it's the third day of pog champs which means that group d match-ups now take place but none
is more intriguing than this one between mr beast and ludwig ludwig called him out on twitter right
beforehand said he would give him ten thousand dollars if he won and mr beast right before the
show went live said i'll wager you back 10 grand that i will potentially donate to charity mr beast
enlisted yours truly for a little bit of pre-match preparation
we used the resource opening tree which i actually used to prepare against eric rosen
and we decided to go with the scandinavian defense we studied some of ludwig's games beforehand and
well ladies and gentlemen this video is the result of that preparation we get e4 and d5 takes takes
and what we had take taken a look at with mr beast was if your queen gets under attack bring it out
to the side actually ludwig afterwards said no one plays this this is basically the first time
he had seen it according to opening tree there has been one other game but it was so long ago
you put your queen on the side and you develop your pieces and you castle queenside that is what
we had prepared here beforehand with mr beast we only had about an hour of preparation now ludwig
played this very tentatively he saw the bishop coming out and he thought that he was stopping
knight to b4 but what he has to realize is that he's playing with the white pieces so he needs
to dictate the pace bishop b2 is a perfectly reasonable move but here castling is probably
better than playing a3 there's nothing really wrong with a3 but now after castles he plays d3
you'll notice that the benefit of playing the scandinavian defense with the black pieces is
that you can open up your lines this is everything thus far working perfectly and what i had shown mr
beast was to play the move e5 also i told him that if white ends up short castling that you
can create some sort of king side attack because your king is on the other side
another thing we had looked at is the bishop sneak on the queen and after knight f6 ludwig
plays 94 very tricky move at first glance looking like you're blundering upon here but this is
under attack now beast was thinking here for a long time and i was getting nervous i was like
does he not see that his queen's under attack he's calculating all this stuff in the middle
but he played queen d5 bringing the queen back to the middle teaming up with the rook down this way
and hitting the knight this way so ludwig's takes takes and he was thinking for a long time here
he was thinking about the move c4 attacking the queen he was constantly worrying about e4 which
is a great thing that he was worrying about because frankly if this trade were to happen
the rook opens up and the pressure here is really bad ludwig spent a lot of time in this position
ultimately just said you know what i'm just gonna castle now what is the stock of the opening well
in this position black is a lot better how do you but like how do you know that well in chess
first we got to take a look at material completely equal second we got to take a look at king safety
and as you're about to see from mr beast's next move uh white's king is hardly safe whereas the
black king is very safe white also has very bad development these pieces are in a bit
of a rectangle which is why for ludwig he has to go back to the drawing board and that is how you
learn in chess now ludwig needs a better weapon against the scandinavian defense he needs to play
something a little bit more center controlling but in this position ludwig is very passive all
his pieces are back he doesn't control a lot of the enemy squares whereas mr beast is very active
and he plays the move rook g8 and here's what the commentators have to say about it
i'm really really not liking this this time consumption and he's done
look at him go that is really impressive danny dude seriously right he's playing all the natural
moves so shout out to whatever kind of secret training uh jimmy's been getting on on this
side so obviously you look at rook j and you go well i mean it's a logical move he's lining up
his rook to pressure the kid right but mr beast spotted that completely on his own this was still
an ideal within the bounds of our preparation i had told him that one of the ideas is to open
the g line sacrificing the pawn sometimes just to have a direct line of attack ludwig reacts
correctly plays the move g3 why is this good we're often taught not to push pawns where we're being
attacked well ludwig is realizing that this is a really difficult pawn to break through if he
ever needs the knight to come here to block the h-pawn from moving down the board it's all good
and here mr beast plays the move e4 which is a fantastic move this is an excellent move and
the point is that if you take the bishop takes and now you've got the double line drive on the knight
and if the knight moves your queen and rook hit this black makes a pawn break
advantageously opening the position with e4 ludwig strikes with c4 so he plays a move that counter
attacks something of more value now at this point what mr b should do is get his queen out of danger
which he absolutely does queen c5 is a great move but queen d6 or queen d7 would have been better
the reason why is that here the queen is still a target and as you'll notice through a lot of
my pogchamps videos i'm constantly making you guys think how can they attack us and as long as
your queen is still a target you don't want that you don't want your queen in the line of sight
of your opponent if you go all the way back you still maintain this pressure just from a distance
and this is still great for it for uh for black mr beast goes queen c5 now we get bishop e3
and the crazy thing is that here a lot of weeks saw that when you attacked the queen
there was a wicked capture sequence blackened on cork look at this it's called a capture
chain black can play pawn takes knight white takes the queen and now rather than taking this
you take the bishop attacking the queen and the rook so white has to respond to that
