I PLAYED TWO WORLD CHAMPIONS!! MAGNUS AND VISHY!!!

Welcome back everyone, for today's video we are going to be taking a look at rounds 4 and 5 of the Global Chess League being held here in London. Now my team, the American Gambus, today we are playing two games, and in these two games I'm playing against the two 5-time World Chess Champions. Now the first game we'll be starting out with, I'm playing with the White Pieces in the fourth round against the 5-time Indian World Champion, great icon of the sport, Vishy Anand. So I have the White Piece against Vishy, not having a great start, two draws and a loss thus far, and as such I decide that I'm going to have fun, play free-flowing chess, and avoid opening theory. So what does that mean? That means that I start out this game with Knight f3, we get d5, and now I play the move b3. Now this of course is a patented system that I've played a lot online, either b3 on move 2, e3 on move 2, or g3, but all these systems have very easy development, I get to play a lot of moves quickly, and hopefully I can avoid time pressure. So I go for the move b3 here, and now Vishy plays move c5, and now I play the move e3. We get to move a6 here, keep in mind that this is actually a system that I've played against Magnus Carlsen himself from the black side. Against Magnus, he played bishop b2, and I played f6 in one title Tuesday, and in a more recent one we have this exact position after e3 and a6. So I go bishop b2, Vishy plays knight c6, and now I play the move d4, and here Vishy plays knight f6. I believe that in my game against Magnus Carlsen, I played the move bishop g4, followed by bishop e2 and e6 if I'm not mistaken, where now the bishop is simply outside of this classic pawn chain. All right, so after d4, Vishy goes knight to f6, I take on c5, we get to move e6, and now I play the move g3. Now what's happening here is that Black's bishop is now walled in behind this pawn chain, Bishop can't get to either the g4 or the f5 squares, so I'm a little bit happier with the development. So I go g3, now this move is completely fine, I could also play a move like bishop d3 or c4 or a3, but having played this so many times online, a lot of these positions are going to lead to a situation where eventually I play c4, and Black can always play some kind of endgame with takes, takes, bishop c4, and castles, and just in general without queens on the board, it's going to be very hard to win. Also, I'm playing against Vishy, who is a great world champion, make no mistake about it, but he is a little bit past his prime, and in a team situation, a team match, you want to keep as many pieces on the board, keep the game going as long as possible, and get the game into a situation where there could be a time scramble. So I go g3, Vishy takes on c5, and now I play the move bishop to g2 here. Of course, in this position, I've now achieved the classic double fianchito here with the bishops on the g2 and b2 squares. Vishy castles, and now I get the move queen e7. Now, what Vishy is aiming to do here is he wants to play e5, building a big Black center. These knights guard the central pawns, queen guards upon an e5, and now the bishop can go to either f5 or g4. So what do I do? I play knight to e5, restricting Black from building a big Black center, and now we get the trade. Here, Vishy plays rook d8, and now I play the move knight to d2. Now, what I'm hoping for is I want to play either c4 or e4 here. Not sure which pawn thrust I'm going to go for. There is merit to both, but for example, say we get some position like this just to illustrate it. I'd love to go c4 here, and suddenly you can see the power of the two b's here. This light square b is very awesome, and the wooden shield on e5 is also super, super active. So, after knight to d2, Vishy plays move b5 here. Now, this is a very good move. Black tries to stop me from playing c4, but Black can also put the bishop on b7 to oppose my bishop on g2. Here, I go for the move c4 anyway. We get bishop to b7, and now I play the move queen to e2. Now, in this position, Vishy goes for the move bishop b4, and this is a start where I feel like Vishy loses a little bit of the threat. Now, obviously, this position is completely equal here, but you have to come up with a plan, and I think at this point, Vishy was unsure of where to put the bishop, whether to go to b4, a3, or even whether to simply try and trade the pawns in the center of the board. Now, I actually thought Vishy would take on c4 and take a slightly worse pawn structure here after pawn takes on queen b7, but after b takes c4 and bishop e7, with so few pawns on the queen side here, the bishop guarding the pawn on f6, and also this open diagonal no fianchetto bishop, I do think Black should draw quite easily. Instead, Vishy goes