hey have you been missing top level chess because i know i have the st louis chess club
is organizing the champions showdown which has begun today with a three-day chess 960 aka fisher
random aka 9lx tournament where gary kasparov is playing if you haven't been aware of the news
well this is your news flash uh hikaru magnus fabiano caruana and other top names are playing
including alireza farouja today was day one we had three matchups the format is 20 minutes and a 10
second bonus let's jump into it i'm going to try to feature as many games as possible it is a 10
player event so there's a lot of games but in the first round gary kasparov started out against ali
raza faruja with the black pieces and notice that in chess 960 the back row is completely shuffled
so the only rule is that the king has to be between the rooks and the bishop have
to be on opposite colors so we saw gary lash out very early setting up like a stonewall structure
like this openings don't matter so if you're looking for openings advice here
the opening advice i can give you is try to take the center and play the position as much as you
can uh in relevance to a normal structure so we saw alireza queen side castle early and
play king b1 and gary jumps in aggressively with the knight on c4 both players kind of shuffled
and then gary played this nice positional idea counter-intuitively pushing where his king is
normally because the king is castle on the other side this doesn't make a lot of sense
but gary here uses his knights to suppress the movement of white's position but alireza played
very well he hit the knight made the made the knight go to h3 and then created this nice little
pawn barrier where gary's pieces were not so well positioned then gary continued to fight in the
center but this really nice move f4 hitting the bishop and taking away the knight's escape square
prevents gary's knight from moving and then only reza just looked to block up the center of the
board and actually at this point it looked like the end game was going to start leaning in his
favor he's got to do bishops the black knight on h3 is not doing anything but gary demonstrated
why he's all class and he did that by simplifying the position down to an end game and then playing
the very crucial move d4 keeping the center closed making this trade and another very nice move here
not scared of the bishop coming to e4 h4 a super super nice idea now that we don't have uh the
significance of 960 anymore we have an end game he uses this idea to save his knight from danger
to break up the pawn structure that alireza has in the center and here not worried about the tactic
bishop d5 check which is a discovered attack on his king and the rook because as it turns out
this pawn is gonna go and the knight covers the promotion square so the knight went from being a
prisoner on h3 to an extremely vital uh piece in the end game and even if alireza takes you
actually cannot prevent uh the guy from promoting because if you play something like rookie 2 i play
knight f4 i hit your rook and my pawn is coming this pawn is coming and it's not very good and
the game ended after hg32 gary brought his king up with his knight and was able to use his king his
pawn and his knight together get to this position where ali reza resigned because after rook g7
king f3 knight g4 is on the way dislodging the defender of the g-file and it was gary kasparov
starting off with a win uh in the champions showdown gary i don't know if his back or you know
never left is a better way of putting it in the first round we saw a lot of other decisive results
we saw lenie dominguez win a really surgical end game against ikaru i think like skipping some of
the opening and getting to this position is super important because it's queen rook knight and five
versus queen rook bishop and five but because hikaru has a weakness on a5 and some potential
dark squared weaknesses near his king uh lanier played super super well he offers a queen trade
which in this particular case benefits him because he's got the rook coming and if you
make this trade you now have a weakness on f7 a weakness on a5 and when this knight jumps into d6
two more weaknesses are suddenly under threat uh and in the game we got some simplification to a
rook excuse me a knight vs bishop end game where one guy is going to get a much more active king
than the other resulting in the loss of a pawn for hikaru and all credit goes to lignie hikaru
had said afterward in the live coverage uh that he felt like he should have hit the draw button
earlier in the game uh maybe around here before linea had any chances to kind of consolidate uh
and hikara failed to do so and lignie jumped on the opportunity and simply outplayed from around
this moment really like like right when he started to consolidate his position just when i showed it
uh and and it was all lenie from there he he he used the king in the night to hunt down the pawns
on the queen side these pawns are overextended got the pawns and after that consolidated his position
used this extra c pawn and advanced and linear won his first game as well with the white pieces
actually the only person in the first round to win with the white pieces another big first round
matchup was mvl versus magnus carlson two people who used to be ranked at the very very top in the
world in blitz magnus still there mvl falling off a little bit uh game got very spicy very quickly
magnus castling queenside into mvl's kingside castle and then total pandemonium breaking
out with two rooks and a queen staring down at this king bishop b7 trying to trade off one of
the main defenders but still very solid center i have to say but magnus chipping away takes on g3
king b8 and then offers a trade of queens to get a stabilization in some capacity very weird
structure as well but this knight on a5 is just camping for the opportunity to jump into c4 and it
was able to do that right away with the move rook c8 so we see nice play from magnus playing on both
sides of the board e6 nice idea as well to hit the pawn on d5 and if d6 rook g7 and we just see like
again magnus trying to hit every single pawn nice technique uses the queen side expansion
mvl misjudges the uh the sacrifice there and ends up a piece down and magnus is able to consolidate
