"IMPOSSIBLE!" Entire Chess Universe SPEECHLESS After This 4000 Elo Sacrifice!

Take a good hard look at the position you see before you. Imagine that you've got the white pieces and you've just pushed your pawn to g5. How do you feel? Probably pretty optimistic, right? Your pawnstorming attack has pretty much arrived, you're threatening to crack open the g-file next, and what does black have besides this solitary infiltrator on b4? Okay, he does have the half open c-file to work with, but making anything come of that is at least going to require a few moves, and when you consider the fact that he's up against none other than the world's number one woodweaver Magnus Carlsen, well, shucks. Black may as well just throw in the towel right now. But black does not throw in the towel. Instead, he gets it a bit wet, rolls it up nice and tight, and then proceeds to snap Magnus Carlsen right back to reality with a series of sacrificial haymakers so brutal that in no more than 11 moves from the position you see before you, the great and mighty Wizard of Oslo finds himself staring down the wrong end of a forced mate in four. Will his wretched sorcery enable him to conjure up some last minute miracle to save his game, or will his most ferocious opponent, the great Daniel Naroditsky, see through it all and flawlessly convert his brilliantly earned winning advantage? Well, I have no idea, so why don't we find out together? As I already told you, Magnus Carlsen has the white pieces in this 3 minute blitz obliteration played on chess.com in October of 2022, and he opens the game with e4. Daniel responds e5, we have your knight to f3 attacking, knight to c6 defending, bishop to c4, known as the Italian game, the strong and sensible knight to f6 attacking the p, d3 defending, and now comes the slightly unusual h6. Bishop to c5 is of course the much more popular option, but this is a well known alternative, just ruling out any bishop to g5 or knight to g5, aka the fried liver attack, although I think that white would have had to play knight to g5 a move earlier instead of d3 for it to be a true fried liver, but I could finally be wrong about something. Daniel has now slightly weakened his king side, one could argue, so what does Magnus do? He pushes his a pawn. Has he reverted back to rolling dice to choose his opening moves again? Is he drawing straws? Maybe even casting lots? Who the hell knows, but this move is pretty okay, gaining a bit of territory, giving the light squared bishop a nice little hideout on a2 in case knight to a5 is ever played. Daniel says okay, if it's good enough for you, I can do it too. We have knight to c3, bishop to c5, bishop to e3, inviting the move that Daniel plays next, which is not the engine recommended, bishop to b4, pinning knight to king, but rather bishop takes e3. When after the pawn recaptures, Magnus now has what is probably the most favorable version of doubled pawns that one could ever hope to have, as he's now got more control of the center, as well as this newly half opened f file, along which he may later activate a rook. We have d6, best move in the position, defending black's best good pawn, opening a line for his bishop, while not yet committing to a king side castling. Very prudent. Daniel is probably waiting to see which way Magnus will go with his king first, but the chess goat keeps his cards close to his chest for the moment, with queen to d2, keeping both options on the table. Daniel develops his bishop to e6, putting the question to its counterpart on c4, a question that Magnus either answers or completely ignores, depending on how you define such things, with his next move, which is the castle queen side. Now Stockfish is not too pleased with this decision, since if Daniel were to now capture on c4, which he does not, then after the recapture, white would be left with two pairs of doubled pawns, one of which is totally isolated. However, upon deeper analysis, our great oceanic oracle begins to second guess itself, as it starts to realize that black doesn't really have any great way to exploit these weaknesses, since he can't really target any of the weak pawns, and any of his standard pawn breaks would only allow white to trade off one or more of them. He does think black's a bit better here, but nothing to really froth over too heavily. So, getting back to what was played in the game, where Daniel leaves that bishop right alone, and instead puts his queen on d7, a not good move. Feel free to pause the video if you'd like to try and figure out why, and while you're doing so, go ahead and hit that subscribe button, and then like the video to show how much you like it, if and only if it feels really really right, of course, or