bishop b4 here, and now I decide to take this pawn on b5 and complicate the situation. Now, what I'm doing by taking the pawn is after takes on rook c1, the pawn structure is imbalanced. I have a two-on-one majority on the queen side. I'm trying to push these pawns. Additionally, I can also make the nice kebab with rook c7 to hit the queen and the bishop. Say Black were to go knight e4, for example. There's rook c7 here, hitting the bishop, hitting the queen. The wooden shield guards the rook and targets everything all at the same time, and after, say, rook to d7, for example, I could sack the rook, and after takes, takes, takes, takes, I end up with this double wooden shield here in the middle of the board, but more importantly, I target both of these rooks on a7 and a8. So, what does Vishy do here? He plays the move bishop a3. Now I go rook c7, attacking the queen and the bishop at the same time, and Vishy plays rook d7. Here, I play the move rook to c2, and the reasoning behind this move is that I want to create the classic tickle effect, which is if I were to go rook c2 right away, after Black goes bishop to a6, let's say similar to the game, what do I play here? I play rook d1. Now Black can play the move rook d to c8, challenging the c-file immediately, and Black is completely fine. So, I go for the little tickle with rook c7, rook d7, and rook c2, and now after bishop a6 and rook d1, you'll notice the rook on d7 can no longer go to the c-file. c7 is covered by the bishop, and the rook is not on d8 to go to c8. So, Vishy plays move b4 here. Now, this is a very, very committal move. It's a move that I was surprised to see in the game, because after queen to e1, you'll notice that this bishop on a3 is completely out of the game. It cannot go to either the b2 or c1 squares, so this could be a long-term issue for Black to have to deal with. So, Vishy goes bishop d3. I play rook to c6, and now we get to move rook to d to d8. What Vishy is hoping to do is go rook c8 and claim the c-file here. The bishops on d3 and a3 are actually very well placed. Bishop covers c1, bishop covers c2, and if Black can get this trade with rook c8, for example, and control the c-file here, Black is doing very well. So, after rook d8, I play the move knight to f3. Now, this move is not the best move. My original idea was to play this move e4, trying to chip away at Black's center. The biggest reason I did not play this move is simply that I thought this endgame after, say, rook c8, for example, takes, takes, takes, takes, takes, and bishop d5 here. I thought that after, say, a move like h6, white is... not h6, sorry. Maybe I'm confusing my lines. One second. No, sorry. Takes, Black has rook c2, or is it bishop c2? Maybe it's bishop c2, and it feels very hard to prove an advantage. In fact, Black actually here is completely fine. So, I spent a lot of time considering e4. Now, one big difference between this game and other games that I play is it is a team event, and as you guys know, there is no I in team. So, at this point, I was also paying attention to some of the other games on the jumbotron above the board, where I could look up and see the other players' games, and at this point, I could tell that it wasn't completely clear what was going on, and so I didn't want to play for something where I had a very small advantage, because I wasn't sure if that would be good enough. I wanted to keep the pieces on the board and keep the game complicated. So, I end up playing knight to f3. Vishy goes bishop e4, and now I play the move queen to e2, and Vishy goes rook dc8. Now, this is where Vishy definitely starts to lose the threat of the game. I don't really blame him for playing rook c8, but you have to keep in mind that it's very tricky when you play without increment, because at a moment like this, time is even. We both have a little over seven minutes, but if you spend two or three minutes here, it can be absolutely fatal, because there is no increment, so if you spend too much time, you're going to be in trouble until the game ends. So, Vishy plays rook dc8. Computer would have preferred knight e8 here, followed by f6 and e5 to build the big black center, but instead, we have rook c8. Here, I take the knight, we get pawn takes, and now I go knight to d4. Now, if Vishy were to play the move queen f6, which is what I kind of expected, after knight to d4 here, you'll notice that this bishop on a3 is completely out of play, and after takes takes, let's just say takes takes, for example, white is not necessarily winning here, but because of this terrible, terrible bishop on a3 that can't really get into the game, white has great chances to win. So, that's why Vishy takes with the pawn. I go knight d4, we get bishop g6, and now I play the move e4, trying to explode the