FINAL 20 MINUTES of EXCITING SPEED CHESS FINAL Magnus Carlsen vs Alireza Firouzja

Just insane and it is a two game match again. Wow, Alireza has to use that as a springboard. He has to hope that's the moment that this match turned. Magnus was totally fine. Pulling up, two blunders almost back to back. Levy, we would watch a hundred matches like this, that would happen maybe once. That was the one time. Crazy. I said, yeah, he would need to blunder with less than five seconds on the clock, but I didn't expect that. You expect to hang a night fork, not lose a two-on-one Rook endgame. From a position of strength. Having the two. Hikaru lost the Rook endgame yesterday up two pawns. It just happens. Wow, this is... Look at Magnus' reaction there. He does not like this. He does not want to take that pawn, and he doesn't, but now maybe G4. You gotta just go for it. Okay, yeah, thank you. Developing a piece obviously is a good move, but now Alireza just has to... Yeah, Black has not been taking this pawn, because once the Knight lands, it might just get trapped on that square. The White Rook would advance, catch the Knight, embarrassed. Magnus wants to block it up. The pawn structure, he loves this structure. He's outplayed Alireza from something similar before. The problem is G4. Also, there's a Queen check that might be annoying. Yeah, G4 and King f1, and maybe like 92. Maybe that's the solution, but Magnus is relying on c5, but maybe you take on Passant there. It's super complicated, but there is a solution here for Alireza. He could get totally swarmed here. He has to go for G4. Oh, I fear for him here, though. Somehow there might be Knight sacrifices in the air, followed by f3 breaking through, and oh, a blunder from Alireza. There's a Knight sacrifice. It's going to be called a brilliancy, surely. There we go. The f-pawn, f for forward, f for force. There we go. It's not totally over just yet, but if Alireza Firuja does not lose this game, it would be incredible. Almost a miracle on par with the last one. Black has won the material back with interest. The G4 pawn is dropping. Rook g3, Queen e4. Has to be winning. Has to be. Levi, there's a killer move here. I'm not going to say it yet. Will Magnus play it? It's a cool one. It's a brutal one. Blue arrow hasn't appeared, but apparently Knight to e2. GG. Game over. He doesn't go for it. He finds something almost as strong. That's what I said, but I'm staring at this, and maybe it's not as winning as we thought. Yeah, it's level material. Exchange down, but Magnus making a face. Alireza's playing for a win here. He's going for it. He's forcing Magnus to play some moves here with three seconds on the clock. Oh, no time. Magnus shaking his head and half smiling, but he gets a check. He's going to win another pawn. King f2, though. Yeah, then a check. Yes, king s. Yes, yes. Oh, Alireza's running across the board. He's gambling. He's floating across the board with his king, but the rook has ridden to the rescue. Oh, how is he going to survive this ever? Oh, the pieces are swarming. He might not. Queen's off, and Magnus is going to slow play again. Two connected pass pawns to win it. And here comes the king. Here comes Alireza's king. King c6. The race is on. Oh, the c7 pawn's dropping. Yes, c7's falling, and then bishop f4 is coming. Dominos. They're collapsing. What? What is he? He's winning all his pawns. Oh, a6, a4 there was even stronger. What's happening next? Where's the next twist? Where's the next turn? He's finally got the beyond. He's on his bishop. Oh, no. He's in his thunder. Crazy. Yeah, and it's back to a three-game lead with 16 minutes. We're right at the cutoff. Alireza has to win now with black, or it is probably mathematically over. He gets so close every single time. He might have been out of the danger there, but just succumbing at the end. One move away. Alireza actually was winning for just one move, but just no time. And panic. Mouse slip. And here we go. Another Karakhan levy. News for optimism? Reason for optimism here? Yeah, queen d7, and then you play this line. You can probably play bishop d6 here. Yep, it looks like you're losing a pawn, but you are not. You are not, I promise. I think even you can just castle or something, but okay. Yeah, this is a very well-known good pawn sacrifice for black if you just castle. But the question is to take or not to take. Bishop b5. I've seen Alireza play this exact line before. There's some crazy tactics there with black just castling them, bringing the queen into f4. I've seen it all before. It's theory, and he knows it. Magnus might have been bluffed into a really scary line. He's got to castle. Do it for the crowd. Don't play kingside. Yeah, there it is. Oh, and Magnus castles queenside. What a cool move. Wait, wait. Rook b5 just looks good. Or like. The rook is trapped. You have to flog it. You have to give it away anyway. And he does it. The rook. There we go. But then what? Rook's coming. The rook. The knight as well. Knight d4. What a move. Wow, brilliant move. Second sacrifice back-to-back. The rook is coming. The rook is going to check