. Magnus meanwhile playing the second most popular move a bishop block in that position slowing Fuja down. This shows Fuja’s aggressive intentions. This decision by Alireza to go for this line, it’s trendy and it’s dangerous, right? That’s exactly what he needs on the back foot right now. He has to maximize his chances every single game with white. I think that’s a very smart decision that Magnus made, you know, with the bishop blocking that check. It’s not the usual move. It’s not the standard move. Magnus very quickly figured out that Alireza has some deep preparation. Had he gone for the main line, had he pushed that pawn to C6, he avoids that. So, he sort of brings Alireza out of his main preparation. This is going to be so important throughout this match as well because no doubt both of these players, they know each other so well. They’ve probably got one or two surprises in their back pocket, but that doesn’t mean they’re playing all of them on game one, right? So, the question is going to be when do they choose to use those weapons. This is a full pawn sacrifice though, we should mention from Magnus Carlson, especially after this last turn. He’s offering a trade, but it will be seven pawns against oh, sorry, seven pawns against six. Actually, after this trade, I’m expecting him to take. I’m not sure what Fuja is thinking about here. Then the kings will castle. Magnus in return might just get centralized pieces, maybe even a bishop pair as some compensation. But uh here he’s showing maybe learning from that match against Hikaru yesterday that he doesn’t want to just knuckle down force draws when he’s ahead in a match. He wants to seize the moment. He wants to seize the moment. But I think it’s also credits to Fuja right now. You know, he did not let it away. Just looking completely unfased. Alireza is at the moment after whatever happened in game one. He sort of just let go of that completely. So, and that is a sign of a champion, you know, to come back from a one move blunder at the biggest stage and go like there’s a whole fight on the whole day in front of me and you know I’m going to make my chances and that’s the opening approach he has. He comes back with the knight attacks the bishop a trade at the center if you pick up the white bishop that would be a bad idea. Knight takes bishop would come in with a check. Exactly right. So creating some counter chances there is Fuja keeping the position relatively complicated and forcing Magnus Carlson to keep thinking. Although it is Fuja that goes down on the clock here. Uh he wants to try and wrangle his way into some sort of advantage. This isn’t going to be winning in one or two moves. That’s not the intention. What he wants to do is make Magnus uncomfortable, make him think about his responses twice, sort of start doubting himself. And that’s where the micro mistakes start to slip in. They said it in the pregame interviews where I believe it was Ali Resza who said if you’re playing Magnus you are still going to get chances but if you don’t take them you’re going to pay for it. Well in game number one it was Ali Resa who gave Magnus the chance pounced on in less than a second like you mentioned Tanya. So if we see the reciprocal we are going to get to see how quickly Alireza responds in kind. In the meantime still one pawn up for Alza after that last trade. He’s 1 and 1/2 minutes down though almost and black has a threat over the next couple of turns of the knight landing in the center. That’s going to scare Fua somewhat. It’s going to slow him down. He might have to take preventative measures or trade off that knight. Either way, Magnus looking very relaxed. You do get the kind of uh impression here that it is home preparation from Magnus Carson. He’s only spent a minute. This is a move 11 now. And psychologically, that’s difficult if you know you’ve walked into something your opponent has studied before, especially when you’re the one who wanted to spring in that early surprise and had a different preparation in mind. You know, again, a very smart decision of that black bishop moving to D7 on move six by Magnus Carlson in this game. Now, Aliraa has that extra pawn, but it’s the lack of development in his pieces. The king’s still in the center. For Magnus, the initiative is there. You know, it’s it’s ahead in development. the knight jumping to D4. Once you castle, the F pawn can move up the board, kicking out the knight from the center. Easier to play short from Magnus Carlson. Alireza, he still needs to consolidate his position. I I think your points are absolutely spot on here. It’s the psychological impact and if you like the psychological win of going into your opponent’s plan and then throwing him off his game. I mean 9 minutes plays 6 and a half in a game where Fuja is white and wants to win straight away. Like to what extent is this going to really damage his preparation for any future surprise weapons he has against Magnus if this is the response? Wow. Exactly. There are only so many weaknesses in an opponent’s opening arsenal in their repertoire. You have to try and target them. But if you walk into something they’ve studied, that really is a bit of a blow. That being said, the clock situation, we’ve seen it so many times before. All Fujia down on time, even at the 1 minute mark, though, he’s a beast. He plays arguably better than anyone if it gets down to a time scramble at any moment in this match. You’ve got to favor the younger player here. So, he will be trying to keep his time advantage. Magnus Carlson, he does need to drag Magnus down to 1 minute as well to push home that advantage though. If he’s got one minute and Magnus has five, not sure how good that’s going to be. Yeah, that’s the tricky part to make these greats think. But he has forced Magnus to pause for the first real time with this last pawn push. The strategy for Aliraza in this match would be surprising if it is to win out of the opening. He’s playing against Magnus. How do you even prepare against a guy like that who plays everything under the sun? The aim would be to just get a position, a playable position which is got those messy tendencies, that little chaos on the board, the complications where he forces Magnus exactly to come where you are under 1 minute on the clock. Where Aliraza, I think he believes he’s perhaps even faster than Magnus if that was to appear with all the maybe not all but as many pieces on the board as possible and as much chaos as possible. That’s when the match gets truly even. That’s going to be the goal, right? If we see both players get down to a situation where they say have less than 90 seconds on the clock each and it’s a relatively equal position dynamically but lots of play, Alarza becomes so so dangerous. But if in the process of forcing the time down, Magnus is already in a better position, then the plans become easier. It’s easier to convert. Even if you’re slightly slower, the path to victory is clear. And that’s what Alirezes needs to stop. The path to victory should never be clear for Magnus because once he sees it, he’s like a homing missile. There’s no stopping him. Exactly. That’s why he’s so good in the end games. He knows exactly what to aim for. Magnus Carlson, in the meantime, this position is fascinating. Give back an extra pawn to black. Make it level material and Magnus has the advantage. Black has the bishop pair. Black’s central pawns look glorious, but he does have something to suffer for Alera having his extra pawn and it’s just a question of whether he can make it count. The white king in the corner not looking extremely comfortable here. Black’s light squareed bishop staring at it. Magnus is smiling on the camera in the meantime. Fascinating stuff. He must love his position, but the material imbalance must give Alarez some hope here. Tanya, I think he’s thinking about his bow and arrow right now. He’s loading up early days, but you know, he got that first shot in. He did. And that’s something uh or will you know, Alza be flying high, fast, and precise fast? He’s not currently behind on the clock by about a minute. Magnus, meanwhile, lines up the queen on the G line. Aliraza brings his queen closer to the bishop, perhaps trying to neutralize that bishop pair that Magnus has in compensation for the extra pawn. Bishop C5 was the idea, was the threat. We might see it being played out. Uh even though Magnus can now decline the trade after moving the rook away. Yeah, that’s the one thing that Alarza wants since he is a pawn up. We want simplifications. Whether it’s bishops off the board, rooks off the board, maybe even queens off the board. What Magnus wants is some kind of attack against the white king. Magnus will avoid trades at all costs if he can. And there we see, as Tanya predicted, the bishop trade offered. Dark squareed bishops coming off the board would be disastrous for Magnus. It would reduce some of his attacking potential. He’s going to dodge that surely. You can’t afford to trade it. Allow the queen in. Beautiful square for that queen. You can’t give up your bishop pair. It is it is the big initiative in the position that Magnus has. But where do you move it to? And he does step away. He answers the question. Bishop to F6. Always eyeing that E4 break which would further open up the diagonals for his two bishops. White has the potential for a D4 break. I’m so scared every time I look at this because I think if white has a strong way to respond with E4, I’m worried that the position could blow uh blow open in a way that maybe the white pieces don’t necessarily want. We could be seeing this played out on the board. Yeah, things are about to heat up right now. It felt like both sides were just maneuvering. Uh to my eyes, it actually looked like Fua was maneuvering slightly better than Magnus here. It felt like Magnus, the black rook, the black queen not quite coordinating with the rest of their army. So, Fuia deciding to strike again. Trades here help white. Magnus exchanging this pawn. He will not be happy about that if that comes to pass. But if you don’t take it, that white pawn might just continue advancing. That on the board. We do advance. Okay, this is worrying. Will Fua do the same? He does. He kicks away black’s light squared bishop from its nice post. Magnus pausing. He could take the white knight. We could start seeing a tactical sequence akin to what we saw earlier in game one where a bunch of trades happened in break neck speed. But no, Magnus prefers to retreat. He’s going for the white king while Alarza just wants to consolidate his extra pawn. But this gives the time to Aliraza to retreat his own bishop. Again, trying to target uh the trade that he really wants of the dark squared bishop with the move bishop D4. It could be the moment to use that to blunt out that bishop, take away any possibility of bishop takes knight as well. Lots of options for Alira, but he needs to keep one eye on the clock or at least half an eye on the clock. Yeah, one minute difference isn’t so dramatic right now, but if we keep saying that every game for Rouge is behind on time, then it might add up by the end of the day. Uh it was the case earlier when he blundered, he was slightly behind on the clock and he won’t want that to to repeat as he does retreat his bishop. Exactly. Spot on, Tanya. We have the uh D4 square occupied now by the white bishop again trying to force the exchange of the dark squared bishops here. Uh, I suppose there is the potential for black to take on F3 first, uh, if we want to spice things up a little bit. I’m not 100% sure who that’s better for, though, because even though the bishops are on the board, you swap one pair off and you’ve got the G file, and you know what, black’s pieces are pointing menacingly towards white’s king. But at the same time, if the G pawn disappears, a rook can swing across to G1 and it becomes a bit of a double-edged sword. Yeah, let’s show that variation. Let’s try and get inside Magnus Carlson’s mind on the analysis board here that we’ve got up. E takes F3 is the critical move. White here has to recapture. You cannot trade bishops. No time yet. But uh bishop takes bishop here would have allowed an in between move. A check on the white king. Now black will trade off, regain the bishop at the very end. Level material and the white king a bit open. Black’s bishop probably better than the white knight with pawns on both flanks. At the very end here though, this is happening after G takes F3. The white rook sliding across to G1 is white’s big idea. Black in the meantime is trading off pieces. Let’s go back to the game because they’re playing exactly what we predicted. The black bishop trying to get active, but in the meantime, white’s rook opened up on the G file. Who is this going to favor? Evalar says white, but clock says black. Not sure I like this for Magnus, I’ve got to admit. I think Fuja has done fantastically well in order to establish a bit of control here in the center. And I think that central square that you’re alluding to once the knight jumps to that point. The rook lining up on G1. Suddenly the bishop pair gone. The knight getting stronger. Four versus two on that left flank. C pawn starts marching up the board once the knight is out of the way. Also let’s point out Magnus’ last move has a threat. Queen takes pawn in the air. So knight E4. He’s inviting him to place it in that beautiful spot. Also countering the threat. I’m guessing that’s also part of the reason why uh the black pawn protects the E3 square if black wanted to infiltrate with a rook. Not sure there’s enough time to do that though because of the C2 pawn being potentially weak and also because if the knight jumps into E4, there’s a real risk that you end up with a rook on the wrong side of the board without support. But you know, Alza, he’s not playing the most natural move quickly. There’s something about knight E4 because it’s being it’s screaming to be played. You know, it’s the hand move you or in this case the mouse move that you really want to rush into playing, but he doesn’t like something about it, David. Yeah, I don’t really see why not. Maybe it’s the fact that the black bishop has the ability to challenge the light squares. Either way, Alza, he’s tanked for too long on this move. The difference on the clock is telling. They say a pawn is worth a minute and now he’s currently almost 2 minutes down. Magnus is going to be gaining in confidence the longer this position uh doesn’t see a move. Aller really needs to speed up. It feels like this final so far. There we go. The most natural move just took too long. And uh Okay, Magnus instantly ready with his response. And that’s the problem. You take that long, your opponent knows exactly what he’s going to play to the first move that comes to everyone’s mind here. It also signals to Magnus, Alireza has been in the tank. He’s thinking about an alternative. While your opponent’s time is ticking down, you get to have a think yourself about what other moves he was thinking about, which means later on in the game, you’re prepared for those ideas, and you’ve used your opponent’s time to come to that realization. Exactly. The best players, the most practical players in the world, uh, they have all these little tricks to save a few seconds here and there. Magnus, look how zoned in, how focused he is, despite the fact it’s not his move. 2 and 1/2 minute time difference. Now, you need to either move that knight or defend it. It’s that simple. I’d be staring at the RGB on the keyboard. That would be too distracting for me. I don’t think I could handle it. More pieces piling on on the knight on E4 now. And look at the time difference. 4 minutes plays a minute 20. This is becoming critical for Alireza. And he’s trying to desperately calculate here with this remaining minute. What will happen if black next move takes this knight? You can take with the bishop, maybe even with the rook. And tactics will start to land on this board. The white king in the corner is very, very vulnerable. Endgame might be imminent, but Fuia just doesn’t have time to work them out. He’s spending way too long. One minute versus four now. He’s thinking for far too long in this game. I mean, this is just unbelievable, right? Because we’re on move 27 and the biggest decisions lie ahead right now. Magnus Carlson, he might be down a pawn, but he’s not going to make your life easy. Now, there are tactics. This is why you need to think and the board goes red. The clock goes red for Alireza. Move. Come on. You have to move. Push your pawn to D6. Do whatever. Move a rook. You are fine. That ends. He’s frozen. Alera Fuja freezing there, making a rook move. And look at this counter strike by Magnus Carson, taking the white knight off the board. Double exclamation mark. He’s counteratt attacking against the white queen. Look at what’s about to happen. All the rooks coming off. White’s two rooks are forked there. One of them had to give their life up. Magnus has equalized this endame. It’s level, but not on the clock. And Magnus is now going to play to flag Alireza Fuja. His rook, the more active one. Magnus about to pick up that D5 center pawn. He’s just thinking, does he throw in the check? He decides not to. And that is Magnus Carlson thinking to himself, he knows this is a draw. Is he going to play for dirty flagging with 20 sec six seconds for his opponent? Have to be ruthless here. If you’re Magnus Carlson, do not let your opponent off the hook for Rua. If the shoe was on the other foot, he would be playing for time right now. 3 and 1/2 minutes versus 26 seconds. At this point, it’s not dirty. It’s expected. He plays on. He 100% plays on. He’s going to play this on even with an R on the clock. It’s an endgame. You know, he sees the imbalances and look at that. He thought he’d force Alza into a think about this and Alza makes a wrong decision. This is what happens when you have no time on the clock against the world number one. Exactly. It’s easy for black to create a pass pawn on the right flank on the king’s side. Three versus two. Very difficult actually for white’s three to mobilize because black’s two doubled B pawns hold the fort. The white three cannot bypass them. The black king is coming. It was actually better there for the black bawn to push even further to B4. That’s a very natural move though from Magnus and Alera simply physically does not have enough time to finish this game. Under 20 seconds now some big decisions still ahead. Magnus a bit of a shake of the head. Fuja there echoing that. Same for him. He knows he’s going to get flagged. One of Fuja’s biggest strength is just the number of moves. The sheer number of moves he can get in in under 20 seconds. But this position where every move needs to be calculated, every mistake can be a losing move. That is hard. 17 seconds. David Magnus gets this done. Yeah, you would say that, but uh Fua, this last move is fantastic. The white king is holding. The black king is keeping it honest. If the black king ever gives way, the white king steps forward. Fua with 16 seconds. It’s actually quite an easy draw now, but does he have time? That’s the big question. Magnus has really slowed down. This would be god level hold by Alura Fuja if he manages to save this king pawn ending with only 15 seconds against Magnus. Magnus smiling because he knows it’s a dead draw. There’s no way through for the black king into the white half of the board. The black king can try all at once, but there’s no path forward. And the kings are already starting to dance. It’s a fortress and a repetition. Draw by repetition. 2 minutes and 2 seconds. Plays 14 seconds. But we were reduced to a position where all Alireza Fua had to do was move the kings backwards and forwards. An attempt was made to see if a mistake could be forced under time pressure, but Alireza hold Magnus Carlson one and a half. Alireza Fuia a half. That was bizarre. I That is Magnus being merciful. I’ve got to say he could have played that position on for 50 moves. He could have desperately tried to flag Alza. White could do nothing. He could just move the king around the board. But uh Magnus letting his opponent off the hook. Will he regret that later, Tanya? That’s the big question and only time will tell. But I will say that was a godlevel save by Alura Furua. And there was that moment when Magnus not only on the clock but on the board was completely winning. These last few moves, yes, technically a complete drawn ending. Black having no inwards, no path towards that victory. Alresa had built that fortress and this time turns out Magnus believed in those fortresses. Yeah, the way that we got to that dead drawn ending was anything but dead boring. It was a very exciting back and forth game. Ultimately though, uh, it means that a win in the next game would take the first set for Magnus, but we need to get a full point in order for that to happen. So, right now, set one continues. We will be resuming with game number three after this break. 