center and break up the big black center with the pawns on e6 and d5. Vishy takes, I take, and now he goes rook d8. Here, I play the move bishop takes bishop, and this is a move that I did not actually want to play in the game, but I simply couldn't come up with a better plan. Apparently, rook to c2 right away would have been better, but I was actually very concerned that there would be some issue on this d file. Apparently, there isn't. Like, takes takes, and maybe f5. I guess I just go back, and due to the compromised pawn structure, white is actually quite a bit better. Instead, I play the move bishop takes bishop. Vishy plays pawn takes, and now I go rook c2 anyway. The idea, of course, is to play for knight c6 here, and at the same time, keeping this bishop on a3 out of the game. Vishy goes queen d6. I go rook d2, and here, Vishy plays a brilliant practical move. Now, when you look at the time situation here, I'm up one minute, no increment. I'm feeling really good about my chances. I've got all kinds of fossils here. Knight c6, knight f5, knight b5, and I'm thinking I'm going to win because he's going to have to spend a lot of time and get low on the clock, but Vishy plays move rook c8 after one minute, and this move is simply a brilliant decision from Vishy because even though the computer will say it's a mistake, it forces the into a simpler situation where Vishy will not have to burn a lot of time. So, you're probably wondering, well, why not knight c6? Now, I spent a lot of time before playing this move because I looked at the other boards, and I still wasn't sure what was happening. I thought we were a little bit better, but it wasn't clear cut. At any rate, I didn't really see a better option, so I go knight c6. Vishy sacks the queen with rook takes knight. We get takes takes, and now I go h4, and Vishy plays rook d5. Now, even though the bishop on a3 is not in the game here, it actually plays a vital role because first of all, if black were somehow able to put the bishop on h6 just to illustrate the point, down the road, I can maybe go a4 to try and create some pass pawns. Maybe I can go rook c4 to attack the pawn, but with the bishop glued to a3 here, I can never push the pawn, but the bishop also guards the pawn on b4, so unless I can do something very quickly on the king side, black has actually achieved a fortress. Now, you might keep in mind that the famous five-time world champion, Magnus Carlsen, has said he does not believe in fortresses, but this is a case where there is actually a fortress. So, Vishy goes king g7. Here, I play rook c4. Now, the reason I played rook c4 here was to try to induce Vishy to have to come up with some moves. If I play rook c7, which is a more obvious move, black will simply start forcing me to keep moving the rook forever, and if I go back to c2, black puts the rook on d7, and I have the same issue where I can't really push the pawn to h5, and whenever I move my rook on the file, black will always offer the trade. So, I go rook c4. Vishy plays rook to d2. Now, if Vishy were to play rook d4 here, for example, I think I'm in time to go h5, trying to create some play. Also, you'll notice that with the rook on c4, if black ever trades, I can take with the pawn, and now I've created a passed pawn on c file, and my chances to win go up tremendously. So, if I put the rook on c4, it's one square where black can never trade because it creates a passed pawn, and at the same time, I'm also offering Vishy the chance to play rook d2, creating the kebab, attacking the queen and the pawns. However, once Vishy plays rook d2, and I go queen to g4, now you'll notice that black has a tough decision. Does he take the pawn on a2? Does he try to go back to d5 and set up the fortress? What's going on? Now, Vishy does end up playing the move rook to d5 here, and I end up playing queen on f4. Now, this move is apparently a mistake according to the computer. It would have preferred rook c7 because after rook f5 here, apparently I can go king g1, and if black takes, queen c4, which apparently is somehow winning here. Don't ask me how, or maybe it's queen d4 maybe that's winning. I don't really understand this, so don't ask me why white is winning, but apparently here, I'm in time to play queen d7 or queen a7 and attack on the seventh rank. Frankly, with limited time, this is not realistic. So, in this position, after rook d5, I go for queen f4 here. I'm hoping Vishy will play the move rook to f5 because then he will sack the rook and resign the game. Instead, Vishy takes on a2. Now, I go for g4, trying to stop black from playing rook f5, but additionally, I have h5, g5, and rook c7 ideas all in play. So, Vishy plays rook d2. I go rook c8, and now I play his move rook d4. I think in this position, I actually would have