the white king, then pin the white queen. Magnus shaking his head, smiling, because he knows he's been hit by a series of incredible moves. But knight e2 is not easy. And then, wow, he retreats. Ali Reza Farouk is playing at 99.8 accuracy. He needs to. He needs something special to defeat Magnus here and strike back. But it's a queen sack. Magnus, desperate, gives up his queen. He's got two rooks. But his king is open. Black has the pawns. Ali Reza, if he pulls this off, is just the man. I've got nothing to say. Knight is coming. Ali Reza, please, for the love of God, play f6. Do not get backrank baited. But it is over. I mean, we are looking at a totally, totally swarmed king. OK, that wasn't what I asked for, but it's good enough. Exactly. More than good enough. He's getting in now. He will be winning some pawns. Knight takes f2. What? The pawn was just hanging. Missed. The nerves are getting to them. Oh, he wants to come in behind. 93, 93. He wins. There it is. Fork town. Magnus is going to play onto the bitter end. Now he has to. Now every second counts. He knows it. 13 minutes to save the day, to become a hero. Ali Reza did it yesterday. He was two points down against Hikaru, with just four or five minutes remaining. He has yet to disturb the balance of Magnus. And Magnus is building a fortress here. This is going to be a long, long endgame. He needs to just push pawns as quickly as possible without blundering a knight fork. Well, good as king and queen are very far apart. Just keep them just like that. Exactly. Oh, tactics. Queen e2, check. If you take that, this is over. a3 is coming. That is not the right type of fortress for white. So passive. Can barely move. The pawns are moving, marching. Check. The queen is coming into d2 next. It's going to be over once the king moves. And Magnus is, I mean, it would be cool if he stalled out. I mean, like, but he might just resign. He just resigns. A close match. Such a high quality match as well. Players taking their chances there. Yes, there were some blunders earlier, but upping their game. Alareza clutched up, found the best moves when it mattered. And back to this opening. We've seen it a few times. Last time it was Magnus with the advantage. But yeah, game getting crazy. We see castling. A bit calmer this time from Alareza, who retreats his knight. Back to square one. Back home, but coming to a better square. White has the center and the bishop pair. Long-term chances. But black has the development edge for now. Oh, he needs this one, Alareza. This time he's castled, so he's not going to have any disasters with his king. I actually don't love this opening. It's worked, obviously, so he keeps playing it. That's how it works. I don't love this for black, though. It's so dynamic. And if Alareza can figure this out, which is what he did yesterday against Hikaru, he would stubbornly go for these positions again and again where he thought he was better. Once he figures this out, he's going to have the initiative. Definitely. And he happily opens it up. He's learned from past mistakes. He kept blocking the center against Magnus, kept getting punished, outmaneuvered in those slower positions. He wants it a bit more open. Queen in the center. He's going to line up his bishop on the long diagonal. Not yet. Knight check. Forced. Forced trap there if you don't defend your queen. But Magnus really enjoying the structure. He keeps getting his pieces to all the right squares. And this passivity of the pawns for white, not looking very good. F4 now by black also. Yeah, F4. G4. I guess he has some G4. But maybe you can even, like, Knight G3 style. That's tempting, right? It's tempting. And it's colors reversed. It's something Alareza would do. Magnus is going for it now. By the way, yeah, Knight G3 doesn't work. But Knight F6 back. Yeah, Knight F6 back. And maybe some sacrifices in the air. The bishop has been killed. The bishop on G2 is dead for the next few moves. Ugh, ugly piece. Yeah, can Magnus figure this out? Ali Reza's just had a disaster with the white pieces. He really has. He hasn't switched to E4, Alareza. Stubbornly hammering away at the queen's gambit declined. Ooh, Knight F5. Ooh, clinging on in there. Knight F5 now would lose the E2 pawn. H4 is coming in some positions. He's held on. He's surviving. I wish Alareza can play Queen G3. With a pin on the F pawn. Blocking it up now. But what next? Long game. Scramble territory. D5 from Magnus. That's a bold decision. He didn't look too happy, Magnus. Wincing as he made that move. But it does look logical. Knight fork now. Met with a capture of a rook. Ooh, level material again. White has the bishop pair, though. This is getting sharper. Yeah, this is not good. Alareza's going to get E3. E3 opens it up for the bishops. E4, even better, forcing on Poisson. Wow. Oh, it does it. There's H4 now. That's the move that we've been hoping for for Alareza. Oh, wow, finally. H4 is coming. G5 is coming. He's lost the pawn. Bishop G. He trades off. Wow, this is so complicated. One second for Alareza. He's got to move. He's pushing everything he wants. Bishop E4. One-track