4 3 1 0 Heat. Heat. I wonder how I do it like that. Everybody know we going to do it like this. Do it like this. Do it like this. Everybody know we going to do it like this. from the underground. Everybody know it like this. Do it like this. Do it like this. Everybody know it like this. Do it like this. Everybody know we going to do it like this. Do it like this. Do it like this. Everybody know we going to do it like this. Straight from the underground. Everybody know we going to do it like this. Do it like this. Do it like this. Everybody know we going to do it like this. Do it like this. From the underground. Everybody know we going to do it like this. Do it like this. Do it like this. Everybody know we going to do it like this. from the underground. We are here outside the SNB esports arena awaiting the finals. And if you can see in the background, the line to get in stretches from door to door, more than 100 people deep. We’ve pulled this gentleman out of line to hear why he has come here. First of all, tell us your name. Mosali. And I understand you’re not just an average fan. Who are you? No, I’m the head of the Olympic Chess Committee uh handling the chess players in Saudi Arabia. He’s head of the Olympic Chess Committee and he still has to wait in line like the average fans do. We got to get you some special connections. But tell us, who are you rooting for? Team Liquid or Team Falcons? Falcon, of course. But I’m enjoying the general competition. And finally, I mean, the best chess players in the world came to your country. Hasn’t happened in many years since 2017. What’s it like to have all the top players here? Absolutely fun times. It is fantastic opportunity for every chess lover in Saudi Arabia and the surrounding countries to come and see. It’s a unique tournament. People are playing with a historical game in a futuristic manner. We all love it. We’re going to get back inside. I’ve been told it’s it’s hot even by Saudi standards. You don’t want to lose your place. That’s what the action looks like from outside SNB Sports Arena. We have started the grand finals here at the Esports World Cup. We are deep into the first set. One and a half, a half the current score in favor of Magnus Carlson, the world number one. Each set is a best of four. The first two anyway, and if needed, we will have a best of two in a deciding set. Right now, a full point for Magnus Carlson will clinch the first set. A draw will mean we still have to keep playing. And of course, a win for Alireza Fuja will mean we are all square. And there we see the heart rate monitor being adjusted. I’m sure the heart rates are through the roof. I know they are here in our castudio. Can they adjust mine down? That’d be great. I need like, you know, maybe some like an app control or something. That’d be really handy. That would help cuz you need to keep your nerves in these matchups. And for Alireza Fuja, he is a point deficit in this set one. But it’s early days, two games in. And I think that second game you could feel even though Alza was in trouble at the very end took too much time, but at least he found the rhythm on the board. Now he needs to just make sure he doesn’t come down on the clock the way it’s been. I think he’s got to up up up his time management. It has been a weakness of his allar Fujas in classical chess and rapid chess that he does spend a bit too much time in the middle game, but uh just not leaving himself enough leeway in the ending. There he escaped, but he will not escape too many times in future. The clock looked okay up until the point in that late middle game where suddenly over the course of just a couple of moves, uh it it felt like Fujia tanked what 2 3 minutes, which is maybe fine in the first 12 moves if you have some sort of surprise. Definitely not if it results in 4v1. I mean, those are the kind of odds that you uh that that you see chess players giving each other in social settings for fun when you’re trying to beat a weaker player, for example. It’s not it’s not the kind of thing you want to be doing at this level. What do you guys think? The jackets are off. The gloves are definitely off in this finals, but is he going to put that back on? I think not. That usually means he’s ready for a fight in this one. Alira Fuja is, but he’ll start with the black pieces. What is going to be his game strategy in this one? Well, it’s a must not lose game, right? It’s a kind of set point for Magnus Carlson. If he strikes with white, he reaches the two and a half point mark out of four. That means he wins the set. And Alza with black. He just needs to do what he did in the first game up to a point. Just not blunder that rook in the corner. Um I wouldn’t be surprised actually if Alza repeats a similar opening. It was semisuccessful. I would say a draw, not the worst result. Alza will fancy his chances with white more than he will with black. Meanwhile, Magnus not amused with the delay. It looks like get going. Might be a little bit of an audio issue, but it looks like to be honest, it looks like it’s doing okay and that that might be resolved very shortly. So, this is game number two. Uh how we got to this position, it it was a wild game. It was a wild game. Magnus sacrificed sacrificed a pawn early, got the bishop pair in return. We saw some early exchanges and ultimately it was around here that Fuia started to tank. But when the dust settled, we got to a rook end game. Even a king and pawn endame that was temporarily winning for Magnus. In the end though, he had to settle for a repetition, a draw. Fua had no time, but Magnus had no way through. He had no way through, but he could play that position on forever. And ultimately, Fuja would have flag. I think Magnus, you know, he’s also such a sportsman. I think somewhere he just couldn’t get himself to continue in that position knowing that on the board there are no inroads. Maybe it’s a bit of a gambit. Agnes not trying to flag Fuja there. If it comes down to a later game when the shoe is on the other foot, maybe he’s hoping Fua doesn’t try to flag him if it’s a dead draw endame. I mean, oh, come on. We’ve got a quarter of a million dollars and a,000 points at the Esports World Cup club championship at stake here. Are we reliant on charity? Are we relying on Mercy? Everything is earned. David, you’re right. I I can see it potentially happening. I think maybe Magnus recognized that all the pawns on the third rank meant that you could just shuffle the king and at that point it was like fine but I I I don’t think you want to be giving away favors here. But you know Magnus has done that before when his opponent has blundered with a mouse slip and lost on the spot. He sort of returned the fa the favor in the very next game by doing exactly the same just to level the score and saying reset let’s go. Let me suggest something subtly different. Magnus does that because he is so certain that he is going to win over the board. He is so certain that under normal circumstances without the mouse slips, without the mistakes, without the flagging, he would win anyway that he gives it back not out of mercy, out of confidence. It’s possible. It’s possible. Who knows when it comes to Magnus Carlson very mood dependent. In the meantime, we see the Caracan defense and uh here black setting up with a fianetto. White doing the same. Alerza played this queen move against NBC Abdul Satro. He used it just yesterday uh oh sorry just the day before even in the quarterfinals and Magnus pausing that shows a lack of homework. I’m going to say Magnus should have been studying all’s games. Pause here surprising the first think there by Magnus after the queen move. And I think what he wants to do now is think about expanding not in the center because if you push the D pawn, you’re opening up Alira’s sniper on G7. But he wanted to go B4 next, which now has been stopped by Aliraza with that last move, A5. So not allowing. And I I was thinking this is not going to happen. But Magnus says game on D4 on the board. This is going to be maximum tension. A four pawn stare off. If you’re not going to let me play B4, then fine, let’s do this anyway. I wonder how this is going to end up for the players. Yeah, a lot of choice now for All Alarza. He can resolve the tension immediately. He can capture one of white’s central pawns or he can wait, maybe develop the knight that hasn’t yet entered the action. Either way, Allera now has been surprised. Magnus with the jacket off, meaning business. Maybe he had studied this before. Uh maybe just that pause was to recollect things to lull Fua into that full sense of security. We do see a trade. Magnus takes back with his knight, not giving himself the big pawn center. maybe reluctant to get isolated pawns there, but uh now it looks like the whole center will liquidate. It’s going to be symmetry a bit later on and uh it’s going to be about who can profit from that scenario. And so many knight jumps once that pawn trade at the center of the board happens because pawn takes pawn will definitely be met by the knight recapturing. You know, Aliraza isn’t going to give a weakness at the center of the board. We can expect then Magnus’ knight to jump at the center or will he just do Magnus things? One move that Magnus loves to play is pushing the H pawn forward. Whether he’s castled the king or not, H4 always on the cards. Modern chess, when in doubt, play H4. What do you foresee? Is it going to happen? Is Magnus going to resolve the central tension or play on the wings? Big question. Does he want to keep the tension right now or add to it? I don’t mind if it’s Magnus or anybody else. I just want to see H4 on the board. So, I’m very, very keen. I’ll say one thing though, John. If H4 happens, I think Aliraa stops the advance. You really don’t want that pawn to go all alpha zero. In this case, Alpha Magnus on you with H5 coming in and then a potential H6. Sure. Yeah, exactly. I think uh the the logical response to H4 is H5 admittedly. And then from that point onwards, it’s a little bit harder to get super excited about it because the follow up to build that kingside attack, especially with uh the bishops pointing at the queen side, might be a little bit more difficult. But uh H4 certainly worth a try. Yeah. So, no wing play against the Falcon yet. Instead, it’s some knight action as uh we see Magnus the first to blink. He trades off a bishop for knight. Very controversial decision, I’m going to say, because he’s parted with his beautiful light squared bishop. The white king a bit airy on those light squares, but Magnus laughing, smiling again, looking very, very happy with his position. He gained a tempo against the black queen, which is forced home, but now the white knight on C4 is hit and needs to decide. Magna seems in very good spirits. I don’t know if that’s a a good thing or a bad thing for Fuja. Usually that’s a bad thing. You know, Magnus is is the strongest player on the planet any day, but when he comes in a good mood, he’s enjoying his chess. He knows he’s up in the match already, uh, feeling the flow in his position. Now he’s taking a decision. Does he go aggressive with his knight, knight D6, or is he going to have a more cautious approach? Just come back to the center of the board. Knight to E3 was what I was going to suggest. And then I just realized that knight E3 is probably the one square you don’t want to move it to. That bishop on F4 would have been trapped. But look at that. Oh, hello Magnus Carlson inviting a lot of complications. Bishop D6. That’s a double attack. It is a fork on the black rook and the black knight. Magnus now looking up to the skies. Uh he’s pretty much forced Fuja here to take his knight. The white bishop’s going to take the black knight. Taking the rook would have led to a material deficit for Magnus. Two pieces against a rook. So, uh, now it’s level material, but the black rook can save itself. Don’t know why Fuja is pausing here. Rook to E8 is the most logical move in the position, and he’s playing against the bishop pair, Magnus. And that’s the surprising part, right? He’s also helped Fuja get rid of that problem in the center, the pawn that was there. And now, after all these trades, it’s going to be Fuja getting his bishop to H3 with even potential checkmating ideas, the kiss of death on G2. If the queen and the bishop can line up against that white king, this is going to be Magnus on the defense for a long time. The weaknesses on the light squares, you’re right, the the the fact that that king feels just a little bit airy means that in the long run, this doesn’t feel comfortable. It’s not not not necessarily hugely advantageous or anything like that, but certainly a situation where you might have to uh defend for a little while before you can spot your opportunity. So it’ll be interesting to see how they choose to respond to this. And Falcons are here is what we saw on the screen. You know, Hikaru Nakamura already getting the third place for Falcons. Alira of Fuja fighting for the crown right now. They’re definitely here. They’ve arrived. Yeah, I saw some of Magnus’ Liquid teammates as well in the arena. It feels like everyone is out in full support today for this grand final. This is again just the beginning, just set one, but still plenty of ahead. The white queen comes out. I was going to at least suggest that Magnus tries to get the queens off the board as pos as soon as possible to avoid any checkmating ideas. Magnus doesn’t look happy in the meantime. Reacting somewhat there. Position still in the balance despite the fact black does have those hugely potential bishops. You know, I think it comes down to that sequence of moves that just happened with the trades of the knight at the center of the board. Magnus kind of with a smile putting the bishop forward. But at the end of it all, when the dust is settled, Magnus realizes that this is not what he was aiming for. You know, as you evaluate this position and look at that, we were talking about H4. It’s Aliraza on the attack. Mag has to stop it. He does, but it further creates those light square weaknesses. Now, the bishop can plant itself on G4. There are some developmental questions to ask as well because you want to really get the light squared bishop off its starting square for black at some point. You can’t move the B pawn. You can’t play B6 because the queen would take the rook on A8. Please, not for the second time in this match. Uh, but you move that and then where are you going? Do we do we get the queen out first? Oh, unfortunately the rook on E8 would then get taken. You want to move the bishop out instead to E6 or F5. Well, guess what? The knight’s there to gobble it up. It’s actually not super clear how Fua completes development and continues on this game even though his position looks comfortable right now. Yeah, he’s going to have to calculate. He’s going to have to be very concrete about his uh mode of development here. Alarza Fua. One idea would be to bring the bishop out as Tanya mentioned and if the white queen captures a pawn and on the B7 square, the black rook will slide across with some action of its own on the B file. It’s a long sequence going through his mind. All Fuja, he’s trying to yeah prove here that the bishop pair is the superior piece configuration, but it’s not going to be easy at all. And let’s just show that on the board for everyone at home. Bishop to G4 is the move he wants to play. He actually plays his rook out which is very surprising. But bishop to G4 would have allowed the queen to capture a pawn and uh the rook to slide across and uh next move when the queen retreats, rook takes pawn on B2 uh or sorry after maybe a rook trade and uh this would have led to some big complications. Uh but maybe we go back to the game because uh this was something he wanted to avoid. The bishop would have had to retreat instead. Magnus desperately trying to offer a trade of queens. Uh so we saw two different types of positions there. Fuja choosing not to set the border light. He’s going more positional. Uh maybe now forced to trade if he’s not going to drop the C4 pawn. And I don’t think it matters if Alza has a clear sequence of moves that gives him advantage. He just needs to keep this imbalance of the bishop pair. He needs to make sure that as many pieces as can remain on the board. And this is the kind of position where he needs to bring Magnus to that bullet territory. That’s when his odds would increase. while saying that he first gets the queens off now puts the bishop on G4 hits the knight aiming with that rook lift to activate it further but even in this endame I think that’s his plan just bring Magnus down on the clock he’s got something to play for here he was uh trying endlessly to avoid playing the Magnus style game moving the queen away uh in the last game when the queen trade was offered this time around he’s saying look relatively equal on the clock let’s actually get the queens off the board and see what we can and he brings his rook up. He’s actually aiming to shuffle that rook across to the B5 square and go for white’s queen side pawns once the bishop saves itself. Very, very sneaky from Alarza. That is a bit of a genius move, I’m going to say because he’s actually allowing what looks like a desirable bishop trade for Magnus Carlson. Uh the bishop could have gone to D4 and the black rook sliding across would now have been super effective. Let’s say a bishop trade happens and you cannot defend your B pawn since the black bishop drops back and uh hits the white rook on B1. The pawn on B2 would have dropped next move. So Magnus Carlson instead forced onto the defensive. The white bishop has been sidelined. Talia, this just looks grim for white. Although maybe with the rook trade, he’s going to hold it now. You know, the bar says this position’s level and I think the rook trade it will happen because you really want to put your rook on F5. You’re not only putting it on this really weird square, but also taking away the escape route of your own bishop, but after rook takes rook, the big question is how much does Aliraza believe in his chances and does he play on this position very close to a Magnus hold this one? And I think that would be a relief for Magnus. One word, fortress. He might have no way to break through all Fujia just like he made uh that fortress for Magnus last game. It might be the case where Magnus would start believing in fortresses himself. The rooks come off. Bishop to B1. That’s the idea that I would be concerned about that A2 pawn. How are you defending it? Not sure actually at the moment. And it and it takes two Tempe as well to move that pawn too. So I wonder uh I wonder what’s going to happen here and whether that is simply the line. Is there maybe a counter punch somewhere that uh that white can do? or is this one of those situations where even if uh we have a pawn in imbalance and we go a pawn up, it’s not enough to convert. I’m pretty sure Magnus has missed this by the way. I don’t think he’s seen this idea. We haven’t seen a reaction on the camera from him yet. I think he’s trying to keep a poker face, but if that move lands, Magnus is going to have to scramble to try and hold equality. Eval still says 0.0, but not obvious how white holds that one. That would be that would be Aliraza returning the favor from game one. It was the B8 square the knight landed on and game over. But for some reason Aliraza decides to keep the balance. Doesn’t put his bishop on B1. But it’s a threat that you need to watch out for. Magnus’ knight gets active. Stopped that check on E7. Aliraza brings his king forward. David, this is not as simple as it looks for white. This is horrible for white. It’s a two result game. Uh for everyone at home who might be wondering what that means, it means black should be out of danger. It’s going to be either a win for black if Magnus is unable to defend or a draw if he can build a fortress. Very minimal chances that white wins this one. Now let’s see to what extent the clock is going to play a role in this game as well. Magnus Carlson 4 minutes 40 playing just under 3 minutes for Alireza Fua. You know what he had four versus one uh in the previous game. So frankly this is already a little bit better but he needs to not go in the tank now. and Alzasa can start dominating that knight that has jumped too far away with no squares to return. And look at that bishop on E4. The black king heading towards the center of the board combining all these ideas. The only thing he needs to move fast. Alireza does for a real shot at winning and equalizing this match. 