A Simple Choice || Grand Chess Tour Finals 2025

Hello everyone and welcome to a video where we will cover both encounters, Levon versus Fabi being the first one and Pregnananda versus MVL being the second one. Both of them started fairly similar, we had two draws in the classical time format and then in the case of Levon and Fabi, it was all decided by a single game. So draws in classical, draws in of blitz and that is the one that we're going to cover. Levon had white and Fabi had black and this is the game. So let's check it out and then we're going to cover Prague versus MVL. So Levon with white opened with pawn to c4. We have the English opening, knight to f6, we have knight c3, okay we have pawn to d6, pawn to d4, we have bishop to g7 and knight g to e2. We have castles kingside and knight to g3, we have pawn to a5 and bishop to e2. So all been played before, nothing new here. Pawn to e5 and pawn to d5. We have knight to a6 and pawn to h4. Again nothing new being played here as you can see. It's a blitz game so played pretty much instantly. Pawn to h5 with bishop to g5 pinning the knight and queen to e8 unpinning. And here there are a couple of games where queen to d2 was played but here Levon goes knight to f1 and it is now as of move 11 that we have a completely new game. Fabi goes knight to c5, he already played a5 so he doesn't have to worry about pawn to b4. Knight to d2 as the e4 pawn was attacked so you have to defend it and bishop to d7. We have pawn to f3 and knight to h7 attacking the bishop and preparing to strike with pawn to f5. We have bishop back to e3 and Fabi does a lunge forward with pawn to f5. We have knight b3 offering a trade of knights, pawn to b6 and knight captures on c5. We have b captures and preparing to land the knight on b5 which is definitely an excellent square for the knight. It does move the knight away from the center but it does close the b file and you only have to be worried about that pawn to c6 which no doubt Fabi has planned if the knight lands on b5. So first we have knight to f6, bishop to d3 adding more defenders to the e3 pawn and rook to b8. Now threatening to capture on b2 and while you could go knight to b5 right away, maybe doing it right away would be ill-advised. For example captures and then you have to give up the bishop because if you capture with the pawn you lose the control of g4 and then all of a sudden Fabi gets something out of nothing. So after rook to b8 we have pawn to b3, rook to b4 and now knight to b5. We have f captures on e4, bishop captures on e4 and now knight captures on e4. We have f captures on e4 and pawn to c6. b captures on c6, we have bishop captures on c6 and now queen to c2 followed by rook to f4. And interestingly here you should go queen to c8 but it's a blades game so of course mistakes will be made. Queen c8 and now if knight captures on d6 then you go queen g4 and then black is just better. But here after queen c2 we have rook to f4 by Fabi and now comes knight back to c3 to help out with the defense of the e4 pawn. And the trick is now you should again play knight captures on d6 but now the difference is after let's say queen to b8 you can play bishop captures, pawn captures and e5 and knight on d6 is defended. But it seems that he was able to trick him. Knight back to c3 depending on e4 and now rook to g4. So now Fabi's rook is saved and it's still a playable position. And I don't know I could even put this position as a thumbnail because Le Bon could castle kingside, he could castle queenside. And the tricky part is if you castle kingside you have to give up the h4 pawn. But that's exactly what you should do. Castle kingside, captures on h4 and black not really threatening all that much. It's actually a fine position for white. You have the firm grip on d5, the light square bishop isn't really doing all that much, the dark square bishop not doing all that much. So it is very much playable. But after rook g4 Le Bon thought well why give up the h4 pawn I'm just going to castle queenside and now I'm going for the kingside attack. Also I'm putting some nice pressure on that d6 pawn. But there is one thing that he missed. So what did he miss here? Feel free to pause the video and try to find the winning move for Fabi while I give you a couple of seconds. Of course he missed the weakness of the b3 pawn. And you know it does happen if you don't advance it all the way to b4 it can just remain weak for the rest of the game. Queen to b8 and