mind. That's going to be blocked. But he comes back. Ooh, no checks for the black rook. Only move was rook forward. Rook D2. Rook D2 or rook D1. Yes. Ooh, the queen's coming, though. Endgame. And he's blundered a pawn. That's a big pawn to lose. Yes, this is now winning for Magnus. Oh, he trades off. But this is a dire endgame. Pawns are on the wrong color. White's bishop now pinned down to defending its own pawns. Magnus won a game similar to this in Norway chess several years ago with the same amount of pawns. And now he's up one. Oh, he's coming around to D5. He's going to clinch a winning king and pawn endgame at some point. He's calculating now. Could he take the bishops? He says no. Doesn't have enough time to figure out if he can take the bishop. He's going for it, though, Magnus. Yes. He believes in the race. He is in time. We see that on the bar. Queen's on the board. But probably just a winning endgame for black. And if not, it's going to take like seven minutes to try it. Oh, he hung his queen. Game over. Magnus wins with a smile. Back to three points with eight minutes left against the wall. He just has to win every game quick. Absolutely. This would be a generational comeback. Now, Ali Reza theoretically has time. If he wins two games in eight minutes and four seconds or whatever it is, as long as that last game starts, he's fine. This is still acceptable, but he cannot lose. No room for error now. This is still a well-known opening theory. White has the two bishops. Black now gaining the space in the center, but blocking it up. Magnus likes this pawn structure. Exclam given. The white queen might find herself in some trouble if the white knight steps back. The black knight coming forward. H5 now. He signals his intent here. H5 is amazing. Very nice. It's actually a positional and a tactical move. Pawn is coming. You have G5 ideas with D3 as well, sometimes floating in the air. Or D3 first. Magnus shaking his head. He's been outplayed in the opening. Will he want the queens off? Black's going to get a beautiful outpost in the center in return for the sacrifice pawn here. This is very tough now. Yeah, he's going to try to move his B pawn. Ali Reza hammering away. The dark squares. The knight is going to arrive on F4. Oh, dark square domination. This is ugly for Magnus. Look at that bishop. But he's going to hope for a long game. Yeah, long game indeed. We might go down to about four minutes. But like we said, as long as Ali Reza gets the points on the scoreboard and the game starts, he's good. But David, positional advantage. He has to crash through at some point. Yeah, what to do to open lines. Take that pawn. Giving a question mark there. This is a great move. The king shifts. The rook gets an open file. Access. Yeah, this is fantastic. Do you take? Because now there's rook C3. Oh, OK. Or that. Well, not rook C3. Now he does. Oh, this is still going to take ages to break through White's defenses here. Now, this is very tough. So you have to play like rook D8 maybe. But you do not want to play that move. Get out of the way. You cannot allow White to straighten out his pawn structure. Do not take White's rook on his terms. He's really putting everything on dark squares. He's playing checkers. Giving a question mark. Or an X. But it's all the same at this point. The computer can find the best moves in half a second. But they are human. Their hearts are racing. 14 seconds for Magnus. He is holding on desperately to the defenses. And Ali Reza has to get a point on the board here. He's doing the right thing. He's finding a way in for his knight. That knight completely controls the bishop. And there we go. Magnus sacrificed the pawn just to open up the diagonal as protection. But knight to C2 looks strong here. Also thought rook C3. Knight B3 maybe. Or just that. And then that. Yeah. Ali Reza is dominating. But there's no clear breakthrough. And time is ticking. He needs to win this and the next one. At this point. As long as he wins it in the next three minutes. Knight C2. Knight C2 is there. Okay. Can you trade the rooks? Is that a winning endgame? If you put your knight back on a nice square. Bring the king. He brings the king first. That is a fantastic move. He'll get access to the center soon. He'll put his last remaining pawn on a dark square. Knight versus bishop. Knight F3. He doesn't want pawns. What did I miss? Nothing. That was a clear pawn. He wanted this pawn instead. The B pawn. Ali Reza is clearly winning. He just has to push his outside pawns. Okay. Can he get it done in a rook endgame? He's struggled in rook endgames so far today. Here we go. There we go. A4. Keep the king on this side. Yes. The rook going behind. He is completely winning now. Rook check. Push pawn. Push the king. Magnus desperately sacrificing everything, but he's going to go down here. He's just losing, David. Yeah. It's going to be a two-game match. Ali Reza will have to win the next one in lightning fast time. This game goes on. Rook skewer. It's going to be game over. He wins the rook. Magnus fighting out to the bitter end. Queen on the board. And this