it's the eighth round of the tata steel 2021 chess tournament and ladies and gentlemen today
was a fantastic day of chess a lot of amazing story lines i've got four games to show you
and first we are going to kick things off with magnus carlsen playing with the black pieces
against andreya sipenko who's an 18 year old high 2600 level grandmaster looking to
break into the 2700 club and establish himself as russia's next prodigy he begins with the move e4
and when you play e4 against magnus there's a chance he lashes out with a sicilian but this one
is a bit more rare d4 take take and we get a night off now of course we've seen the night of sicilian
be played quite a bit in this tournament but when magnus plays the sicilian it's you know it's
usually something with a with a svashnikov defense so andrei plays bishop e2 magnus plays e6 going
for the uh i keep saying shaving in and i know that's not how you're supposed to pronounce it uh
i think it's pronounced like chavignon but that sounds vaguely french so let's just move on g4
super aggressive and basically andre is letting him you know letting magnus know that he's
here and he's ready to fight and he wants to go g5 and the best move for black according to theory
in this position when i say theory by the mean by the way i mean games that have already been played
many many times in the database by computers established as the best move and that move is
d5 lashing out in the center uh which can lead to a big simplification so whether or not magnus
like new remembered everything after d5 or not or just wanted to mix things up he plays b5 g5 and
when this knight moved back this is under attack and then they just let it go you know frozen style
and just sacked the pawn which led to a position where he's pressuring magnus already he's got no
jeep on he might lose a second one but he's gonna castle long which he literally does and magnus
has a lack of development so magnus brings his queen back ready for the next stage of the game
andre plays f4 mobilizing his pawns bishop b7 king b1 always a useful flexible waiting move
and magnus carlsen finished his development by playing the move knight to c6 and he is now ready
to castle and here andrey isipenko despite his tremendous respect and admiration for his opponent
decided that even gods can bleed and play the move knight takes b5 and it became very clear
very quickly that magnus carlsen had drastically made a mistake the point is that after a takes
b5 knight takes knight bishop takes there is the glorious clearance defend uh uh clearance resource
uh queen c3 and black has no defense what a ridiculous geometric motif where two pieces
are hanging upon the clearance of all the pieces and all of a sudden magnus is down and he is hurt
the b5 pawn is hanging the d6 pawn is hanging d7 is under pressure so he has to sacrifice the
pawn as he does and counter-attack andrei andrei finds a beautiful idea d6 creating a pass pawn for
himself and counter attacking the queen when it moves out of the way he scoops up a second pawn
and after rook b8 he plays queen c4 rook takes a three it is far from over magnus has these rooks
staring down at him but andrei plays queen c7 a nice idea once again looking to simplify forcing
queenie eight magnus can't trade and now andre oh just beautiful absolutely beautiful move rook to
g5 i mean this is class watch where this root goes it goes to the other side of the board defended
by his queen to trade he is trying to trade off magnus's rook but when when magnus doesn't trade
with him he's able to play b3 and now the rook is going to be useful on an infiltration level
rogue comes back to b7 queen comes out and now bishop to f3 the final piece of the puzzle the
bishop is on the diagonal rook before queen goes back to c7 magnus steps out of danger
the problem is that uh if you take here i'm going to take on b3 but i play rook to a8
and i'm just in time to trade there's if you move this knight out of the way i'm going to make a
queen so queen to f5 continuing to threaten rook takes b3 king b2 rook b5 the knight has
fallen rook c5 rook c1 stabilizing he picks up the pawn but check king g7 and the pawn pushes
and magnus carlsen can give a check but once the king moves out of the way it is all over
and andre is going to win this game and that is why in this position magnus carlsen resigned
and andrei sipenko defeated the world champion their first classical game ever andrei has a
famous picture on the internet of him with magnus carlsen side by side where he's just
like a little kid and and it's just incredible and and i wanted to show you uh a clip actually of um
of the whole ordeal i mean this is a first the clip of the whole resignation you know magnus
sets up the pieces uh and and heads away and you can just see you know andre's emotion you know
like he he's just overwhelmed he's looking off to the side he finally breathes a sigh of relief
like did this really just happen oh my god i can't believe that just did that really just happen
and he's like you know talking to the r the arbiter's like damn you got him that's crazy
and you know there's just all of this and then of course he gave an interview with fiona and uh and
and and this one was hilarious um this interview afterward they were on you know they have this
this very nice studio there uh and for this one you will hear the sound uh she asked them what
he's gonna do tomorrow because tomorrow's a rest day and this just cracked me up
do you have any plans for what you're going to do tomorrow i think i will go to the supermarket
everybody started laughing when he said that like you know she's like what are you gonna
do on the rest day and basically he was like lost for words he just didn't know
what to do he's like i can't believe that just happened i still can't believe it just happened
um and i know the feeling you know i've won some huge games in my life that came out of nowhere
were tense fights and uh i've cried after big wins before just because i've just been so overwhelmed