now there is no defending that pawn. He does play king to b2 and while the a4 pawn is defended so you don't have rook or bishop captures, rook captures on c4 is very much an option. And that is what Fabi plays. Rook to d2 and now even bishop captures on e4. And okay already down two pawns. Queen to d1 but now Fabi just gives up the exchange as well. Rook captures on c3, king captures and pawn to d5. We have rook captures on d5 and bishop captures on d5. Queen captures with check. King to h7 and now rook to d1. All of the pieces are now in game. Sorry not rook to d1. First queen captures on c5. Rook captures on g2 and now rook to d1. But it doesn't matter. Pawn to e4 with check. We have rook to d4 and now just queen g3. And he was in this position on move 35 that Levon Aronyan resigned the game as there is nothing more to be done here. The rook is pinned. It cannot move. The queen also no threats. The bishop will be captured on the next move with check. You cannot defend it. You cannot go to d3. You cannot go to d2. Like I said the rook cannot move and that is it. So you know two classical games were fought well. Not much happening there. The rapid games also you know fairly equal draws but it all took one blitz game to take down Levon Aronyan and that's it. The final score. We're going to check out the final scores but yeah only this one blitz game was decisive and that was enough for Fabi to win the match. So it's going to be Fabiano Caruana in the finals versus the winner of the match Pragnananda versus Maksim Vasilyev. So let's see what happens in one of the games that MVL played against Prague. So this is the game and much like in the match Fabi versus Levon the two classical games ended in a draw but already we had action in the rapid section because MVL won the rapid game and then Pragnananda retaliated after a couple of games and the game again or rather the match gets decided in the blitz section. So let's check it out. This is the I think it's the you know not the last game but the one prior to that. So let's check it out. MVL opens with Pawn to e4 because all of the final blitz games were decisive. We have e4 Pawn to c5. Pragn goes for the Sicilian defense. Knight f3 we have Knight to c6 and now Bishop to b5. The Nismodino-Rosolimo attack. e6 we have castles. Knight g to e7 and Rook to e1. We have Knight to d4 going after the Bishop on b5. Knight captures on d4. C captures and Pawn to c3. We have Pawn to a6 attacking the Bishop and Bishop back all the way to f1. Again all theory. Knight to c6 and while a4 or rather b4 is a pretty standard move here we have Pawn to a4 which is incredibly rare and that was never played in Grandmaster practice. We have Bishop to c5. Pawn to b4. We have Bishop to a7 and Pawn to b5. Knight to e5 and now there are a couple of games where Pawn to a5 was played. Here we have C captures on d4 and it is now as of move 12 that we have a completely new game. So okay Pragn captures on d4. We have Rook to a3 and Queen to f6. We have Rook a to e3. It looks like you're just getting destroyed here and the problem is Rook e3 is a brilliant move by MBL. It's probably the only move that saves the game because if you play something like Queen e2 it's a very simple matter of let's say captures captures so you're going to capture the Rook. Let's say Knight captures and Knight e3 and you resign. There's no defending on f2 and of course if Queen captures then a simple Queen captures on f2 checking h1 and this is checkmate. So MBL has to be really careful here and he offers a Rook as MBL often does and maybe even always. But Pragn doesn't capture it. There's no reason to do it. The Bishop is just a magnificent piece here. He just plays a captures on b5. We have Bishop captures on b5 and castles King side. Bishop a3 attacking the Rook and Rook to d8 followed by Knight to c3. Here Bishop to d6 is definitely a move to consider. You know stopping Black from developing at all. But okay Knight c3. It is a blitz game and MBL already down to one minute on the clock and Pragn goes for Pawn to b6. Here as MBL allowed it Pawn to d6 was definitely the way to go. We have Queen to e2. Bishop captures on e3 now accepting the sacrifice. F captures and now Bishop to b7 activating the light square Bishop. Rook to f1. We have Queen g5 and now Bishop to d6. MBL finally does play it. Bishop to c6 and Pawn to h4 trying to get the Queen to less favorable square. And indeed if Queen captures you just pick up the Knight and