Five times Magnus Carlsen proved why he is the GOAT

Magnus Carlsen is rushing towards his game. He's going to face Vishy Anand in this round and he is a bit late perhaps to the game. So he is rushing towards the board. This is happening at the Global Chess League in Dubai. The players are ready. Both of them have taken their chairs. Off we go. Pawn up to e4. e6. Magnus goes for the French defense. Very interesting choice. Mainly played because Magnus wants to win this game for his team. e5 played. Pawn to c5 and he pushes the bishop away. This is known as the French win hour variation of these squares. And now a7 played. If he is to play b4 then Vishy has this very nice move check dislodging the king from this square. And so Magnus cannot push b4 just as yet. He needs to wait. He brings his bishop back to d5 and now the only drawing move is to give knight f1 check so that the king has to move away and then you get back and that's a draw. That's a draw here. Vishy is calculating this. He's looking at if knight f1 check. King e1. He's going to move his knight. No! He actually sacrifices his knight. Magnus has 21 seconds only. He pushes the pawn to e6. Magnus of course makes the forced move. Pushes his b pawn. e7. Pawn moves forward and now of course you must take the pawn. Now for Vishy there's a choice between this and this but he sees king a3 will be met with the queen check and so he goes king a2. c2 played and now a8 queen. He makes this queen and his point is that c3 will not come with a check later and you can see Mag Vishy there. Sigh of relief. Both players smile at each other. When was the last time this happened? When two world champions smile at each other in between a complex game but I think what they both see is that after takes queen here. If now you make a queen then there is a stalemate with queen e2. King takes and the game is a stalemate. Wow! That is what has been seen by Vishy Anand and Magnus Carlsen and that's why he smiled there. But he plays the most human move bishop e4 which is actually a mistake. The reason for it being a mistake is that after check the king has to move. No! He plays bishop d3 and now a very important move is to play queen b6. The point is if you make a queen I'll go queen e3 which is my idea all throughout or queen f2. First a check. Yes! Vishy finds it. Bishop comes in and now queen b6 very important because you need to keep an eye on the x6 pawn as well. No! He blunders with queen d4. The reason for the blunder is not that you make a queen because queen is anyway a draw after queen f2 and you just have to sacrifice your queen because it's a stalemate. But the win for black is if Magnus finds under promotion. Oh! He finds it. He finds c1 knight. What a move by the world champion here. World rapid champion Magnus Carlsen. Knight c1 check. Brilliant chess here. Vishy did not see that coming. Under promotion is often missed by even the best in the business. So surprised here that in spite of this being the only move he's taking his time. He can go to king b2 as well but that is also losing. King a3 pawn moves forward c3. You can see Vishy's hand shaking there. He did not see that coming. Magnus Carlsen is actually striking for his team. Knight comes to e2 and the beauty of this position is that the bishop and and the pawn queens. Vishy resigns. Magnus Carlsen wins this. What a game. What an end game. We are here for a super exciting clash between Richard Rapport who is on your frame playing with the white pieces against none other than Magnus Carlsen. When these two players face off against each other we get a game that is filled with so many ideas, so many themes, so many concepts, so much of fight because both of them love to play exciting chess. And off we go. A handshake and Richard looks at the pieces. This is freestyle chess. The pieces are scrambled on the back rank and he opens with f4 opening up the bishop and the bishop here. Magnus also adjusts his pieces. The players get 10 minutes before the game to look at the position and try to understand what they want to do and so definitely both of them have tried to think of the position along with some players and you can see here how white has gotten space and also opened up his queen and bishop. Magnus goes g5 opening up his own bishop here, f5 gaining space, d4 limiting the queen. This is all part of preparation before the game. The pawn on g5 and now the rook is hanging. You need to move the rook but there is an incredible move a3 but it's very difficult to find with just 45 seconds. If you take the rook a2 and the queen cannot be stopped. Can Magnus find it? Look at Magnus's expression there. He's like what? Is a2 possible? He tries to think here. Whoa a3 and look at Richard. He goes back in his chair. He also is stunned by this. He doesn't have more time. 26 seconds takes the queen a2. The pawn is queen in king g2 makes a queen incredible. Wow what a turnaround here and it's actually quite an amazing game. High quality. It's not no blunders or something. Queen d7 attacking the bishop now. Losing this pawn that was perhaps Richard's idea to activate the king. There's no way to defend the e4 pawn and now you have to be focused and calculated. He goes b4 takes on e4 b3. King comes back in blunder because then later on this pawn will fall. So he finds the best move. Again this understanding