anytime a sport has a dominant champion you're constantly on the search for a rival who is going
to overtake them someday and in chess since we have magnus carlsen we're looking at the younger
generation is it going to be ali reza farouja or is it going to be the player who i'm covering in
this video nihal sarin of india he's currently the 10th highest rated player in his country and he's
the sixth highest rated player in the world in people who are under the age of 21 but coronavirus
prevented him from playing a tournament for 10 straight months and still counting so i think he's
significantly stronger than his 26 20 elo and he frequently scores 25 to 30 against magnus carlsen
anytime they play blitz and bullet today i am covering his brilliancy prize game from the
world youth and cadet championships which were held online in conjunction with gasprom which
is the general partner a russian gas company very cool that there is corporate sponsorship for these
tournaments because i'm just saying in the united states we have almost no corporate sponsorships so
very very cool that this is happening and i actually was a coach for team usa in last year's
world championships held in waifuang china and uh the person that i worked with uh jan ryan who's to
my rights won the uh bronze medal so a little bit of memory lane but this video is all about nihal
sarin let's jump into his brilliant game he began with d4 and he's playing francesco sony of italy
international master who i have played many times in blitz the game begins with the queen's gambit
declined knight c3 and black can play a lot of moves here in this game black plays bishop to b4
which is the queen's gambit declined ragozian variation point is to pin this knight to the king
now i personally in this position like to play queen to a4 check hitting the bishop and the king
that doesn't win material but it forces the knight to stand in front of the c pawn and makes black's
position a little bit clumsy in this game the hell goes for bishop g5 which is the classical
developing move black can play a few things here but black chooses to take the pawn on c4 inviting
immediate clarification of what is happening in the game hal plays the move e4 and hal has played
this many times with white by the way so clearly black was preparing for this and now black plays
the move h6 already the game by the way is taking kind of uh branches so in this position black also
can play the move c5 and the position can explode black can play the move b5 basically just hanging
onto this pawn and you cannot take it because of the pin but in the game black plays h6 asking
a question of this bishop nihal takes and takes back the pawn on c4 so nihal has two two central
pawns he's got the two knights he's got the bishop he's gonna castle and say i have a slightly better
position but francesco's not going to let him just do that so he immediately strikes out with c5 now
here white can do a handful of things white can uh take white can push and white can also maybe
attack the bishop or white can attack the queen if you're looking at this position as as a as a you
know beginner and intermediate player it's easy to get lost even right away but realize that actually
white position you have to be careful because for example if you take this pawn black is already
taking and now the queen is hitting here so after this this you you are in some trouble your bishop
is hit you have to back up with the knight to guard your bishop kind of an unpleasant position
right so nihal correctly just castles why is he castling because if you notice it's the ninth move
of the game black only has two pieces out right white has bishop knight knight now is castled and
now black plays another move that hits the center but isn't getting development right queen and
bishop are the only things that are out so nihal here with his knight under attack and this can be
taken two different ways actually chooses not to take the pawn he uses the concept of danger levels
my knight is hanging but i don't have to move it if i can play the move pawn to e5 this gains
me space attacks the queen and allows my knight to go to e4 already an interesting creative idea
queen goes back to d8 and now knight to e4 and finally black castles okay so again white can
take this with the queen or with the knight if you take with the queen uh we trade and it's a
fair trade but if i have a lead in development and more pieces out i don't want to trade pieces
i want more pieces in the game so for that reason here nihal does take on d4 with the knight what's
interesting is that actually a move ago uh knight takes d4 almost never is played actually like th
this whole position that nihal got and then threw in a move here that almost never gets played
is kind of fascinating because this you know this game had happened many times already
after knight takes d4 his opponent plays queen c7 attacking the pawn at e5 and there
are no more games according to my database so nihal takes his opponent into deep water
and of course now that there is a bishop under attack and a pawn under attack
well he plays the very very natural move knight f6 check losing a piece
i'm joking it's not a very natural move and it showcases why he's so clever he attacks the king
and black actually plays the move king to h8 he doesn't take it because if you take the knight
it could get very scary here with the queen coming it's just queen opposite king if the king goes to