so amazing to see and uh great to see him you know kind of like this might be his big break his huge
boost of confidence but ladies and gentlemen i've got more games for you we're going to now go to
fabiano corona versus anish giri because this was an exciting game first of all fabiano plays a joe
bava london system which is crazy that he doesn't go into any of anish's prep and just plays this
leading to a really complicated game uh with a super imbalance like you know normally h4h5 is
played in some of these positions uh they traded and anish playing like a you know very direct
assault on the queen side like very high level stuff knight to h5 delaying his own castling to
try to trade knight for bishop bobby plays h4 take take and now we get h5 because he doesn't want to
attack him it's a wild game you know normally we get like classy stuff from these guys like
rue lopez sicilian defense grunfeld i don't know why i'm doing that accent and then um you know now
we just it's like they both got drunk in a bar and just went to fight each other i don't know
um and of course it was crazy i mean we got g4 take take you know sliding back and then
uh look at look at all of anisha's pawns on light squares he doesn't have a light squared bishop
so he has a you know a complex of light squared pawns and a dark squared bishop knight to h5 and
this was a this was a crazy game man i gotta tell you um fabiano built up his pressure sacrificed
the pawn for activity then played queen c3 because he's like okay i've got knight c6
oops knight c6 takes takes oh my my arrow drawing and he does it and then like you know anish plays
queen c7 and then king d7 has to move his king out of danger but ultimately as all things
uh super gm the game ultimately ends with a queen and five versus queen and five end game
and still you know some some tricks here but uh you have to not you know trade the queen too
quickly if you're one of the sides with a passive king because the active king will win in the end
game but listen these guys are professionals and um they end up repeating moves but uh listen
a fun game an exciting game and i've got one more fun and exciting game for you between mvl
and jordan van forest who is one of the younger players in the tournament and it before today
was tied for first place so we got to look at him look at this game e4 e5 a rue lopez a main line
but now we get a defense with one of the coolest names in my opinion this is called the archangels
variation uh there's a k at the end arhanjelsk but it's archangel i mean what a cool name it's the
archangel rue lopez when you play seath when you play bishop c5 and you allow white to play c3 d4
so jordan van forest finds an idea in this opening which uh barely gets played and against the super
gm of maxim's caliber and then here plays a move already on move nine with like five games ever
played in the database like 10 games played and watch what he uncorks bishop takes pawn takes
and it looks like you're just losing a pawn in the center but i have queen to e7 and then if
you take my c6 pawn to attack my queen i'm going to go here and it looks like really stupid stuff
because like your knight is going to be taken with a damaged structure i'm going to take your
bishop looks like white is just doing very well and then here uh mr jordan van forest uncorks an
absolutely savage move one of the most savage moves i've ever seen in my life bishop to h3
yeah the point being that you have to take it or else you get mated and for a moment
mbl has seven points extra of material and jordan doesn't even take he plays rook to d8
attacking the queen on d1 and it's crazy because you're going to lose the the bishop and then i
might even take this and come here and mate you so mvl needs to be super careful first he gives
back the bishop and then he gives back the knight because look if he continues if he tries to escape
i have check king moves and i can go uh rook takes d2 i was going to say queen d5 check
uh which actually also doesn't look terrible but i guess there's queen f3 there with some tricks
but rook takes d2 rook takes d2 uh and now this is guarded and you are still threatening queen d5 so
queen f3 he has to lose both pieces and uh jordan is still down one pawn but it's hardly anything
uh he continues to create some threats but mdl very quickly trades all the pieces off
to avoid any further complications we get into a rook end game and uh you know despite mvl having
for a very brief moment an extra pawn he chooses not to go rook a3 and defend because
activity in endgames is super important so rook c6 and a few moves later the players agreed to a draw
what a what a bit of preparation from jordan van forest the young guy under 2700 showing up with
some top-level prep bishop h3 what's i mean i don't think he found that over the board and if
he did he's a genius but uh of course ladies and gentlemen we've saved the best for last once again
listen i know we have a lot of indian fans and i know we have a lot of support for
ben talahara krishna but it's an ali raza furuja game he's got the black pieces again
and uh wow it's not just a day for magnus carlson and andre isipenko it's also a day for alireza for
user so we get a slav defense d4 d5 c4 c6 and pentala takes and normally you know symmetrical
structure like this can be a little bit boring and maybe pentala was like i'm gonna get you know the
life sucked out of uh firo and i'm gonna bore him to death but the game very quickly became
imbalanced so first of all alireza does not develop in a symmetrical style to his opponent
he puts his knight on e7 he then plays a6 and f6 so if farouz is always looking for a fight man
he's always looking for a fight f6 to try to play e5 and bring the bishop back like this
just a super unique way to play the position bishop slides back and we get bishop g3 and h5
like what how does he manage to create something exciting out of like nothing all the time
g5 knight g6 no nah i'm not taking you you got to come and take me but i'm not going to take back h4