just makes you feel anything at all, for the first time in much longer than you care to remember. Either way, it's always very deeply appreciated. The top engine reply, now found by Magnus, is bishop to b5, pinning knight to queen, with the very simple threat of pushing a pawn to d4, then to d5, winning said knight. Daniel responds with the best defensive move, he just slides his queen over to e7, unpinning the steed, at which point d4 is still a very fine move for white, because who doesn't like an ideal duo, whether in chess or in anything else? But you know what's also very strong? The move Magnus plays next, h3, preparing g4 followed by g5, in a fairly standard attempt to compromise the structural integrity of the black king's castle, if he dare take refuge on that side of the board. And this highlights another useful aspect of this move, bishop to b5, which is that if black were to instead go queenside like so, well then comes a trade on c6, leaving the queenside structure in tattered ruin. White can then continue knight to e2, targeting the pawn on a5, which can and will be picked up at his earliest convenience, and black is pretty much losing. So what's played is not the borderline blunderous queenside castling, but rather the top engine move, which is to just castle in the other direction. Not something that I would likely do on purpose, since after the very predictable g4 by Magnus, it seems that g5 is more or less inevitable. White's got himself a ready-made attack on the kingside, and what does black really have to counter it? Well, he's got knight to h7, putting another two pairs of peepers on that g5 square, thus slowing down the kingside assault, so that black can get something of his own going on the queenside with moves like knight to b4, c6, b5, etc. So white is the better side here, but still pretty much anybody's game. This was not seen in the game though, where in response to Magnus' menacing g4 move, Dania decides to put his knight on d7, a catastrophic blunder, gifting unto Magnus a devastatingly decisive move, which he fails to play. But if you can spot it within a few seconds or less, and then want to use that as a way to convince yourself that you're better at chess than Magnus Carlsen, I won't take any issue with it. The winning move, now available to white, is d4, just threatening d5, forking knight and bishop. So one of those pieces is going to have to move. The bishop doesn't have anywhere to go, but if the knight retreats, well then d5 comes anyway, trapping the bishop, and black just loses a piece. So pretty remarkable for Magnus Carlsen not to spot this relatively simple resource, but he's pretty fixated on the king's side, and in the game he instead goes ahead with rook d to g1, ready to push g5 next. Dania throws a knight on b4, just nullifying white's threat of winning a piece after the move d4, now played by Magnus, seeing that Dania now has c6, hitting the bishop, and after a scurries to e2, d5, equalizing the position, if in the great fish we continue to trust. Magnus takes on d5, and after the recapture, he does not grab the complementary pawn on e5, since after this, and this, his resulting pawn structure would not exactly be a picture of health, and he'd probably end up losing the pawn on e5 anyway. Instead, he just goes ahead with his g5, and what do you think black ought to play here? Well if you said bishop to f5, then you should definitely reach around and give yourself a good hard pat on the back, and if you further saw that g takes h6 is best met with g6, then you should really feel good and proud, as this is the best way to keep the king's side as defended as possible, while posting the bishop on a wonderfully active square, attacking the c2 pawn with piece number 2, when after something like bishop to d1 defending, the position remains about equal. What's played by Dania however, is the somewhat dubious pawn to e4, gaining some space, as well as the pawn on g5, after Magnus retreats his attack knight to e1, and h takes g5. However, if Magnus were to now find his strongest move in the position, h4, then black would have no great way to prevent the opening of one or more lines to his king, seeing that g4 would just give the pawn back to bishop takes g4, taking on h4 would of course open the g file, and anything else would allow white to open the h file, with h takes g4. Furthermore, black's bishop is now looking pretty pathetic, with its best good attacking diagonal now blunted by a friendly foot soldier, so a pretty dismal position here for team black, with the engine giving about a pawn and a half advantage to white, but what's played is not the winning advantage seizing h4, but rather the highly dubious bishop