MAGNUS CARLSEN VS. HANS NIEMANN TWO QUEEN ENDING!! | Titled Tuesday Gameweek 13

And now he's playing, isn't that the Reti? No? The one they had to play? The Reti. You're right. Good spot. He's played the move that the viewers voted for. Magnus always gives the viewers what they want and that's a nice watch as well, I've got to say, reflecting the screen. Oh, and then Magnus moved it away. But there was a small smile, a half smile from Hans Niemann when the game began. I think this pairing is going to motivate Hans. I'm not sure Magnus wants to be here. This Reti is going to lead to a very tense battle. Wow, strap those seatbelts up, everyone, it's going to be a ride. David, I don't know much about the Reti, can you tell me a bit about it? Yeah, so the Reti opening, it was named after Richard Reti, a Hungarian grandmaster, and it's essentially a way to postpone tension. You give the center to your opponent, it's called a hyper-modern opening, and that's because often you fianchetto both bishops and you kind of attack the center from the side. And I think until the mid-1900s, it was frowned upon. Everyone went E4 or D4 and occupied the center with pawns, here you try and occupy it with pieces. But you want to strike in the center delayed, right? Exactly. I think you called it because, there we go, the strike does happen sooner rather than later as needed. And there we go, Magnus pushes back the enemy bishop, that was hitting his queen. Often the Reti transposes to lots of other openings as well. Sometimes it becomes a D4 opening, but here Magnus held back with his pawn. Sometimes it becomes like a reverse Sicilian, I'm expecting Magnus to capture here, and either way. It just ensures the game is a long one. It's my favorite opening because I like my long games. Is it? Yeah. I hate theory nowadays, nobody really knows what to do against the Reti. There's no way to force anything with black, which is nice. Do you know why the evil bar says Magnus is much better? Good question. If I'm thinking, normally it means that there's something forcing here, so, okay, he plays something really slow. I would have maybe thought it was a capture in the center, black's knight takes back, and then white could have hit the bishop, and then pushed another pawn to open up the bishop and tried to trap this bishop in the process, but Magnus goes for a slower approach. I think it's one of those where it's like, if you find all the best moves and evaluate it well, probably with a one-minute kind of sacrifice of your time, then you find it, but I don't think it was so easy for Magnus Carlsen there. And now it's probably the most blocked position I've seen in weeks. Look at the pawn chain. But I feel like just viewing Magnus in the picture here, he looks a lot sharper right now, a lot more into this game than what we've seen in the past day. Yeah, he's probably not going to struggle for motivation in this game. No, he wants to win. I think they both really want to win. And, okay, very, very blocked. When Magnus beat Hans a couple of weeks ago on his route to 11 out of 11, he went for a very different approach. He actually tried to force a draw, Magnus, all pieces off the board, straight to the endgame. Here, he's totally switched up the strategy. He's trying to play the slowest game possible. Probably he'll retreat his bishop, there we go. And he's going to try and build eventually for a pawn break. It's like a reversed King's Indian pawn structure, where black has more space due to the central pawn here, but it's actually white with the pawn breaks who can blow open the position when he's ready. He's going to kick the knight, he's going to move his bishop back, surely. You mentioned brave chess earlier, do you think this is brave chess? Yeah, but I feel like, I'm not sure if I'm right, but I feel like Magnus is kind of like migrating his army towards the enemy king side. And then maybe with the pawn break, I was just wondering, is he going to attack or not? Yeah, I think he wants to, and then Hans Niemann, maybe he'll attack. The rook is staring down at the queen and king. Maybe he'll push a pawn forward and explode the position. Yeah, I think this is very fun. And this is also like, I think an example of the evil bar, because now it kind of, okay, it says, yeah, it kind of looks equal from the evil bar, but then when we look at it, it's kind of exciting. Like what's going to happen? Yeah. It's one of those positions that anything could happen. And okay, Magnus finally tries to trade off what on paper is his bad bishop, because he's got so many pawns on light squares for his opponent's good bishop, the protector of the black king. Well, they've got the exact same like kind of body language, exact same pose there, both with the big watches as well. Big rating, big watches. They both look very tense. Magnus is normally ahead on time, but not this game. Oh my God, what am I doing? Magnus is blundered. Oh wow, and Hans Niemann doesn't see it. He could have played queen takes queen, and then he could have just won a pawn, Hans Niemann, and then won another pawn on the next move. Hans Niemann could have been two pawns up. That's why Magnus reacted so big, but he lives to breathe. Hans is still better. At least black is the one with more space, but Magnus, that was horrible. Does