expected Vishy to play the move e5, which I think was a little bit cleaner because after queen e3 and rook d8, black does the same dance where he always tries to exchange the rooks, and I'm not really sure how white can be better. Instead, after rook d4, now I go queen to b8, and with the double stack on the back rank, trying to go after black's king, it's getting very dicey. Now, at this point, we both still have over one minute on the clock, but objectively, my move should be easier to play since I am attacking. Vishy takes. I go king to h3, attacking the rook, and now it plays the only move f5. If Vishy were to play rook d4, for example, I can go check, check, and then queen to g8, which would be checkmate. But when Vishy plays move f5, not only does he guard the rook here, but he creates the escape square on f6 for the king after the check. So, I go f3 here. Vishy goes rook d4. I play h5, and now we get the move pawn takes pawn. Now, at this point, I'm moving very quickly because I know this game is going to come down to time, and I'm just trying to play on feel. Now, after h5, Vishy probably should have played this move g5, and apparently, it's a draw, but frankly, playing a move like g5, allowing me to even go h6 here, is very hard to play, and Vishy simply takes instead. Now, I go queen g3. We get king f6, and here I play the move rook g8, intending to play either queen g5 or queen g7, checking the king on f6. Vishy goes rook d3. I check. We get king e7, and now I play the move rook f8, trying to win the pawn on f7. Vishy takes. I go king g2, and now I play this move rook b3. Now, you're probably thinking with a queen and a rook here, I'm attacking the king. Surely, I'm winning, but the black king is simply able to roam all over the board here, and if Vishy had more time, he probably would draw. So, I go check, king c6. I tickle him, and now I check, and then I go rook c2 back. Now, this is a situation where I could, of course, make a draw. If we're playing with increment, the game would be a draw, but in team event here, as much as I hate having to flag Vishy, it is the right play. So, I go rook c2 with the idea of playing rook to e2. He plays rook d4. I play check. I tickle him again, and now I play the move rook to e2. Vishy goes for rook g4, and now I go king f2. Vishy plays bishop b2 here, but before he's able to execute the move bishop b2 on the board, he simply flags in this position. Now, if Vishy were playing this game normally, he probably would find the move rook to d3 here, stopping any of the checks on the file, and after queen e5, king g5. If I take, black can always start checking once again, and the game should end in a draw, and if I go king to e1, for example, I think even rook to e4 here is good enough, because after we reach this endgame, with black having a rook, a bishop, and two pawns on the board versus a queen, this should be a draw. So, when all is said and done, I end up flagging Vishy to get my first win of the event. I was not particularly happy with it, but as I said, it is a team event. If this were an individual event, I would say with 90% certainty, at least, I would have given Vishy a draw in my older age. If I were younger, maybe I would have been happy with the flag, but as I get older, I don't really like winning games this way, so it's a little bit unsatisfying, I guess you could say, to win like this, but as I mentioned, team event, you gotta do what you gotta do. Alright, so I get the win in the first game of the day, but today is the one day when I am playing two matches. So, let's go to the second game, and the final game of the day, this is the fifth round of the global chess league, and here I am playing with the black pieces against the five-time world champion, Magnus Carlsen. Now, of course, this is El Clasico, once again, Magnus and I have not actually played that much in recent times outside of title Tuesdays, so it's a rare chance to see us play against each other over the board in a serious nature. Alright, so Magnus opens with the move e4, and I decide to play the move c5. Now, one thing that I've discussed a lot with my team, and just in general with this format, is if you win a game with the black pieces, you get four points for a win, if you win with white, you get three, and I think in general, it's better to play a little bit more on the edge, because if you win one game with black in the six-game team match, the opposing team will have to win two games with white to offset that one game. As such, I play the Sicilian, we get knight f3, and now I play the move g6. Magnus goes d4, I take, and I play the move bishop g7. Now, here, Magnus has a decision. Does he want to play c4 and go into the moroxy bind, or does he want to go back into the more traditional lines of a classic Sicilian