Chess is Simple - We Just Make it Complicated || Alireza vs Gukesh || Norway Chess 2026

Hello everyone and welcome to another very nice game from round 8 of this year's Norway Chess. It is the former leader, Alereza Firozja versus the world classical champion, Gukesh Domaraju. And before we get into the game, I would just like to say that today at 6.30 CET we're having the Lotus Chess June Arena. So if you have time, if you want to join us, we're going to have a lot of fun. You're going to probably get some stronger players to play against. And feel free to join. It will be the first link in the description below. Now, getting back to the game, Alereza, like I said, has been leading for the better part of the tournament. Then, at one point, Wesley So took over. And we know that Wesley So defeated Vincent Keimer in an Armageddon game in this round. So we'll see if he can maintain the lead. But this is a big one for both Alereza and Gukesh. For Gukesh to try and get back into the tournament, for Alereza to try and win the tournament, there are still three more rounds to be played. And the first game they played in the tournament ended in a draw. But then in the Armageddon game, Alereza won with the black pieces. So yeah, let's see what happens in this one. And the game is basically a story of how little we know about chess and endgames. Even though it doesn't matter at what level you are, when presented with a choice in a seemingly everyday, simple endgame, you have no idea what is happening. So yeah, let's check it out. Alereza with white opens with pawn to d4. Sorry about that. We have knight to f6 by Gukesh, pawn to c4, e6, knight to f3, pawn to d5, and knight to c3. This is the Queen's Gambit decline, but now with knight c3, bishop to b4. We go into the Ragozin Defense, or as I like to say, the fake Nimzo Indian. And we most often see bishop to g5 here. But Alereza goes for the second most popular, and that is the trade in the center. We have captors, captors, and now bishop to f4. And this is fairly rare. Bishop to g5 is by far the most played move. Sometimes you will see a Queen to a4 check, but bishop to f4 is rare. We have knight e4, piling up on the knight on c3, and the rook to c1, followed by bishop to f5. And this is almost never played. Not almost never. It is not as of move 7 that we have a completely new game. There are some games where you will see knight e6 or knight e7, sometimes you will see a Queen e7, but bishop to f5 is new. So yeah, let's see how Alereza deals with this early preparation by Gukesh. We have pawn to e3, already burning 12 minutes as he is unfamiliar with bishop to f5, and Gukesh strikes with g5. He does not spend a single second, he just blitzes it out. Bishop to g3, now he trades on c3 with the bishop. We have captures, captures, and pawn to h5. Having an hour and 57 minutes on the clock, Alereza knows that he is now playing against an engine. Alereza goes Queen to b3, played fairly quickly. We have castles kingside, and Queen captures on b7. So Gukesh sacrifices a pawn for some rapid development. We have pawn to c6, and the immediate Queen to c7. Alereza burns some time, but he wants to trade Queens. He is now up a pawn, and if he is not getting checkmated or anything, it means that he will enjoy that pawn sometimes in the future. We have knight d7, and Alereza trades with Queen captures, rook a captures on d8, and now knight to d2, trying to kick away the knight from e4. And Gukesh already burned an hour of his clock, so he is also out of preparation, but he knows from preparation that his position should be fine. Knight captures on g3, of course you're going to capture the bishop, h captures, and now knight to f6, defending the pawn on h5. Knight b3, now you have access to the c5 square, and the rook to b8, with ideas of advancing that pawn, planting a rook on b2, and maybe at some point, putting a knight on e4. So Gukesh is down a pawn, but his position is more active. We have bishop to e2, going after the h5 pawn, king to g7. And it seems like you could grab that pawn, but rook h8 would go with a double attack on the bishop, and you will not be able to move the bishop, as the rook on h1 is undefended. So Alereza plays bishop to d1, and now rook f to c8. We have castles king side, and pawn to a5. Gukesh now ready to chase away the knight, and to bring the rook all the way to b2. And again, it seems like, isn't that just a free pawn? Well, you could capture it, and now you would be up two pawns, but bishop d3 attacks the rook, rook to e1, and rook to b2. This would be very, very inconvenient for White to play, because there are no active moves. The rooks are disconnected, not a good square for the bishop. This knight will come to e4 at some point, put pressure on the f2 pawn. You can play rook f1, you can play rook e2. So this would be only a matter of time before Black starts reclaiming material. So instead, after a5, we have bishop to c2, and Gukesh trades. We have captors, captors, pawn to a4, knight to c5, and now pawn to a3. So now, rook to b2 can be played at any point, knight back to b3, and knight to e4. We have pawn to c4, pawn to c5, and now we have some trades. We have rook fc1, c-captors on d4, e-captors, d-captors, rook-captors, rook-captors, and rook-captors on c4, and the capture-fest completes, and we have king to f6, bringing the king into the game. So Gukesh is still down a pawn, but okay, Alereza has a double g-pawn. We could say Gukesh's pieces are a bit more active. The a3 pawn is really far advanced, so there is definite compensation here. We have rook to c6 with check, king to e7, and now king to f1. We have