Magnus Is BEYOND COMPUTERS! Sends Commentators Into MELTDOWN w/ 4000 Elo Move!

Hello chess friends. If you ever wanted ironclad proof that Magnus Carlsen is basically a human computer, then look no further than the sacrificial masterpiece that I'm about to show you, played only days ago in the ongoing Global Chess League. It's the game that everybody's been talking about and the one that everyone's been getting wrong, and that includes the engine. I mean, just listen to what the commentators had to say in this position after Magnus' decision to capture on F6 with his knight. Oh, you silly humans. Myself included. Just blindly parroting whatever the engine tells you. And yes, it does initially think that knight takes F6 is a mistake for white, but I'm going to be showing you a variation that demonstrates why this is actually not the case, and that Magnus did in fact execute his attack with absolute precision, flawlessly navigating a position so complicated that even the mighty stockfish had trouble understanding it. Magnus Carlsen is playing for the Alpine APL Pipers in this day six encounter. He's up against none other than the four-time world champion and a true legend of the game, Vishwanathan Anand. The time control is 20 minutes with the two-second increment. Magnus Carlsen has team white and he opens with G3, the Hungarian opening. It's about as hyper modern as a move can be, looking to control the center from afar after Anand's knight to F6 with bishop to G2. We have D5, horsehead to F3, and now the strong and sensible E6, closing the door on the light-haired cleric in order to activate the other one, so that after Magnus castles, the bishop can go to E7, preparing to do the same. Very main line-ish sort of play so far. D4 would be a very reasonable move here, transposing into a Catalan-type system, but Magnus didn't bust out G3 just to go and do something like that. He instead opts for D3, keeping that hyper modern dream alive by keeping his pieces out of the center until he sees good and fit. Anand gets his king to safety, we have knight to C3, a move that I wouldn't be too eager to play, as it does allow black to gain some more space with D4 attacking the knight, which at this point I would probably want to put on B5, just doubling up on D4 when after C5 defending, black would be the slightly better side. But Magnus decides to go for knight to E4, allowing black to inflict a couple hearts worth of damage on his pawn structure by capturing the knight, when after D takes E4, white's got himself a pair of doubled pawns. But Anand doesn't go for this, and the reason is that white does now have a pawn in the center, which will almost certainly be pushed to E5, reopening the D for his B. You've also got the move E3 on the cards, pressuring this somewhat overextended minion of black's, when if he were to make the trade on E3, well, guess who doesn't have doubled pawns anymore? So, nothing for black to froth over too heavily here. Instead, we just have knight to C6, defending D4, we next have E3, applying the pressure, the capture is made, and this brings us to our first of many instructional moments this game has to offer. What would you play here as white? Subscribe to the channel and hit that like button while you mull it over, and then let us know in the comments what you came up with. Well, bishop takes E3 is a very reasonable move, but not if you want to play for a win, since after a trade of knights on E4, a trade of queens on D1, and then E5, you got your light square bishop's diagonal blocked, a symmetrical pawn structure, zero queens on the board, not exactly conducive to anything better than a draw. Okay, so what else? Well, you could try taking on E3 with the pawn, but this is actually losing for white, when after knight takes E4, D takes E4, and E5, he's left with a horribly weakened pawn structure, having the doubled Aesolanis, in addition to his terrible bishop on G2. So, what's played by Magnus is white's best move in the position, assuming he wants to try and win this game, knight takes F6 check, when after the bishop recaptures, he now takes on E3, giving himself a very healthy 2v1 pawn majority in the center, while keeping his light square bishop unobstructed by friendly pawns. Anand pushes E5 because he can, activating his own LSB, discouraging any D4 from white, as well as the move bishop to D2, as that would run into E4, hitting both the knight and the undefended pawn on B2. So we instead have knight to D2, opening the sniper's one good eye, maybe looking to hop into E4 next, targeting the bishop on F6, Anand preempts that with bishop to E7, but after Magnus puts his knight on C4 instead, you might find yourself wondering if bishop to E7 wasn't just a big waste of time for black. Well, the answer is nay, even here it has a purpose, due to the fact that white is now threatening bishop takes C6, followed by knight takes pawn on E5, to which black can now respond F6, defending with a pawn, as opposed to the bishop, which can now go to C5, where it will be sitting on a much more active diagonal. Magnus pushes A4, gaining a bit of space, the engine's not a fan of this move, it preferred the move that Magnus plays next, after bishop to E6, which is B3, preparing a potential bishop to B2, or so I would assume, also enabling B takes C4, if black were to capture the knight, which would be better than taking with the D pawn, but after bishop to D5 from Anand, looking to remove a key defender of the white king's keep, Magnus plays a move that, at first glance, looked more than a bit mysterious to me, he pushes C3, which kind of looks like it's preparing D4, but I think it's really more about keeping black's knight out of B4, since