h7 defending the pawn i take like this you have to prevent checkmate you can only do that by playing
this what is more valuable than a queen a king and i'm already swarming you with my bishop my queen
my pawn and maybe my knight in the future black is completely losing here so black chooses not
to engage and to play king h8 leaving this leaving this and leaving this so three problems for white
to solve so what does white do white plays queen c2 white solves one of the problems which is this
right now black does take on f6 okay this pawn is hit two different ways so nihal plays queen c2
which threatens mate by the way which is why this knight had to be dealt with right and now queen c1
look at that move i mean a move that looks like it's just completely disregarding all the problems
in your position but queen takes h6 and it's not easy at all to protect this again if king goes
to h7 you walk into this and this somehow all of black's moves are being used against him the
queen going to this natural c7 square because of this queen c1 idea pressuring this and the queen
the king can now not go to h7 so black has to take on e5 with the queen allowing the queen in and now
well you're right there but you can't get there with the knight well what if you play bishop to d3
well then black just plays the move f5 they've used the pawn barrier to block out your bishop
your knight is hanging and the queen is going to get back so nihal has one move
he's got one move or the whole charade falls apart f4 oh my the move f4
gives away the knight with a check and if king h1 it also gives away a third piece but if you take
the third piece and temporarily go up nine points of material i have rook f3 and you cannot prevent
rook g3 mate you just cannot prevent it i mean you have all these pieces but you haven't moved them
right so so he cannot take the bishop he doesn't take the bishop and instead he plays queen to e4
the point of queen to e4 is that now when the rook is coming the queen goes back to g6 right
and it and it's back in time but white is just on time with this move rook to g3
and black has to sacrifice and okay what on earth is going on here black is still up two points
of material the overall count is queen for rook knight and bishop if my math is right rook nine
bishop so under normal circumstances queen versus some sort of peace imbalance um it it requires the
person that lacks a queen to develop all of their pieces as actively as possible and make sure they
coordinate active pieces and coordination that is what is going to prove decisive against the queen
which can hit you in multiple directions when you have the queen what do you need to do hunt
down a passive king or a weak king that always helps peace coordination of course is important
because if you have the queen you don't have enough pieces you're lacking other pieces so
you've got to maximize you've got to limit trades limit trades unless absolutely necessary and pawns
the play of your pawns if you can get a pawn majority somewhere with the extra queen you've
got to advance your pawns let's see those things at play in this game black plays rookie 8 because
black does not have any any reason to hang on to this pawn what's going gonna happen if you do this
is white is going to have enough time to play this move f5 and if you take you've just opened
up my bishop to your territory if you don't take uh don't forget i have this maneuver anytime i
want it right so i can play something like g4 look at this my pawns are barricading you from
saving your king and then i'm going to attack you and i'm going to win the game i'm going
to literally just bring my rook and you're going to lose so black needs to part ways
with a pawn in order to get pieces developed right that's exactly what black begins to do
rook d1 and knight d7 of course you say well levy why didn't why not knight c6 that seems far more
natural it's the most natural square for the night black had some ideas i mean black wanted
to get the knight to f6 potentially if you play knight to c6 what is nihal going to do once he
has all these active pieces remember that thing i said about pawns i said it for a reason g4 nihal
is going to try to use his pawn majority and if you play something like knight to e7 for example
uh to try to go you know just to try to stop me from playing f5 i can pick apart your defenses
here i have this move for example uh my rook can come in and i can stop you from moving
and that is exactly what nihal does this game first he plays bishop b5 attacking the
knight uh francesco responds f6 i cannot guard my knight but i can counter-attack your queen at the
at the price of your queen getting closer to my weak king now i play rookie seven and here nihal
plays the most in my opinion the most gangster move of the game the classiest move of the game
a move that many of us take for granted because it's it's a grand master playing with the white
pieces but this is a beautiful move rook d6 and it's not even so clear right away
why this is such a powerful move the engineer even needs a little bit of time to fully understand it
essentially this is like if you have a younger sibling and they're trying to throw punches
at you you put your hand on their forehead and then they can't make any forward progress that
is what the move rook d6 is basically it forever pressures everything and it kills black's mobility