dragon? Obviously, for those of you guys who, or not obviously, I should say, for those of you guys who are unaware, the reason that the system is called the Sicilian dragon is because when you look at this pawn formation, this pawn formation represents the constellation of Draco Malfoy, which of course is about the dragon. So, this pawn structure is basically the Draco constellation, and that is why this opening is called the Sicilian dragon. So, I put the bishop on g7 here, and now Magnus decides to go for c4. This is the classic moroxy bind structure, where white tries to stop black from pushing d5. I go knight c6, Magnus plays bishop e3, and here I play the move queen b6, attacking the horse on d4, with the knight, the bishop, and the queen, and trying to attack on this long diagonal as well. Magnus goes knight b5 here, and now I play queen a5. In the recent Chess Olympiad, in the final round match between the United States of America and China, there was a big match between Ding Laurent and Fabiano Caruana, and that game actually ended in a draw after knight b3, queen d8, knight d4, and queen b6 with a repetition. Magnus, of course, in no mood to make a draw. He is, of course, a five-time world champion, trying to always play for the win, unlike a certain current world champion, and he goes for the move knight b5. I play queen a5 check, and now Magnus retreats the knight from b5 to c3. Now, what you will notice here is that the reason I played queen b6 is to stop white's harmony. Normally, the setup for white is to get the knights, d's knights, on c3 and d4 here, followed by bishop e2 in castles, but when we look at this position after checking knight c3, you'll notice the knight is not on d4, so white now is going to have to put the knights on d2 and c3 versus having d's knights on d4 and c3, and it's a little bit less effective. So I go queen b4. Magnus plays queen to c1 to guard the pawn on b2, and now I play the move d6. Magnus plays knight d2, breaking the pin and trying to finish his development on the queen side. Here I go bishop e6. Magnus plays bishop e2, and now I play this very enterprising move, bishop d4. Now, when I play bishop d4, what I'm trying to do is trade off the b's and get this horsey horse on d4 and create havoc for white in the center of the board. Now, the havoc that I'm referring to is after takes takes in this position. If white were to say castles, there's a move queen takes c3, sacking the queen, and after takes takes, we get the classic fork, and king h1, knight c3 would be winning. But even besides that, for example, say white were to go, I don't know, bishop f1. Now, after rook c8, there's all kinds of pressure on the pawn. The bishop on f1 is underdeveloped, and black should be better. So Magnus goes bishop d3 here. Now I play rook c8, castles, and knight to f6. Now, at this point, I'm lagging behind in development by one tempo. I still need to castle the king, but I have a great horse in the center of the board, a lot of pressure on c4, and it's hard to say that I'm any worse. So Magnus goes rook e1, and here I decide to go for knight to g4, trying to use d's, knights, and create all kinds of memes in the center of the board. Now, this is actually a mistake here, according to the computer. Probably here I should have simply castled the king, and the reason I should have done this is that in the long run, what I want to be able to do here is I want to be able to swing my queen over to the king's side to attack towards this pawn on the h2 square. But I'm in the meme mood, I feel like using d's, knights, I go knight g4, and I figure if I get d's, knights in the center of the board, there are going to be some forks here, all kinds of good stuff is happening. But in reality, this is a mistake. Magnus plays h3, I go knight e5, and now he plays bishop f1. Now, you'll notice here that I'm four and a half minutes on the clock in a situation with no increment. This is where I really should try to capitalize. Now, unfortunately here, I spent a lot of time before playing my move, and I think this is simply a mistake, which is that I end up castling after a long think. Now, the reason that I took so long is I thought maybe Magnus had blundered this pawn on c4, but after takes, takes in this position, white can play knight to d5. If I take, I get checkmated, it's uh-oh spaghetti-o time. And when I go queen to c5 here, I'm still guarding the b, but after b4, queen to c6 here, white can now play the move queen to d2, attacking the horse, and then the rook potentially. And if I play a move like e5, after bishop takes c4, queen takes c4, and queen g5, there are all kinds of issues on the dark squares around the king, and I am getting cooked. So, I spent three minutes before castling this move that I probably should have