okay you take on g7 i take what about your bishop bishop has to come to e5 take take take knight to
d4 position is uh very imbalanced super imbalanced i mean both kings in the open uh well not quite in
the open but in the center pawns falling on all sides of the board rook c8 but pentala castles
and ali reza slides the knight back to c6 to pressure the center bishop goes to g4 knight takes
pawn takes he volunteers the opening of the e file despite his own king being there because he
realizes that after rook c6 everything is stable pentala plays knight to e2 looking for a trade of
rooks and a reroute and ali raza plays the move h3 which is not the world's most accurate move in
this position but it's a fascinating idea because he wants to bring his queen over here and the king
doesn't have any breathing room left again we keep seeing these pawns not to mention in all end games
you know taking upon an h2 means that pawn will be an asset rook c3 he goes for it now rook h4 the
second idea that alireza had rook g3 queen slides over to c7 rookie one king to f8 i don't need a
castle dude i just hide my king behind my bishops obviously queen d3 and now ladies and gentlemen
alareza plays the only move in the position to give himself any hope of winning the game and
that is the move e5 volunteering the board for an explosion okay queen a3 check trades off the
queens understanding that even though he doesn't have a queen which is the most powerful attacking
piece white has traded off his very active piece as well and we are gonna have pressure on both
sides i get to choose where this rook is going i sacked the h-pawn as a decoy and now i take
on d4 defended by my bishop knight slides back to c1 to stop the pawns rook to h6 with pressure
bishop back to g2 i'm taking knight to d3 rook comes back everything is covered now wally reza is
a pawn up but these pawns don't leave a very good impression on the position so pentala plays the
move f4 and that move was just the destabilization of the position that was needed for alireza to
begin infiltrating on the other side of the board bishop to f3 rook slides out of danger rook g2
rook g6 ali reza is so good at balancing the act of putting extra spice into a position with when
the right trades have to be made he made a queen trade earlier you would think he needed the queen
to create an attack but he doesn't always need the queen to create an attack he doesn't always
need the rook to create an attack either ali reza faruja is not interested in keeping pieces on the
board because of some meta concept that he needs to attack his opponent by having more pieces no
he's interested in finding the damn best move on the board every single time and my god is he
succeeding f5 and now this is all he needed sorry this is all he needed he just goes out of the way
this one subtle pawn move removing the pawn from a square where it used to be protected is now a
new target for him and when the knight comes to f4 to try to make forward progress he says uh
d3 clearance sacrifice creating bishop d4 for himself yes it was a blunder by hari hari could
have played something like rook to e2 for example a weird strange not so not so you know simple and
obvious move because if black plays bishop f6 the computer's next idea is a3 so the computer really
has no idea how to defend this position it's basically sit around and wait for alireza to
destroy you he plays knight f4 d3 the knight comes back and bishop d4 clearance sacrifice give back
a pawn to occupy a square knight f2 and rook c2 why did he go back because if he plays king to f1
rook to h3 is an x-ray and you're losing uh regardless of how you defend this position rook c2
king f1 rook takes and uh ali reza is now picking up the pawns rugby one check rook b6 he's now
made the 40 move so he has the extra time and the rest of the game was spent simplifying in
the right way activating the king look at this a king activation you plug this into the computer
top engine move king e7 activate the king in the end game get it to f6 for this weak pawn which he
created like 10 moves ago everything alireza does has an incredible flow to it it seems
like when he's playing against some of these people who he has extreme confidence against
only magnus carlsen it seems can rattle his nerves it's it's just it seems like that's just how it
is he now picks up the f5 pawn hare krishna to his credit does get the b7 pawn but at what cost
at the cost of allowing alireza to bring all the pieces in one wave forward forward forward forward
forward knight to d6 bishop to d2 beautiful idea and uh everybody pushes and one subtle pawn move
to d3 the last pawn move on d3 broke in the final move of the game is pawn to d3 and pentala resigns
because he cannot check him and you know if you play a random move like a3 you're just losing this
the point of this last move was that if you took i would play king e2 and black is still winning
but at least it's some sort of fork and maybe you know whatever there was also bishop a5 so
he could have taken the rook but ali raza plays d3 a nice little nail in the coffin and there is
nothing that bin salah hari krishna could do this is ali raza farouz's third win of this tournament
with the black pieces he continues to impress he continues to dazzle so does andre is having a
fantastic event and one person who is struggling is right there in the middle spot pensala and
magnus carlson are now tied for the seventh and eighth spots in the event out of fourteen players
ali reza ferrous is in first place he has five and a half points out of eight he's in clear first
five points are also between andreas sipenko the man who defeated magnus carlsen today
anish geary jordan van forest and fabiano caruana there are some rounds left to go
trust me five more games 9 10 11 12 and round 13 but oh my goodness is are these the people that we
expected at the top of this event eight rounds in no it's not and that ladies and gentlemen
is why we watch chess because you never know who can win in a game on the 64 squares