is important because Ali Reza won this game in about four minutes' time, which means if it takes four minutes to beat Magnus in a game, every second counts. And that's why he's stalling. And that's why he's stalling out the clock. Don't boo Hikaru. You've got to boo everybody in that case. Win territory. Ali Reza has four minutes to decide his fate. It took Ali Reza more than four minutes to win the last game. Ali Reza has to win this game in three minutes and 50 seconds. He has to pre-move everything now. He has to play super speedy. But it's this pawn structure again. White, black. He keeps landing here. Yes, but at least it's better than what we've had. I feel like the weird Queen's Indian that we've had, I mean, it hasn't been working well. This is at least okay. A new structure here. I like this one. F5 in the air, breaking up black's pawn chain on the king's side. Knight maybe planting itself in the center. Dynamism. King happily finding safety here. Not a mouse slip. H3 would have been blundered if white had castled. So doing it manually here. Oh, I love this. He's going to get a five. This is a very tough position for black. Three minutes, Levi. I don't know if there's enough time. I don't know either. And remember, Magnus can play till mate. And he would literally run out the clock on the match. Aliraza has to win without going below like 30 seconds. Magnus himself has 37 seconds. So essentially he has two and a half minutes to spend of his own time max. Yeah, he's thinking. He's thinking. He doesn't know what to do. Does he go back Knight F3 here? That's terrible though. Knight F3 to defend the center. It should be five. Might be the only thing. Queen C3 maybe to hold the pawn. Firuja has to move. Two minutes and 40 seconds on the clock. Wow. Queens off. Magnus is so consistent, so dogged and determined in his match strategy. Have to take the queens off. But now we're guaranteed a long game. Oh, this is an Aliraza deliberately on doubles his pawns. He's going to the C file. Magnus will try to stall him there and not let him make any progress. Aliraza making a face. He knows now it might not be enough. G5 wins a piece. G5. A threat kicking away the knight, which defends the bishop. Magnus doesn't like it. 25 seconds for him. OK. Nerves are jangling. Bishop D6. He would have taken this knight if given the opportunity after G5. Aliraza's got to go. Two minutes on the clock. He has a big clock right next to him. And he knows that there's two minutes. So he's got to move. I don't think he believes. I think he's got half an eye on that clock and knows this is going on forever. Black has the bishop pair now. Yes, a weakness. But he can cling on. Yes. But Hikaru's won a whole hell of a lot worse versus everybody in the world from this position. And Magnus isn't happy. 12 seconds for Magnus. Bishop A4. Only move not to lose a pawn. Maybe bishop B3. OK. Mm-hmm. D5 is hanging in the center. Bishop B8, I think, might be the only solution. Yeah. Then the rook comes to D5. Oh, he's given up a pawn. Magnus with tactics. But this is a blunder. Bishop takes F7. It's apparently super strong. Blue arrow appears. He will be up a pawn in a dominant position. But one minute left. It's on the pawn! Magnus only has four seconds. He's blundered a fork. And now Knight D8 is winning a piece. Knight takes D8. That's King E7 at the end. Tactics. Oh, my goodness. Rook C7 apparently wins. Wins material. Wins the game. G5 is a checkmate threat in a couple of moves. Can Feruza find it? No, he doesn't find it. He goes back. But it's fine. Bishop takes. He's going to be winning in a rook and pawn endgame. Knight G5 is a mistake, though, allowing a check. Yes, he blunders a check. Magnus finds it. Oh, that was it. That was the opportunity. Surely he needs some tricks left. But they don't exist anymore. And that's it. Magnus is going to take on F4. And there are 40 seconds remaining on the clock. And that's it. It's over. Is your speed chess champion this year as time will expire in 20 seconds? What a battle, David. What a fight this has been. We see the England gambit to end the match here from Alireza Feruza. He's fought so well. He's fought so hard. He came so close. But tiny, tiny margins here. He's just lost a pawn. But this game is inconsequential. It was all about that last scramble. Yep. Yes, it was. It's almost like we have to play this out in ceremonial fashion. I wonder if they will just agree to some sort of a draw. There is a little bit of prize money on the line. Time has expired. I almost wish we had a huge button and a bunch of slime, just pew. But the players will play it out. We do have an England gambit on the board. Oh, that was absolutely incredible. Yeah, he fashioned out a chance. He made it. He made it happen almost, but couldn't find the killer blow with one minute left on the match clock. Who can blame him? Alireza has done everything right. Just Magnus, too consistent, too solid. And there we go. A draw agreed, which means, ladies and gentlemen, is the 2025 Speed Chess Champion. Wow, a smile on Magnus' face. Standing ovation in the arena here in London.