Magnus Carlsen's TOTAL Carnage vs. Hans Niemann STUNS The World! 'He Won't Resign!'

Today we're taking a look at one of the most epic games ever played between two of the most polarizing players to ever exist, both goats of chess in their own unique way, Sven Magnus Carlsen, greatest of all time, or if you take issue with that, greatest of all trolls, and the one and only Hans Moek Nieman, greatest of all trash talkers, who in the game you're about to witness really go at each other's throats with a ferocious and uncompromising appetite for victory, the entire weight of their looming legacy lurking in each and every move that's made, you're going to see some shocking behavior from Magnus in the form of a couple of moves that are so unbelievable, they just might make you question everything you thought you knew about trusting what some guy tells you on YouTube, but I assure you I am not making any of it up, neither am I fabricating the incredible sacrificial move that Hans Nieman comes up with. How anyone is able to attack with such engine precision in a mere game of Blitz is far beyond my ability to probe. No wacky theories here guys, sorry, but this is 100% human chess, allegedly, but I think I've said enough, why don't we let the chess speak for itself, which come to think of it is kind of a weird thing for Hans to keep saying, and I'll tell you why I think that a bit later in the video, but anywho, the year is 2025, the month November, it's Tilted Tuesday on chess.com, and Magnus kicks off this most monumental manhandling with Nf3. Hans pushes d5, we have your g3, preparing the bishop to be in nettles, Nf6, Bg2, just your run-of-the-mill King's Indian attack here, until we get this move b3, which is a bit off the beaten path compared to your more mainline c4 or d3, but you know Magnus, he does like to be special. We have an egress to the east, Bb2, no surprise there, c5, taking more control of the center, and now e3, doing the same, while giving the Queen a square. Nc6 is next, as is Qe2, Hans pushes b6, supporting the pawn on c5, an apparent prophylactation of a d4 thrust by white, we have Ne5, unleashing the b, a trade of minor pieces on that square, Bd6, offering another trade, Magnus says no, drops that sniper back to its nest, Ne5, because he can, he does now have a big beautiful center, but the Indian is not a fan of this move, as it removes defense from the pawn on d5, which Magnus now proceeds to attack with c4. The pawn is of course not free to move, as that would hang a whole rook, but Hans isn't hosed just yet, he does have a plan with Bg4, hitting the white queen, which if Magnus were to move, let's say to d3, just amping up the pressure on the pinned b, well then black can actually push d4, when if white were to play a blunderous BxR on a8, then after the queen recaptures, black is more than compensated for his lost exchange, in the form of this horrendous Swiss cheese structure surrounding the white king, no longer defended by his light squared bishop, as well as black's lead in development, not to mention his bishop pair, and white is actually losing here, so what's played by Magnus is the much better move, f3, attacking the bishop, and where do you suppose Hans Nieman should put it? If you said to e6, then you're absolutely right, but he moves it to h5, which is incorrect, as it gives Magnus Carlsen an opportunity to grab some material, with the sequence of moves that I invite you to pause the video and try to spot, if you so desire, the winning move, not played by Magnus, is Cxd5, when if the knight were to recapture, then you got g4, driving the bishop to g6, followed by f4, threatening both BxNd5 and f5, trapping the bishop, and there's a bit more to this line that we could talk about, but that is the gist of how gets a winning position, so big lost opportunity there in the game, where Magnus instead pushes d3, clearing the way for Nd2, we have d4, best move in the position, just shutting the door on the b2b, or rather not 2b, or so Hans Nieman hopes, Magnus responds e4, the engine concurs, we have Qc7, Nd2, h6, giving the bishop a potential cubbyhole on h7, maybe anticipating Magnus' next move, h4, which would have otherwise threatened to trap that bishop, with g4, followed by h5, Hans goes ahead and drops his bishop back to g6, just saying no g4 with tempo for you, but Magnus has no interest in playing that, he wants to put his bishop on h3, where it's on a better diagonal, no longer staring at a couple of friendly foot soldiers, we next have your general purpose Rae8, lurking opposite the white queen, Magnus puts her on g2, defending a piece, maybe supporting a future g5, Hans says I can see what you're up to, how about Nh5, threatening to meet any g4 nonsense with Nf4, that wouldn't be too pleasant for the pallid prospects, so Magnus puts any g4 plans he may have had on the back burner for the moment, and plays Rae1 instead, we have Kh1, making the monarch a bit safer, at least in theory, Bc1 for Magnus, putting the bishop on a more promising diagonal, a6 is next, maybe thinking about b5, Magnus responds a4, preparing to meet any of that noise, with a couple of captures, followed by Nc4, which would heavily favor the white position, Bh7 