after the light square bishops come off the board, if white tries pushing C3 after the knight beds down on that square, well, then the pawn on D3 is going to be lost. So, that's what I think is going on here. We next have A6, threatening B5 next, to boot the knight out of C4. Magnus responds A5, so that after bishop takes G2, and the king recaptures, he's all good to meet B5, with an en passant capturing on B6, and then C takes B6 with the move E4, clearing a new home for his knight on E3. Anand pushes B5, which at this point might seem like kind of an odd decision, since after knight to E3, that pivoting pony has only improved its position, now eyeing up a couple of very delectable squares. Furthermore, the pawn on A6 is now a bit weaker, being a bit backward, but you know a player of Anand's caliber isn't gonna just push his pawns willy-nilly, and we do in fact get to see exactly what he's up to on the very next move that he plays, B4. He of course wants to eliminate the defender of the D4 square, giving his knight a beautiful forward post. And how do you think Magnus should respond? Should he make the capture on B4, or just push his pawn to C4? Well, you might be surprised to learn that the correct move is actually C takes B4, and the reason is that after the bishop recaptures and knight to D5, if black's knight were to come straight into D4, he would of course lose a whole bishop, and if he instead moves his bishop to a square like D6, well then white can play bishop to E3, guarding that D4 square, ready to take out black's knight, if and when he ever moves it there. Now you could try bishop to C5 here, watching over that E3 square, but now comes queen to C2, getting lined up on these two undefended pieces. Queen to D6 is the only good defense, but after queen to C4, white's now threatening a dirty discovered check. So after the necessary king to H8, just getting out of the way of that, despite the fact that white can now grab the pawn on A6 with his rook, the position remains about equal, according to the engine anyway. And yes, I do realize that the whole premise of this video is that the engine isn't always right, but it certainly knows better than I do. So anyway, if we contrast this to the move played by Magnus, which is the very understandable C4, just giving himself a shiny new passer, well here, after bishop to C5, Anand need not worry about any queen to C2, as his bishop is shielded by the pawn on C4, and is doing a very nice job of blockading it. Magnus puts his knight on D5, per the original plan. We next have A5, just strengthening the queen side a bit, adding some defense to B4, maybe even thinking about pushing A4 someday. If white were to play bishop to B2 here, then bishop to D4 would be the move, forcing the trade of bishops due to the pin, then his knight could come into D4 uncontested. Bishop to E3 would of course lead to the same sort of thing, after bishop takes E3. Now Anand could have played knight to D4 on his last move, but he probably wants to wait until Magnus moves his queen or his bishop somewhere. That way, knight to D4 is either going to come with an attack on the white queen, if it's moved to one of these light squares, and or the pawn to B3, or it's going to require white to expend a second move with his bishop, if he wants to put it on E3 to challenge that knight. Magnus says, that's okay, I can wait on those moves, I've got some things I can do, like pushing my pawn to H4, then to H5, then to H6, you know the drill, I'll bite into your king side, try to get you to play G6, then you'll have a weak pawn on F6, in addition to my thorny pawn embedded on H6. It's pretty much just how to play like alpha 0 101. And how do you think black should respond? There's actually a number of decent moves here, the most natural of which just might be queen to D6, connecting the rooks, but what about the move Anand plays, queen to D7? Well, this is a bit of an inaccuracy. Now, it's not losing or anything, but after Magnus barrels ahead with H5, and the move Anand plays next, which would otherwise be quite safe for black, H6, preventing white's pawn from advancing further, in this position, is very risky. Pause the video once again, if you'd like to try and guess what's coming next, it is a sacrifice of the religious variety, bishop takes pawn on H6, when after the recapture is made, if black had put his queen on the superior D6 square, then his pawn on F6 would be twice defended, and he would not be losing it to a capture by white's knight or rook. But which capture is better? Well, according to the commentators, and the initial evaluation of the engine, rook takes F6, a move not played by Magnus, gives white a winning advantage. However, this evaluation is totally incorrect. Black is able to defend this position, though it isn't going to be easy. Now, white's biggest threat here is to play queen to D2, and then take the pawn on H6. Black, of course, cannot capture his rook, seeing that knight takes F6 would come with a royal fork, winning the queen. So, best is going to be knight to E7, looking to eliminate white's knight so that he can eliminate the rook. The engine's given queen to D2, knight takes D5, rook to G6 check, and now king to F7, which just looks crazy, but apparently, after the recapture on D5, black can actually get away with putting his king on E8, a move that the engine had originally thought was losing, and we're about to see why. Okay, so best for white now is going to be rook to E6 check, when after king to D8, he's all good to grab the pawn on H6. Of course, this does allow black's rook to come into F2 with check, to which white should respond king to H3, putting his own rook into a pin. Black can