played in 20 seconds, but alas, it's easy in hindsight to see what you could have done differently. Now, here Magnus plays the move a3, and I was really hoping that Magnus might actually blunder with the move knight d5, because if white goes knight d5, I can take, and then I can sack the queen with queen takes horse, and after takes in this position, I can now go knight to f3, creating the classic family fork, where I fork the king, the rook, and the queen at the same time. Now, this is what I'm hoping for, but unfortunately, Magnus does spot the tactic, and instead, he goes a3. I go queen b6, and now he plays move knight d5. Here I take, and I play the move e6, trying to open up the center of the board. Now, at this point in the game, I'm trying to move fast, but I actually miss something when I play this move, because I thought during the game I was doing really well, up a minute, feeling good, but Magnus plays move knight e4, which I simply, I saw knight e4, but I missed the follow-up after my next move. I thought at this point, after takes in fe6, with this diagonal attacking the king, d's knights in the middle of the board, I thought I should be doing very well, but Magnus ends up playing this move knight e4. Now, here I spend a lot of time, three minutes before playing f5. Now, this was my initial instinct, but when Magnus plays this move, I spotted that once I go f5, white has this move c5, which Magnus plays, and after takes, there's knight g5. In retrospect, another situation where I probably should have played this right away, but it's very, very tough, and you don't want to make a blunder. So, after knight g5, I go queen d6, guarding the knight, and now Magnus plays this great move, queen d3, and here I have to play knight f7. Initially, I wanted to go for knight c2, forking the queen and the two rooks at the same time here, but it's not quite working, because after takes, takes, takes, white sacks the rook on a1, and after knight takes e6, let's just say rook to f7, for example, knight g5, if I go rook d7, I think there's bishop b5 here, rook d6, and after rook e7, it's getting very, very dicey here. There's knight f7, white starting, push p, and unless I know for sure that I'm fine, it's impossible to go for this in a blitz game with no increment. Now, if I have 30 minutes on the clock, I probably can think and work through all these lines and conclude it's playable, but at the end of the day, you have to make certain decisions, because if you get too low on time, you will lose. So, I play knight f7 instead, Magnus takes, I go rook to e8. Worth pointing out that if I were to play knight c2, again going for the fork of the queen and the rooks, white has queen c3, attacking the knight, but very devilishly, if I take either of the rooks here, white has queen g7, checkmating my king on the g8 square. So, I play rook e8, we get bishop c4 here, and now I play the move knight d8. Now, after the game, Magnus and I spoke a little bit, and his initial intention here was to play this move, queen to c3, and the move that he overlooked was after queen takes d5, he thought he had knight c7 here, forking the rook and the queen. If I take the knight, he takes the rook and wins, but here I can play rook takes rook, sacking the queen, and after knight takes queen, I have knight to e2, forking the king and the queen, white cannot capture due to the pin of the rook towards the king, and after king h2, knight c3, rookie one, knight d5, I have an extra piece on the board, and I win the game. So, Magnus goes bishop c4, as always, knight c2 never removed because of queen c3 with the mate threat, so I play the move knight to d8. Now, when I play knight d8, what I'm trying to do here is trade off the knight on e6 here, and argue that my bashing on d4 is good enough. We get rook d1, takes takes rook e7, and now Magnus goes b4, and I play the move b6. Now, one good thing here is that even though I'm down a minute on the clock, with this outposted horse on d4, my defensive task should be a lot easier. We get the trade, Magnus goes h4, and now I play this move f4, we get queen e4, and here I go king g7. Magnus plays rook to b1, trying to use the open b file to trade off the rooks, he also has h5 or queen e5 in play as well, and white should be better due to this pass pawn on e6. Here I go knight to f5, Magnus plays rook d1, important move by the way, because if Magnus were to play, I don't know, let's just say h5 for example, now I can play ever trade off the queens on d4, even this version of it, I'm actually better here, because now my king comes towards f6, and the pawn on e6 will always be a weakness in the endgame. So Magnus goes rook d1, I go back to d4, and now he plays h5, and here I go for the move king f6. Now the reasoning behind me playing king f6 