clears the way for a possible g6, supporting f5, at least that's what the engine's saying, Magnus takes a move to attack the steed on h5, with Bg4, Hans retreats it to f6, hitting the bishop, it goes back to h3, Nh5 repeats the position, and now we get Re2, is Magnus planning on doubling his rook somewhere? I don't rightly know, but after Hans puts his on g8, with the apparent plan of pushing g5, we now have an incredible move by Magnus, which if you can spot the actual purpose for, it just might be a chess goat in the making. It's not much to look at, but the move is Rf2, preventing g5, which would have otherwise been very playable for black. How on earth does this prevent it? Well, let's have a look. If g5 were to be played here, then after hxg5, Rxg5, Bg4, blocking black's newly opened attacking file, in anticipation of Re8, then because white's rook is no longer on f1, he can now put his knight there. What's the point of this? Well, it has to do with this knight sacrifice on f4, when after gxf4 and exf4, white does not have any good way to save his pinned bishop from the incoming h5, but what he does have is Nh2, preparing to replace it with a beautifully posted steed, once it's captured by the pawn, and black will be losing, but only because white's knight made it to g4, if in the engine we trust. So how's that for a ridiculous computer line? Did Magnus see any or all of this during the game, or did the correct moves just sort of appear in his mind out of nowhere? He just might be the Ramanujan of chess, but getting back to the game, Hans Niemann does not play the now losing g5, but rather puts his queen on b7, a move that, full disclosure, I don't really see much purpose to, seeing that b5 is still bad, allowing the double pawn trade, followed by Nc4, so a bit of a mystery this one. Magnus tries Bg4 again, to which Hans again responds Nf6, inviting Magnus to invite Hans to repeat the position with Bh3, but Magnus is getting bored of that, so he plays Bf5, when if the trade were to be made, then he'd have another pawn in the vicinity of the black king, which could possibly aid in a pawnstorming attack. He could also post his knight on e4, opening the d for his dark squared bishop, so Hans takes a hard pass on that, he puts his knight back on h5, we have the trades on h7, and queen to h3, which doesn't threaten anything, seeing that a check from f5 could be safely met with g6, but Hans decides to challenge her highness anyway with Qc8, to which Magnus responds with a truly shocking move, and it's the kind of oversight that we very rarely get to see from the world's number one. He's got a lot of playable options here, like Kh2 or QxQ, but he just goes ahead and plays a move that loses in a very elementary way, to a move that, incredibly, Hans Nieman doesn't play, Qxf5, when after the recapture, you've got Nxg3, hitting the rook, hitting the pawn, when however you slice it, white's going to end up at least two pawns down on material, with absolutely nothing to show for it, and black is winning. So, not sure what was seen or unseen by either of these two players that prevented this from happening, but what is known is that in the game, Hans Nieman does not take this first step towards fulfilling his self-proclaimed destiny as the world's number one player, and instead pushes g6. Magnus initiates the trade of ladies, and after the recapture, he plays Kg2, which the engine thinks is kind of a waste of time, instead recommending the move that Magnus plays next, which after f5 from Hans is Nf1, unblocking the bishop. We have Rc to f8, Kh3, preparing Magnus's next move, which after Rf7, preparing to double up somewhere, is g4, kicking the knight out of h5. Hans drops it back to g7, we have a trade on f5, Ng3, just getting active in the kingside community, Rgf8, now threatening to take on g4, when if white were to recapture, then he'd be dropping a whole rook. So, we do have Kg2, adding defense. Bc7 doesn't seem to do a whole lot, so we won't discuss it any further. Bd2 develops a piece, and that's about it. We have a5, just locking down the queenside situation, and now Rf1. Does Magnus want to double up on the e-file? Well, we may never know, because at this point, we have a truly remarkable move by Hans, which is not quite the top choice of the engine, but it's pretty darn close, and it's an extremely impressive thing for anyone to find in a game of Blitz. Give the video a good healthy pause if you'd like to try and guess what it is. The move is e4, sacrificing a pawn, when if Magnus were to take on e4 with his f-pawn, then black could grab on g4, maintaining material equality. So, we do have the greedy dxe4, which is a fine move. Greed isn't always a bad thing, at least in chess, maybe in economics as well, but that's a whole other debate. Hans captures on g3, removing two defenders from the rook on f1 after the necessary king takes g3, when after f takes g4, white no longer has the option of capturing with his pawn, as that would lose the rook. Why is this important? Well, it's because after Magnus recaptures with his king, the h5 square is no longer defended by a pawn, when after rook to g8, threatening knight to f5, discovered check, followed by knight to g3, forking