Magnus Carlsen Crushes Hans Niemann in a Legendary London System to Comeback at the FIDE World Blitz

Welcome back to the FIDE World Blitz 2024 quarterfinals where we have the greatest chess player of all time, Magnus Carlsen, going up against the bad boy of chess, Hans Niemann. And Magnus is currently trailing down one point in the match. Hans was able to win in the last game. And Magnus, this is his last game with the White Pieces, so he is basically in must-win territory. And Magnus, with his back against the wall, what better opening to play than the London System? This opening has quickly become one of his favorite openings, especially in the past few years, in speed chess formats. So let's see if Magnus can pilot this one to a win in such a high-pressure situation. Now Hans, he's gone for this copycat variation, bringing out the light-squared bishop to f5. This is a pretty good setup, but this does leave the queen side a little bit weak. So this light-squared bishop before, it was defending the b7 pawn. Now that b7 pawn is a little bit tender. So at some point, I wouldn't be surprised to see Magnus play something like queen to b3. That would not only attack the bishop on b4, but also would look towards the b7 pawn. Of course, Magnus doesn't have to do this right away. Yeah, he can start with bishop e2 and start getting ready to castle. And Magnus, I'm starting to think that he's just happy to play a game of chess. He thinks that he's the better player. He knows that he can outplay Hans in these slow positional maneuvering battles. And Hans is hesitating a little bit. I don't think it's because he's uncomfortable or anything. I just think he has a lot of options. He can play pawn to c6, which would reinforce the center. He can also play a nice quiet move like pawn to h6, which would create lift for his king. He does it. And the secondary purpose is that this bishop on f5, if something like knight h4 were to ever happen, then Hans can slide his bishop back to a nice safe square. Now Magnus, he's played this queen b3 move and this attacks the b7 pawn. So Hans, he's going to have to find a way to deal with this one. He plays b6. This does create some light-squared weakness on the queen side. But for the moment, black is doing okay here. Unfortunately for him though, he's given up the bishop pair. So I think white has a slight advantage coming out of the opening. This bishop pair could become especially more useful once the position starts to open up. And Hans, he voluntarily tries to open up the position playing pawn to c5. Now look at all that pawn tension happening in the center of the board. If this position were to open up, the power of the bishops will definitely be felt. I think Hans' argument though is that if the position opens up, a lot of pieces will also be traded. So with more pieces coming off the board, the game will steer closer and closer towards a draw and Hans is pretty happy with that considering the match situation. Magnus, he starts by taking on c5 first but I don't really like this move because this just shuffles the knight into a nice square, a nice outpost that's attacking the queen. And even though he does have the bishop pair, I think he's rushed this decision a little bit. Now there are still some tricks that he's setting up because Hans cannot take this pawn on c4 otherwise there would be bishop d6 skewering the queen and the rook. So he starts by moving the rook into the center and now Magnus chops open the center of the board. This does allow the other knight though to jump into the center and attack white's dark squared bishop. Honestly, black should be very happy with his position here. He has both knights outpost in the center of the board. But this was Magnus' point. He wanted to move the bishop on the long diagonal where it's teaming up with the queen and this has provoked a very very big weakness in black's kingside. The pawn coming to f6 weakens the light square significantly by combining this h6 and f6. Hans is playing with fire here. His king is not very safe and this is not a position that Magnus accidentally stumbled into. This was his point all that time ago when he decided to trade off everything in the center of the board. That's because he was hoping that his bishop can come to this long diagonal provoking some weaknesses against Hans' king and he's definitely going to make sure that he really takes advantage of these light squared weaknesses. In the meantime, Magnus and Hans are having a bit of a dance. This knight has jumped to a4 now back to c5 and the knight on a4 is threatening to go to c3. So again, this knight can jump back to a4. The knights are both looking at c3 threatening a fork against the queen and the rook and Magnus if he just keeps repeating moves then Hans is just going to try make a draw considering the match situation. So he has to think about how to change it up and while Magnus and Hans try to figure out this little night dance, I just want to remind you that if you're enjoying the content so far, remember to like and subscribe and also please comment for the algorithm. That would be much appreciated. Thank you. Now in the meantime, Magnus and Hans have repeated the position twice but Magnus has found a way forward. He's moved his bishop to c4 trying to challenge things along the light square diagonal and the more I look at this position, I'm thinking how is Magnus going to win this game because Hans he has this two-on-one on the queen side and even though black is lacking the bishop pair, these knights are no slouch. They have found very nice outposts and that's why Magnus decides to chop things off but with more and more pieces coming off the board, the game is starting to steer towards a draw and this could be Hans Niemann taking down Magnus in the quarterfinals and Hans he's playing for the win. I think he's made a very bold decision taking on c5 with the pawn. This does create a little bit of a weakness on c5 but this pawn is a passer and who knows in the endgame, this might become a big headache for Magnus. Now for the moment, Magnus has successfully blockaded the pawn. It's not going anywhere but with more and more pieces coming off the board, the power of this pawn could become greater and greater and Hans he really does want to trade off some pieces because his king is feeling a little bit airy so if Hans is able to get a queen trade, he would be very very happy but has he made a big mistake here? Knight to a2, the queen can go either to c2 or d3 and start to move towards the king's side taking advantage of the light squares and Magnus Carlsen like a shark smelling blood in the water, he quickly plays queen to d3. Now Hans attacks the queen again but this just accelerates white's queen jumping into the position running to f5 and now there are big problems for black. This queen is hitting the rook on c8 also is threatening to usher the rook from d1 into d7 where it's going to be attacking everything along the second rank and I think Hans he's starting to feel the pressure. He is now down to 40 seconds on the clock with such a difficult position to defend. If this rook tries to come over to d8, I think white can just snap off the rooks and the queen is overloaded there. The best alternative I can see for black is to play something like rook to c7 stopping white's rook from coming into the seventh rank but there I think white can just snap off the light squared bishops and start moving in with his knight and Hans he's going for the position where he's just down a pawn and the problem for Hans is not that Magnus is up a pawn. The problem is that this pawn was previously securing the knight on a very nice outpost so the knight is a little bit homeless but also while endgames like these are normally holdable, this one in particular is not because of the swiss cheese around the king. So Magnus what he's gonna do is he's gonna trade off these light squared bishops and he's gonna team up the queen and the knight in order to dance around the king. Hans he plays a5 trying to cement the knight on a new outpost but this pawn on a5 could also be a weakness and with a pawn no longer on c5, Magnus has a chance to centralize his knight on the nice d4 square and now Magnus he has the opportunity to slide his queen to f7. Now this doesn't do anything right away but this does tie down black's queen because if the black queen wanders too far then white might be able to coordinate his pieces in order to weave a mating net around black's king and look at the clock situation. It looks like Hans is down to seven seconds on the clock. Magnus he had the option to trade off the queens and simplify the position where he's up a pawn in a knight endgame that probably would have been pretty good but he's playing on Hans's clock. He moves his queen away. He's always going to be creating constant threats and now the queen has to run away only to a8 I think defending the pawn the knight but Hans he blunders his knight and no one can believe it. Look at that expression on Dina Belenkaya's face. Magnus Carlsen in a must-win situation. That's why he's the greatest chess player of all time. He is able to take down Hans Niemann and tie the match. If you enjoyed this video and you want to see more remember to like, comment, and subscribe and I will see you guys in the next one. Bye.