king to d7, rook to a6, going after the a3 pawn, and now rook to c8. So sacrificing that pawn for, again, some activity. We have rook-captors on a3, rook to c2, going after the f2 pawn, and knight to c5 check. This is how you prevent the rook from capturing on f2. Knight-captors, we have d-captors, and the rook-captors on c5. And it's still the same endgame. Alereza is up a pawn, and with perfect play, it should be a draw. Even with very good play, it should be a draw. But this is what I mean, just how tricky chess is. Alereza plays rook to d3 check, and already a question presents itself. Does the king belong to the king's side or on the queen's side? Where do you think the king should go? Well, the answer is to the queen's side, but Gukesh says it doesn't matter. He goes king to e6 first, and now Alereza just goes rook to e3. We have king to d6, and now pawn to a4. And this is move 38. Players need to make two more moves to reach time control. We have king to c6, now comes rook to f3, going after the f7 pawn. And the question is, what should Gukesh play here? And you're probably all thinking of f5, because it makes the most sense. But that's not the case. I'm going to show you how complicated this endgame is, if you're just trying to calculate it. If you know how to play the endgame and you have studied some endgame principles, you will find the solution maybe a bit easier. But not when faced with such tough opposition and with little time on the clock. So here you have to play rook a5, which again, makes perfect sense. And the question is, what do you play here? And it's pretty amazing, because what are some of the options here? Well, you could go rook captures on f7. Why wouldn't we play this? And then after rook captures on a4, you're just lost. That's how crazy this endgame is. Because now after rook to f5, there's no good way to defend the pawns. And you might be thinking, well, let's just continue checking this white king. And that's pretty much it. But the problem is, if you do that, rook a1, check, king to e2, rook to a2, check, king to e3, or d3, doesn't really matter. You're going to go rook to a3, check, king to e4, rook to a4, check, and now king e5. And the king escapes. Rook a5, check, king goes up the board. You don't care if the rooks get traded off. Your king is much closer to the pawns. So there is one move you have to throw in. If rook to a5, and now you go after rook captures on f7, you don't capture the pawn right away. Instead, you play king d6. Just create sort of a barrier against that white king. So the white king cannot cross. And now if we go into the exact same line, and bear in mind, white is down a tempo here because you can't go rook f5 right away. The rook is still on a5. So let's say white wastes a move. Let's say rook f3. And now after rook captures on f4 and rook f5, the same idea no longer applies. Because you will have king to e6. And you just attack the rook. And you don't even have to go for checks. The rook can capture on g5. But now you're going to go rook to a1 with check. And again, the king is shouldered off. King to e2, rook a2, check. King to e3, rook a3, check. King to d4 or wherever. And now you just continue checking. Rook a4. The king cannot cross here. And if you go king to c5, of course, now rook a5, check, picks up the rook. So that's the way to defend. So basically, the only way to look for anything here with white after rook a5 would be rook to a3. And then, okay, you still hold. And maybe hope that black will have to overextend on the queen side. If the pawns ever get traded off, you might be close enough with your king. So it's a draw. But, you know, chances are black is the one to mess it up. Not white. But instead, Gukesh played pawn to f5. And now we have rook to e3 by Alereza. Again, rook a3 was the way to go. Because now after rook to a5, you can just go king e2. And now the pawns are way too close. For example, king to c5. You're just going to go king b3. And after king b4, rook a1. You're going to go king b3. And now rook to b1, check. And you don't really care what happens. Because if you capture, you can just trade. And then your endgame is completely winning. And anything other than that, for example, king to e2, you're just going to go rook b5. And that's how you win. Of course, you cannot trade rooks. And if you capture, then rook captures on f5. Everything falls and easily winning. So after f5, rook to e3 was played instead by Alereza. Now we have rook to a5 and rook to a3. So basically, playing the move that we've discussed, only down a tempo. King to c5. We have king to e2. King b4. Rook to a1. And now you should play king to c3. King c3 is still a draw. But rook to e5, check, was played. And now king to d3. And here, Gukesh has no way of getting back into the game. Rook d5, check. King to e2. Rook e5, check. Again, king d3 is the best. Alereza plays king to f1. And now it's still possible to defend with rook to a5. It's very difficult, but it's possible. King to b3 by Gukesh. And now Alereza is completely winning. And of course, he finds it. He has a rook behind the passed pawn. So I imagine even your uncle pushes a5 here. We have king to b2. Rook to a4. And now king to b3. It seems Gukesh thought that, OK, wherever the rook goes, we just follow it. If the rook moves, we capture the a5 pawn, and it's a draw. But he missed one very, very tricky move from Alereza. I'm pretty sure you see it. Because if you don't have rook a4, rook a1, I would say it's literally the next move you consider. And it might not make sense at first, but then you look a few moves past that, and then you see it. I'm sure you