2 and 1/2 minutes. He’s got to speed up. The heart rate has been rising for Alza. He needs to I was going to say bring the king across. Dominate that knight. He was scared of the white pawn stepping forward to the A4 square given a question mark. But now Magnus has a small window of opportunity. He needs to get his knight out of the black camp as quickly as he can. That move hits the black bishop in the process. Magnus should be saving himself and escaping, but he has to evacuate that piece. There we go. First step. Now he’ll move the white bishop out the way and the white knight returns to safety. That was a big moment, you know, to have tried to trap that knight. Those sequence of moves. Again, it comes down to clock because Alza is also trying to play fast and that is when these inaccuracies happen. He does retreat with the bishop and it’s still level but but white’s the one who’s suffering in this position. We need uh Fuia to hit that god mode. We need him to uh start calculating with immense speed and trusting his instincts maybe a little bit more and absolutely going for it so that he doesn’t end up in a situation where he risks making a critical mistake with under a minute left on the clock. We need to see that from him now so that that isn’t a possibility later. You know what he’s done with this bishop maneuver is to get that critical move going. And I think at some point G5 is the break that Alireza is hoping for. That pawn on the right side of the board moves forward and then we might see Magnus stuck with a weakness of the G3 pawn. But he has to time it well and time is a luxury that Aliraza does not have. Needs to go for it. Pawn to G5. He needs to actually accelerate the play. He’s being very, very patient for Roua. And normally I never fault that. It’s a great skill in chess, but you can’t be patient with 2 minutes on your clock. You need a clear path forward. And there we go. Pawn to G5. Has he timed it correctly? He’s going for it, but he’s allowed Magnus to drop back with the knight, attacking a bunch of things. Attacking black’s dark square bishop and those pawns that have advanced. Fuja shaking his head. He might have just let Magnus off the hook. And it was all about making this move at the right time. And he didn’t. Knight E4. Fuja is about to lose his bishop advantage. To keep it, he has to now trade on F4. fall back with his own bishop just to make sure that the key game keeps going. But that leaves him with a big weakness on H5. The white knight can start targeting that pawn. Magnus locks. Yeah. Locks up the king side. The knight move is coming. Knight to G3. Fushia has to be careful here. He needs to pull the break here and now. One and a half minutes. He’s no longer better. But how do you even do that? If you try to get rid of that knight, it’s heading to G3 to pick up that H5 pawn. Knight G3. And I think what he wants is bishop to D7 to win that F5 pawn in return. This is what Fuja set up. Magnus Carlson is he sensing his opportunity right now. This is Fuja’s plan. Magnus sees it and is looking for a way forward. Ultimately the Evalbar says 0.0. It looks like uh both sides have a way towards a draw. But again, how hard is Magnus going to press on the clock? He moves his bishop out the way. White Knight, okay, could have gone back there instead. The king defends the pawn. Black’s dark square bishop can’t really move. Can’t really get around. And that’s what Magnus did with his bishop move, right? He took away all the squares that Aliraza’s dark squad bishop had to give a check to that white king. Can’t go to D8. Can’t go to D6. Aliraza comes back with his own bishop. Magnus can repeat. Magnus can bring his king back right now if he wants to stop the game. He’s got that option. Will he choose to exercise it? 2 minutes 40. He plays a minute 04. I think he’ll probably play on a little bit, but is there a I’m looking for a second avenue of attack. It really does look like everything is hinging on whether an attack against the H5 pawn can be repelled and he just cannot let the black dart squared bishop in Magnus Garson. He’s trying to make sure that he doesn’t allow any counterplay. He retreats his king. This is the second time we’ve seen that position. Oh, Alza goes for the win this time. He could have forced a draw instantly by bringing his bishop back. He actually goes around. He’s trying to check the white king. That is potentially very dangerous. The black bishop not only will check the white king, but it’s going to go behind and start snacking on the base of white’s queen side pawn chain. Magnus here, he’s the one who has to pull the brakes this time. This is a very scary threat he’s facing. That is huge. If Magnus allows that, the whole house collapses on the left side of the board. He’s going for a counterattack of his own, attacking H5. This has suddenly become a three result endame. Wow, he’s let the black bishop in. This is really brave. Is it going to be foolhardy for Magnus Carlson? The bishop gets in. Look at the evalbar. It’s dropping. It’s in black’s favor. All has got in. Magnus is trying to shut the door with his own bishop. But is it going to be enough? That is the big question. He’s defended one pawn. Can he defend the other pawn? Magnus Carlson retreats the knight to do just that. Alura has to activate the other bishop. Gives a check to Magnus’ king. Falls back. 43 seconds on the clock. A minute deficit for Aliraza. But Alira is the one who’s playing for a win. Oh, I don’t know. That black dart square bishop on B2 is trapped. He holds the white king away from moving towards it for now. But Alarza, he’s playing without a piece. That black dark square bishop on B2 could potentially be doomed. Magnus can just sit now. Black has no winning plan. Magnus has built a fortress. 28 seconds for Fuia. Will we see a repeat of what just happened in game two? The players starting to move their pieces back and forth. Or will this time Magnus Carlson try to flag Alireza with the bishop trapped? And there Magnus, he’s repeating again. He doesn’t want to play on. Evalbar says Magnus actually has an advantage, but he doesn’t realize it. And we see a draw by repetition for the second time in this first set. Game number three ends peacefully but reluctantly. Magnus Carlson now takes a 21 lead into the final regulation game of this first set. A draw is all he needs now to take the first set of the grand finals. That is crazy what just happened. And it looked like Aliza was back in the game in that end game. That in inaccuracy by Magnus. A slight headshake as Alza realizes his missed opportunity there. But Magnus not continuing, not playing on for the second time in the match. The conspiracy theory here, but I think Magnus wants to get it done only on the board. Yeah, Magnus, he’s only got half an eye if that on the clock so far. He has been quicker than Fuja. I think maybe he’s watching his own clock more, but he hasn’t been trying to win by flag as we see on the top right of your screens there. Super high accuracy this game from both players. Very high quality chess. 94 95% accuracy from both. Ultimately, Magnus built a fortress. He held it, but it wasn’t easy. Game number four coming up and this this is a must-win situation for Ali Fua. Uh if we want to take set number one to Armageddon, he now has to win on command. He has got the white pieces. Uh so if ever there was a time to do it, it is now. But no second chances and he needs to take inspiration from his Falcon’s teammate Tanya Hikaru who struck back twice against Magnus. And what a match that was. He needs to do just that. Not look too far away, but soar pretty high in the sky with the white pieces. Aliraz of Fuja. Will he go for the attack that he did in game two? Will we see another king’s pawn opening? The two knights defense. Will the knight move forward early on? Aliraza trying to figure all that out. What will be his opening approach against the world number one looking for a must-win here is Alireza. Nice images there. Some Magnus fans in the arena. It’s not just the Falcons represented. Absolutely not. With the keys in the background as well. They want to see their man put the key into the trophy, grab that thousand points for the club championship. We’ll see if he can take a concrete first step towards doing that. Now, this has the potential to be the last game of the first set. Will Carlson get it over the line? And and Magnus switches it up, not allowing Alza with a knight jump to G5. Their earlier game where Magnus had first developed with his own knight. This time starts with the bishop. So, taking away that possibility, making it a slower game. This is the slow version of the Italian game, the Guyo Piano as they sometimes call it. Uh, white pawn pushes on the queen side. He was trying to trap black’s dark square bishop. Magnus says no. He’s created a nice hiding spot for it. But, uh, this is actually something we saw earlier in the event in the clash between Wei Yi and Cinderov. In that match, it was Cinderov striking out very quickly in the center with black with a pawn push to D5 and it rebounded very very quickly. So, who’s done the better homework? Who is this position going to favor? Full of tension. A good choice I think by Alarza Fuja keeping all the pieces on the board in his quest to strike back. And again, these openings so much about the nuances and the subtleties of where your pawns are, where your bishops are placed. Will he move it back to B3? Will he bring the rook next to that central file? Magnus has done his homework. He doesn’t go for that D5 break. So, which was premature earlier on in the game and H3 taking away bishop to G4. No pins there. Magnus retreats with his own bishop and we see thematic plans being played out here. Yeah, this is very standard stuff for the Italian game. It’s all about maneuvering up until around move 20 when things often start to open up. But, uh, for now, one black knight is landing on the G6 square. Those two black knights are going to act as guardians of the black king, maybe leaping forward if given the opportunity to attack. And normally the white knight does the same. It echoes by going back to F1 and parking itself on G3. Only then will they decide what to do with the center with the rest of their pieces. And usually in this opening, it it’s sort of a slow KG start where pieces are placed at these different optimal squares and then one side breaks. Either black goes D5 or white strikes with D4. And if you’re able to get that, if white gets it successfully, gets that edge. If black’s able to break out, is able to neutralize white’s opening advantage. I’m expecting D4 to happen very soon. Now, we’re talking about edges here as well. Uh we mentioned a few times when we saw the Catalans that when one side uh strikes out, we see fireworks on the board really quickly, super sharp, really quite entertaining tactical chess. Are we saying that when the breaks happen here, it won’t quite be as explosive because we’re actually still looking for a positional edge? Is that what we’re expecting? Yes, pretty much. And uh talking of positional edge, it’s Magnus who gets there first in the center. Normally white because it’s so symmetrical and you get the honor of the first move in chess. You are the first one to occupy the center, but Magnus, he’s trying to use some tactics in his favor to get there. And uh here breaking the tension with white might just backfire. Alza Fuja, he has options. But if he takes the pawn in the center, the black knight retakes. And uh here, for example, if white tries to continue munching on pawns, we would see a cool tactic after a knight trade. And uh the rook recapturing bishop takes F2. Watch out for this one, everyone at home. Always look for checks and captures. The king retaking uh would allow a queen check, a double attack, hitting the king, winning the rook on the next move. And uh Allarza of course he dodges that and uh instead develops his bishop. So watch out for that tactic to persist. Black’s sniper on A7 still looking very very strong. Tanya feels like Magnus should be relatively happy with the outcome here with the black pieces again, right? You get a successful D5 against the Spanish or against the Italian. You are a happy camper. Magnus’ knight on D5. Now the pawn on E5 defended and that bishop on A7 is beautifully placed. always always targeting the F2 pawn. Queen headed to F6 at the right point. The black knight can jump over to F4 or H4. I think this is a very very pleasant opening outcome for Magnus and for Alireza, he can’t be pleased with what’s just happened. Yes, he’s got space on the queen side, but what’s next? He’s going back to basics. Alerza, uh I’ve been watching his game since he burst onto the scene, even before he was a teenager, and he’s been playing the Italian game, game in, game out. He went away from it for a few years, but he’s back to his favorite opening. That shows he believes that his nature, his style can hit Magnus Carlson. I’m a little worried though cuz maybe he’ll be able to hit uh against Magnus Carson over the board. Unfortunately, he’s very close to getting into a threeinut deficit. And okay, it’s 9 versus 6 rather than four versus one. So, I don’t want to overhype the moment, but if Magnus recognizes this opportunity and continues to play quickly, he now has an excellent way of piling an enormous amount of pressure on Fuja in a game, don’t forget, he must win. And there’s so much more to chess. Of course, it’s about good moves, but sometimes if you know that you spend a lot of time in the middle game, uh often choosing openings where you can land 20 quick moves and uh kind of clarify half the board, that just saves you a bit of time, puts it in the bank for later. Alerza though he loves maximum tension. He loves using maximum time and getting down to that adrenaline packed last few minutes. I think it’s time to get concerned about Ali Raza’s clock right now. You know uh it’s early days in the game but there are a lot of pieces. Nothing’s been traded off only a set of pawns right now. So a lot of critical positions decisions do lie ahead here. And it also shows the confidence and the style of the position the nature of the game that is as right now for Magnus. I think it just suits him. It’s easy play. Pieces are developed. No big weaknesses. Alireza, where are those complications? Where is that chaos that he thrives in? It’s still a far way off. And the problem is when and if that does happen, he will not have enough time. Also, let’s be honest, um happening, you know, the going down on the clock and really struggling under pressure. Okay, can be a bit of a coincidence once, but multiple times it’s becoming a little bit of a pattern and it’s something that Aliraza needs to psychologically break out of. Otherwise, Magnus will continue doing this and using it as a weapon against him all throughout the Grand Final. If this is what Magnus has to do to win a quarter of a million dollars and first place at the Esports World Cup, I he will absolutely keep doing it. He’s got no reason to change anything up. Magnus, if if it comes down to flagging, he’s avoided that option twice now in games two and three. But if it comes down to the final game, the final Armageddon flag is the only thing between him and first prize for Team Liquid. Magnus is going to do it. Oh yeah. Also, I think if at any moment Magnus is behind in a set, he definitely does it. He goes on to play that position 100 out of 100 times, which he didn’t. I mean, there’s so much history between these two players. And somewhere, you know, with Magnus’ mindset, how he approaches this new generation, the challenge that he truly relishes playing against Alireza, against Gesh, Nordc, you know, somewhere you get what he’s doing. He wants to try to prove his domination with the moves on the board. He wants chess to speak for itself and the clock. Sure, it’s a factor, but right now he doesn’t perhaps thinks that he doesn’t need it. I mean, this story line goes back. Meanwhile, a move on the board. Aliraza does attack Magnus’ knight. It moves forward. This is starting to get a little tricky for white. And we glimpsed Alza’s screen a moment ago. He just pushed his C pawn forward one square, but his mouse was still hovering over this pawn. It looked like he was getting ready to push it yet again in order to block in black’s dark squareed bishop. We talked about that sniper. Some tricks in the air. Uh it looked like he was going to play that but again not trusting his instincts. His mouse was ready to make that move pushing the pawn forward to the C5 square but he’s paused and okay changing his mind now. He first takes the black knight which will be replaced by a pawn or maybe the other black knight. Uh barring a sacrifice of the E5 pawn and Allar the clock time 4 1/2 minutes down. Something’s just off with the pace. He needs to speed up as well as try to land a blow on the board. He’s so good when his clock runs down, but again, not when he allows his opponent such a big advantage on the clock. We choose to recapture here with the knight. And yet another pawn sacrifice, the second time Magnus has offered up this pawn in the center on E5. Again, it feels poisoned. Taking a the bait like that, especially with a knight near your king, especially with the black dark squareed bishop poised feels wrong. I think in the center there, black’s rook would open up. Black’s light squareed bishop would have jumped out the way and uh it would have been disaster. So ultimately he does play this idea that he was hinting at with his mouse over there on C5 and black’s bishop on A7 not too happy. I do like this last move from Fua. He’s asking Magnus some questions. So C5 here has the potential to completely lock out that long diagonal for the bishop. If you really wanted to lock it down, which I don’t think he needs to at this time, you could even push A5 to drive the point home. the light squareed bishop on a great square, which is probably why it instantly gets traded off. And yeah, Magnus not particularly happy with the lack of scope for the dark squared bishop in the long run. Why not lash out at this straight away? This is getting fun now because there’s a lot of tension on that left flank, but also big knight jumps on that right side as well of the board. The white knight also heading to F5. But I like this approach by Magnus. He’s targeting the base of that mini pawn chain to try to activate his bishop on A7. The one move you definitely don’t want to make is pawn takes pawn. You double up the A pawns. You allow the bishop to slide over, pick up the C5 pawn, and come under a lot of pressure on the A file. And it’s under these pressure moments that mistakes happen. And for Aliraza, an inaccuracy on the board. He tries to complicate matter under 3 minutes. D4. And lot of tension there. Which pawn is Magnus going to pick up? Yeah, probably this pawn that’s just pushed given a question mark. I just want to mention Magnus has not spent over 30 seconds for a single move so far in this game. That one he spends 22 seconds on. He opens up uh the lines of the rooks. One set of rooks leave the board. I don’t really see what Allar has in mind though. That whole left flank is exploding. The pawn chain has been eroded. Black’s bishop. It’s only a matter of time before it gets back into the game and it’s going to come back with full force. The clock situation and board as well against Fuja. The only explanation for this trade that he allowed and is allowing further on is that he did the rook lift trying to line up the queen and the rook against Magnus’ only semi-w weakness which is going to be the B7 pawn once the trades on B4 happen. Pawn takes pawn, rook takes pawn, trying to get to that. But that weakness is easily defendable by Magnus’ rook sliding over. And these moves that you see right now, for example, forcing the knight away, if the knight goes to E6, for example, it’s a very natural move because once the pawn on B4 drops, uh, the knight on E6 is naturally attacking the pawn on C5 together with the bishop. So, this is playing into Magnus Carlson’s plan. It’s making his moves a little bit more natural to make, which is not good when you have less than half the time of your opponent. Yeah, those two white pawns are about to drop off. Uh, he’s hoping here for Roua to create some counterplay with his own knights, I guess. The white rook and white queen quite active. Magnus frowning. This is Magnus’ longest think of the game so far. He knows that he has the advantage. A draw enough as well. And uh sometimes that’s a situation you don’t necessarily want to be in where you’re caught in two minds. Do you press an advantage or do you just try to shore up the defenses? Uh Magnus meanwhile, what is the most risk-free move? I think that’s what he’s asking himself. And that’s the thing, right? Alsa is in a must-win game right now. It’s a dead man’s draw for him. It’s as good as losing. So he needs to even if he doesn’t want to create these dynamics on the board even if that means objectively he’ll end up in a worse position. He’s ready to sacrifice material to get that piece activity whether it’s a knight planted on D6 or the open B line for his rook or queen. Alza wants a fight and Magnus ticking down on the clock. I think uh almost breathing a sigh of relief that Magnus is taking so long trying to work out how it’s possible to maybe put the result of this game beyond doubt. It’s also giving Alireza plenty of time to think. You can see he’s uh he’s not hunching his shoulders quite as much as before. He’s been able to use Magnus’ time to hopefully calculate some of the moves that he’s going to play, too. I’m not sure it’s enough to get him to play nice and freely, but you have noticed a slight change in his demeanor over the last 30 seconds or so. Definitely. And there we go. Magnus doesn’t play the best move according to the Evalbar. Question mark appears, but he’s trying to play safety first chess. We cannot blame him for that. And there we go. Aller knows a rook trade would guide this game closer to a draw. That’s not enough. So, he has to gamble. He has to speculate here. He keeps the rooks on, but crucially, he did it instantaneously. He’s going to have to do that for a bunch more moves. Big tension on the clock and the board. Rook E4. This does allow Magnus to again trade on B4 if he so wants. Magnus he slows down. He does take after rook takes pawn. That rook on D8 can slide one step forward and defend that B7 pawn. And still the attack on on Alireza’s weakness on C5 continues. Alza, he played the previous move instantly. He’s gone back into the tank here. About 15 20 seconds invested and counting. Problem is that black bishop is so close now to breaking its way back into the game. The black knight coming back. The white knight’s so far unable to get in. You know, if you have to beat Magnus Carlson, then you need to make the most of every single aspect and element of the game. You have to be up on the clock. You have to play the opening perfectly. Middle game try to complicate things. Endame technique on point. And so far, the biggest problem in this match for Alza has been the clock because in those final moments, we’ve seen the blunders happen. It’s beginning to look like the way to beat Alireza in this grand final is to give him choice. Uh because that that is what Magnus Carlson is using against him right now. I’m I’m going to give you uh choices where you’re trying to calculate when maybe the position and your clock certainly is calling for you to use your intuition a little bit more. Otherwise, you risk making mistakes in another minute. And it seems like 10 times out of 10 Alireza is choosing to hard calculate instead of trusting his intuition, which is odd because he his intuition is so good. That’s the reason why he is such a beast when his time gets low. Exactly. Mr. Intuition. And right now, Magnus has won a pawn, the black bishop is out. Most importantly, if the white rook goes to the top of the board with a check, the black bishop can drop back and block. That doesn’t look super healthy for Magnus, but it’s only temporary. And the black bishop is going to save the day. Aller struggling to find any attacking resources, any follow-up to that check. And this is this is concerning, right? You make a move, you give up a pawn, your opponent takes the bait, and