is what I want to do is with the rook on d1 versus e1, say white goes a4, now I can play queen e5, again offering the trade of the queens, and after takes takes, now the pawn on e6 is a serious weakness, and if white moves the queen to say d3, now I can take the pawn on h5, I have an extra pawn on the king side, and my chances to win are very high. So Magnus goes rook e1 back to stop queen to e5, and now I play this move rook e8. Magnus plays rook d1, and here I play the move pawn takes pawn. Now one funny thing is the computer actually wants me to go king g5 here, and after takes takes, I guess now I'm trying to stack the two towers on the h file to attack, and maybe I'm completely fine here. Frankly, I think king g5 is a ridiculous move. Maybe if I have 30 minutes, I can find it, but with limited time, it's just not a natural move. So I do the next most obvious thing, which is I take the pawn on h5, intending to try and use this open g file to attack the white king. Magnus goes rook d3, I play rook g8, he goes rook h3, and now I play the move rook g5, guarding the pawn, but preparing to potentially double stack on the g file. Magnus plays rook h4, and now I play this move f3. Now this move is a mistake here, but keep in mind I'm getting a little bit low on time, and it's a very tough position to play, because without increment, I can't simply spend a lot of time. If I spend one minute or two minutes here, I'm going to lose on time, and you just have to make these quick decisions, which is really unfortunate, but that's the nature of the time control in this event. So I play f3, Magnus checks, I go king g7, and now he plays move g3, and here I play h4, sacking the pawn on the edge. Now at this point, you will notice that the evaluation bar says that white is winning here, but it's very tricky, because both of us are in this cat and mouse game, where whoever spends time, say Magnus spends one and a half minutes, he could then be too low on time and lose the game, similar to what happened when he played Ali Reza earlier in the event. So it's really about the ebb and flow here, and Magnus sort of blinks first when he plays this move, rook takes h4. Now if Magnus had played the move bishop to d3, lining up the double a battery, the computer says white is winning, because after rook to g6, now white can take the pawn on h4, and if I try to do something similar to the game where I sack the rook, after king to f1 here, the pawn on h7 is collapsing here, white is attacking with three pieces, and I'm completely lost. If I play the move rook takes e6, another option, white has queen b7, checking the king, and after I play say king f8, which is the best move, white can start checking, white can take, I believe, actually not take, sorry, it's check king here, I guess white can play rook takes e6, oh I guess there's still rook g3, and it's very complicated, there's king h1, knight e6, and I guess again, this is somehow winning here, don't ask me why this is winning after like queen h7, but apparently white is, actually it's not queen h7, it's check, check, it's check king f7, takes, and somehow this is going to win down the road after queen takes h7, but frankly, this is a line that's two computers for either player to find. So, Magnus plays rook takes h4, now I sack the rook with rook takes pawn, and Magnus has to move the king. If Magnus were to take the rook here, it leads to a checkmate after check, king h1 and queen g2, same thing on f1, doesn't matter, the pawn and the queen combine to checkmate the white king, and this of course is a classic lolly checkmate. So, Magnus goes king h1, now I play rook g6, and Magnus goes rook g1, now here I spend 30 seconds before finding the only move, and this is really the moment where if I played this move in 5 seconds, I think there's some, a reasonable chance that I would have won this game, but I spend 30 seconds and I simply don't realize how strong this rook sack is, and in fact, it is the only move. Now, if I were to play a move like knight takes e6, there's queen g8 checkmate, and I lose the game, and if I play a move like rook takes g1 for example, after takes, let's just say king f8 here, white has rook f4, king to g7, and now after bishop d3, I'm getting mated on the king side here, as my king is too weak. So, luckily after spending 30 seconds, I keep my wits about me, and I sack the rook with rook takes pawn, and now Magnus has to why doesn't white take the rook? Well, if Magnus takes, now I can trade the rooks on g1 and go knight e2, checking the king, pawn guards the horse, queen covers h2, and now if white doesn't sack the queen, if you go to f1, there's queen d1 mate, if you go to h1, I check, check, and again, queen g2 is simply checkmate. Last but not least, if white were to sack the queen, I