and now black gets bishop bishop knight for a queen and black is still winning say why
is black winning white is up a point king safety and peace activity that is how you evaluate who
has a better position black is dominating here with the pieces black is going to go knight d4
bishop h3 bishop g4 and drop in the knight and then just march the pawn down the board and shred
open that king's defense yes there is a lot more chess to be played but black is better and ludwig
saw that that's the craziest thing he was drawing the arrows on his own monitor but mr beast
miscalculated he flipped the move order and he did this instead and the difference here is that
he takes the bishop first and gets the knight objectively speaking that's six for nine that
that should be like not so bad but ludwig from here takes the pawn and then i didn't fully
bless this move but he plays rook takes bishop of course the rook is better than the bishop and
if you're gonna sacrifice for anybody you should sacrifice for this because the king gets opened up
but he's simplifying that is his idea he's removing one of black's most active pieces
and then he's going for further simplification with the knight we get bishop g7 bishop c6 mr
beast takes on b2 of course he should take the bishop on c6 but okay he took on b2 look at this
savage removed by ludwig this shows how classy of a player he has become queen to b1 this is
so evil if you take the rook the queen travels down the board and it's mate i mean ludwig is
a savage for playing the move queen to be one but mr beast to his credit doesn't even bite
he sees it it's never too late in the game to do something but ludwig sacrifices and then picks
up the bishop and what i meant to say was never too late to do something bad but look at ludwig
look at this queen to b8 as hikaru said yesterday uh rubius missed queen b8 but but ludwig sees it
picks up the rook and then watch watch this check look at this check baiting the king forward
check baiting it forward again and rook d1 king e7 look at this queen g5
he baited the king into a spot it would be close to the rook this is so important for all of you
to remember that queen with the king in the rook so distant there is that checking opportunity and
mr beast resigns on move 31 what a game i got to give a lot of respect to my protege uh mr
king of youtube himself who played everything he played everything we prepared to the t and
his mistake was getting a bit low on time by this point out of a 10-minute game he has about two and
a half minutes he's very tentative so don't put your queen where it can be a target bring your
queen all the way back but bring the queen back when it's actually under attack so bring it back
yes you have this really fancy schmancy but just bring it back and you are still defending this is
pinning and the real lesson i want to show you here is like let's say you brought this back
and then white played like knight d2 i'm gonna flip the board just so we have an understanding
of how exactly black would play this position from here on out like what does it mean to get an
opening advantage and then how do you capitalize well we know that the idea for black is going
to be attacking white's king right so let's say rather than even the move e4 in this position for
example black can play bishop to h3 this is always going to be a useful move the rook will slide over
you think all right so what and now we know we need to get to this position with our pawns
bring the bishop supporting the pawn storm with the rook this could get very bad very quickly you
know even if c4 queen d7 happens for example like let's say you give a move like this f4 is coming
once f4 comes this pawn is gonna get taken right once that pawn is taken the bishop comes
out pressuring the other pawn near the king soon you will have queen bishop rook and other bishop
maybe you will double your rooks you're gonna have five attacking pieces so you need to focus on that
side rather than breaking in the center the movie he played in the center was good but when you have
a game plan out of an opening that is what you try to do a lot of you ask me to make middle game
videos your middle game plans flow from the kind of positions that you get from the opening your
opening should be consistent now what mr beast has to do is get this position 50 more times and get
that game flow it's the first time he played this he learned this an hour before game time
and he did a pretty damn good job so on that note we're going to take a look at a second game
we prepared the queen's gambit with d4 d5 c4 iconic because mr b's definitely watched the
queen's gamut it's what kind of reinvigorated his love for chess that he played when he was
younger like many of you watching potentially and ludwig plays knight f6 which is actually
already a big inaccuracy you say levi what are you talking about well the queen's gambit can
be declined in a variety of ways like for example e6 c6 but black has to decline it with a pawn why
because if white takes you take back with a pawn black needs pawn presence in the center to occupy
squares and then develop the pieces behind it the way ludwig plays this and the way a lot of
people actually play this after knight f6 white can take oh you say all right queen d5 knight
c3 i just moved what you just showed me this in the last game levy no i didn't the scandinavian
defense is played after e4 d5 takes takes there is no e pawn in the scandinavian defense
the difference with c4 knight f6 is that if you take take knight c3 queen e5 there is an e pawn
you still have two of your center pawns this is not a scandinavian defense this is good for white
just don't go here so quickly because they'll take and you're pinned but this is not a scandinavian
defense at all and if they take with their knight you attack it and then when they go back you just
you go here you still got the two center points white is much better so that is why black has to