already see it. Of course, it is pawn to f4. And the idea is that if the trade happens, captures, captures, then the pawn cannot be stopped. It can be stopped if you go king to b5 right away, but then this pawn marches forward. So you're going to capture it, and now you are outside of the square of the pawn. And of course, you cannot stop the pawn. So how can you play this? After this pawn to f4 move, rook to d5 was played. And that's also not going to work. And on the other hand, if you capture, let's say captures, captures, and you go rook to d5, then rook a1, king to b2, you just go rook e1. And yes, you can capture the pawn, but then rook e5, and this is again winning for white. So after pawn to f4, rook to d5 was played. Now rook a1, king b2, and rook to e1. It still works like a charm. We have rook captures on a5, and now Alireza throws in a rook to e5. We have rook to a1 with check, king to f2, and now king to c3, followed by f cap. If you're wondering about this capture, it doesn't really do anything. You're still just going to capture these pawns, and that's it. So king to c3. Guges says I might as well have an active king. f captures on g5, and king to d4. Attacks the rook, rook captures on f5, king e4, and the rook to b5. We have rook to d1, cutting off the white king, but you no longer needed the king. Pawn to g4. We have h4, and now rook to f5. The pawn is now nicely defending the rook on f5, and the other g-pawn, or rather the third g-pawn, because, yes, he's up two pawns, but they're all a g-pawn, is free to march forward. We have rook to d2 with check, king to g1, rook to d3, and pawn to g6. And, of course, everyone now sees that the pawn cannot be stopped. Rook to d7, stopping pawn to g7, but now just king to h2, and he was in this position on move 61. That world-reigning classical champion, Guges do Marajo, resigned the game, as there is nothing more to be done here. Once the, let's say, rook g7 is played, or whatever, it doesn't really matter what you play here. King h3, you even give up that pawn. If rook captures, you're going to capture on h4, and that's it. You're going to put a rook on f1. The king can never cross the f-file. That's out of the question. You're just going to move the king and pawn off the board simultaneously, and at some point, kick away the rook from g8, push the pawn to g7, to g8, promote, win the rook, and very, very easily winning endgame. So, after king h2, Guges resigned, and Alereza is now 2-0 against Guges in this tournament. Yes, the classical section was drawn in the first half, but he defeated him in Armageddon. Here, he takes the full point, or rather, the full three points, beating him in classical. And that brings us to these standings. Like I said, Wesley won the Armageddon game against Vincent Keimer. So, Wesley is still leading the tournament with two more rounds to go. 14 points. Then, with 13 points, Alereza Firuja. Regnananda with 12 points. Vincent Keimer with 10. Magnus Carlsen, highest-rated player in the world, second-to-last with nine points. And the reigning world classical champion, last place with eight points. So, you can see what kind of a crazy tournament this is. Arguably, the greatest player to ever play chess, and the world champion are sort of sharing last place. So, it's, you know, anything can happen in a super tournament. It's why we call it a super tournament. And also, some of you are probably wondering, well, how does losing all of these games affect the ratings in the world? Well, we can also check that out. So, these are the top 22 players in the world right now. And why top 22? Because the world reigning classical champion, Gukesh, is number 22. So far, he lost six points, and he is down to number 22 with 2725. So, you know, getting close to dropping out of 2700, which is not great. And Magnus, he lost 20 points. He is now to 2820, which is still much, much higher rated than everyone else in the world. But, you know, it looked a lot more intimidating when he was on those 2841. And then we have Vincent Keimer winning some points. He's currently on 2772, world number six. Wesley So, he won 10 points, 2763. We have Alvareza winning five points. Playing a different tournament with four points. Hans lost a little bit, but we're going to discuss that in the next game. I'm probably going to show you the last game of the match. Hans versus Nepo from Belgrade. And we have Nepo winning a little bit of points. Pragnananda also plus four. So, not a lot has changed. You know, Magnus losing those 20 points. For anyone else losing 20 points, you would probably go down to 20 spots. For Magnus, he just loses 20 points. He is still, convincingly, the highest rated player in the world. That's the game. Hope you guys enjoyed it very much. Enjoying this tournament. Probably, you know, the players, most of them are not, even those leading. I mean, it must be excruciatingly grueling to play such an event. But that's why, you know, the viewers love it. Because even if all classical games end in a draw, we will always have the winner every day. Every day, there are, everyone's a winner. And everyone's a loser. So, yeah, very interesting. And yeah, I would like to thank Piano724, Henry Tong, Harald Sispel, Jörgen Langli and Adam Schindler for a 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. Don't forget to download Lotus Chess. First link in the description below. And also register for the Lotus Chess Arena. Starts today, 6.30 Central European Time. We're going to have a lot of fun. And you're welcome to join us to play. Just, you know, talk a little bit with us. It's going to be fun as usual. So, see you soon.