not get too spooked by the past d-pawn and a few and about 10 or 15 moves later converts it into a
position where he has rook into versus rook magnus victorious in game one as well but that was not
it let's not forget who is the fisher random world champion that is grand master wesley so
originally from the philippines and now living in the united states of america he did defeat
uh magnus carlsen in the fisher random world championship and he and peter svidler played f4 f5
and then peter played queen f2 which is weird even in fischer random uh the players got out to a very
locked position uh which is standard for grand masters actually getting a bit more of a locked
position because it it kind of kills your risk factor and allows you to play a bit more loosely
but actually at this point already the combination of the bishop defending this bishop hitting down
and the rook and the knight and the queen coming down to a3 potentially when this pawn disappears
uh leave this position completely winning for wesley and wesley jumped in there with the queen
uh did not trade queens because trading the queens benefits the defending side picked up a
pawn and then despite the bishop hanging on f7 he takes the bishop on h1 circles in with his queen
his knight his bishop and uh peter svidler finds it very difficult here to defend his king
uh from the impending assault of the queen and the knight czech and queen g2 and that night on c4 an
absolute killer and there is just nothing that could be done to stop the mate wesley so began
the first round with a win as well the clash of goats happens in the eighth minute of this video
it is the first match-up between gary kasparov and magnus carlson basically ever they played a
game in 2004 uh when magnus was was a youngin and gary was just a few years away from retirement
so everybody's been looking forward to this matchup now this is the second round which
means that the starting position is a little bit different and if you look these are the only two
pieces not on their home squares in fact if you flip them it's all good every other piece starts
on its home square which is sort of a bummer because it kills the originality factor in the
position and the players can play very solidly and play very solidly they did they actually got out
to kind of a queen's gambit structure and c5 from magnus is already inviting a queen trade uh and
that's exactly what happened uh and this game was honestly relatively lackluster it has to do with
the starting position obviously but gary uh was under pressure from magnus for the duration of the
game primarily due to this move you say well levy what does that move have to do with anything is
because the pawn structure is a bit overextended again in in end games with symmetrical structure
you need to try to keep the balance and it was magnus utilizing his more active piece play
to create some serious problems for gary and the serious problems really began right here with this
break e5 and gary counter-striking in the center with e4 simply a tactical flaw to this because
now the pawn and the rook pin and it's incredibly difficult to defend magnus was basically cruising
right up until this point where he had to remove the defender of the f4 pawn win the pawn and
convert the end game in magnus style and then he spent like seven minutes on this position uh and
um he didn't do it he just didn't do it rook f7 which allowed rookie three
and then a capture and even though in this position the pawn structure is
equal magnus is pressing but not to the extent that he would have been pressing up a full pawn
but then gary blundered right away and i know what you're thinking levy you're crazy gary's
one of the greatest of all time how can you be sitting here saying he blundered
it's my duty as a commentator and as a person covering the games to say when gary did make a
mistake not so obvious to the naked eye why it's a mistake but allowing magnus to go for this pawn
is not the right way to do it and actually here magna should be saving this pawn and going for
this pawn magnus returned the favor and went for the other pawn and there was a drawing mechanism
here for gary he had to play king f4 chuck this pawn and bring his king to g5 let me tell you why
because magnus needs two pawns to win this endgame if magnus wins this pawn but loses b7 you cannot
win the end game it's just going to be much easier to draw but in the game gary played h4 and magnus
can win the pawn now by running the king over and then taking so in this position what magnus
has to do is say to hell with this pawn king d7 you take i take here and you cannot stop me from
taking this pawn and i am too close to this pawn but magnus in crazy fashion something we never see
plays king f7 and the game becomes a draw because you cannot take because then i will play rook h7
check and win your b7 pawn and some moves later the players did agree to a draw in this position
a relatively lackluster draw i have to tell you for a match up so anticipated but it is what it is
they they had to obviously have this problem of of of the pieces and the starting position not being
so easily uh breakable but in the second round we did see one decisive game and it was fabiano
corona putting some pressure on mvl and mvl making a terrible terrible blunder right here when he
took the poisoned pawn on g2 you can pause here if you'd like to figure out the winning move uh it's
it's a nice one uh it has to do with the fact that that's got vision and that is a checkmate threat
that you cannot make so how do you remove the bishop from covering the e7 square as a beginner
you're taught never to push pawns in front of your king and you're correct except in some cases it's
the move b4 the move b4 is simply winning because the bishop cannot drop all the way back you will
play rookie 8 with devastating intent and if bishop a7 uh rookie 7 is simply checkmate in the
game mvl chucked the piece but in this position resigned a few moves later and fabiano won his
second round matchup against mvl and vl actually if you notice is now over two in the last round
gary caspar was up against peter svidler if you don't know the story about peter svidler and it's
hafu and gary kasparov they're good friends uh they know each other and peter put some serious