to b5, when after f6, just strengthening the kingside structure a bit, and queen to e2, one can't help but wonder, what is Magnus building over there? Is he looking to sneak his queen into h5 at some point? Does he have that move h4 in the brain? Maybe looking to meet g4 with a sacrifice of the exchange? Well, we may never know, because Dania's attack is going to be arriving first, and it begins with rook a to c8, a very natural move, inhabiting the half open file, at which point the engine's recommending knight to d1, and if you don't know why, you will find out in just a moment, but Magnus opts for knight to g2, presumably so that he can push h4, and then meet g4 with knight to f4. Only trouble is, Dania now has at his disposal a powerful winning haymaker. Pause the video once again if you'd like to try and spot it. It is a sacrifice of an entire rook for an entire knight on c3, when after the recapture, there comes knight to a2 check, and this is a pretty remarkable move for Dania to find, since if Magnus were to just play king to b2 here, how exactly is black dealing with the attack on his stranded knight, which is suddenly trapped? Well, I'll tell you. It's with the move that Dania plays after Magnus puts his king on the better square, d2, which is knight takes c3, when if white's king were sitting on b2, then he'd be facing the prospect of queen to b4 with check, which needless to say would be quite disastrous indeed, especially if white were to now capture the knight, in which case queen to b4 would be check and mate. How beautiful is that? So what's played is the much superior, though still ultimately losing, queen to e1, when after queen to b4, setting up a dirty discovery, a trade on d7, and queen to a1, if Dania were to just go ahead and execute that discovery, let's say with something like knight takes a4 check, he would still be totally winning according to the engine, but after c3, hitting the queen, defended by the let's say queen to c4, things are not as crystal clear as they could be, and as they were in the game, where Dania just very patiently puts his rook on c8, now threatening a mate in 4, which if white does nothing to prevent, let's say he pushes h4, would commence as follows, knight to b1, double discovered check, when if the king were to go to c1, then queen to d2 check, defended by the rook, and after king to e2, there follows rook to c2 check, king to f1, queen to c4 check, king to e1 only move, and now queen to e2 check mate. So in anticipation of this, Magnus just goes ahead and puts his king on the run, to e1, but sadly, it's to no avail, after knight to b1, discovered check, king to f2, rook to c2 check, king to g3, and what do you think Black's best move is here? Well, he's actually got a forced mate in 4, beginning with queen to d2, seeing that white has no good way to defend against what's coming next, which after something like queen takes b1, is going to be queen to f2 check, king to h2, and now queen to f3, threatening checkmate on h3, and there's just nothing white can do about it, seeing that moving his rook from g1 to give his king a square would only allow queen takes g2 checkmate, but after what's played in the game, which is queen to d6 check, Magnus can see that it's basically game over, and therefore does make the timely decision to tender his resignation. White has but a single legal move in the position, knight to f4, when after g takes f4 check, and white's best reply, e takes f4, Black has now regained his sacrificed material, and actually has a forced mate in 7, which I guess I'll go ahead and show you right quick, it goes g5, attacking the pinned pawn, rook to f1 defending, queen to b4, threatening to come into d2, or into b3 with check, either of which would be absolutely devastating, as evidenced by the engine's top move, which is to just sacrifice the queen, like so, when after queen takes b2, f takes g5, rook to g2 check, king to h4, queen to d2, hitting g5, rook to f5 defending, bishop takes f5, and any move that white makes next, queen takes g5, will be check and mate. So what did you all think? Was that not one of the most brutal takedowns of the supposed mortal we call Magnus that you've ever seen? Do let me know in the comments, and then feel free to suggest any other masterpieces played by the late great Daniel Naroditsky that you'd like to see me cover, and then stick around for this video next, I promise you it will not disappoint. Do take care of yourselves, and some of those other people too, never walk and chew your food at the same time if you happen to be in air force basic training, as the TIs will tell you that it's a safety hazard while screaming in your face, and I'll see you next time.