They say, 'It's Over.' So Magnus Sacrifices Everything ¦ Carlsen vs Rapport

This game just gives me goosebumps. It was in this position. Magnus has played his king over and the commentators wrote him off. He's lost. It's mate in seven. What does he do? You're about to find out. Let's take it from the top. There's three brilliancies to come. This is vintage Carlsen. Sagar Shah called it the most exciting game of his career. Played in 2022. World Blitz Chess Championship. Unreal scenes and Richie Rapport. Love that guy. Love his chess. Plays a French defense. Whispers on guard. What a battle we have. They get three minutes each plus a bit of time back. That's known as excrement and this is known as the Winoa Variation. Super sharp. Super exciting. Fischer called it anti-positional because you give up the bishops. You weaken your king side. Of course you could play some queen g4 stuff but here we go. The modern approach baby. Magnus plows the h pawn down. Now in case you're wondering. Yes black can do this and this and this and win a pawn but after the knight develops. Picks up tempos here. It's huge initiative for white. You don't want to be running into this. In blitz especially. So we get just some calm development. Magnus carries on thrusting. The pawn that is. Don't get any ideas. They keep it clean at the board. Richie's had enough. He stops the advance. Knight galloping into the game. Keep your eye on that one. We know Magnus loves a maneuver. Bishop a6 is a standard plan. You could start with a4. The check is the flicked in here. Bishop blocking and again a4. Very playable line but Magnus drops back. Goading this one. Come at me bro. The explosive c4 played. It's a connect four. Richie Rapport wins himself a wonderful new pair of donut shorts. Look at him there. Sporting them. Wore them regularly when he was second to Ding Liren during the World Chess Championship a couple years back. Magnus backs off here. Whose bishop is stinkier? It's hard to say. Neither is great. This is a weird move but it does sit on the head of the pawn. Stop it advancing. Stop bishop a3. Whoopsie. Slate in the day here and also it pressures here and watch where this queen heads. It's nuts. First the knight's on the edge of the board. Magnus Schwarzenegger does not approve. Queen d2. Castle's queenside and you know it's going to get exciting. You know when Cagnus Marlson starts maneuvering like this. Loves his horsey. Loves practicing with his hobby horse that it's going to get fun. The king tucks in. Knight all the way back. Dad's ashamed. What are you doing here? Queen d7's on the board. Off she goes. Watch the journey. This one reaches the promised land. Knight c7 played. King f1. Wonderful maneuvering game. Why can the players do this? Why do they have this license? Well the pawn structure's closed. There goes the queen. She's snaking away. I mean you just don't find these plans unless you've prepped deep. Spent a lifetime buried with your head in chess books and engines. The king's lined up now by bishop and rook. He's had enough. He steps back at least off one x-ray attack. We now get queen e2 and Magnus is hinting and hinting hard. I'm gonna sack something richy. Rook c8's on the board. Now rook b2. Bit of prophylaxis first. This one was x-rayed a couple times here or straight up attacked. Knight b5 going for the throat here and if you start going queen d2, queen e1, knight d1, it's very passive. This is blitz chess. This is when you go, go, go, go. Bang! What a cool move. Epic chess for sure. This pawn's now defended. Of course you have to take. You can't live with that one and amazingly the best way to play here. Check out this line into the bat cave analysis mode. The board's greyed out. Is taking a knight here. There's me thinking I had the line prepared. No I don't. Bishop takes and this is the best follow-up and the whole long-term point is that you drop back the bishops. Get these central pawns rumbling and somehow amazingly a4 often comes on the board as well. Queen c4 if you take. White has enough compensation for a rook. Crazy lines. Not this game. Magnus doesn't do it. He plays the more natural e6 check. Opening up one of those laser beams. The bishops are stacked up. King b7 is played. Takes. Now we see queen f5 going for the pawn here. Rook b4 for Magnus. Rook lifting great. He was in great shape at this point. Got the old Rook lift t-shirt on today. Do check out the merch shop if you haven't already. Love the products there. The t-shirts, the hats, everything. 100% cotton this one. It's good stuff. I'll wear it down the chess club from time to time. Knight takes is played and this is Magnus's point. By randomizing. Giving a rook. How much is he down now? An entire rook. He lands a little check. He's chasing the king. A little bit reminiscent of Kasparov's king hunt against Topalov. His immortal game. Double question marks of doom. Actually stepping back with the knight was best. Never easy to know these things. You could take with the a-pawn. Then this bishop starts looking stupid. But Magnus takes like this. This one now looks trapped. But it wiggles out. That's a free pawn. a4 is played here. Knight stumbling back. Apparently sacrificing was best. Far from obvious right? This was played. What does Magnus do? Smashes it off with one of his bishops. You don't want to give up the bishops. But