pressure on gary throughout the game winning a few pawns and converting what seemed like a relatively
effortless end game against gary trading a rook very very instructive moment here trade one rook
don't trade both until absolutely necessary peter svidler keeping his structure together
a few trades to simplify down the position to push these two pawns ahead and even though gary
does have the opposite colored bishops he is down two pawns and svidler consolidates in a very nice
way and here actually gary played king of fade and resigned the plan is knight g3 and if h4 knight f5
using these two pawns you're going to push everybody forward and gary resigned peter
svidler won in the last round matchup a surprising guy is lenie dominguez lenier dominguez versus
alireza ferruccia featured a baby crab opening in the in the final round so b5 and g5 in the first
two moves the baby crab obviously a5 h5 would have been the big crab uh and lignie just super solid
the entire game i mean stabilizing the position taking pawns when they become available because
he gets a nice stable end game with the two pass pawns and watch for the next few moves
as he just consolidates stabilizes on both sides of the board make sure that his king is safe
pushes on the queen side pushes on the queen side pushes on the queen side stabilizes rook c2 back
b6 sacrificing a pawn at the right moment to then play rook b1 and invest fully in the pawn on b6
and here bishop f1 to again stabilize the king side pressure and bring this bishop to the side
now we get rook c7 takes takes and simply in this position ali reza resigned because the bishop is
coming back and hitting the rook getting it away and it's lenie dominguez beating alireza for rouge
although suffering two defeats on the first day and lenient dominguez winning against him and uh
and hikaru in the final round we also saw a very strange blunder from mvl which came right around
the middle game against hikaru right here hikaru plays this nice move bishop and queen pressuring
this diagonal so he's going for the knight already some trouble here for mvl mvl plays e4
and this is a blunder you can look here to try to find the tactic for kicaro pause if you'd like e4
i'll give you a few seconds and it's actually the fact that you can just take the point is that if
they recapture you want to take this bishop you cannot because the knight is defending it so you
take the knight and opposite colored bishops favor the attacking side what does that mean this bishop
is out of the game this bishop is down here so where do you put this bishop d4 or e5 and in
the future go for the f2 pawn that's exactly what hikaru did he brought his queen he sacrificed the
pawn on a7 and invested fully in getting the queen out pressure on f2 and just a few moves later as
long as the king is safe and stable it was in this position that mdl resigned because there's
just no convenient way to defend if you play queen e1 i actually just go here yo what yeah c2
you take my queen tough cookies your bishop cannot defend and the rook is covered the rook is
absolutely covered on this file and this position is completely lost and it was hikaru winning his
first game of the day and mvl suffering his third defeat in the words of charles barkley
i got as many points as mvl did today and i i don't know what's going on with mvl but he
starts the first day oh for three unfortunate for him he's got to look to bounce back especially
because the candidates have resumed he needs to find his form he has a few months to do so i know
it's fisher random and the final game of the day that i have for you is the game between magnus
carlsen and fabiano carowana this is a rematch of the world championship match of course from 2018
a weird game a very weird game which move 20 already featured like a super locked structure
uh with no pawn trades but here we saw magnus just demonstrating why he's the best a quick
tray to activate his queen and then fabiano began some active operations on this side of the board
but it allowed magnus to activate his bishop and then to stabilize on the light squares and it was
magnus who then turned the tables saying oh fabi you're really sure you want to open here with f4
king h1 rook g1 and now i'm the one who's attacking on this side
nope just kidding g4 it's like wait what but why did he play all those moves he played all those
moves because now he's got an idea to sacrifice the rook entirely and it might look crazy but why
would you sacrifice the rook because your knight and bishop absolutely dominate so he faked the
counter play to get fabiano to over commit on that side of the board and trade his most active piece
and then play this brilliant move h4 and after takes it's actually magnus again threatening
g5 this and let's not forget that pawn magnus finds a way to play on the king sign on the queen
side like it's nothing king h2 to potentially stabilize and block this position with king h3
magnus lingering on the queen side and boom in one flash rook c1 and bringing in the bishop to
cut both of these diagonals listen i mean just outstanding play fabi sacrifices two pawns and
it's not enough magnus dominant uses every piece that he has literally like every single piece
queen d4 and magnus carlsen defeats fabiano caruana in the final game of day number one
i do have a scoreboard here for you by the way this is very nice scoreboard after the first day
it's carlson and lenie dominguez with two and a half points out of three dominant performances
fischer random world champion at two the only person a big group of people at one and a half
and ali raza farusha and mvl the two frenchmen i mean ali reza not officially a frenchman yet
i don't know exactly what the plan is with the federation there uh but rough start for them they
look to bounce back tomorrow tomorrow is also a big day because we start with hikaru versus magnus
carlson and we end with hikaru versus kasparov so uh i will be doing commentary every single day for
this event uh along with anna rudolph if you don't know her yet you should subscribe to her twitch
uh twitch and youtube uh subscribing to twitch is paid but if you'd like to you can go ahead
and do that links will be in the description two more videos will appear on that side hope
you're enjoying the recaps as always and uh yeah i will be doing this every day catch you tomorrow