This Chess Match Changed Me FOREVER.

I don't think we've ever filmed anything together. No, we filmed something in Oslo, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, like something very short, right? Yeah, yeah. I think, yeah. But yeah, congrats on making it here. This is incredible. Are you excited to play? Yeah, sure. It's nice to play. You're going to be playing Magnus, right? Yeah. Have you been doing a lot of prep, or is it different when it's such a short time format? Yeah, it's hard to prepare for Blitz. It's more about just to play Blitz to be in good shape. I played quite a lot, but I usually play quite a lot. Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays. They have all these different ones now. Title Tuesday, 3 on Thursday. Yeah, one week I played one Title Tuesday and three Thursdays. Oh, wow. But it was only one time when I played it. Normally I just play almost every Title Tuesday, but one Title Thursday. Yeah. Because it's very hard to play three in one day. Yeah, it's very, very hard. So how much Blitz do you play every day? It depends, but usually I don't play just to play. It's part of my training. So maybe 10 games. Not really much, because I quickly get tired. But 10, 15 games. It also depends on my opponent. Usually I like to play 10 games against a good opponent, but it's not always on chess.com. Yeah, and it's way better training, of course, if it's against someone good and you're activating your brain throughout each game. But yeah, you're one of the best Blitz players in the whole world. And I wanted to see something. So we've never played against each other, I think. And I know I'm going to get absolutely crushed. But playing against someone that is so good and so fast, I wanted to see if we could do our own little speed chess championship. And with that I mean that I thought that we could play three games. One where we have the same time, where you're going to completely demolish me. I know that. I'm ready for it. It's okay. But then I thought that I could take down a little bit of your time. And so, you know, maybe we can play the first game and you can tell me after how much time you think you need to beat me again. But let's say, for instance, you have three minutes now and you have one minute the next game. Then the third one you need to have even less time. Then maybe you have to have 30 seconds. But you can decide a bit. We can play the first game and you can see how much time you think you need. Okay. Two and three. Okay. Do you want to play? Yeah. All right. Good game. Good luck. Do you typically say good luck when you're playing people? Not often. No. Okay. But I will need the luck. So I am someone good to say it to. At least this is my favorite opening to play against. Yeah. I saw you made the course, I think. If I'm not mistaken. Yes. This is part of it. But you know the difficult thing when you make a course is remembering everything you added to the course. Okay. But this is pretty standard. But am I supposed now to go? I'm supposed to go for this. I'm supposed to go for that. And at four is this complete, right? Yeah. Very ambitious. Very ambitious as in good or very ambitious as in bad? No, it's good. But sometimes it's hard to play for white when you play so actively. Do you play many openings? Or is Kingston in your main opening? Not main, but sometimes I play it in blitz. Now you go for the B5. People always go for these B5s, and I never like it because it's always... I should do something because you have great centers. No, of course. Great pieces. You do. Okay. But what if I go... Okay. But I have an idea. It's my bad idea. Hmm. Okay. This is maybe crazy. Can I go here? Huh? What is this? Is this theory? Or is this sort of a thing? No. I see it first time. It looks funny. You see this for the first time, and you're just sacrificing the queen in like two seconds. Okay. No, you just need to play fast. Yeah, true. True. I don't know why I didn't add any increment. I always trick myself in these scenarios. It's scary that you end the play. I'm not going to lie. Okay, I see. I see the issue. Oh, this is not good at all. Okay, at least it's faster. What's going on? I hope Magnus will not do the same. Okay. I'm just getting checkmated here, yeah? No, maybe queen one. Queen one. Okay. So I'm not lost here. Yeah, maybe. But I mean, I think you were winning for the whole game, basically, because of course it was not enough. So you bluffed me? Yeah. What? You just... No, but... So my move was good, knight here. Yeah, I think yes. Probably I should go just a6 instead. Okay, wait, so you're telling me that you made a mistake. I found a great move and then you bluffed me and I thought that I had missed some deep theoretical thing that I don't know. Yeah, but it doesn't matter what you do. You just need to play fast. Yeah. Okay. So if you want to sacrifice queen, it's better to sacrifice than just think about something else. Yeah. So you've already made your decision that you're going to go for this and then you just went for it really fast. Yeah. You know what? I thought sometimes it might be interesting, but in general it doesn't work. This is so funny. This is hilarious. Okay, you know what? I learned a lesson. You see, I have this issue that I sometimes don't... You know, maybe you don't do this because you're so good, but you know when you play against someone that's way better than you, you really respect them and then you really think that everything they do is a masterpiece and so you're always like, I must be missing something. I think you should change it. Yeah. This attitude. Yeah. You shouldn't respect anyone. Yeah, it's true. Okay. Thank you. That's a good lesson. Okay. Well, how much time do you think you need now? Because I'm the one that's going to be slow, but yeah. One and a half maybe. One and a half? Okay. Let's do that. Let's cut the time in half. With increment, I think I wouldn't do it because it's a very bad sacrifice. Yeah, so it was because you were playing on the clock as well. Okay, I think I did this correctly. I'm very bad at setting up clocks, but I think so. Maybe we should change now. You can have white. Do you ever do this training? I've seen some people do it where you play with like 10 seconds the whole game and then you have one second increment on your clock and you're like... No, never. Never. Okay. It's