Black can resign. So of course you cannot do that. Queen to g3. Only square available to the Black Queen and now Pawn to d4. We have Knight f3 check. Queen captures on f3. Queen captures on d6 and Queen captures on f7 with check. We have King h8 and Pawn to e5. And it looks scary but Pragn is actually completely winning here. Well he's low on time but MBL is much lower on time. We have Queen back to a3 attacking the Knight and Bishop captures on c6. We have D captures. Knight to d1 and here Pragn is completely winning. And well I'm pretty sure if I asked you what would you play here with Black you would give me an answer instantly and it would be the best possible move. Of course you are looking at that f8 square and after Rook f8 that's all there is. Rook f8. You move the Queen. Wherever the Queen moves doesn't really matter. You can trade here. You give a nice check. You force the King to defend the Knight and once the King moves you go Rook f8. And that's it. There is no defense against Rook f1. White resigns here. So that's what Pragn should have done here. But Pragn went Rook to e8 instead and okay we have Queen to c7. Pragn is still winning but the game goes on. We have Queen captures on a4. Queen captures on b6 and Queen to c2. Queen to b2 and now Rook to a2. Forcing a Queen trade. We have captures, captures and now Knight to f2. And all of a sudden you have this endgame where yes Pragn is up an exchange but MVL is up a Pawn and as I always say you know Knights are tricky bastards. If this Pawn or this Pawn comes off the board it could be very tricky. We have Rook to e2 going after the e3 Pawn. Rook to c1 going after the c6 Pawn. And the best for Pragn would be just a trade. You capture on e3 and you still push for the win. But he played Rook to c8. He wanted to keep everything intact. Now it's just an equal position. We have Rook to c3 defending the Pawn on e3. Pawn to h6 and Knight to h3. We have Rook to b2 and now Knight to f4. The Knight now also becomes an incredibly powerful piece. Obviously not that. We have King to g8. Knight captures on e6. King to f7 and Knight back to f4. We have King to e7. Pawn to h5 keeping that g-pawn in check. Rook to b7 and King to f2. MBL starts bringing the King into the game. And there's a very simple and clear way on how to do that as the Pawns will protect you from both Rooks. We have Rook to c7. King to f3. We have King to d7 and King to e4. Pawn to c5 and Pawn to d5. With all of the central control for the White Pawns. We have Rook to b7 and King to f5. We have Pawn to c4. Pawn to e6 with check. King to d6 and Pawn to e4 preparing Pawn to e5. And there's nothing you can do about that. We have Rook to b3 hoping for a Rook trade. e5 with check. We have King to c5. Rook to c1 and now Rook to f8 with check. King back to e4 and Pawn to c3. Frog continues advancing his passed Pawn. But Knight d3 check. King to c4 and Pawn to e7. We have Rook all the way to e8. Pawn to d6. Rook to b7 and now Pawn to e6. We have Rook to b6. Well, if the Pawn moves, you can capture on e6. But it doesn't matter. We have Knight to e5 with check. King to c5. But also, it was in this position. Unmove 55. That was lost on time. Well, there is really nothing more to be done here. Once b7 is played, that's it. The Pawns start queening and it doesn't really matter what you do as Black. The Pawns will simply queen and the game is over. Also, the Magic got decided in the Blitz section and this is basically how it went. You can see that Fabi versus Lavon, 15 to 13. So it was decided with that one Blitz game. But MBL defeated Frog by a larger margin, 17 to 11. So in the finals, we will have Fabiano Caruana versus Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. And for third place, it will be Lavon versus Pregnanda. I think aside from the honor of winning the entire Grand Chess Tour, you also get the first prize of, I think, $150,000. So I mean, that is pretty incredible. So yeah, that's the game. Or rather, those were the games. Hope you guys enjoyed it. I would like to thank Christopher Thompson, Robert Taraton, Rokaho, John Anderson, and Ulrich Tini for their contribution to my channel. Thank you a lot. I really appreciate it. As usual, you can check two of my previous videos here. Thank you all for watching, and I will see you soon, continuing to check up on your wonderful suggestions and whatever else happens in the chess world. Thank you all. I will see you soon, and have an excellent rest of your day.