then you again go into a tank. Make a move that you’re not super happy with, and it turns out to be a blunder. Alura coming in with a double attack, but there are checks that he needs to be careful about. He’s taking massive risk here. There are two checks that are very tempting for Magnus Carlson. The black rook now able to infiltrate on the first rank. Magnus leaned back. I think he spotted something. The black bishop can maybe even jump in and sacrifice itself. Something similar to what we showed earlier. Alerza smiling. He knows he’s blundered. He spotted the reputation. Black has multiple winning moves here. And Magnus starts with a flashy bishop takes pawn check on the board. And if this is captured, the knight will jump in with a check, forcing white’s king to disconnect with the knight on G3. Knight D3 coming in. Queen takes knight coming in. Aliraza cannot believe it. He is the master of tactics, but he’s the one on the receiving end of this one. Magnus super sharp today. He’s under one minute. He’s got only a few seconds left. And look at this. Walking forward with his king. He’s now down two pawns. But this white king is simply not going to survive. The black king in the meantime protected by its army. The pawn will block now. And Magnus’ queen can even block. And this one is going to be over. Magnus will surely not let Fuja back off the hook there. And there we go. It’s actually checkmate to end this game. Checkmate on the board and it started with bishop takes F2 at 3 and 1/2 minutes plays one. Magnus Carlson takes the full point and with that the first set in this grand final advantage team Liquid Pactus Carlson is crashing in on the Falcons. He’s drowning the competition here. I mean, unbelievable what he’s done in set one. you know, wins in game one, wins in game four. The middle two games he could have pushed to flag Alireza. Doesn’t do it. And this was the brilliant move. Bishop takes pawn. The start of the end. Yeah, beautiful awareness, tactical alertness. Magnus showing off his different gears there. He was in defensive control mode for so long. Suddenly given an opportunity, he landed a blow. One, two pawns. And unexpected to Fuja, unexpected to me here in the commentary booth, he landed a checkmate even to end this game. Ruthless from the world number one. So it is 3 to one in set number one and that means that Magnus Carlson takes that home. Now we should point out if Fua is able to take set two. It doesn’t matter what the score line is. It could be two and a half a half. It could be two all and he wins on Armageddon. It doesn’t matter. They would be one set all. Okay. So that has got to be the goal for Fua right now. He needs to forget about what just happened and focus all of his energy on winning that second set. Let’s go ahead and head back to the studio to break it down and see what Alireza has to do to come back. Thank you so much, Caster. Set one is all Magnus Carlson as he takes down Alireza Fuja in 31 fashion. I’ll remind everybody that Alireza joined or entered the day with not a single lost game in this tournament. Hey or Magnus, he hands him two. One of those coming with an actual checkmate on the board. Maurice, that is rare to see a top player actually hang mate in one, but he was already busted in that position. And let me tell you, this was pure dominance by Magnus Carlson. Game one, clearly him. Game two, he could have dirty flagged his opponent. And game three as well as he was way up on the clock. He could have just made a bunch of moves and Ali Raza would not have been able to keep up. But Magnus, all class decided, I’m not going to win like that. Let me show you how I’m going to win. I’m going to mate you on the board. Yeah, it’s not over just yet. There’s still at least one more best of four set coming our way where Ali Resza can try to equalize. But Van Feine, we have got to talk about this Magnus Carlson. He said yesterday in the postgame interview, I’m readying my bow. I’ve got more arrows in the quiver and I’m ready to take down another Falcon. So far, he’s living up to that. Yeah, this is by far the best that Magnus has played in this event. He saved the best for last, which he he often does, making my prediction look silly as usual. I guess the ladies were right. And once again, Magnus wins. It’s that game one. You give Magnus one single chance. He takes it one zero. Decisive fashion. But it’s that second game from Maurice that it goes exactly to the point you’re making where Magnus, you can call it cocky, you can call confident, you can call it classy. Any way you slice it, he is making a statement by not going for the flag against Ali Resa Fuja. I’ve seen it happen multiple times. I’ve been doing commentary on Magnus now for over a decade. And you see how sportsmanlike he is. He wants to beat you on the board. He’s been known to play a match online and his opponent actually disconnects for some reason and when the opponent comes back, Magnus tosses the next game, just resigns. So that’s not how he wants to win. And so he doesn’t want to win here by actually dirty flagging anybody. He’s like, you know what, technically that’s a draw. I’ll give it to you next game. He could have done the same thing. Technically it’s a draw because I’m just better than you. And that’s got to be inside of Alarza’s head because I tell you if the shoe was on the other foot, Alarza would have very nicely said, “Hey, we got to play on the clock. It’s part of the game. It just shows that Magnus is super confident alongside the fact that he’s an ambassador of our sport.” Any other player takes those flags and nobody would have blamed them for it because there’s a lot on the line here. But I got to say, Ben, right now we have not seen the Stonewall on the board, but it kind of feels like Alireza is playing into a Stonewall named Magnus Carlson. That’s right. And you’re not talking about the opening called the Stonewall because nobody nobody’s playing that here. Um yeah, Magnus play showed why he’s Magnus and Ali Ali Resa has to really amp up his game if he wants to make this a contest. Okay, talk to me about what that looks like then amping up his game. It’s another best of four. You’ve got a little bit of time to rest and retool towards it. But you now have to win this best of four to even force the next best of two. So what do you want to see Ali Resza do here? I want to see Ali Raza play faster in the opening, faster in the middle game, put more pressure on Magnus. He’s way behind on the clock in every game. That’s not a recipe for success. Every single person here and every single person around the world wants to see this go the distance, Maurice. But that means we’re asking a lot of a young guy in Ali Resa Fuja right now who just went down 3-1. What do you want to see? Well, he has to take a page out of Hikaru Nakamura’s book. Forget these solid openings, positional play, nuance style, that ain’t working against Magnus Carlson. This is what Magnus wants. He plays control chess. What Magnus, if there’s any weakness in his illustrious game is when chaos is on the board. And Hikaru Nakamura showed that if you can muck it up a little bit, you might have to play an inferior opening line that has tactical chances, but maybe you’re at a deficit to start. That’s what I did with the Kings Indian. That’s what he’s going to have to do, Alerza, in order to maybe throw Magnus offkilter as Magnus loves it when it’s just him and we are just driving down the road or strolling through the park and I’m going to kick your ass. That’s what’s going to happen. So, that’s Ali Resa trying to make the comeback. Let’s talk though about how Magnus Carlson closes it out right here with the expectation that Ali Resa is going to come in with some new strategies, maybe some new creativity or a change of pace. How does Magnus just lock it up here and now? For Magnus, it’s more of the same. play the same way he did in the first match. Um, he knows he’s a better player. He’s played better. Um, Magnus doesn’t have to change anything. He just has to keep his cool. Uh, keep having the advantage on the clock and hope that Alireza goes too far in trying to muck things up, you know. And that one thing I don’t like what I’m seeing is how demoralized Alza looks. Come on, man. Bring it. We call you a favor for a reason. You got yourself to the grand finals. Let’s see you fight the world number one. Either way, Magnus Carlson is up one to zero in our total sets, but Ali Res can strike back. Let’s go to Mike for a word of what it looks like on the ground here at EWC. Well, as you just saw, Magnus Carlson took the first set 3 to one. I’m here amongst the crowds. I can see people playing chess on their phones, waiting with their chessboards to get autographs. But the big story is that Magnus Carlson wanted to win on the board. He did not want to flag his opponent. And I’ve known the man for about 12 years. He wants the headline to read, “I played this cool knight B8 tactic in game one. I played bishop takes F2 in game four, and that’s how he wants to try to win this match.” Also, a little bit of breaking news. As I was headed into the arena, I saw Hikaru Nakamura re-enter the arena with his second Chris Little John. I asked Hikaru, “Hey, are you going to Alza Fuja’s green room? Are you going to help him?” Hikaru said to me, “I’m going to go help him if he wants me to.” So I don’t know if Al is going to accept the assistance, but Hikaru has rushed back into the arena and he is available for his teammate for team Falcons. That’s the picture on the ground, but it all comes down to these two gentlemen who are about to step back onto the stage. It’s Magnus Carlson up one to zero in the sets. Ali Resa Fuja looking to challenge back and equalize, forcing a best of two in the end. This is your grand final here for chess at the Esports World Cup. We’re going to a break. When we come back, the casters are going to get you right into it. Let’s grab 4 3 1 zero. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Spend my life with you. Let go and spend the night with you. With you with you. I want this. I want this. I got you right back. You back with you. Just go and spend the night with you. Let me see you go. Let me see you go. Let me see you go low. Let me see low. Don’t know. Don’t know. Don’t know. Let me see go. Everything Go see go. Oh no. Never see no long baby. I got baby. I got baby. I got so much love for you. Hey, I got love for you. I got love for you. Hey, I got baby. I got baby. I got baby. I got you. I got you. I got for you. Baby, baby, baby. I got love for you. I got for you. Welcome back to Chess at the Esports World Cup. We’re about to get started with set two in the Grand Final. Currently, it’s Advantage Magnus Carlson, the world number one, who took down Alireza Fuja 3 to one in the first set. But that score line no longer matters. As long as Fua wins the second set, doesn’t matter if it’s by a tiniest of margin in Armageddon or an absolute 3-0 blowout. We will equal the scores 1 all. But it is all on Fujia now. Can he turn this around? He needs to turn it around. He needs to be better. Needs to be quicker. He suffered his first defeat of the whole competition just in this last set for Roua and it was uncharacteristic. Uh Magnus of course at his best hard to beat but uh Tanya you’ve got to expect more from the youngster. Absolutely. In set one Alireza was outplayed and outpaced. He needs to flip the script. I think there are a lot of takeaways from all the games that we just saw. Some of the big ones for me were that Aliraza has to make sure that he pulls Magnus into complicated battles into those muddy waters and needs to make sure he does that with a lot of time on the clock. The Falcon has to fly higher. He has to strike faster. You either rise now or it’s all over. And let’s be clear as well. Uh I I feel like going into this matchup, a lot of people expected Carlson to maybe get a bit of an edge over the board, but Fuja to apply time pressure on Carlson because of how quick he is. In reality, Carlson has been on the the receiving end in a good way of both of those traits. So it felt like Fujia didn’t have much to work with. That needs to change. It needs to change. Something that has changed is Aller Razer Fua’s first move. In the first set, he was playing E4 against Magnus Carson. Now with white starting this set with those white pieces, Fuja has gone back to something that served him well earlier in the event. He’s been playing D4. And uh a quick capture of a pawn. That black D pawn not running away anytime soon. And Magnus, look at this. He played H6 last move. He plays H5 now. He’s definitely prepared. No chance this would have been uh mouslip. No chance this would have been sudden spur-of-the- moment inspiration. This is Magnus Carlson going for Fuja’s king. Very early on, the king coming for his opponent’s king in this one. Making his intentions clear. He’s not thinking about development right now. But at some point, Magnus needs to get his pieces out if he has to attack successfully in this game. H5 forces Aliraza to go into a tank. And that’s a small victory for Magnus already. He’s seen that work out to his favor. He knows that Aliraza in that break between set one and set two had prepared the queen’s pawn opening and this is where he counters surprises him. This this is actually very very impressive to start us off like you said Tanya queen’s pawn opening. Okay, we’re switching it up for set two and instantaneously Carlson sends Ali Resa thinking very very early on. He’s now got a 30 second lead but that’s not the point. This was supposed to be a surprise that got Fua extra time on the clock. That hasn’t happened. At least not yet. Not yet. Magnus there reacting to a question mark move by returning the pawn that he was up. Yes, he could have gone a pawn up Magnus by trading, but that would have accelerated the opponent’s development. Instead, he’s happy to kind of transpose from what looked like it was about to be a fiery position with the black H pawn going forward. Instead, he’s playing more positionally here. Uh almost symmetrical in the center. Magnus clearly the better prepared of these two players. So, what’s the plan B now for Fua? Suddenly he’s worried about well maybe not right now but he’s worried about H4. He’s worried about the kingside pawnstorm trying to figure out what Magnus’ plan is. He doesn’t want to spend too long doing it though. So what is he doing in the meantime? How are we going to be improving the pieces? Is there a plan B? It’s a really tough question to answer and I think Alira Riza struggles with it as well as he continues to think you know Magnus especially when you know is prepared in this line right my guess would be that coming into this match Magnus had certain ideas for the king’s pawn opening and he’d also seen the queen’s pawn opening and this is something that was part of his repertoire for this grand final and Fuja is very aware of that cuz H5 cannot be over the board inspiration. This is a move you’ve seen at home. I think I’ve seen it actually published in some magazines, some books, maybe some other resources. This uh this funny idea of the black horn moving twice. Uh as if he forgot Magnus for a moment that pawns can move two squares on their first go. Uh ultimately for Rua, he’s repeated a mistake that a lot of us make. He’s played the same opening multiple times in the same tournament. And Magnus, of course, he will have studied what Fuja has been doing on previous days. And ultimately, it’s just a level position, but that’s a success for whoever starts with black. And you know moves like this after playing H6 you go H5 it’s sort of like a one one one one trick pony you use it for one game because you know that your your colleagues your competition will be preparing it for the next one and it’s not objectively the best move. So Magnus choosing this stage where Aliraza has got no increment, no bonus time. A very practical play by the world number one. And also don’t forget uh you you move H6 and then H5. The casual observer will rightly go, well hang on a second, you’re just giving away a tempo. But the point is all of your opening preparation, all of the positions your opponent has memorized, all of the plans that they’re thinking about, even though that tempo is to their advantage, you’re now having to recalculate all of that, uh a move out. And it’s super frustrating to have to do that not just for one line, but for all of your opening preparation. Yeah. And uh in the meantime, a question mark move appears. But I just want to backtrack and show for some eagle-eyed viewers what might have happened if white tried to go a pawn up. He could have played bishop takes knight all and we would have seen a recapture. White could have captured this H5 pawn that we’ve been talking so much about. But here the black G pawn pushes forward. Pawn to G5 hitting the white knight. If you retreat now, you can trap the white queen. The bishop comes out and uh when the queen retreats, you go back to F5. Look at this embarrassed queen coming out too early. This is why they say don’t bring those pieces out too soon. So this variation quickly calculated by both players, quickly avoided by Alarza Fuja and that leaves us with a very level looking middle game. Again, everything he wants to try Alza, all these sharp lines seem to be working in Magnus’ favor. And just to point out the move that he gained by uh Magnus pushing H6 then H5 is a pawn push to B3. And actually that pawn on B3 gets in the way of the white queen and loosens the dark squares. That is why Magnus’ strategy has been so effective. That’s such a key point because the extra move that you have is actually not only one that doesn’t give you any advantages, but might have actually given your opponent something to play for. And this is sort of the hard part in chess, right? When you know your opponent in the opening has wasted a move, how do you play something that long run works in your favor? And it looks like this time Alza did not find the right way. You give yourself that sort of pressure, don’t you? Because psychologically you think, well, there is no way this is the best move. H6 then H5. I I I feel like it’s my duty here to punish that, to show you why that’s inaccurate, to show you why that leads to an advantage for me. And it just adds additional pressure to make that right move. And if you’re unable to do that, then what looked like a silly move suddenly looks pretty sensible. I want to point out one more thing. You know, speaking about the dynamics as you pointed out, John, in this position, white would love to play H4 and stop that black pawn from moving forward. But the bishop complexes are such that black’s the one who can take care take advantage of the light square weakness. That would be the G4 point. But what meanwhile, white does not have the dark squad bishop. So after H4, you don’t have a bishop to plunk on G5, right? But the G4 square beautifully there for Magnus would have been left behind. So now basically for the rest of the game or at least until white plays H4, Magnus is always threatening to push that pawn even further ahead. I just want to point out as well, look at the clock. Nothing has changed in terms of time usage from the first set. Fuja down 2 and a half minutes. Might not sound like much, but we’ve been here before. We’ve seen what happened. This is dangerous. Now, uh, Fuja maybe thought rather than change the time management, let’s change the opening and see if that leads as a natural consequence to the time management being a little bit easier, to the inequality being a little bit less. Uh, unfortunately, it doesn’t look like that’s the case. He started with the queen’s pawn opening and the situation on the clock is now starting to get as bad as it was in set number one. So, he is trying something different. Let’s give him credit where it’s due, but so far at least doesn’t seem to be working. Yeah, we’ve been talking about tennis, how the kind of format of the finals, it’s in sets. Uh having white is like having the serve in tennis. That’s what they used to say. You can choose to go E pawn, D pawn. Uh ultimately though, your opponent is expecting you to mix up those serves occasionally to go different directions. And he chose to serve with a different hand. He went D4 this time, but Magnus was waiting. Magnus was ready. And uh now okay it’s all about the C file but uh it looks solid enough for black you know but so far speaking of tennis I mean the play from Alira throughout the match feels like it’s from baseline he needs to somewhere come and do those volleys if he’s got to have a chance against Magnus but this position I don’t even see a way for a break to appear on the board no break if anything it’s going to be all rooks off on the C file and uh Fu has done nothing wrong in terms of kind of objective moves uh it’s probably just an equal position But that’s not what he wants with the white pieces. And speaking of breaks, if anyone’s got that, it’s got to be Magnus, right? The E5 pawn moving forward at some point. The H pawn moving ahead at some point. So Magnus also holding the keys to opening up this position. Agreed. All the options seem to be favoring white here. Not necessarily meaning that they, you know, lead to victory instantaneously or anything like that, but certainly the options in terms of what strategic direction the game is going to go in. The initiative very firmly in Magnus’ favor for now, and that’s not a problem. if there was time on the clock. The problem is Fuia is 3 minutes down as well. 7 versus four. You know what? Totally fine. But if this gets into another four versus one scenario, that can very quickly become a blunder. 