very strange. I've seen some run wrestlers do it. When I was a kid, I did it, but I doubt it. Okay. Which line do I go for? Will you play Bishop b5 if I go knight? I almost don't play first to fourth, so you can play anything. Okay. I know nothing. I play this. Okay, this game I'm changing. This game, I am not going to have this mindset that I had before. I will change something, too. What will you change? Okay, is it so scary? Just bet. Not so scary. You know, I like that you're so honest. I really like it. It's probably scary, too. I will not... I'm going to cut off one minute of your time next game, by the way. I think I need to. How does it feel to see these moves in a split second? Well, fortunately, it's not enough sometimes to beat Magnus, but in general, it's good. But against everyone else, it's enough. Yeah, it's true. All right, I resign. I resign. Oh, my God. But okay, I just blundered in the opening, kind of allowing this, I guess. Yeah. You should check, probably. Yeah, this opening. But why did you play the one line I hate against? I hate this line. I feel like it's become really popular as well, and many people play it nowadays. Even Magnus played it. Yeah. Probably when I played it. But it's not... I mean, after B3, I think A6 in general is the best move. A6? Yeah, Bb2 and D5. So you don't allow Bb5. So I went B5 one move too early. No, you played Nc6, Bb2, D5. And I think you should play A6, Bb2, D5 instead. I see, yeah. So A takes D5, A takes D5. Yeah. What is your, do you think, best part of the game? What do you feel the most confident in? Is it in tactics, is it in middle games, in openings, or is it just everything? Well, I mean, sometimes it's opening, but it's not like I remember every line that I played. So it depends on my opponent. Against someone, it's better to just play fast, to attack. And against someone, it's better to play more positionally. So do you kind of read your opponent? Well, I guess, of course, with the top players, you know their style because you can see their games. But in general, like if you're playing someone like me, are you reading me and then seeing what is the best way of beating her? Because of her way? Against some players, I can do everything I want. So it's not like I really need to read them. Okay, fair enough. Fair enough. That is very fair. All right. Well, this time, I am not being nice. I am not everything. Can you play with 30 seconds? Do you think that's possible? Or do you want to do 45? It's possible. I want to have a chance. I'm not having any chance. Yeah, but that's because you respect me in the first game. So now you know that you shouldn't. I shouldn't. Just play fast. Okay. Attack. You know what? This is what I'm going to do. 45 seconds for you, and I will just play fast and attack. Yeah. And I will be very confident. And no matter what you say during the game. Like, oh, this is bad for you. I will not listen. And I will just be confident. Yeah, but you should do it against anyone. I know. Have you never had this issue? To be like I am. Like, have you never had that? Yeah. When I had lack of experience, probably. For example, in 2023, when I played in Toronto. In Speed Championship Finals. Yeah. Final. I had the same problems. Yeah. But then I realized it's just... In Blitz, especially, it's just better to play fast and just to attack. I think Dubov said it at some interview. Yeah. Just, you know, just go forward and something will happen. Yeah. Dubov has many, many very funny interviews. Yeah, yeah. But that's true, yeah. Who's your favorite player in the world? Well, apart from yourself, of course. Well, I don't have favorite player. There's just some players that are interesting to listen. Interviews, interesting thoughts. And there are players that say nothing, basically. But in terms of chess, I don't have it. No. Yeah. So it's more like personality-wise, yeah. Do you watch any chess content? Yeah, sometimes. You do? Yeah. Who do you watch? Recently, I've watched your videos with Parham, I think. Levon Aronian in freestyle chess. It was very funny. Yeah. Did you see the game when we did game night with Levon Aronian and Parham, where he was talking about, like, when we did different games, he had to pretend to be a robot. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you saw this. Yeah, that's what I mean. Yeah, that's the one you mean, yeah. Yeah. I've never laughed so much in my whole life. Okay. I'm going to be dead serious. I am not going to... Yeah. All right? Yeah. No, this is not... No strong player would say this. Yeah, it's a draw. Okay. Okay, all right. You could play Kennedy's 3 properly, yeah? But I would... I thought it was... Yeah, I'm stupid. I thought it was checkmate. For a split second. Yeah. And then this should be... But this is my best game, no? I played way better. Yeah, it's much better. Yeah. It's not because I had 45 seconds. Okay, that is... That is a huge factor in it. No, but okay. I was also self-destructing a bit in the other games, I think. Like, I was just making it way easier. Yeah. No, for you. Yeah, yeah, sure. Okay, so this is... This is very important, because I'm going to be playing Magnus later. And I know this is not going to change anything, but it's good that I played that game with as much confidence as possible. Yeah, just play fast against him. Yeah. And attack. Yeah. You will win him. I will beat him? Of course. Okay. Well, I hope you beat him as well. In the... In the Chabki chip. Yeah. But I will have the same strategy. You will have the same strategy, yeah. No, it's the best strategy. It's the strategy you need in chess. But this was a lot of fun. I hope that this was like... Even if it was against me, a tiny little bit of practice. Yeah, yeah, sure. You know, with the low time control and everything. Yeah. Of course. It was a great experience. Alright. I hope it will help me. I hope so too. Let me know if it helps. If you win the tournament, can I take like a tiny little bit of credit? What is? Like credit. Like if you win the whole tournament. Like if you become now the Speed Chess Champion winner. But I think even if I will beat only Magnus, it's still enough. It will be. I can take a little bit of credit? Yeah. Okay, I will save this clip and I will remember that. Alright. I'm wishing you a lot of luck. Thank you so much for playing. Good luck.