and anticipating that this move is going to happen nihal drops back to d3 hitting h7 with the queen
but not killing the activity of his rook he swaps his rook forward moves his bishop behind the rook
and after b5 with black trying to develop the bishop this way nihal is able to start playing
queen e4 rook a7 and rook takes e6 so he uses what he thinks was black's plan to develop his pieces
against black wins the pawn on e6 and of course you know if you if you plug the game into an
engine the engine here is going to tell you oh white should have went immediately with f5
computers can kill sometimes the allure of the game the beauty of the game the
understanding of the game because they see some some really strange ideas but
ultimately nihal shows a dominance in this game he he anticipates everything he his opponent is doing
he forces moves out of his opponent that weaken the position that's what nihal does he he fakes
the the you know the takedown right like like in mixed martial arts you go down boom he cracks
you with a punch nihal constantly is keeping his opponent a move behind him look at this knight c5
with the fork queen goes to h7 what's more worth more than a queen of rook and the bishop the
king right so king goes to f8 rook c6 uh-oh i'm starting to pick apart the defenses here okay we
gotta trade i said don't trade unless absolutely necessary bishop by five levy you said don't trade
you said don't trade why is he trading here's why because when this happens remember i also said
peace activity and coordination black's pieces have no coordination here the bishop is so bad
black basically has rook and knight for queen not a bishop and pawn majority remember i said that
pawn majority when you've got the queen three on one this pawn majority is going to win you
the game not the queen side pawns because that's two on two it's wherever your pawns are stronger
so francesco doesn't want to trade he wants to maintain activity but now nihal finds the nail
in the coffin the killer move the move of the game you want to pause here you want to find it
this move permanently shuts down black's pieces completely immobilizes them b4 levy you just
said the queen side pawns aren't going to make a difference well not in terms of breaking through
but in terms of a very useful move which forces a very uncomfortable decision out of this night
does the knight continue to try to move forward this is the only way that it can do so
well the problem is the knight is covering the e6 square and what's going to happen on the e6 square
that and in the game it didn't really matter the knight went backwards
there should be six and you can't stop queen g8 and now after king e7 yes you can take
the bishop but then you would lose this so he takes on d7 rook d7 and now picks up the bishop
and nihal is winning here finally after queen takes f6 rook f7 queen two back to c3 a little bit
of shuffling here and then he brings the king it's still not like it again we're taking for granted
the fact that this is nihal playing for example let's say he got hasty and moved his f pawn right
he got hasty and played f5 it's still winning for white but what happens when i play rook to e2
i mean now suddenly you have to deal with counter play right i'm not saying that black is doing
tremendously well here black is still losing but nihal controls everything he doesn't let
the opponent get closer you can give me a check i'm gonna slide over that's what he
does he actually preemptively moves his king out of danger and now who's going to decide this game
have you been paying attention the pawns g5 rook c4 queen h7 check and francesco resigned
he resigned because it would have been a very long and and and painful death he would have suffered
in this game there would have been a check if he hides this king over here i'm just gonna push
and again the queen is so powerful i'm not worried about losing my queen side pawns because any time
you take i'm just gonna hit you with one of these and then i'm going to win your rook that's the
that's the amazing thing about a queen when an enemy king has holes around it right notice this
the king's got holes it's impossible to cover all these holes you've got tactics from all sorts of
directions but the pawns here were the deciding factor in this queen versus material imbalance
and most importantly if we back up just some moves it was the passivity or the passiveness i
hope one of those was a word because i'm not sure the other was of black's pieces francesco in this
game almost didn't cross the third rank look at francesco's pieces with the exception of the night
the night just the night on c5 did a single piece for francesco across the no i don't think so i
mean that's insane like to have such a high level game against the high level opponent from nihal
and not let his opponent cross the middle line in my opinion he is absolutely the deserving winner
uh of the brilliancy prize this is who i nominate and once again uh just amazing that you know we
have this kind of sponsorship this degree of sponsorship for all of these online events
uh from fide the international governing body of chess uh because frankly speaking who knows when
over-the-board chess will be consistent but in my opinion i nominate nihal and i mean he's winning
25 to 30 of his games against magnus carlson he's playing like this when over-the-board chess comes
back i look forward to this young man potentially being the next rival to our world champion