3 and 1/2 minutes. It’s not a blunder from Fua, but I’m going to say a small miss from him. Uh he underestimated Magnus’ knight going to the edge of the board here. I’m really surprised he didn’t just bring the other white rook to the C file. Now there’s going to be tension. And look at this. He’s forced to retreat uh due to the tension. The white knight was pinned and uh after this trade, black is going to be what the one conquering the open lines. Uh look at this. The white knight hit Fuja. He’s reeling, retreating, forcing now forced to react to these threats. Magnus is on fire. I’ve got to say he really is. I mean, it’s just incredible what he’s done in this match so far. He’s not only dominating on the board, he’s winning the psychological warfare here against Alireza. Just the way he played that set one. You know, the two times Alza was very aware that Magnus could have even tried to flag him in those two games that eventually ended in a draw. Magnus didn’t even want to do that. He wanted he finished the set with a checkmate on the board. This looks slow and steady and inevitable coming in from Magnus. The queen and the rook battery on the Cine. There’s not very much at all. In fact, there’s pretty much nothing Ali can do to prevent infiltration from the queen on the next move if that’s what Magnus wants. And what’s frustrating is Magnus has done this on a fraction of the time that Alireza has taken. And that’s really what hurts the most because speed was supposed to be Alireza’s greatest weapon. With 24 moves in, Magnus has not spent more than 21 seconds on a single move. Alerza, meanwhile, it’s about half a dozen moves he’s spent around the one minute mark. And okay, he’s kicked the black knight back, but that’s not going to help at all. White knight sidelined. The pace of this game, the black queen coming in soon, it all spells danger. This has been so strange. Just just the positions that we’ve gotten in the match so far. Alurasa really never get going you know in in any of the boards in any of the games that we’ve seen not getting his kind of play not getting his kind of positions where he really really excels at Hikaro managed to do that you know again from the back foot when he played that Kings Indian defense he just went all out somehow Arurza hasn’t been able to get that on the board for himself and that looked similar to what Magnus is doing in this game because Hikaro was able to engineer a situation where he built a small advantage and kept building on it and kept building on it and shut down Magnus’ counterplay. And you could tell in that game yesterday, Ma Magnus was very uncomfortable when that situation happened. We need for Rua to be able to engineer the same thing, but he hasn’t been able to. Look at this. Another question mark move appears. The bar slides, saying that Magnus has an over three point advantage. That’s because Allar has moved up a pawn, weakening his king. It might be time for the black queen to swoop in. So many targets in mind there. the black rook as well. Hopefully, he would be hoping that it lands on C4. The black bishop there on D3 instead, hitting a white rook. Not the best from Magnus, but good enough to maintain the advantage. I think he’s going for the queen trade here, Tanya. Uh he’s going to be hoping that he can pick off the white B pawn in the near future. The only thing Magnus has to be careful of is counter play here from queen to E7 incoming. And that would combine the queen and the knight attack on the F7 pawn. So definitely something that you want to think about. You know, the bar says Magnus is doing great. But you see a move like queen E7 as your opponent’s threat. And you start thinking about maybe I need to be a little careful, need to go on the defense here. But the good news for Magnus is even if that was to happen, the bishop can always slide back, go back to G6 and keep everything protected. So Magnus, will he try the queen trade? He doesn’t. He does in fact go on uh that defense, making sure that Alirezard does not get queen E7. The knight retreats, the queen defends. Yeah, a bit odd actually. Magnus’ bishop move allowing this white knight to jump back with gain of time. And uh here Alarza at least has corrected one of his bad pieces to some extent, but still hard to find a plan for white. If you push any further pawns on the king side, you’re only weakening yourself. You’re not ready. And uh it does feel like Magnus, he’s clearly playing on the clock. He’s not even trying to come in and create any complications. He’s just biting his time. White would love to be able to get the knight out to D3 so that you can slide the rook across to C1 and actually create some sort of opposition on the Cfile. Can’t do that because of the bishop on G6 unfortunately. And as a result, uh not only is the position a little bit binding, but the most obvious idea is also being bound. So, we’re being forced to think of alternatives now. The bishop comes in thinking about coming into D3 to try and get that plan in motion, but black immediately slides in with the queen to C2, not allowing enough time. And he’s also threatening his own rook to swoop onto that C3 square with further ideas and tactics of attacking the knight which has just moved back to that square. Magnus’ queen looking beautiful. The rook on the open line. Just compare Magnus’ pieces to Ali Raza’s forces here. You know, all of them, most of them on the first rank, the other two left on the board are on different sides of the board, not combining, no play to be fine. Magnus has basically denied Aliraza any activity in this entire match match. You know, David, you said Magnus on fire. It’s usually fire roua and that’s not been the case. Liquid Carlson’s extinguished all flames in this one. I mean, he absolutely loves Alireza. that is these big dynamic positions where there’s lots and lots of attacking, but Magnus is just shutting him down so hard at every opportunity that he hasn’t got the opportunity really to give us that flare that we know he’s capable of and he’s struggling in those conditions. Yeah, there’s something up with Allar’s clock handling as well. Maybe it’s due to the type of position. Maybe it’s just due to the opponent. And there we go. Magnus making his move. G5 looks super aggressive. It’s actually designed to just paralyze, immobilize the white knight on the edge of the board. We’re down to bullet territory. 40 seconds. The red appearing for Alarza Fuja. He needs to move. This game is still in its infancy. This is still the early middle game. He’s trying to blow open the center now. He’s got to change the pace, Alza. But barring a blunder, surely not enough time. And that’s the thing. When you change the pace, you need more time on the clock to handle all those critical decisions that come out of that gear shift. But Alireza now 36 seconds on the clock. Bullet territory, you know, synonym for that is Alira Riza Ferusha. But he’s so slow on every single move. And Magnus has blundered. Magnus has not realized that the white rook can step up one square, kicking the black queen away from the defense of its knight. Magnus, we’re going to see a reaction from him. He’s going to have to switch gears and try to flag. He’s just lost a piece. Wo! Magnus Carlson, will he go on to flagging mode now? That one big inaccuracy. We’ve seen him not play on the clock earlier in this match. Is this when it all changes? Wow. Carelessness from the world number one. He knew that he was getting closer and closer to his goal of claiming the first game of this set two. But now the black queen kicked away off the diagonal. Will not be able to defend its knight. The tactics go on. Magnus is going to have to calculate his way out of this. And it’s pretty complex, right? Cuz black has the option of pinning that bishop on the first rank trying to target the other knight at the edge of the board. Magnus, he’s gone into find that resource mode right now. There are still tactics that exist, but Magnus, is he finding them? That is a huge shift. Magnus now he’s going to have to show us something uh that he hasn’t have been reluctant to do so far in this match. He has to flag Fuja. He’s going to have to try and uh create some tricks here. Magnus, it’s already with 24 seconds, but it’s Magnus Carlson’s who’s panicking right now. Oh, look at Magnus’ face. He is shocked. He’s given up his queen. The world number one. Here we go. It’s rook and knight for a queen. All Fuja is winning. But he does he have enough time on the clock? It’s the best position he’s had all match, all day. The Black King so open as well. It’s a race against the clock. 21 seconds. Can he convert? That is the big question. Will it be enough time? He needs to combine that queen and bishop first. He completely disconnects blacks rook and Alresa with a shake of his head just wishing he had that extra minute on the clock. Magnus Carlson is busted. The black rook is about to be hit. The white queen is coming in. There we go. Black’s pieces can barely move. The queen side pawns are gone. But 16 seconds. Magnus is going to have to be dirty about this. Alurasa has to win this. He has to convert this game at all costs right now. 16 seconds. This is where his bullet skills need to come in. Magnus trying to survive. Black rook can barely move. There we go. The first pawn drops. The black rook coming in with a check. Some counterplay. Some hope for Magnus Carson, but Fuja has done everything right. He has activated god mode. All for Rua. He’s pushing the B pawn forward for glory. It’s creating counterplay for Magnus Carson in the meantime. 11 seconds. Tanya, is it going to be enough? That is the big question. Alira Resza Fuja can get maximum number of moves when he’s down on the seconds better than anyone else in the world. And that’s what he needs to do right now. Will he convert into a full point? He gives it up. Another queen appears on the board. And Magnus blunders his rook. He’s about to resign. Wow. Alissa Fuja striking back. He’s got two queens. 7 seconds should be more than enough. Magnus Carlson gives up. What a turnound. An opening surprise and counter surprise. Not working out for Fuja, leading to 5 minutes versus one, but getting into a winning position with 20 seconds left on his clock and managing to convert against the world number one. We have fireworks and a couple of moments of magic here from Alireza Fua. Falcons are back on the board and we have a match on our hands with that big win. Aliraza Fuja. What a roller coaster of a game. And you could see it on Magnus Carlson. He was furious with himself. This was his game. Aliraza down to 25 seconds when Magnus made that blunder. But what a convert there by the Falcons. Magnus said it before the match himself. Nerves. They’re going to play a part. That was Magnus Carlson reluctant to get involved in a time scramble and showing why Fuja there. He was just so fast, so accurate. You never really doubted Fuja once he got that winning advantage despite the clock time. Super impressive. So resourceful and uh there we see the final blunder from Magnus dropping his rook and the reaction on his face. Unbelievable stuff for Roua only getting to the winning position with 24 seconds left to go. And you know what? This is the kind of magic that we know Fua is capable of. Maybe Magnus and Hikaru, the only two players on the planet arguably, who can do that quite as fast with that sort of precision. I will say though, it did require an opening from Magnus, it required that mistake for Fuja to capitalize on it. Had Magnus not blundered that piece to begin with, we might be staring down the barrel of a very different result right now. In fact, that would have been quite likely. It came down to that one move, that one move blunder. But how quick, how fast, how Ali razor sharp was Fuja in that moment to capitalize on it and never gave Magnus a chance to come back into the game. This is what he does best with seconds on the clock. He still has the tactical ability of God. That’s what Alireza was saying before the match started as well. It’s going to be tough. Magnus will give you very few chances. It is critical that when those chances come by, you have to instantly take them. And this might be the first time we saw him definitively grab one of those with both hands. Forget Falcon. He’s going to feel like a phoenix right now. The way he rose from the ashes in that game. Alerza still a shake of the head, but he knows he’s back with a vengeance. Game on. And this is the confidence you need, right? When you’re playing against Magnus. Everything that happened in set one is now behind Alira Fuja with that big win. This is going to be some match now. He’s got to be feeling good about his chances, but he needs to keep up the pace on the clock because had it not been for that one move blunder, this would have been a completely different story line. Now Magnus reacts to that shock, to that disappointment by playing a very ambitious opening. Magnus with white has played into one of the main lines of the semislav defense. White has fanciettoed his bishop, but it’s a gambit. The gambit accepted by Allerisa Fuja who’s captured on C4 and hopes to maintain uh those uh that pawn falank there. He’s up a pawn. He develops his bishop. Magnus needs to play very energetically to compensate. But I like this because these are the kind of positions that get super complicated in the middle game, you know, where black does have the extra pawn and white plays for a big center for piece activity and and domination of trying to make sure that Alura’s pieces do not get into development. This last move makes Aliraza push the B pawn and the C pawn as well moving forward looks extremely strong but the base of that chain will be targeted by Magnus with A3. This is such high risk strategy from Magnus Carlson. High reward as well since black isn’t fully developed. But if he cannot strike in the next few moves, Magnus, he’s going to regret allowing black this beautiful protected pass pawn formation. Alerza, he smells weakness and he’s going for it here. It’s very rare that we see a a pass pawn on the third rank for black this early on in a game. Obviously, we’re still quite early on here, and I’m sure positions like this have been studied a fair bit before. We’re very much in the opening, but that’s got to be really uncomfortable, especially after what just happened, you know, and Magnus does not want to take this to a third set. No, he wants to get this done this time, but for that, he needs to find a chance to get a win in. Only three more games remain for Aliraza to neutralize this match to equalize the match and force that tiebreaker set. And what he’s done so far, you know, it shows that he doesn’t want to play KG anymore. The confidence he needed, it’s in the bag. That’s interesting as well, isn’t it? Because with the confidence there, it it’s a weird situation where three draws actually gets Alireza the second set. But I don’t think anybody here or on the analyst desk or in the audience or anywhere are betting that Alireza wants to play safe and get three safe draws. That that is not going to happen, right? That’s just not his brand of chess. It’s not where he excels and he wants to show us more of what just got him that victory in game number one. Exactly. He has fully woken up Alerza. And I love this change in strategy from him. Rather than just try to defend stoically, solidly as black and allow Magnus to try and grind him down. He’s gone for one of the most ambitious variations you can play against these queens pawn openings. Magnus now pausing. It feels like both players are freestyling somewhat just judging by the clock. This is the first time Allar has been up on time at the 12 move mark in any game so far. That must be fantastic news for him. Absolutely. And Alireza, he still has an extra pawn on the board and that’s a big pawn on C3. So for Magnus, he has to find a way to prove this opening idea that he went with is still a long way to go. The play often revolves around the squares the white knights have. The B6 point, the C5 point. At some moment, Magnus might try to win a bishop pair in the position to prove that compensation and that bishop on G2. Make sure that the knight on B8 does not come out in the game at least for some time. And there is a pausing to recapture with the pawn. It’s maybe high risk, but it’s also very very high reward in this uh in this scenario to take back with your bishop would get you closer to castling, but your pass pawn on C3 will probably drop in the near future. So, I’m expecting this move is least at least the move he wants to play from Fua. It’s also his style, but the fact that he’s slowed down, you know, this is what we’ve been seeing this whole match, just his time management. It almost feels a player whose biggest forte is his intuition, his instincts. Somehow he’s not being able to trust them. Pawn takes pawn is what Alira Raza plays every single day. Wo, he goes for another approach. Gives up the bishop by himself. Wow. Maybe scared of any pins on the A file. He wanted to open up the black rook. the last move given an exclamation point, but the eval bar rises in Magnus’ favor. It did feel a bit rushed. Normally, you don’t want to clarify the structure, especially giving white some nice central control here until the last minute, but uh there we go. And he’s allowed Magnus forward. And I love that move. Not only does it get the knight to B6 in positions, but it blocks the black bishop on F8. And now the white queen about to threaten that pawn on B4 while a queen to B3. And that would be big trouble for black. And we have to pull up a board here because Allera Fuja is going to spend a bit of time thinking, but he might have to find a genius move here to hold the balance in this position. Given a bit of time, white’s going to bring the queen out and we see the bar rise. The queen’s coming to B3 to pick off some pawns. But Alarza could have played bishop takes C5. Wow. The white knight is pinned. Cannot recapture. And if the pawn takes back, then uh the queens would disappear from the board. And at the very end of the variation, B3. Look at the pin on the A file. Look at the menacing pawns. This would provide full compensation to black. But uh wow, not spotted. We can’t blame him for that. Super human that would have been. But now he might be finding himself in trouble instead if the black pawns drop off on the queen side. Tanya, it’s um huge advantage for Magnus Carson. This is a beautiful position if you’re not defending that B4 pawn. And let’s point out the knight can’t jump to A6 because guess what? That beautiful stunning bishop on G2. the Catalan bishop, the Queen’s Gambit decline bishop, call it what you want, is eyeing that C6 pawn. It’s it’s the most valuable piece here for Magnus. You can’t let it activate there. If not knight A6, the only other move is queen to A5. But that also comes under fire once white moves the bishop away. The knight jumps forward. What is your queen even doing on A5? I don’t think there’s a way to defend this pawn. Yeah, you could grab white’s pawn in the center, I guess. But the black queen will be kicked around the board and that doesn’t feel healthy, especially with the black king still marooned in the center. No happy decisions here for all. He’s not a pawn grabber by nature. He won’t want to get his queen out and lose more time there before getting castled, but he might have to. That’s the only way. Console yourself by saying actually grabbing that pawn undermines part of what is making white’s position so strong at the moment. And rather than seeing it as pawn grammar, you have to see it as uh something positionally to build on, right? Another big moment for Alira. Is he going to take the pawn? He does. And now we’re expecting Magnus to bring out his bishop to attack the black queen. The black queen will want to retreat. And now after taking back the pawn, watch out. The white queen coming into B7 as well as the black pawn on C3, dropping off. Uh, black cannot even castle or maybe he can because uh the queen to b7 looks like a double attack and this is looking into the future but we’re headed in this direction at least until this last move from Fua. It’s hotting up this game now. Magnus senses his moment. Queen to G4. And is white going to continue chasing that queen away which defends that B4 pawn? Magnus if he wins B4 he’s not going to stop there. There’s queen B7. the C3 pawns falls as well. And if you’re able to neutralize the the material deficit in the position as white with the two bishops, the bishop on G2 unchallenged for the rest of the game, it’s advantage Carlson. Absolutely. I mean, look, that that was the point that was made out of the opening here by Fua. I’ve got these monstrous pawns uh that are passed now on B4 and C3. And that’s going to be how I force you to give up an advantage so that you can mop up those pawns. I need something in exchange for that. And right now though, it feels like it’s Carlson who’s batting him around a bit and will get to pick them up if he’s able to do that for free. And don’t forget, Fuja still has to castle. This is um this is very much looking like initiative firmly lost by the black pieces. And just to point out, the black queen could not have taken a pawn on E2 as the white knight would have jumped back taking a pawn hitting the queen and opening up a line towards the black rook. So there was a poisoned pawn in that position and Magnus talking of pawns goes munching. First of black’s pawns drops. Now he has to castle Fujia. Unthinkable to do anything else. The black king needed to run to safety before it was too late. And uh can Magnus do more than just regain the material he gave up earlier? Well, the one idea is the double attack that we earlier pointed out. Queen to B7. But there is a defensive resource there. the black knight coming to D7 connecting the two rooks and also making sure queen takes bishop isn’t possible and that’s why maybe it does not work just in time there. So Magnus with a lot of choices here. He could take the pawn back on C3. He could infiltrate with his own queen or will he find some activity against black’s offside queen on the right side of the board. He does take the pawn back