How Magnus Carlsen won Speed Chess Championships 2026

Welcome everyone to the Speed Chess Championships Finals happening in London. We have Magnus Carlsen here taking on Dennis Lazawick in the first semi-finals. You can see Magnus there not particularly happy with some of the moves that he was making but he was very dominant in this match. The crowd had an amazing time and Magnus with his moustache was playing some brilliant chess By the way, the ROOK in the crowd as Magnus won with a score of 17-9 dominating the 5 plus 1, 3 plus 1 and 1 plus 1 segments. In the second semi-finals, we had Alireza Firuja taking on Hikaru Nakamura. This promised to be an even closer semi-finals with both players being absolute monsters in online play. Alireza, well you can see him. He wasn't happy with his 5 plus 1 segment there and look at Hikaru that he got so excited with that win. He was leading 4 and a half, 3 and a half in the 5 plus 1 segment but Alireza pulled it back in 3 plus 1 and then in 1 plus 1 the scores were even and finally in the tie break it was Hikaru Nakamura who had to bite the dust there as Alireza Firuja went on to become the finalist with a score of 15-13. The crowd was completely shocked there and Firuja went into the finals. Magnus of course was the favorite here but Alireza, well you can never discount him in online chess. And here we see the first game where Magnus showcased his brilliant skills. It looked like an equal position here but Bc5 and g5 came in as a bad move because now the h6 pawn has become a massive weakness. Magnus can just maneuver his bishop there and he does it with Bf8, the h6 pawn is falling and then the h5 pawn is a big big monster. Alireza tried to set up counterplay on the e2 square by bringing his rook in but look at the amazing way in which Magnus wins now. He brings his king up, now brings it up, f3 pawn is hanging but this move Bf4 sealed the deal because after rook takes pawn, king goes up, king comes into g5 and that is game over. This is absolutely smooth, the way in which Magnus converted this into a win and he started off with the first point in the 5 plus 1 segment. Remember it's 90 minutes of 5 plus 1, 60 minutes of 3 plus 1 and 30 minutes of 1 plus 1 in the Speed Chess Championships organized by Chess.com. And here you can see Alireza Firuza now striking back in the second game because here white is already better, the c7 pawn is a weakness, the queens of course are not traded as per and now rook takes c7 and knight is jumping into d6 but Alireza Firuza as if to make a statement that you know nothing is happening here pushes his pawn to b3 and Magnus resigns, the score is 1-1. Next up Alireza Firuza then wins a game, he then manages to draw one, he is actually trailing Magnus and here you can see Magnus is struggling with the white pieces, Alireza is all over Magnus there, the rook is hanging in the corner, a check comes in and now the a2 pawn is an absolute monster, rook d1 played and Magnus loses on time, it's two and half, two and half and Alireza showing that it's not so easy to beat him in this format. Next up then we had Alireza there calmly getting his mind into this match and the sixth game he sacrifices his knight onto the f7 square and this is a powerful, powerful blow, Magnus does not have an answer to this one because if king takes then rook d1 and rook e1 coming in and if rook takes f7 there is queen takes e6, white is not just a pawn up but is totally winning here with the rooks coming into the center, the rook on b8 is also hanging and you can see there Magnus so unhappy and now after a few moves we reach this position, the way in which Magnus converts here is, I mean the way in which Alireza converts here is amazing, bishop e3, a beautiful move that Firuja has to find here and he finds it, if you take the bishop, I simply trade everything on f7 and then win the king and pawn endgame, Firuja won and he took the lead in the match with three and half, two and half score and now Magnus needed to come back, it's not never easy against Alireza Firuja as we moved into the seventh game and this is where Magnus had to show his class and you can see here Magnus's queen got trapped on b5, the queen can't come to b4, the bishop is waiting there, can't come to b3 as well but well, Magnus has to sack the queen and rook takes rook is the best move because after rook takes b5, you take it back a b5 and Magnus sacks the queen, rook takes c6 and after rook takes queen a b5, he's better but somehow Magnus is just not feeling that things are going his way in this match but after a few moves, he already had a big edge and now bishop a3 is coming in, somehow Magnus messed it up with queen b4 and with bishop a3, there's queen takes a4 and you can see there Magnus when he is in form, he never misses such moves and now queen takes a4 taken and with this Alireza definitely got his chances here and rook takes f8, king moves to the side and somehow Magnus had to make a move now h3 so as to make his king safe but you will see that now after pawn takes pawn, Alireza just has 10 seconds, he needs to make a move h takes g3, f takes g3 and somehow bishop e6 and Alireza finds it, he finds it, g4 played and then somehow bishop d7 turned out to be a crucial error, queen a5 was the best move somehow and Magnus now needs to play, he takes the pawn on e4, Firuza hardly has time, he gives a check, king comes up, bishop b5, now the knight goes back but there's queen f2, he makes a mistake, now it's Firuza who's winning, king f3, bishop f1 needs to be found but queen f1 played and Magnus won on time, what an intense game there, what an intense game and with that Magnus Carlsen managing to actually equalize the score and Magnus managed to then win both the games and won the segment with 5.5, 3.5 which was a good score for him because the way it all began really put him in a lot of trouble, the nice thing here was that people could actually interact with the players, Magnus interacted with the fans in between the breaks as well and you could see Levi's book there which made it inside which was very interesting and then Magnus also did interviews in between the games. He was up early, won early last time as well, 2.5, 1.5 but first of all it's a really really fun match, I'm not able to control it, it's generally very hard to control matches against him because he raises the complexity level and honestly I'm just having a lot of fun, it's a great match so far and I hope to continue to enjoy it. As the match goes on, do you think both of you are going to steadily improve as the time controls get faster? No. Well, we're looking forward to seeing it, it's been fantastic fun, thank you so much Magnus, best of luck. Magnus Carlsen had a two-point lead when the 3 plus 1 segment began and in that he also had a one-point lead so a total of three points going into this final game in the 3 plus 1 section and here black is the one who's pressing, that's Magnus, he takes the pawn on e4 and in comes b5, a mistake, he misses rook a1 and look at Magnus