white's rooks, and king to h3, getting out of the way of that, Hans is now able to put his knight on h5. And this is very important, since without this move, black would not be adequately compensated for his one-pawn deficit, as he is here, having these dark squares on total lockdown. Now, if Magnus could play f4 here, followed by f5, then things would be quite different, and he'd be winning. But here, he's got the threat of knight to g3 to contend with, forking his rooks, so we do have rook to g2, rook g to f8, once again preventing f4, but only because knight takes f4 would come with check, since otherwise, white could play rook to f2, pinning and winning that pony. Magnus doubles up behind his passer, once again threatening to thrust it, but now Hans has rook to g8, ready to meet a blunderous f4 with rook to g3 check, defended by his knight. When at the very least, black could pick up the loose pawn on b3, though the engine is saying that doubling the rooks first is actually the only way to win, so Magnus very prudently drops his king back to h2, just preventing that potential check altogether, when after f4, rook to g3 can now be met with an immediate rook to f3, so Hans decides to prevent f4 in a different way now, with rook to e8, looking to win the pawn on e4, if and when f4 is ever pushed. So Magnus puts his rook on e1, at which point the engine is saying that black is all good to just drop his knight into f4, when if white were to trade pieces, then black can double his rooks on the f-file, with ample pressure on the white position to hold the draw. But Hans decides to go for knight to f6, a losing blunder, though pretty flipping far from obviously so, if you ask me, but as far as I can tell, if Magnus were to find his only winning response here, rook to g2, which he does not, then the prospect of doubling his rooks, threatening to come into g6, attacking h6, is a big problem for black, who really doesn't want to allow a trade of pieces with something like rook to g7, as he is the side who's down in material. Now if his knight were still sitting on h5 here, then he could just grab the pawn on f3, but if he tries to put it there now, well, then it's pretty much all green north for white's pawn push to f4, seeing that after knight takes f4, rook to f2 is going to be picking up a piece, when after rook e to f8 defending and rook e to f1, that pinned pony of black's will be leaving the arena, unless of course he wants to give up a whole rook. So just a little sampler of how Magnus could have gained a crushing position, but what's played in the game after this move knight to f6, which does deserve some credit for being crafty, seeing that it threatens knight is king to g2, allowing rook to g7 with check, when after king to f1, knight back to h5, Magnus now puts his rook on g2, inviting a trade of heavy pieces, pawn says no with rook to f7, at which point if Magnus were to push f4, then knight takes f4 would be a good and winning response for black, seeing that with the white king on f1, he's no longer able to quickly double his rooks on the f file, unlike that previous line we looked at. So we have king to e2, clearing that f1 square, rook e to f8, increasing the pressure, we now get a bit of shuffling that more or less maintains the status quo of the position, not a whole lot to see here, these are not the moves you're looking for, the equality of the position is just about as total as the solar eclipse I witnessed back in 2017, until we get to this moment here, where according to the engine, black really needs to play either rook to e7 or rook to e8, when if white were to push f4, then he'd have a knight to f6, hitting the rook, winning the pawn on e4, but what's played is rook f to e8, which looks very reasonable, twice attacking the pawn on e4, which will be picked up if white pushes f4, only trouble is, with white's rook now watching over f4, and black's rook not, he's now able to put his bishop on that square, greatly improving its scope, with the idea of dropping it back to h2 if necessary, supporting the advance of his e pawn, which apparently is enough to give white a winning position. Trading off the minor pieces is of course no solution for black, as white's recapturing rook would be way too active, so another winning opportunity, now missed by magnus, who instead plays rook to g1, which truth be told, just might be winning as well, but if hans were to play rook to e7 here, just maintaining that pressure on e4, then white's path to victory, if it exists at all, would be quite challenging indeed, but what's played is the egregiously blunderous rook to f6, allowing magnus to finally play a consequence-free f4, when after rook to f7, clearing the way to meet f5 with knight to f6, twice attacking e4, and rook to e2 defending, black is without the faintest whisper of hope. You got rook to g6 incoming, doubling up on h6, so we do have knight to d7, ready to meet any of that noise with a forking knight to e5 check, magnus responds bishop to f4, ready to capture on that square if necessary, he doesn't really want his king getting kicked out of d3, where it's doing a nice job of blockading black's passer, if rook to f6 to prevent rook to g6, then white can just