inviting a trade of rooks. Rook takes rook on Magnus’ term will give him the A file. It’s the first time in 15 moves that we’ve got level material again. It’s crazy these sacrifices, such long-term ideas by these top players. And ultimately, Magnus emerges with a very small advantage. Yeah, to to be fair, when you compare the pieces, you go, actually, now that Fuj has played knight BD7, the knights are on reasonable squares, the bishop is at least pointing towards a C5 pawn, which is a bit of a menace, but it’s doing something useful. You can see the knight potentially coming into D5, but take a look at the bishop here from Magnus. the piece activity just feels a little bit stronger for white and it feels like white has some more options. Not necessarily a winning position or anything like that, but it feels easier to play. Easier to play and Alza pauses before moving the rook in the corner that’s attacked. He does ultimately shift it and attack the white queen. Magnus is going to run away with that piece now, but the big question is whether black can take the C5 pawn next. If he restores the material balance, makes sure that it’s only pawns on one flank, then Fuia should be out of danger. Well, there’s also another pawn hanging on the board, the H31. Let’s not forget about that. He’s threatening C5. Queen takes pawn as well with some ideas of the knight jumping forward, maybe putting some pressure on Magnus’ king with this move. Rook B8 first asking a question to Magnus’ queen. Where does he run? Big moment. And I’m looking at the clock. I’m thinking this again is the best situation for Rouge has been in in a while. Oh, and Magnus looks frustrated. I think that that’s a great point. We’re we’re past move 20 now. I I feel like so far in this match, there have been several instances where Fuj has been down by two or three minutes on the clock by this point. That has not happened in this game. He hasn’t got time to take solace from that at the moment, but we can see that this is a visible improvement from Alireza. This is a completely shift in pace, you know, on the board, psychologically, on the clock, everything. This is a totally different match, a totally different set from what we saw earlier on in the day. And now Alira are about to get more time on the clock than Magnus for the first time in this match as Magnus dips below the 423 mark. Still hasn’t made a decision of where to move the queen. Two pawns under attack. Aliraza, I think he’s ambitious about his chances. Magnus moves the queen to F4. Be careful. The black knight can’t take on C5. The rook on B8 is hanging. Great move by Magnus maintaining some advantage due to the fact the black rook is so loose. But uh Fuja now at least he has a little bit of time, a few seconds to mull over what to do. Uh the move he wants to play is bishop takes pawn on C5, but some calculation needed. The black queen holding things together there might get hit. And uh Fua big moment. He can’t spend too long though. Yeah, I’m trying to I can he get away with bishop takes? Looks like he just about can because the maybe because the black queen is actually still on H5. It’s easy to forget that it’s still on the board and it’s a bit of a long range piece there. Uh, so maybe that just about allows it to happen. But you’re right, you can’t take it with the knight. It has to be with the bishop. Going to point out Magnus blundered a rook in the last game. Like you guys said with the queen on H5, that’s going to be the recapture after bishop takes pawn. So possible, but something about that move Magnus does not like. He’s perhaps also thinking about queen capturing the pawn on H3, the other one that’s available, or maybe a rook slide over hitting that bishop. Lot of options, but he’s taking his time. Mali Resirez. Yeah, you mentioned Magnus blundering a rook. He’s done that a few times in uh recent history. He he regularly blunders knights. I’m going to say he blundered a knight against Hikaru in the final game. Uh game six of their semi-finals. He blundered a knight against Fuja in the previous encounter. It’s always these knights on E4, knights on D2. It’s always the same pattern that Magnus seems to have a blind spot. I’ll just mention that here. Luckily, he’s white and uh luckily for him, at least he’s white and uh his knight for now not under threat. But uh just watch out for that later. F Rua has found some weakness. But this move spent nearly 2 minutes now, nearly half his time on this one turn. He does take the pawn. Well calculated. Good that he worked that out, but so much time spent. That’s exactly the point. It felt like a two to three move calculation, right? So Alza would have thought deeper. He didn’t spend 2 minutes just figuring out that he’s got queen takes bishop at the end of that line. There’s something more to this position. He’s trying to think because every piece is loose right now. That knight on D7 defends the rook on D8. It can come under fire immediately with the move rook to D1. And that sets a nasty trap. If the white rook does shift across to D1, black cannot play bishop takes bishop as the white queen would be sacrificing itself on the B8 square just to break through onto the back rank with some checkmates. I don’t know if Magnus Carson has spotted that. He’s looking a bit deeper into the position, but let’s check it out. The best move, rook to D1, attacking the black knight, undermining the bishop. Alza Fuja cannot play bishop takes bishop right now because queen takes rook would end in a checkmate after the queen is recaptured. Look at this. A back ranker. The black king trapped behind his own pawns. Allariza Fuja cannot trade bishops right now. It’s a key moment. He needs to find another solution, but he’s down to 2 minutes. He does block the queen’s path. That was the only way to survive. So tricky there by Magnus setting up that big trap because if you’re black, you really want to liquidate pieces here. You want to get those trades in, but not giving him the chance. E5 hitting the queen. Magnus with an inaccuracy there. Queen’s off the board. And now Aliraza can trade on E3, destroying Magnus’ pawn formation. Yeah, and this should be a drawn endame. Uh, it’s going to be bishop takes bishop. White’s going to take the knight, the black knight. But rook and knight versus rook and bishop. Pawns are only on one flank of the board, only on one side. Knights are better than bishops. Fu is going to have to sit and suffer there for a long time. Only white can win. Magnus is now, I think, going to activate hustle mode. He’s been reluctant to do it on the clock, but here we go. Can Fuja hold what is a slightly unpleasant endame? I think he does it. He knows what’s on the line right now. And you know, at the end of it, if he holds this position with black, that is a massive, massive thing for him. I mean, it’s almost like a slight victory here. He gets white in the next turn. Aliraza, he pushes the G pawn, tying down black’s king side. Three pawns there. Bishop moves backwards. The knight’s about to move forward. He first brings the king into the game. Magnus grabbing space there with that pawn move to G5 to begin with. And he’s going to start grinding. Gets the pestle and mortar out. We’ve seen Magnus do this time and time and time again. But will he be able to convert something against what appears to be a little bit of a rejuvenated Fua? We’ve seen him uh pull out some unbelievable magic tricks in the last game, showing us some of his fantastic skill. We’ve also seen flashes of him breaking out of, shall we say, uh the time draining funk that he’s been in, but there were still flashes of that where he did use a minute or two in the late middle game. But he is getting better at it and you can feel the confidence starting to grow. There we go. It’s bullet time. The clock turns red for Fuia. He needs to act quick. The White King is stepping up the board. This is what Magnus Carlson calls anti- young player chess. He’s killed the chance of white losing this game. Now it’s a race against the clock. Fua can’t clarify the board though. He has no active plans as white steps forward. And that’s because of that one pawn on G5. It clamps down on those three pawns on F7, G7, A7. Any move by either of these pawns would lend black a huge weakness to deal with. Magnus meanwhile meanwhile can jump around the board with his knight now about to target the E5 pawn defended by the bishop. But the knight comes further into the game hitting the rook and the black f7 pawn. Knight D6 in the air. Knight is coming in. And the white rook lands on the seventh rank first, followed by its knight. Black is in full defensive mode. All backs to the wall here. Fuja needs to break out. He’s got 40 seconds. You cannot sit still and do nothing anymore. Magnus will just b time and go for you. And there we go. He does trade pawns here. He needs to start trading rooks for Roua. He needs to get everything off the board within his last 30 seconds. We’re going to see another race against the clock, but a totally different scenario this time when it’s going to be difficult to force Magnus Carlson to blunder. And this time, Magnus is going for Fuja’s clock. He’s down in this set. He has to maximize his chances. He’s not going to shy away from flagging him anymore in this match. Magnus needs to make some quick moves. He has a twominute time advantage. It’s going to be so difficult for Fuja here. The black rook was almost trapped creating some lof there. Some escape squares. Black king shuffling. Magnus is pushing pawns. Black rook forced back. Still so unpleasant here. Tanya, the white knight dominates the bishop. And no more pawns can be traded. And look at that. Magnus Carlson, he wins a pawn. The first big advantage. He’s converted his strategic points into a material advantage. We go. Fuja creating some counterplay, hitting the white knight, which has to be defended now by the king or the rook. One pawn up, but it’s not about the clock. About the pawns here, it’s about the clock. Keep an eye on the red on your screens. All Fuja needs that fire, needs the speed. He does. But will that even be enough with 11 seconds? And Magnus just playing this on endlessly. Gives a check, drives the black king away. Magnus Carlson winning now. He’s dropped the bishop and Oliver knows he resigns. Magnus Carlson back in set two. Resignation. There we go with 8 seconds left to go. The speed was incredible. The number of moves that were played in the last 30 seconds of that game. Formidable, but not enough to stop the tide. That is world number one, Magnus Carlson. He fights back and set two is now level at one a piece. Roua woke up in the second half of the previous game, but he also poked the bear. He woke up his opponent Magnus Carlson, who did activate hustle mode, went into what looked like a level endame, but that proved knights are better than bishops when it’s just pawns on one side of the board. Fantastic endame technique from the best endgame player of all time, but heartbreak for Fuja who has to do it all over again. In this case, he poked the goat is what I’m going to say with this endgame play that he has. This is why Magnus Carlson just so incredibly good finds those little opportunities trapping Fuja’s bishop there at the edge of the board dominating by his center knight there and Magnus Carlson now at 1-1. It’s match on. Fuja needs to do it all over again. Set two here. Magnus Carlson up one set to nothing. And the second set is all square at 1 all. We’ll be back here in just a moment with game number three. Don’t go anywhere. Reach your impossible. Lenovo Legion. Heat. Heat. Hello Philippines. We’re here in Riyad SNB Sports. We’re watching Magnos. Hello to my chicken back in the Philippines. Hello. Hello everyone. We are here in Riyad. Hello Tyler. You are so short. Hi Mama and Baba. I made it. Hello everyone. Hello my mom. My dad Sultan Abdalan. You keep hanging your queen. Don’t hang your queen. Hi mom. Hi dad. Hi from Riyad. Hello everyone. Hello. Here for Magnus. Here for Magnus. Let’s go chess.com. Magnus all the way. Hi everyone. Hello. He is the biggest fan of Magnus Carlson. I am the biggest fan of the Magnus Carson. I am the biggest fan of Magnus Carlson. Who you support? Magnus inshallah. Magnus is going to win 100%. Look at me. I walk on the streets. I can’t find another way. Oh. Oh god. Oh. Oh god. My heart is better like a soul and I know if you could ever my soul try with you where I celebration Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. I think I got boy. Go. I got you for me. Yeah. And I feel like we could be Heat. Heat. time baby just fine. Just trying to call me. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. It’s all square in the second set here in the grand finals of chess at the esports world cup for Rua. came out swinging and with 24 seconds left on his clock managed to convert a winning position in game number one. The world number one though does not rest on his laurels pretty much ever because he immediately struck back with a victory leading to a one all tie with two games remaining in this set. And Carlson keeping the speed, keeping the clock advantage a massive part of his match strategy so far. It’s paid off. Barring one blunder at the beginning of set two. Carlson has been in great form. For Roua, though, it’s level terms. He needs to forget set one. He needs to forget that last game where he ended up losing on board and clock. And he knows he still has time to strike. Controversial opinion, David. He needs to not forget that last game. He needs to not forget set one because he keeps getting into these positions where he is so under time pressure. He can’t afford for that to happen indefinitely. He tried the opening switch up. It worked to an extent. He was doing very well in that last game until maybe move 25 or so. So, he’s taken some steps in the right direction, but we need more. Another controversial opinion. The one game that Alireza won was Magnus’ to give away. That was a one move blunder that happened. Even in that one, Aliza really down on the clock. He finished it flawlessly. You know, regardless of that, it was incredible to watch the speed and the precision that he bought onto that one. But again, it came down to that one move blunder. Turn the flip around. Every game that Magnus has won or has drawn, he has been on that driver’s seat. He’s been on the front foot putting the pressure from the start until the end. That is true. And taking inspiration from previous games is a key trait for any chess player. You need to learn from your mistakes. I’m going to say it’s that move 20 to 30. Move 20 to maybe even 35 period where he tanks too much. He needs to trust his instincts there. Even if it is chaos, even if he is worse, all Fuja has shown he can fight back uh when it becomes tactical. So, he just needs to start from a level footing against Magnus. But I like this opening that we’ve got because it has the makings of something tactical in the middle game. And that’s what Alireza needs to do. you know get his kind of positions pull Magnus into those muddy waters into those complications where it becomes difficult to respond especially if the clock goes low. Now Alireza he first starts on the left side then improves his piece on the right side. I’m also expecting him to play in the center with E4 coming soon enough. Meanwhile Magnus Carson with black he’s not willing to rest on his laurels and just kind of consolidate after winning the previous game. This is very ambitious from both sides. White has a slightly further advanced pawn on D5, but black has the connect for with a beautiful pawn chain from E7 to B4 and the black knight coming out to the edge of the board. I wonder what the strategies are. It’s a bit of an odd kind of piece configuration, I’m going to say, from Alarza. Rarely in this type of structure do you see a double Fetto from the white bishops. And we’ve got uh some rather interesting pawns already on A5 and D5 without additional central support just yet. Although E4 can be played, um it’s really quite aggressive in terms of space grabbing out of the opening here from uh from white. It’s um it’s interesting. Space monster Alera Fua pushing those pawns forward, but with great space comes great responsibility. I’m sure that’s what the quote was. That’s exactly the quote. I believe Spider-Man uh dropped that line, but uh yeah, you need to back up pawn pushers by controlling space with your pieces. for now. He’s behind in development. Needs to get his king castled. Needs to develop his queen side knight. And uh early days here, but down on time already. And that’s the thing, right? This is not that critical moment where you spend 2 minutes. This has been the surprise of the match so far. Just Aliraza’s space early on in the game. There are options in this position. You know, you could go shock castle. Maybe you could push the H pawn. Maybe you could get your queen out and then think about going E4. But whatever you decide, play it fast. This is not the moment you go down by 2 minutes on the clock. I I’m looking at this and honestly the only words that are going through my head right now is not again. I’m so afraid for Fua here based on what we have seen so far in this entire grand final match. I I don’t know how much of this he can afford to do. This is really quite scary now. Yeah, he plays for France these days for Roua. It’s deja vu happening again on the clock. He develops his knight given a question mark. I think 99% of humans would have actually castled their king there. But the fact that he did pause for what was a minute and a half, refusing to castle shows he’s got other plans in mind. Bit of a mysterious one. And look at this. Magnus is the one gaining space this time, kicking away the white knight in order to win a pawn. Magnus is taking in the center. D5 is about to drop. That’s um yeah, a little bit mysterious given that was a minute and a half. Magnus like hang on a second. We’re just going grab a two mover. This is not a blunder by Fuja. This is what he wants. He’s trying to create an imbalance where he trades off the bishop. Magnus’ G5 pawn will become a target. He finds a nice spot for his knight to jump into the bishop on G2 pinning that black knight on D5. Yes, I see the evaluation bar. It says it’s horrible for black, but for white even for practically here for Alireza. I think this is the kind of position he’s aiming for. I don’t think he missed G5. But a postcript to that, Tanya, when Magnus has nine minutes to figure out how to get out of this, that’s really different to when they have two minutes or less. And I’m really worried that Magnus will find a way just because it’s so early in the game and he has so much time left. That’s the big point here, right? You flip the script on that clock. Magnus down to 6 and 1/2, Alza at 8 1/2. And you’d be saying this is great. But look at that. He’s still going aggressive. He is going for the attack now. Trying to open up the H line. Access denied. Cool. So what we’re saying here is ignore the evaluation bar for now. It’s very much a strategic pawn sacrifice to see if we can wrangle something out of the middle game here. Yeah, I think in the back of his mind, Alza, maybe even at the front of his mind, he knows that this is not sound. It’s what we call a dubious sacrifice. But sometimes in chess, these types of gambits, they do pay off. It’s all about the mindset, all about trying to unsettle your opponents. And Magnus these days, uh the Magnus iteration of 2025 prefers to sacrifice pawns rather than take pawns. So I do understand his uh his mindset here for Roua, but the white king about to castle. He still needs some real action. Not too many pieces can go towards the black king for now. That’s the big issue. And again, the clock just compounding that. And that’s a fantastic move by Magnus. You know, G4 just making sure that no open lines, open diagonals, weaknesses are given, and just keeping everything under control. Not a single pawn trade, which means not a single file allowed for the rook into an attack. Look at the body language. Look at the facial expression. Look at the clock. I feel like G4 here at the end of this continuation might be what Fuja missed possibly or at least underestimated. Maybe he just assumed he could blow open the king side there. Go for the uh black king. Yeah, cuz if the rook was still on A8, for example, a knight jumping into F4 creates all sorts of fun problems. You can see that with one more tempo, white creates all sorts of issues for black. But will that ever come? Because Magnus is one move away from creating issues of his own, right? Knight coming on to C3. The central pawn. He’s up one. Start moving up the board. Kicking out Fuja’s pieces. That knight on C4. And it might be Aliraza on the defense and down a pawn. It’s coming. The black knight forced into the square it wanted to use anyway. It’s a very committal decision from Fua. But there we go. It’s that knight F4 move you mentioned. The knight is coming towards the black king. maybe threatening a check on H5. Can Magnus deal with that? Is he going to brace for impact somehow? At least creating something for Roua. I like this last move, this last idea from him. I do. And I think the evaluation bar in this position is a little deceptive from a practical perspective. Your black, your pawn on G4, king in the king out at G7, you know, the white knight about to swoop to to H5 jump over and then the queen coming to that H6 square. It can start feeling scary, but Magnus completely ignores it. He literally doesn’t care. It’s it’s really quite worrying. You play the knight H5 check and you’re going, “Hang on a second. Where are the entry squares for the queen? Could the king even come up to G6 to prevent the queen from coming up?” But who wants to play that kind of move in that sort of uncomfortable position? Uh definitely far from over this. And the eval does not tell even a quarter of the story here. The degree of