there because rook a8 is simply going to win the queen, Magnus can't believe what he's just done and instead of actually pressing for a four-point lead, now the lead was going to come down to two points and there was nothing that he could do here because if rook c4 there's rook a8, he gives up another pawn, he trades, now takes, takes, rook a5 is winning, Alireza Firuza with just two-point deficit going into bullet where he's considered one of the best in the world would surely put Magnus under some problems as he pushed the pawn forward, another pawn push, Magnus resigns the game and which meant that Alireza Firuza was back with 8-10 being the score, 30 minutes of bullet, who would come out on top? As this ended, Magnus went in for another interview and it was very interesting to hear him talk about his experience. Thank you very much folks, Magnus obviously a close score but you have an advantage going into one plus one, sum up your feelings about the match so far. No, I mean I feel like I picked up the level quite a bit after the break in the three plus one and I mean the last game was just an absolute gift, I blundered a pawn and then yeah the game on the next move so I was a bit unfortunate but still got a good chance. How do you feel about the arena, you had a gesture to the crowd earlier, do we feel like we need to raise the volume a little bit in here? No, I think they just you know sometimes cheer for my moves not only his. London what do you think about that, can we have a cheer for Magnus? You guys can hear that from up there but I literally cannot hear myself talking when they do that, folks you are absolutely incredible, let's go ahead and head it back to you guys before we begin the 1-1. Bullet segment began with a win for Magnus and then a draw and we move to the third game where Magnus is pressing with the white pieces, he has an extra pawn here and could very well you know press with extra time as well, he had 10 seconds to Ali Reza's five but it's a draw objectively. Black is very solid here, Magnus somehow trying to move his king to h5 goes with the rook, check king here and after another check Ali Reza is making Magnus's life quite difficult. Rook d5 and now a blunder by Magnus with g6 allowing Firuza, rook takes f5, if g takes f7 this rook takes f7, he loses the pawn and also it's completely lost now because the white king is cut off, he blunders the rook and Firuza wins and that reduces the deficit once again to two points 11 and a half, nine and a half, can Ali Reza, Firuza make a comeback is the big question and then this one with Firuza trying to muddy the waters here with Magnus trying to attack here, if Firuza managed to win this, the deficit would become just one point and look at this, the white king is running in and Magnus is in trouble here because after knight takes c4, bishop moves, this is not easy, before you can see white is coming back in the game, in fact white is now even better with a4 and pawn pushing forward but he misses the chance and now look at this move by Firuza after rook c1, g5 he blunders the entire bishop and Magnus Carlsen wins the game here and 12 and a half points a very important win for Magnus with this he literally sealed the deal in this event and then all he needed was to just be very very solid here and a draw was agreed and Magnus Carlsen with this look at him he's so tired there, too solid and there we go a draw agreed which means and he's become the speed chess champion for the fifth time and not only that he also qualifies for the esports world cup along with Alireza Firuza and Denis Lazovic, Hikaru Nakamura will have to find another route to reach to the esports finals and look at Firuza well he's not happy with this result but Magnus Carlsen what a goat he is kudos to chess.com for organizing such an incredible event let's go there down to listen to the interviews of the players Alireza we all know it's not the result you wanted you walk away with a chunk of prize money you qualify to the esports world cup and you gave us a final heck you gave us a semi-final and then a final where you push the world's best players all the way I think it's been an incredible weekend for you I know it's not quite the top step but so many people here were rooting for you talk us through your feelings right now yeah I mean I achieved what I wanted to get the spot and today whatever would have happened was a bonus but I managed to put a good fight but I completely lost my energy after five plus one probably yesterday also was very tiring so but um no I mean it was a great match I think it was but I at least made a better performance than last year in the end and as Alireza said he was kind of not quite there at certain moments which really made up for the fact that I was giving him a few chances let's say I mean just the number of decisive games in this match is just staggering honestly but I think he missed some chances early like in the 3-1 portion he could have easily taken the lead early on and then I think after that to say that I was in control would be a massive overstatement but I always felt like I gave him a couple of games for free essentially and without them the match would not have been as close but regardless I just enjoyed it and you know I was thinking halfway like this is so much fun like even if I were to lose I can sort of live with it because there are certain days when I can sort of control the match this was just not one of them it was a combination of him being just too good the brand of chess that he plays is too complicated and me having like a good day but not a top top day but it was awesome and Danny this is the Narodzki Cup it means an awful lot obviously we don't have a new name on it but we do have another five-time winner being etched on it talk to us about the significance of this trophy what it means to you what it means to chess.com what it means to the wider community it's the the first year obviously that it has existed but feels like it should have been here all along because Donya's impact on the chess community will last forever and so I think the cup going forward will will say it all and it's right there at the top the Narodzki Cup I think it looks amazing it's also heavy by the way these interviews have been great and the cup has gotten heavy so I think it's amazing it I think it's ready for Magnus and for a fifth time I think I speak for a lot of fans I'd love to see another Magnus Carlsen versus Hikaru Nakamura final to decide to you know see who wins next but who knows if we'll get that again I don't know but Magnus and Hikaru have both won it and it just yeah it means a lot to have this type of legacy continuing to be etched as we go forward and hopefully once we get to whatever the math is you know 50 speed chess championships from now we're still giving this cup I'll still be up here but who knows this is uh this is for Donya and it'll last on forever amazing so ladies and gentlemen one last time your speed chess championship champion it's Magnus Carlsen