that shake you a bit when you're nearly blundered like that and your opponent don't see it? We could hear. It shook him quite a lot, it seems. But like after. Yeah, most mere mortals, I think, would now panic, but he's quite good at that bouncing back and he lives in the moment, Magnus. And this is becoming even more important for the total win right now, because Nakamura is looking very good against Pranesh at the moment. Big, big game here, it's the king versus the prince. And we haven't seen Magnus against Hikaru, so that is a very likely matchup. If Hikaru goes on to win, then Magnus goes on to win. Wow. It always seems like they're on collision course sooner or later. This position, it is very strategic, and that suits Magnus now that Hans missed that immediate win. Okay, it's still very, very tense. And you can see Magnus is slower than normal. Like there's something about how, like the more you want it, the slower you become somehow. It's finding that balance. You've got to want it, but you've also got to be a bit relaxed. And he looks so tense on the camera, Magnus. Hans looks very much kind of chilled right now. I don't know what to predict. I think on paper it should be a draw, at least this position, because it's so locked up. I feel tense watching. Cut the tension with a knife. Oh, Hans Niemann presses the chaos button and tries to break through. It's a good move according to the eval bar. He's trying to actually hit this knight. He's probably going to take it now. But what is the next idea? Is he going to take this pawn, try to open up his rooks? He sacrificed a pawn, Hans Niemann. He does take the knight off the board. Now he takes another pawn, and the white king's going to have to step further forward. Watch out. Magnus' king's in big trouble. Runs away. Oh, it's so tense. Attacking this pawn now. Magnus can probably bail out with a draw if he wants it by bringing his king forward, getting checked and coming back. But he wants more. No talking at all from either of them. This is so tense now. They want this so badly. Magnus' king moves back. I see the comment there as well, table slamming coming. It does feel like the type of game where... Someone could slam the table. Yeah, if there's a decisive result. I literally don't know who it could be though. Magnus has an extra pawn, so I think he's playing without much risk. Hans Niemann has such active pieces that he's got compensation. He's got lots of pressure. The knight is better than the bishop. One minute against one minute. Wow. The knight is better than the bishop because it's happier? Or because it's a lot of pawns? Yeah, I think because it's very blocked by the bishop. Oh, I was going to say the bishop couldn't move forward. Pranav V beat Ariantari. Yeah, just as he did at the World Cup. Lasavik beat Serrano. Back to this game. Pranav is Ariantari's kryptonite, as we've learned in the last month. In the meantime, still so tense. Magnus, almost repeating moves here. The knight is on the side of the board though, so if it doesn't get back in the game, then long term the bishop could become better. If the white bishop can somehow teleport and go behind and win some pawns. If the rooks, for example, disappear from the board, then the bishop will be the superior piece. But for now, Hans has enough compensation. Although Magnus is turning it in his favor and he's almost ready. He's going to bring his king forward. He's going to push his pawns. These two are connected past pawns. And he's finally got them going. Magnus now massively better after maneuvering for so long, but has it cost him too much time on the clock? But what a maneuvering job though. Yeah, look at that white king. It's so much better than it's ever been. Now the bishop will cover the square the knight wants to use. White's rook is coming in. This is a winning advantage for Magnus Carlsen. And Magnus is very fast right now. Yeah, he's sped up. And this pawn is dropping. Hans reacts. If you take that rook off, it's going to be replaced by an even stronger pawn. Oh, this is torture now. Beautiful strategy from Magnus. Bishop on dark squares, pawns on light squares. Just needs to move his king away or take that knight even. Would you take it? Oh yeah, I'll take it. With no time on the clock, you don't want to blunder a royal fork, knight fork. Now the king is going to come around, support its pawns. Black's past pawn is blockaded. Magnus with enough time, surely, just bring his rook back. Hans is doing his best here to try and complicate the position. He's trying his best, but white's pawn's too strong. He's going to centralize his king. He's going to try and win this pawn at least, but the white pawn, one square from touchdown. 10 seconds versus 10 seconds. It's a scramble. Magnus, though, starts from a winning position. Gives a check. The black king struggling. No moves for Hans Niemann. It's going to be a king and pawn endgame. Magnus can pre-move his king forward. Those pawns trap the black king. Here we go. Barring stalemate or a flag, Magnus Carlsen's going to win. Four seconds versus two seconds. He's got two queens. Can he give checkmate? Three seconds left. He's going to deliver the killer blow just in time. Magnus takes the win. And that was just a spectacular game that we were hoping for here. Wow. That was-