discomfort in the black camp right now is immense. Yeah, in the meantime, Fuja continues to think, continues to tank. He needs to get his rooks into the action. Without the rooks, you might not attack. White’s bishop is never really joining in. Blocked by its own pawn, and Magnus has a total clamp over the dart squares. So, strategically, black is just winning. Pawn up and the bind. Fua needs to deliver checkmate if he’s going to save this game. What’s the wild idea then? Like are we talking like uh queen up to D3, king D2 to bring the other rook across? Like what’s the wild weird anti-positional idea that actually gives us a a reasonable chance here? That’s the $250,000 question, right? Well, yeah, the 1,000 point question. And uh right now, the white knight jumping into the center. I still feel’s king is going to castle on the king side. Maybe he’ll push the F pawn to open up lines for the rook a bit later on, but still takes a while. And uh in the meantime, Magnus has a few moves. Will he develop black’s bishop? At least not clear what Magnus is doing next. He’s prevented any pawn pushes for Rua. So Magnus reduced to piece play and uh not easy to bring out the black queen either. And I like this move by Aliraza because it stops Magnus from getting his knight to the center of the board. Knight D4 not allowed anymore. Knight takes knight would win a pawn. And also if you trade on Alireza’s terms by capturing the knight on D5, I think he intends to capture with the pawn opening up that E line to eventually get his rook into the game. So Magnus just keeping the tension there. Pushes that E pawn forward. And now for Alireza, could he take on C3? Double down on that D6 weakness cuz this last move leaves a backward pawn for Magnus Carlson. Yeah, it looks really quite committal there because the pawn on D6 uh is permanently quite weak. But you have to remember with the material advantage and the fact that Magnus has those knights so cemented, uh the knight on B5 is still helping to defend that pawn as well. Is it a long-term weakness? Absolutely. But I don’t necessarily see how it’s going to be targeted effectively. And Magnus is going to shut the door. He’s going to shut the D file by planting the black knight in the center of the board. So, it’s going to be very difficult to get at that backward pawn. I agree. Long-term weakness. The problem is here. White’s knight looks nice but can be removed by bishop. Black’s knight cannot be removed at all. And a shake of the head there from Fua. It’s going to be very difficult now to break out and get any attack going. The white pieces have been forced into reverse gear. We you mentioned earlier on uh David what news 20 to35 are going to be critical. Well, let’s have a quick glance at the clock. Let’s check in with what the situation is. It’s not as bad as it has been at some points in this match, but 6 and 1/2 minutes plays three. I don’t think anyone can realistically argue that’s good either, especially with no open lines on the board. Especially if you’re Aliraza down a pawn, down a set in this match. You want about 7 8 minutes on the clock. You want to be the one ahead on it right now. Magnus, meanwhile, he’s striking at the other pawn. He says, “One’s not enough. I’m coming for the one on A5 as well.” Yeah, Magnus wants to take on A5. In the meantime, Fuja is hitting the G4 pawn. That’s Magnus’ only real weakness. If you defend it with a fellow pawn, I think Fuia’s intention is to blow the king side. He needs ways in towards the black king. Pawns F3 is very likely on the agenda next, but Magnus will be looking to try and deal with that. But H5 would then leave a weakness on that square once trades happen after F3. Will Magnus go on the defense with his queen or will he capture on A5? And I think if he does that, if you trade the A pawn for the G pawn, then it gets really complicated because your king on G7 suddenly under fire. Roua, nice. And uh he does take the A5 pawn. So allowing some counterplay Magnus Carson. I think uh this is going to be uh yeah a real exciting moment for Fua at least. He needs to just be taking on G4 immediately. Why else would you put your queen on D1? Why is he pausing? Take that pawn off the board. Suddenly, white has access to some squares. There we go. It’s a one pawn advantage still for Magnus Carson, but suddenly you could imagine the black king coming under some fire. You need to not see ghosts at this point. 2 minutes, 30 plays, 5 minutes. Fuja has been exceptional throughout the entirety of the esports world cup, but you cannot be consistently playing against the best player in the world so far down on the clock. He recognizes this, of course. He would be a fool not to, but he has to do even more. He has to really dig deep now to try and come out on top. All right, but we’re going to see some forcing moves. So hopefully he will play faster. And look at that. Magnus plays an unexpected move. And Fuja ready with his response. Comes back with the knight. Bishop takes pawn, hits that rook. Will we see some simplification? Magnus Carlson would be very happy with that. That knight on D4. Far better than Fuja’s bishop on G2. If knight takes bishop, queen takes knight was to happen. On the bright side, the white queen can at least finally get active. There is one check available for Fuja. You still need a follow-up. It’s not going to be easy, but one active piece. Then you can evacuate the white rook. Get it out the way. This is again the best position he’s had in a while, but he’s just not trusting his instincts. There we go. It is a check. The black king runs. The rook does move. And Magnus still has some work to do. It’s all about the black a pawn whether that’s going to be quick enough to run down the board or if Fuja is able to create counterplay in time. Still up a pawn. I love where he’s placed his bishop. Magnus Carlson has taking away all the jumping squares from that white knight. Fujian now threatening a checkmate in one. Watch out. Move that rook away or defend it. He moves it to the seventh rank. Making sure that H7 also remains protected. The white bishop is so ineffective. It’s just it’s just uh watching the action happen. There we go. It does retreat in the end. He’s aiming to reposition it. I’m not sure exactly where. Maybe on just on D3 as a defender, but Magnus getting closer and closer with his queen side play. So many problems to solve. I was even thinking about what would happen if white had to play king H2 with the idea of bringing the bishop up to H3 to, you know, trade a bad piece for a good one, but you can’t do that because of knight f3 check. It’s so frustrating to try and unbind yourself from this position. The queen on H6 stuck. The knight on E3 can’t move forward. The bishop on F1. Hard to imagine an active square here. Yes, you can go up the board, but no diagonals to cover there. The rook on A1, stopping the A pawn from moving forward. Looks like paralysis for the white pieces in this position. Magnus makes an inaccuracy, but I think you take that, chuck it out of the window. It’s just a move passing the ball to Frosa knowing that he’s reaching the 1 minute mark. Yeah, unless we see a massive swing in Eval. Let’s ignore those uh board annotations for now. That question mark definitely because Magnus is playing quick moves for now. Good enough moves. We would call them the 80% type of moves where it might not be the best, but it’s good enough uh not to change the eval at all. And he’s only going to wait until Fuja is down to that 30 secondond mark again before changing the pace. The black rook retreating again, not creating any damage. He’s just passing the ball back to Fuja. And the red appears. It’s bullet time. It’s bullet time. And Magnus has an idea. That rook could transfer itself to that left flank behind the A pawn and start pushing it. Which is why Fuja was forced to bring back the queen attacking that F6 pawn. Magnus does not repeat this. He’s not going to bring his rook back. Whoa, he’s sacrificing the F6 pawn. He knows he can get the queens off the board. Next move, Magnus Carlson, he’s going to swing the black queen across to G7 in front of his own king. He’s going to go for the trade. And Fua, if the queens disappear, it’s all about the black a pawn. 40 seconds though, he needs to decide. Queen’s off the board or on the board, just make a move. But how do you decide? Both are equally bad. Also, you’ve got no time. Alura Fuja frozen with no good options on the board. He jumps in with a knight. Magnus, he can trade. And look at Alireza. It’s almost like he’s giving up. Looks so frustrated. I’ve never seen him look this helpless alla on the camera. He can give a check with his bishop. He drops his queen and he drops his queen. Alerza Fua. It’s a simple night to end that game. The writing was on the wall anyway, but Magnus Carlson takes the win. He’s so close now. A blunder ends game number three, but not for the first time in this match. 4 minutes versus one minute. The clock tells all. Time trouble seems to be reigning supreme in this grand final. Magnus Carlson is now potentially a game away from winning the grand finals. Blunders do not appear out of a vacuum in chess. This is a result of Magnus’ consistent pressure on the board in every single move. pretty much from the start with the black pieces, not only of this game, but of the entire match itself. And that head nod by Magnus tells you everything you need to know about how he’s feeling about his chances right now. And a stunning finish here. Alireza Fuja lost on the board. Eventually makes a one move blunder trying to avoid those queen trades. Stepping back, but that’s not good enough. The knight jumps in, picks the queen. Aliraza resigns. Wow. And it’s two games in a row, two wins in a row for Magnus Carlson, who actually lost the first game of this set. It is match point and a draw would seal things for him with the white pieces. Magnus, he very rarely loses a game. He did lose one to Hikaru, so some inspiration needs to be taken there for Fuja, but that one not enough. The nerves are going to be settling for both players. Fuja has to maintain some hope. Nerves are going to be dangling for Alira of Fuja. He needs to win. Magnus Carlson needs only a draw. And he starts with the white pieces. David few in the world, if any, can make a comeback from this situation. It’s possible. It’s possible. It’s not going to be easy, though. Fua has to start. Step one. It’s basic. Stay up on time. The arrow is drawn and Magnus is loading it into the bow. Game number four. This might be the end of the road for Team Falcons here at Chess at the Esports World Cup. Vua needs to win on command with the black pieces in order for this set to go to Armageddon. Very possible. But let’s see how this pans out. Magnus Carlson whenever he is happy with a draw with white. He’s opened with his king’s pawn. It’s just a fact. He knows his openings. It’s so difficult to create winning chances with black. He tries the Sicilian Alarza Fuja. He’s met with the Alipin, the C3 Sicilian. This is something Magnus has used on multiple occasions, including in the World Cup final against Prague when he just needed a draw with white. Fuja, he needs something special now. And David, I know that the Alipin Sicilian is also one of your pet openings. Something that you’ve employed so many times. Magnus Carlson does it every time that he needs to shut down the game. Where do you think approaching this as blacks as with the black pieces, will Alireza find his chances? What are the plans that he needs to put into place here? Yeah, I think steering away from some of the main lines is the key. There are a lot of forcing lines in this opening. That’s why Magnus has gone for it. There’s a lot of opening theory that leads to sterile equality where you don’t really get out uh into this game. You don’t really maintain any winning chances. Okay, I was going to say play something offbeat. Pawn to B6. We see the Evalbar rise. That is very offbeat. Doesn’t fight for the center, but I totally understand the reasoning for it. I was going to ask you when you would play the Alipin, was there a move by black that you feared that perhaps Alreza could try? Pawn to D6 is the best move, but uh in terms of winning with black I’m not so sure. Uh equalizing is normally the goal in chess with black, but uh not enough this time. B6, he just wants to fanket his bishop. Magnus might be forced to attack if uh Fuia doesn’t play in the center. Magnus is going to go on the front foot, but maybe that’s not what he wants to do. And for white, one of the very key ideas is to go d4 in these positions. You want to get that center control, get the bishop out to c4, try attacking the knight as well. But Magnus, he takes a pause. So definitely B6 a surprise. So Magnus Carlson down on the clock. Okay, not by much, but it’s so rare in this grand final. We might as well mention it when it happens. Alireza Fuja though not looking just for an equal position. We need to win. Remember, pawn takes port in the center of the board. Fuja looking like he wants to hopefully start building a little bit of clock advantage. Recaptures with the knight and finally Fuja goes down to below 9 minutes. Still very very early on in this game. Still just move six. And both players definitely freestyling. Neither side has studied this one before. We can guarantee that. Knight takes pawn on D4. Normally you want a queen there, but Magnus senses the uh white knight will be very active. The white queen could jump out early in this scenario and Fuja needs to just trust himself, make moves at this point. The bishop comes out quickly. I like the way he’s handled this opening. I’ve got to say, Alza, I think he’ll get it some chances at some point. The black knight kicked back meanwhile and the game goes on. It does go on and this rivalry goes on. You know, I’m thinking right now of back in 2021 when Magnus Carlson shocked the world, moved away from the world championship crown, walked away from it, but said that he would be willing to fight if it was Ali Raza Fuja who would challenge him, who would go on to win and then challenge him. That would make Magnus interested in getting back to the world championship. That’s the kind of respect he had. That’s the kind of challenge he wanted to relish against the prince uh Aluras of Fuja. And we never got that classical world championship match, but we’re getting the match up here at the biggest uh global esports stage at the esports arena, the king versus the prince, but so far it’s been a Magnus Carlson show. Do you think maybe that uh that actually plays on Fujia’s mind as well? Knowing that Carlson has said that about you, it’s very difficult not to let that affect you psychologically going, “Ooh, this is the match that he said he’d be happy to play. I really need to not disappoint. I need to go in with a bang. I need to really prove myself.” And so far we’ve seen flashes of that brilliance that does enable him to compete with Carlson at the highest level. That said, he hasn’t been able to consistently show that throughout this grand final. At least not so far. Yeah, there’s two ways you can take compliments from the world’s best ever player. You can say, “Oh, thank you. I’m going to prove you right.” Or you feel the pressure. You feel the expectation. And I mean, instinct wise, we’ve seen it so many times. Fuja digs himself out of trouble on the clock. That’s because his instincts are just fantastic. And uh there we see Team Liquid and the fans looking happy right now. But uh yeah, Fuia just hasn’t been trusting himself. He needs to go for it now. Pawn to H4. Not liked by the computer. I should mention Magnus Carson wants to win this one in style. He’s trying to punish black for not finishing development, not castling yet. But the white E pawn a bit weak. I’m liking Fuia’s chances here if he can strike somehow in the center. This move just makes me feel like Magnus wants to have fawn in this game. There’s absolutely no reason for him to go for this. You know, you play the Alipin, it it signals that you want to keep things under control. Then you push the H pawn voluntarily instead of continuing with developing, getting development and getting your king to safety. Magnus Carlson is in for a fight, but that is exactly what might give Fuja his chance. Yeah. And remember Magnus when he was close to knocking down Hikaru in the final game of their match, at least the final of the the six yesterday, he got nervous. He did blunder. It is possible. He’s human. So Fuja cannot uh kind of give up hope at any point yet. Very easy to forget sometimes that our champions, our heroes, the goats are human as well. And you know, at some point the torch will pass from Magnus Carlson to the younger generation. He’s here to say yes, it will happen, just not today. If Alza wins this game and makes the comeback into the match to force to force an Armageddon, that would be a huge momentum shift. I I’d go on to say that he’d be a favorite in that Armageddon, you know, given his speed skills, especially when you’re down to 30 seconds. That is his best hope right now. And I think the way Magnus is playing, pushing his pawns, delaying his development, this is going to be a feisty game. I’m going to call it. I think this is going to get crazy. I don’t know the result. Of course, difficult to make any predictions here, but I feel that Fuja is going to get some chances in this one. Already some tactics in the air. The most obvious move would to be puh be to push a pawn forward, break open the black bishop. But maybe we could investigate a bit further because Allar Fuja has what could be a golden opportunity to shock Magnus Carlson right now. Uh not only can he open up that bishop, he can do it forcefully and in style. Knight takes pawn. If the white bishop takes back, then uh the black bishop takes on F3, removing the defender, hitting the white queen. And when the white queen recaptures, when the dust settles, bishop takes bishop, black has won a pawn with a nice pin to boot. If we go back after knight takes E5, if the white knight recaptures, then black just says calm. D6, open the diagonal for my bishop, please. And look at the white knights. Look at the uh black bishop. It’s sniping. It’s going to regain the material with interest. This is super complicated. White can even give a check at the end of this uh with this queen. The game goes on, but Fuja, he has to take risks like this. He has to gamble. But this is the one moment I’m glad that he’s paused and spending time because this is a critical decision and it’ll all be worth it. All those minutes spent will be worth it if he plays knight takes pawn. That’s a huge advantage. You go up a pawn. Your bishop becomes a big piece here. And of course, we have the aid of the Evalbar here. We have the aid of some very powerful engines. But Alza Fuja, he has the aid of his fantastic instincts. He’s paused for a reason. Magnus Carlson will be jumping out of his chair if he sees the move knight takes E5. He’s got to play it. He’s got to find it. Has to be played, right? Especially if you spend so much time and energy calculating this out. I I feel like it should happen on the board. But do you think if Magnus has spotted it, he’ll give it away because he’s also the kind of player who just keeps that poker face until his opponent has made his decision. The more Ali Resza thinks I think the higher chances that he spots it. Yeah. Who’s going to spot it? Let’s take a look at Aler’s screen. Perhaps it looks like he was about to push his pawn forward to D6. He does miss the opportunity. It was complicated. It was difficult. It was so hard to evaluate, but he could have played that move so much quicker. Now the black king castles. Status quo has been maintained. Magnus is holding this together with a pin. But here’s the thing, right? Because if Alza did not go for knight takes pawn and wanted to move make the move D6 again, you make it in 20 seconds. But if you take your time, then you find that central blow. Yeah, I don’t blame him at all for missing that. I think superhuman almost that tactic. Uh but what he’s played, the fact that it took him over two minutes to play D6, that’s the problem. That’s a big that’s the issue. So now 7 minutes plays under four. Unfortunately, familiar territory here in what potentially could be the last game. Remember, if Magnus Carlson wins this game, he does not only win the set, he wins the match. So Fuja needs to win, needs to find uh a way to crack open the position and take this victory from Magnus Carlson to force an Armageddon. Well, there was tension at the center of the board and what Alireza has done is he’s he slides his rook, defends the bishop and now can go on to win a pawn. That E5 pawn now that the bishop on B7 is guarded. Knight takes E5. Alura again and he does it but he takes it with his own pawn first doubling up on the E file. That’s very surprising. He could have done the same thing but in a more forceful way. If black had taken with the knight, white would have been forced into a variation that could have happened anyway. He basically gave Magnus more choice. And uh although the position still now level in the balance, black with the bishop pair, Magnus might be breathing a sigh of relief. He has control over the diagonals for now. Although still a harder position to handle, I think easier to play for black I’m going to say because white’s queen side pawns are slightly overextended are slightly loose and uh of course we’ve been talking about bishops today. Alarza with that up his sleeve in an open game, right? And both bishops on the longest diagonal of the board and guess what the knight’s joining the party as well. Jumps on to that central D4 square. I wonder if Magnus will do the same. Go Knight D5. There are tactics in the air. He might want to trade pieces off, but it looks like that might work in Magnus’ favor if you jump with that knight to the D5 square given the tension along