double his rooks, and then come into g6 anyway, or even go to g7, depending on how black responds, so we have rook f to e7, for whatever reason, not that you really need one, when all your moves are totally losing, magnus infiltrates g6, when if black wants to save his pawn, he could play knight to e5 check, forcing white to trade off his bishop, but then the pawn on b6 falls, and the black position is quickly collapsing, so we instead have rook to g7, to which i would surely respond with the top choice of the engine, as i'm sure many of you would, rook takes h6 check, but magnus, as if to emphasize just how crushing his domination of the position has become, pushes h5 instead, just defending his rook, when after rook takes g6, h takes g6 check, and king to g7, we now have rook to h2, once again targeting h6, hans throws his knight on e5 with check, when if king to d2, well then you get the knight fork from f3, and if king to c2 or to e2, then black can start pushing his passer with a check, so no reason to allow any of that, when you can just play bishop takes e5 check, as magnus now does, when after rook takes e5, he's now got himself a pretty elementary win, with the extra pawn, the three connected passers, so no need to talk about all of these moves, we do see magnus rerouting his king towards the east, probably looking to put it on f4, supporting a possible e5, of course this does unblock the pawn on d4, which hans now begins to push, now white can get away with rook takes h6 here, in case anyone's wondering about that, but magnus plays it safe, he puts his rook on h2, guarding d2, when after rook to d8, king to e3, rook to d4, and rook to d2, white is now threatening to pick up the pawn for free, hence the move king to e5, counterattacking e4, but now we get a really nice touch by magnus with g7, when if black were to take on e4 with check, then after king to f3, rook to f4 check, and king to g3, black would be all out of useful checks, with no way to stop promotion on g8 next, so we have the necessary rook to d8, defending the back rank, the d pawn falls, we have rook to g8 attacking, rook to d7 defending, at which point the engine is giving white a forced mate in 15, but after king to f6, it's suddenly become a forced mate in 3, 182 points to anyone who can work it all out in 10 seconds or less, pause the video if you need to, but it begins with king to f4, just threatening e5 checkmate, and you can take it from there if you'd like, but with both these players now quite low on time, the engine perfect moves are starting to become a bit less frequent, we have rook to d6 check, king to f7, rook to g6 defending the pawn, welcoming a trade of course, hans throws in a desperado h5, but after e5, he says okay, i guess i will take on g7, magnus throws in a check for good measure, before making the capture on g7, when after king takes g7, and king to f4, black's position has now become just about as resignable as a position can possibly be, aside from the fact that both players are now down to around 10 seconds on their clocks, which i'm sure is 100% of the reason that hans decides to keep on playing, with king to f6, we have king to g3, headed to h4, and for any of you beginners who may be watching, this is a very nice little pawn formation to remember, as white's e and f pawns are basically defending one another, since if black ever captures on f5, then he'll be unable to stop white's e pawn from promoting, so you'll want to remember that, we have h4 check, just giving up the pawn to king takes h4, seeing that it was pretty much doomed anyway, we have king to e7, the white king approaches, while neman's takes off towards the queen side, not really a whole lot to say at this point, magnus of course spawns a brand new lady, and in just a handful of moves, he goes ahead and spawns another one, hans presses on though, obviously hoping for a dirty flagging, which is more than fair, but after king to a1, magnus does still have ample clock time to play queen c to b2, here on move 97, with check and mate, so there you have it my friends, is this the longest game these two have ever played against one another? do let me know in the comments if you know, or even if you don't, i won't be the wiser, but now regarding my earlier comment, about how it's kind of weird that hans neman continually invites us to let his chess speak for itself, isn't that kind of what led to all the drama in the first place back in 2022? i mean if people have been analyzing your chess, and coming to the conclusion that something funny must be going on, and you are totally innocent, well then there's obviously been some misinterpretation of whatever your chess is saying, so wouldn't it be better to say something like, i speak for the chess now, listen to me? just the thought i had, kind of reminds me of that scene in rounders, where he says let's let the cards do the talking, but anyway that's it for this video, but don't go anywhere, because you're going to want to check out this one next, it features one of the most incredible games that hans neman has ever been involved in, it's not one to be missed, as always take care of yourselves, and each other, enjoy this next game, and i'll see you next time!