that you need to keep the pawn on b3 so that it cannot be attacked by this bishop is super. And look at how this pawn controls this square. The bishop controls these squares. The king cannot come near it. Now all that remains is to pick up this pawn and win. Knight takes e7. Well here anyway king d2 is played. Magnus is thinking about what his next move should be. He has 50 seconds. He takes the pawn knight e7. Richard comes back to c1. Still some technical work to be done. Imagine a scenario where white is able to give up his bishop for the pawn. There would be a bishop knight mate that Magnus has to show. I would not even in my wildest dream imagine Magnus to have any bit of problem executing that. He would do it even blindfolded or if woken up from sleep at any point. But still is it possible to queen this pawn? Magnus is bringing in his knight. He just tops this bishop b2 idea. What a beautiful one. This is amazing play by Magnus because if bishop b2 takes, king takes, it would have been a draw. So again very alert to bring the knight quickly into the game. h7 played. But now everything is under control. Now bring the king in. But maybe there is something else that you could do. He brings the king in. King e6. And now Richard has to find some final tricks perhaps. Imagine this position. You go bishop b2. He takes with the bishop. It's stalemate. Oh bishop e7. King e7 stalemate. Don't take the bishop Magnus. It's too easy for Magnus. He won't fall for it. King f7. Bishop f6 would have been incredible move. But king f6 comes and then you have a square for the king. So he goes bishop d8. King g6. Magnus now planning to take this pawn with his king. He goes bishop a5. Takes the pawn. Bishop c3. Final trick. Taking the bishop ends in stalemate. Goes bishop g7. And Richard resigns. What a game. Look at Magnus's expression. Look at Richard Rapport there with a smile on his face. They both know they have played an amazing game of chess. Welcome everyone to the ninth round of world rapid championships. We have Magnus Carlsen taking on Giga Kuparadze. The game opens with one e4. Now the Georgian GM is a very good speed player. Magnus Carlsen takes off his player card. He was intending to remove his jacket but I think he's decided against it. And now in his typical style adjusts all his pieces. He loves to get them in order before the game. It's his way of saying I am getting myself prepared for the battle up ahead. He plays the French defense with e6, d4, d5. Now the knight comes to d2. This is known as the Taras variation. c5, knight gf3. Magnus takes the pawn on d4. Knight takes on d4. And now knight c6. Yes he does it. Important move by white. Bishop b5 because this provokes bishop d7. And now you take pawn takes and bishop d3. Notice how provoking the bishop on d7 means that after knight f6, e5 the knight does not have this square here. That's the reason why Magnus puts his bishop out on d6 and he intends to put his knight on e7. Queen e2 played. I want to push my pawn c6, c7. He takes it. He takes it. Magnus says I call your bluff. What do you do? And Giga pushes it. Is the pawn dangerous? Not so sure. Not so sure. This is getting so intense. Rook g4 offering a trade of rooks. Magnus has it calculated. He sees that his connected passers are going to be stronger than the white passer on c6. And now bishop f2 stopping the pawns. What a complicated endgame. But I think Magnus knows he's winning. But he has only 40 seconds to work this out. He plays his bishop to b4. Attacks the knight here so that knight moves then bishop takes. c6 is hanging. Giga says I'm going to come up with my king to d4 so that your bishop is attacked. If you move your bishop away then I will move my knight and my c6 pawn would not hang. But I think Magnus now final calculations. The world champion has made such good use of his time. He's down to 30 seconds but he's already got a winning position. He's made use of every single minute on the clock. Meanwhile Giga has 5 minutes still left but is losing. Bishop takes a5 played. Good move. King takes and Magnus stops the white king from entering. The c pawn is stopped. The e pawn is stopped and you can see the world champion there not even noticing on the board. He knows he's winning. Pawn to b3, b4, b3, b2, b1. It's running down the board. There's no time. Look at Magnus. He says that was a tough game. Looking at all the variations carefully to see if white has any resources. Giga puts his bishop on d4. He wants to stop the pawn coming here. Maybe with his king he wants to stop the two pawns on the king side. That's exactly what he does. So now these two pawns are stopped. This pawn is also stopped. How does Magnus Carlsen win this? Magnus says my king is still there left to come in the game. He plays king e7. King comes up to f2 and now Magnus's idea is king e6. His point, well you can't really take here because take c7 is coming but what can be done is king d5, king c6. King to g3 and now you can just play king d5 and that should be game over because you win this pawn. Then later you move again in the circle and win this pawn and then your three pawns up. Magnus exactly plays that and resignation should be incoming. What a game this has been by Magnus. He has shown some class in every way. Bishop b2 played. King takes c6. The pawn is chopped off and Giga Kuparadze resigns.