the C line. That’s a good way to trade pieces, get Magnus closer to the draw that he needs. It’s also frustrating that the queen can’t just sidestep for Fua to C7 because of the ominous presence of white’s dark square bishop, effectively meaning the queen stays on the D line longer, increasing the probability that the queens come off at some point soon. We’re trying our best to figure out a way to keep everything on, to keep the tension, to keep the complications, but I think black is struggling to do that here. And again, opportunity to trade queens. And this time, it’s Magnus that says no. Maybe playing on the clock pressure here as it goes to six versus three. Exactly. Magnus has sped up again. Not for the first time. He’s barely spent over 30 seconds for a single move in this game. And look at this. Pawn to E6. The first blunder of this game. The first mistake. The white rooks are going to hit the black queen. It could be over now. The black queen has no good squares. Wherever you go, there’s a double attack or a fork. Magnus now looking at the fans smiling. He knows he’s close. He knows he’s about to get it. Team Liquid on the edges of their seats. He knows this is over. The knight about to jump in with a big fork in the position going material up. Fuja will fight. He will try to play this on, but I’m not even sure for how long. This is completely busted for black. Magnus Carlson vibing there. There we go. Knight for rook. Magnus has extra material. He’s the exchange up. He’s getting close now. The white rooks are coming in. The white C pawn sprinting forward. Fuia has minimal counterplay. The white queen holds everything. Is this the final few moves of the esports world cup 2025. The black bishop trying to stem the tide, but it’s desperate now. Desperation on Fuja Magnus there. He wants to put the finishing touches as quickly as possible. But the whole show, the whole match by Magnus has been dominant so far. This is absolutely incredible. Alireza Fua in a must-win situation. Magnus Carlson had no business being this aggressive gunning for this victory, but he only knows one mode. He truly has the heart of a champion and he is displaying that here saying yes I get that a draw is good enough but here watch what I can do. Well, here at the Esports World Cup, he knows only one mode, that is that when liquid flows, it drowns everything. Absolutely incredible stuff. Imperious from Magnus Carson, but it’s not over yet. 5v2 material advantage. All the chips are stacked in his favor. Blunders can still happen. It is never over until it’s over. He has to earn that full point. Everything is earned here. Magnus Carlson looking up. He’s in calculation mode trying to figure out if he can force it here and now. But there must be a little bit of a ghost in his mind. There was a blunder in game one of the second set when he had a winning position. Up on time, up on the board. So Magnus, that’s why he’s double checking everything. That’s why he’s slowed down slightly. The longer this game goes on, the more hope for Fua. It’s just a challenge staying alive. Remember, you make your own luck. You need to try and find a way to tempt Magnus into that mistake. Those mistakes do happen, but Fua needs to make it happen on command. Queens off the board and victory looking that much more remote. And Magnus needs only a draw to win the match. He doesn’t even need to win this game. He’s completely winning. And look at this. The C pawn now forcing its way through. We’re going to see the final move of the tournament. Magnus Carlson takes the victory. He wins game, set, and match against team Falcons. Ali Raza Fuja. Team Liquid will take home the thousand points for chess at the esports world cup. The goat reigns supreme world number one. And now your esports world cup champion, Magnus Carlson. Incredible stuff. What a performance by Magnus in the semifinals taking down Hikaru Nakamura in an epic battle comes in today. Completely steals the show. You know they say chess is a simple game. Two players play. Magnus Carlson wins. This was absolute domination and Team Liquid rises to the top and the king stays on the top. Fans on their feet. Incredible scenes in that arena. Quick action replay here of the final few moves, but ultimately Magnus had done the hard work. He won the exchange. He was already up in the match. He forced the queens off. Later managed to push his pawn and game over. Fouia unfortunately helpless. Incredible stuff. I mean, start from finish, right? You think about set one, just everything he did, how he converted this, needing only a draw in this position. But you know what? He’s just too good. He wins. Goes on to win this game. A 3-1 victory in set two. What a performance. Just brilliant stuff by Magnus taking down the world number two. And finally, the fire brand Ali Fuja. Yeah, incredible scenes. Magnus looking fantastically happy as well in those graphics. There we see him with a smile as the final key is given to him is about to fall prey to the world number one. There we go. The key master hands the winning key to put into the trophy which now belongs to world number one and now esports world cup champion. An absolutely incredible achievement for Magnus Carlson. Heat. Heat. Ladies and gentlemen, the best player the world has ever seen. Team Liquid, Magnus Carlson. Magnus, you have once again shown why you are still the best chess player in the world. What emotions are going through your head right now, man? You’re looking pretty No, I’m very very very happy. Uh a little bit relieved as well. Like there was a point in the second set where I just felt like I let him back in the match for for no reason. But overall, I’m happy with the way that I played and especially the way that I pressured him uh on the clock. couple of times I I rushed a little bit, but that comes with uh with everything, but overall, you know, um this is a uh this been a great event and u I’m just yeah, I’m just very happy. I’ll say welldeserved victory and you said it was a great event. I want to ask you a little bit more. This is the first chess tournament of its kind, you know, stage, crowd. Walk me through what do you think about something like this and the future of chess going forward, especially as an esport? I think it’s been uh it’s been incredible. Um not only playing but also watching the others. It’s been an amazing show. Um like unlike anything that I’ve seen so far. Uh yeah, it’s just been a joy and I really hope that this is a big part of the future for for chess. Uh and uh one more thing, maybe we can get on an even bigger stage next time cuz it seems like there was enough uh enough people who wanted wanted to get in. But it’s been awesome. I’m really thankful uh to EWC for believing in in chess, for Team Liquid, for believing in me as well. Um and um you know um to make the Falcons at least fight a little bit for the team championship. Now, obviously being crowned the champion, not only do you get to crush another key, but you get to choose three keys to be placed in your trophy. Which three keys are you choosing? You can have any pick, any key you want. Well, it’s going to be the two Falcons for sure. And then I am open to suggestions for uh for the third. I haven’t decided yet. Well, all right. Well, one more time for your 2025 esports World Cup chess champion, Magnus Carlson. Ladies and gentlemen, if you want to see more of this, if you want the future of chess to continue like this, make some noise. Magnus Carlson continues to separate himself from the rest in the world of chess. He becomes your first ever esports world cup chess champion. And Maurice Ashley, the form in which he did it, the people that he had to go through to get to that top spot. Boy, does he deserve it. Absolutely. Today he showed why he is Magnus Carlson, the greatest player of all time. He played with such domination, control. He had one hiccup in that game one that he was upset about, but otherwise he just simply controlled everything about Ali Raza’s play. Normally, you’d be punching, swinging. You’d think Alza would muck it up, create some chaos. Magnus just said, “No, son. Let me show you how it’s done. why I’ve been a legend for so long. Exactly. I mean, he knows exactly how to play against his opponents. He knows how to get this kind of position. He is just quite simply the champ. Not only is he the best chess player in the world, he’s also the best showman, showing his his team spirit afterwards, pointing to his chest, and he never had trouble in the match. He was just always focused. And that that was Magnus’ best match of the tournament. I mean, and how fluidly uh you know, he moves from a showman on the chessboard to a showman on the stage like you’re talking about. I think that’s a big part of chess becoming a part of the esports world is this is about entertainment. This is about showmanship, not just about your style on the board itself. You know, I’ve been calling Magnus matches and tournaments since 2013. It’s been a while. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him as happy. maybe when he won the world championship the first time and they threw him in the water. Uh was it in Chennai? Uh but but here he normally he wins and it’s sort of like yeah, you know what? I’m the best. I’m supposed to win and it’s a whole hum sort of interview. Magnus here is as enthusiastic as ever seen him. He just seems as though he understands the moment, what this could mean for the future of chess and that he won the inaugural one as well. He just seems thrilled that this is the direction that is under his reign as world champion. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you can tell from his semi-final match against Hikaru Nakamura yesterday that Magnus wanted to win this one. And today he came out all guns blazing. He knew exactly what he had to do against Ali Resza. Ali Resa is a fantastic player, but here he just seemed like he did not have a chance. And that’s all because of Magnus Carlson and his sheer chess ch talent. Yeah, Magnus showed he was the best player in the world. And this is the biggest prize fund I’ve ever heard of that wasn’t a world chess championship. A quarter of a million dollars goes to Magnus Carlson. And he deserves it. He played the best chess throughout the week. A quarter of a million dollars to him, $1.5 million to the entire pool of players here that put on a show. But Magnus Carlson’s been on a crusade his entire life to become the chess player. More recently, he’s been on a crusade to bring chess to new heights. Right. And I think that is what we’re seeing in that excitement, in that smile at the end of the day because he has been such a vocal advocate of getting us to this point and now we’re seeing it bear fruit. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you just saw that, you know, the gold dust coming down, Magnus Carlson just reing in this very special like groundbreaking moment, you know, the new esports world cup chess champion. I mean, it’s just heralds the beginning of a new chess era. I got to tell you, I’ve been in the chess world a little bit longer than those 12 years. I’ve seen different eras, particularly the Gary Kasparov era when he was dominating, and he was in a fantastic and remains a great ambassador for the sport. But during his reign, he was bringing a ton of money into the sport as well, lifting it to new heights. Then we went through a middle period of champions who have helped push it along a little bit. But it was this just this year I saw Magnus uh earlier at an event and I said to Magnus, “Congratulations, you have elevated our sport to new heights. Great job, dude.” Uh you saw Magnus giving a huge respect and thank you to the team at Team Liquid. Got some well-deserved hugs from the team there. He said he knew he was taking the two Falcons keys to be going in to his individual trophy. He wanted some suggestions. Any any guesses on who that third key will be here before he selects it. If I was Magnus, I’d pick Nordbeck. I think Abdusov cuz he won that match so nicely and Nordbeck’s one of the new one of the new players like Fuja, one of the younger players. I would have said that instantly as well. I echo your sentiment, too. Well, let’s see. It looks like he’s indicating which of those uh keys he wants to go for third. waiting to see if we can get a camera shot of it or I’ll get the word and I’ll share it with you because that is the mystery key right now that he’s elected to be immortalized in the first ever esports world cup chess champion trophy for an individual. It was Arjun Eric. Hey, that goes back to a conversation we’ve had all week long. Uh Maurice put some respect on this kid’s name for what he can do over the board and what he can do in this format in this style of chess. And you know what? Magnus Carlson just gave him the nod. And yes, and also what is he giving the nod to the fans. He’s saying I am indeed an ambassador. They want the autographs. I’m going to make that happen as well. I’m again elevating the sport in multiple ways. And he did take all three of the semi-finalists other than himself to say, “I beat all the best of the best of the best.” Well, there you have it. Our crystallized picture of the playoffs here at the Esports World Cup. And it’s that man who stands tall above the rest. He was the world number one coming in. He’s the world number one as he goes. And another new title to his name. Magnus Carlson just seems to win it all. He’s going to have to add a whole new room onto the house for the trophy case at this point. A wing and some vault doors. I mean, he’s just extraordinary. And I, you know, again, the big thing I noticed with Max with Magnus is that he really wants to rise to a challenge. He wants a new challenge, throw something different at him. He gave up even a world championship title. Can you imagine a world championship title because he said, “Been there, done that.” several times, but this was a new one. He wanted to rise to this and he did. All 16 players go home with something here with our tournament prize pool. Individually though, Magnus Carlson, he takes the top purse, $250,000. 190K to our runner up in Ali Resa Fuja. Hey, Carl Nakamura in third 145 all the way down to 16th $50,000. So, nobody goes home with, you know, pennies in their pocket. This was quite the payday for all of our players. They deserve Absolutely. They absolutely deserve it. Like Ali Resa Fuja, I mean what a performance he had. You know, he also went through the crowd. I mean, he went through the whole tournament with such fantastic chess. Unbeaten until he met Magnus Carlson, the ultimate boss. Well, uh, as we are moving towards the conclusion of our event here at chess, we want to make sure we hear from you at home. There’s a QR code on your screen, bottom corner right there. We value your feedback. We want your feedback. So scan that, send it in because you heard Magnus, he already gave his feedback. Maybe a bigger stage next year because there’s lines of people out the street who want to get in and watch this take place. So we might be adding a few more rows to those stands. That’s right. I lost my voice commentating on such a great event. And even more exciting than $250,000 for first place, if that’s possible, is people who tied for last place got $50,000. That’s something you’ve never seen in a chess tournament before and it looks like it’s just the beginning. Rising tides, right? Raise all boats. And that’s kind of the hope here with this injection of funding with support from the EWC as well for the world of chess. And the players who went home with 50, they’re going home to other players and saying, “Well, I got 50.” And they’re people thinking, “We got to start training for this. I want to make it onto a team or I want to have LCQ the last chance qualifier and get in on some of this action as well. So you are motivating the elite of the elite to step up their game because they see that the future is bright for chess. Exactly that. And there could still be more money coming their way because this is how the chess players are going to affect the club championship race here at the EWC. Magnus Carlson for Team Liquid. He scores 1,000 points for taking the top prize. 700 for Ali Resza Fuja. You see a blank space there for Hikaro just so that you at home understand that’s because you only get the points of your highest placing player on the team. Alireza placed above him. So those points will continue down the board. And this is your new updated picture at EWC. And just like that, Team Liquid number one 50point lead Yi over Team Falcons. But chess has determined our current top two. Absolutely. I so close here on the standings and it is thanks to chess. It’s because of Magnus Carson’s absolutely incredible performance and team Falcons also overtaking team Vitality thanks to Fuja and not to skip over Gen G sliding into fourth. Arjun Aragi can be thanked for that. Yeah, he got his key crushed by by by Magnus cuz that was actually a smart move by Magnus taking the semi-finalists and crushing their keys also showing his complete dominance of the event. Yeah, a very deserved inclusion into that trophy. But it is very cool to see an event here in its inaugural year have this much of an effect at least at the midpoint or cresting the midpoint of the entire esports world cup. Look, Magnus wants all the bragging rights for all the reasons you can name. Is it individual? Yes. Check that. I’ve got the title the 250k. Check. I take that home. Oh, I help my team into first. Check that as well. only 50 points. I’ll take it. And now I’ve passed the baton on to the rest of the the competitors to see if they can win it all. But you can trust that Team Liquid’s thinking, “Thank goodness we signed this guy early.” I love that. Like a relay race, right? He’s handing the baton off in first. Got it somewhere, you know, mid pack. And boy, did he just blaze a beautiful split on the track. He certainly did. He gave them a narrow lead, but it’s enough. It might be enough for them to clinch it. But I have to say Magnus Carlson is such a team player. He’s so passionate about team sports. He’s so passionate about just giving 100% for absolutely everything and everyone and for the cause. So I have to again I’m just in awe of his achievement. As am I. I’m taking a moment just to kind of think back on the on the matchup as a whole as we see Magnus Carlson getting that VIP ride over to the tournament totem because his job is almost done but not quite yet here at the EWC. Still going to have to immortalize a his key crest in that tournament totem making his way through the boulevard. Bodyguards and tow as well. Got to love it. The biggest scoreer needs the biggest entourage. Damn right. And the thing too is this is something again chess players, we’ve been around a while. There’s collective experience right here on the sofa. We have never seen this. Our eyes have just simply never seen even in world championships that I’ve been a part of this kind of incredible treatment. You see the champions, of course, they have tons of fans surrounding them in various places, but the way this is unfolding at this event, the way they’ve just just really skyrocketed the level of entertainment, the level of importance, the grandeur of it all, it’s just incredible. And as we get our first peak in at the tournament totem, you can already see his name there, Magnus Carlson, Team Liquid, and Chess. And here we have the crest of his key presented by Mike McCabe, COO of the Esports World Cup Foundation, a very deserved inaugural esports world cup champion in Magnus Carlson. I hope he’s relishing in this moment because we sure as heck are. Up he goes across the stairs, across the graveyard of Fallen Keys, as well underneath his feet into the elevator to be lifted into glory and into esports world cup history. That’s a big smile on Magnus’s face. You can tell how happy he is that he was able to support his team and win the match. Oh, come on. Look at this. How could you not love it? And he’s loving it. One more time, showing it off before he slides it in to forever be cemented here for 2025’s esports world cup. This is insane. And he’s dragging the whole chess world, carrying it on his shoulders by showing us what is possible. I can tell you the organizers all around the world of chess saying we’ve got to up our game. But because Magnus and certainly EWC is showing how great our sport is, how they’ve glorified it, we need to be able to to replicate this sort of grandure for chess. This man is a titanic figure in chess and for good reason. He calls his shots every step of the way. He says what he’s going for. He tells you that he’s going to make it happen. And then every time he seems to manage to do so. And as he makes one more trip back across that graveyard of keys and getting much deserved congratulations, we can reflect on what a beautiful inaugural event this was here in chess one more time. Drink it in. This is chess history. Magnus Carlson is your esports world cup chess champion. And as he goes to celebrate, it’s time for us to shut things down and say our goodbyes. So, on behalf of myself, the casters, and the entire rest of the broadcast team here at the Esports World Cup, thank you for coming on this incredible chess journey with us. Look out for many more titles and many more of the world’s top players over the next few weeks here at EWC. That’s it for us. Until next time, stay healthy, stay safe, and be good to each other. Good night. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat up here. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Wonder you. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.
The Esports World Cup is back to write the next chapter in esports history! Witness the world’s top chess players compete for a total of $1,500,000 in prize money and the coveted EWC Club Championship trophy. Catch all the action live this summer!
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