take, and after rook e4 and queen d1, now I'm getting a second queen on the board, and I simply win the game. So, Magnus trades the rooks, now I have to take with the rook, he checks, and I go king f6 here, and now Magnus plays the move queen to f7, which is a severe mistake. What Magnus should have played was queen takes h7, and after knight to f5 here, opening up the threat of queen d1 to checkmate the king, white can force a draw with check, king g5, queen h5, and after queen h8, the game will end peacefully. Instead, Magnus plays the move queen to f7 check, I go king g5, he takes, and now with 43 seconds on the clock, I'm in desperation mode, I gotta move instantly, and I end up making a mistake here when I play the move knight to f5. Now, the funny thing about this situation is that the winning move here is rook to h6, forcing a trade of all the pieces, and after takes, king h2, apparently the winning move here is knight to f5. Now, after the game, what I was thinking about is I thought, well, maybe there's knight to c2, winning the game, but after king to g3, knight takes a3 here, now white can go bishop to a6, c4, takes, c3, bishop d3, c2, wait, sorry, did I get this wrong? Actually, sorry, after c3, white can go king to e2, c2, king d2, drawing the game, and so it's very, very slippery in terms of how to win this, and the only move here that I believe is winning is to go knight to f5, stopping the king from coming to g3, and after bishop d5, king g5, takes, and c4, apparently I'm winning because after bishop d1, there's now c3, let's say Now, with only 43 seconds and no increment, would this actually have worked? I'm very, very unsure whether it would have worked. I think there's actually a good chance I would have lost the game because I would have run out of time in the sequence of finding it. I don't think that I would have been able to spot it, and so in reality, even though this rook h6 move is winning, I think I would have lost the game if I had played this move because I was getting low on time. Additionally, I do want to point out one other thing. There was another game that was very controversial between Nihal Sareen and Daniel Darda, where Nihal Sareen had a rook, a bishop, and two pawns, Darda had a rook and a pawn, and the game ended with a draw because Nihal had two seconds, and he claimed no losing chances, but there is an appeal in that game, so a lot of these situations where you could have a knight versus one pawn, or knight and pawn versus the king, knight and pawn versus the pawn, it's very unclear, and let's not forget that Magnus also got flagged by Ali Reza yesterday, or was it yesterday or two days ago, in one of these same endings, so I think there's a good chance that if I played rook h6 here, I would have lost the game. So I go knight f5 instead, Magnus checks, I go king to f4 here, and you'll notice that my king is very nicely shielded, the knight covers a check on f, covers a check on h4, there are no checks on the f file, and here, I'm threatening to go for queen d1, followed by checkmate on the h1 square with the classic ladder. So, Magnus plays his move, bishop f1, at this point, I play rook g5, I don't have time, I just have to get the piece off the board, we trade the rooks, Magnus takes, and now I go for queen d4, centralizing the queen, guarding the pawn on c5, and hitting the pawn on f2 at the same time. Magnus goes king g1, and now I decide to make a repetition with check, check, check, and the game ends peacefully. Now, one thing is that around this point in the game, I did look up at the jumbotron to see how the rest of my team was doing, and I did notice that we had won one game, so I thought, no reason to play on, not that I can play on anyway, but I thought we've won a game, we're going to win the match. So, I make the repetition and draw the game, but much to my horror, two of the people on my team would go on to lose their games, meaning that we end up losing this very tough fifth round match in the event. What does that mean? That means that it's going to be a big uphill battle trying to finish in the top two and qualify for the grand finals of the global chess league, but there are still five more rounds to go, and at least today, I think I played much better. I played a good game against Vishy, a good exciting game against Magnus, and I get back on the scoreboard with one and a half points out of two. So, on that note, I hope you guys have enjoyed this recap from a very dramatic fourth day of the global chess league here in London. If you are not already subscribed to the channel, make sure that you smash that subscribe button below, and we'll be back with a recap after I play in the sixth round tomorrow of the global chess league. See you guys, and have a great rest of your day. See you. Bye.