then play rook to A6, hitting it again, when after rook to C1, attacking his bishop, we come to a critical moment in the variation, where in its initial calculation, stockfish had failed to find black's best move, bishop to E7, instead giving rook takes E6, which is losing. So, you know it's a complicated position when even the engine gets confused by it, and if you're wondering why bishop to E7 is necessary here, well, one reason is that it shields the black king from getting checked from G5, when if queen to H8 check, he's all good to block with his rook, and after queen takes pawn on E5, he can put his bishop on D6, so that the queen doesn't come into B8, and somehow black is okay here, despite the fact that he's now the one who's a bit down in material, with a very exposed king, not to mention all of white's connected passers. I can tell you that in some lines, black is able to create a passed pawn of his own by pushing A4, but beyond that, any attempt to explain exactly how black is supposed to hold this position is probably going to be a tactical nightmare for everyone involved. So, once again, we're just going to have to trust the flip-flopping engine when it tells us the position is totally equal, as we get right back to the game, where after the recapture on H6, Magnus does not play the move that everyone mistakenly thought he needed to play, rook takes F6, instead recapturing with his knight, forking king and queen. Rook takes F6 is of course a necessity, assuming black wants to keep his queen, when after rook takes F6, we next have rook to F8, a very good move, since if Magnus were to now take on H6, then rook to F2 check, defended by the bishop, would actually force mate in another four moves. And I'll leave those details for you to work out, if you'd like. What's played is queen to F3, just defending the rook, while clearing the way to get the other one involved in the attack, and it's here that the former world champion finally cracks. Black has a couple of decent moves in the position, apparently queen to G7 is very playable, but I think that bishop to E7 is probably the most straightforward, just attacking white's rook, which is of course not free to take the pawn on H6, lest he loses queen, and if he tries rook to G6 check, then black's all good to put his king on H7, seeing the queen to H3, attacking H6, can now be met with bishop to G5 defending, and everything's just fine for everybody, aka the position's still a draw. Now contrast this to what's played in the game, where Anand decides to try knight to D4, a catastrophic blunder, which I must say looks pretty superficially super, I mean you're hitting the queen, attacking B3, what's not to like? Well, after rook to G6 check from Magnus, if black were to play king to H7 here, then queen to E3 would leave him with no good way to defend the pawn on H6, since unlike the previous line we looked at, bishop to G5 would not be a legal move. So Anand decides to try king to H8, so at least he's got the option of blocking the check with his queen, of course this does allow Magnus to immediately take on H6 with his rook, attacking the king, he goes back to G8, we have rook to G6 check, king back to H8, is Magnus going for a perpetual? H to the no, we do not have another rook to the H, because now comes queen to E3, threatening another check from H6, when after king to G8, the queen will be able to deliver check from G5, and we're going to see how that plays out in just a moment. Now black does have some ways he can defend against this, for example queen to E7, just watching over that G5 square, but then if nothing else, white can just grab the pawn on A5, which is no longer defended by black's knight, getting his other rook involved in the attack in a lateral fashion, so Anand can clearly see that his only real hope of survival here is going to be to try and drum up some last minute trickery, so he decides to play rook to F3, defended by his knight, attacking the white queen, Magnus delivers the check from H6, the king goes back to G8, the queen comes into G5 with a check, when king to F7, then rook to H7 check, wins the black queen, and if king to F8, well then you get rook to H8 check, forcing the king to step up anyway, followed by rook to H7, winning the queen, although queen to G8 check would actually force mate quicker, so what's played is queen to G7, which also loses the queen, due to the move Magnus plays next, rook to G6, pinning her to her royal highness on G8, Anand tries for a last minute swindle, as he should, with rook to F2 check, when if Magnus were to capture that rook, then knight to E6 discovered check, would pick up his queen, although even that wouldn't save black's game at this point, but Magnus just keeps it simple, he puts his king on H3, we have one final desperado check from H2, when if the rook were to be captured here, well then knight to F3 check, with the fork, would round up the white queen that way, also a losing line for black, but again, Magnus avoids any unnecessary complications, he just puts his king on G4, at which point we do get a resignation from Viswanathan Anand, seeing that his material deficit is about to become overwhelming. So there you have it folks, the game of the week, maybe even the month, dare I say the year? Nah, there's really no reason to at this point, but do stick around for this next video here, because it features a face-melting masterpiece that I'll go so far as to call the game of the millennium, or I should say the last millennium. You think I'm pulling your leg? Well, there's only one way to find out. As always, take care of yourselves, take care of each other, never sneeze with your eyes open, and I'll see you very soon.