it was a great defensive piece. Now this pawn's a bit tender. Surely you recapture? No. Mistake. Rook h4 apparently. Coming in like this. The f-pawn gets very dangerous. You can't take. Or this. This. This. Check. King. Bang. Just the flavor of the lines. So we didn't see rook takes. We saw bishop e4. A wooden shield. And the point is. If you take. Will queen takes with check. If f3. Queen e2. Check. And you can always then pick up this bishop. So Magnus drops back. We get takes with check. King recaptures. And look at this. The king's flushed out into the open. Rook is surely dropping off the board. Yes it does. Amazingly queen e6 check is actually stronger. Go for some pawns. Consolidate. And just use the fact that you're in exchange ahead. But not played. I mean who's not playing that move? Looks amazing. But now check. And the Magnus counterattack is on the way. Such a wild game. We get rook hd8. Big mistake actually. Apparently g6 best. But very very difficult to understand. Low on time. Even on loads of time. This queen defends. Importantly in the game we get this. To over protect d5. But it doesn't actually do the job. Because Magnus can check. And because of this. And this. The king has to step here. And now the winning idea is. Pawn f3. Magnus misses it. The point is. You've cut the connection of queen and pawn. And so this starts to be a threat. And the rook is overloaded defending d5. And the f8 queening square. This is the problem. The minute it goes. You take. And not just with check. It leads to a mate. And this rook's glued to c6. For the same reasons. Winning move. Missed. Magnus blunders like an absolute patser. Just kidding of course. Rook takes his played here. He invades. It looks terminal. He's missed the detail. So understandable. Low on time. What does Ritchie play? Rook takes on f4. What a shot. If king takes. The natural move. Does queen e4. Check. And mate. The pawn combines with the queen to shut the trap. So. Pawn takes. But now the white king is woefully exposed. Don't step to f5. Queen h3 check. And skewer business. So we get this. Loads of checks now. And Ritchie's got a draw on tap. If he wants it. But he wants more. And he pushes that p. Obviously Magnus takes on croissant. Bellows it in this wonderful French accent that he's picked up over the years here. Now we see check again. Why did Ritchie give the pawn? Well it's to unleash this one. More great chess. More impossibility of this. So therefore Magnus steps back. Few more checks here. Lots of checks rumbling on. And this is beautiful. Rushed over that. Lost my arrows. But you get the point. Ritchie gives up the queen. And then the pawn. But all of it with check. Forces Magnus' one off. And he's correctly assessed. Hugely low on time. That in this pawn race. He's ahead. And before you can say. Ray Robson. Tell us how the pawns feel when they become queens. They're changing into a different piece. They're not going to be themselves anymore. It's like. Am I myself if I change into someone else? It's existential questions for the pawns. We get a big race on our hands. It's an existential question. No one really knows how the little guys feel. Or gals. Now we see a couple of queens. The third and fourth queens in the game. Unreal scenes. Guess what? There's another one to come. What an immortal game of blitz chess. Lots of checks here. Of course there's a draw on tap. Black is completely winning by the way. It's not even close. You're dead. There's a winning move here. Mate in seven. Rook c6 check. King has to go. You know your only option is that square. Or blocking with the queen. So you step up. And now simply a check. And you're winning the queen. You know you can't step back. That's the game. So let's run back. Completely winning idea. Missed low on time. Because the queen was used to check. Still there's a win with rook b8 to cover the mate. But it's complicated. And this is the thing. The thorn pawn creates these tricks. Ritchie goes with this check. And it's a drawing move. Apparently. But he doesn't even draw. He now plays the howler. Queen e8. And it looks amazing. You're forcing the queens off. Rook then covers the pawn. This one runs through. No mating threats. Because the queen's pinned to the king. All great. Except it doesn't work. Magnus plays g8 equals queen. The second brilliancy. There's one more to come. And you can't take it. As you'd want to do. Because this is a mate. You're not taking with check or anything. So because you can't take. What do you do? You take here with check. Queen takes. You're about to get mated. Try and stop it with the rook. No good. Anyway you get mated. So what to do? Check was tried. But now at this stage. They're really spike checks. Magnus is safe. When you've got two queens defending the monarch. You're all good. And bang. Oh my god. Move 71. Third brilliancy. Seals the deal. This is where Ritchie resigned. If he captured. This is a winning continuation. King can't move. You have to give up the queen. That's the game. And what to do? You're checked. You try and block like this. Then you take on d5. King here. And I guess this is the mate. Queen is pinned. Wonderful. Exciting game. Hope you enjoyed this one. Have a look at the video on screen. If you want to see another incredible game of Magnus Carlsen chess. Thanks a lot for watching. And see you soon. Cheers.