defend with the pawn and actually this whole game black didn't now we're in what's called a chigorin
defense those of you that want like a secret opening repertoire against the queen's gambit
and what i had shown mr beast is that if ludwig plays bishop f5 and knight c6 i didn't want mr
beast to get hit with a reverse fried liver i didn't want him to get hit with knight b4
uh and uh and knight c2 so i shot him just play a3 just be solid play the move a3 you never have to
worry about any of that stuff objectively speaking the best move for white in these positions
with queen's gambit when the when the queen is open to b3 and the bishop has moved is to take
and play queen b3 and this is almost winning for white already say how's that possible i
just moved my knight back and you can't take me yeah but i got e4 and then when you move i got d5
and it's over you just get completely overrun in the center black needs central pawn presence again
so the queen's gambit when the bishop comes out so early i just i i stayed away from a recommendation
like this uh for mr beast or at least you know taking knight d5 and then queen v3 is because
it's too much to memorize i wanted him in one hour than he had with me right before his match
get a very simple easy to play position and avoid traps and he did that a3 e6 he got his bishop out
which was great a6 e3 perfect perfect i mean i can't ask for any better but ludwig messed up the
game plan here by playing the move knight to e4 there is nothing wrong with the move knight to e4
in fact taking it is more than okay but white has to finish development that is the problem is that
once you see your opponent right it's like kids in an arcade you see one kid yelling at his parents
for more tickets you're like maybe i have a chance now let me yell at my parents right you see a
bad example you start doing it ludwig was the bad example mr beast should have stuck to what he knew
finishing his development and then if takes takes just castle smooth and then the rest of the game
in the queen's gambit you open up the c file you put your rook there and you advance and you you
but ludwig did it so he did it too he did the same thing we got a trade and then ludwig played
bishop d6 now i don't know if ludwig is like the the most evil of geniuses or if he just straight
up blundered upon but he allowed mr beast to take on g7 which looks like a good move but
just like in the last game black has activated their rook the only thing white has is a bishop
it's just a bishop the bishop has to get back and the problem is if you
like just leave it out here black is gonna start coming in black has one two three four pieces
playing maybe long castle activate a fifth piece all of white's pieces are on the back row and i
did give mr bees this morning i was like don't fight until everyone's ready don't just don't
just go you can't play a basketball game five on three you gotta get everybody in the game but
when you see a guy do it it throws you off and he adapted to that game plan and then here he
played the move f3 and the reason why this is a a mistake is because yes rook takes g7 there is this
but the problem is that you have to scan for checks it's not that this move is going to happen
that's actually the least of your concerns can my opponent attack my king and there is a tactical
pattern here which ludwig sees just on immediately and believe it or not black white's best move here
is to run the king run the king and try to hide in this kind of like bush of pawns just
oh he's not going to find me if i'm in here but the problem is that g3 and ludwig is too
experienced of a player he knows this tactical trick pawn rook is pinned bishop takes g3 takes
and queen takes h1 black has now infiltrated this is bad news it is still not over white can still
move the queen and castle the king for example the best move here might be queen b3
go on a counter attack black's best move is to castle and defend but what if black doesn't do
that like what if black takes with the pawn and all of a sudden whoa we're back in the game and
then when the rook moves you can castle along right now you're totally back in the game so it's
never too late but the problem is sometimes low rated players and the underdog in the matchup gets
flustered they're like damn all right well you know it's done alright i made my mistake alright
and you just take things and then look at ludwig just doesn't take his foot off the gas
he doesn't auto take back a lot of us would go snap snap snap snap say he pauses he goes my
queen just took this if my queen goes here i hit everybody mr beast plays pawn takes i mean he's
just he's goblin and again ludwig just doesn't even it's the queen the queen does the most damage
and then look at this bishop to e2 he takes again with check if king f1 there is mate so to mr b's
credit he actually moves his king to safety check and ludwig just again just won't he won't he won't
stop rook she won and you you know some of you watch these videos and you're like 1300 14 and
you're stronger than the places like why are you celebrating these moves gotham you're so
stupid i mean like 80 percent i mean i don't know 70 80 percent of people watch this lovely played
a fantastic game i mean he just i can't give him enough credit the one question i have is
on when he played bishop to d6 way earlier if that was a strategic sacrifice to activate his
rook because if it was i was brilliant most brilliant thing i've ever seen in 1100 do ever
if he blundered it well then you know beautiful accidents happen just look at me and so rook g8
and black just gets this wave of play and what mr beast had to do is not go to war
so quickly and not open up the lines you've only got one piece playing so sometimes taking a pawn
with an attack on the rook is a bad move you take a pawn and you attack the rook and it's bad
what you should have done is stabilize your position and not let your opponent be so active
and the rest of the game ludwig converted it beautifully i mean what more to say
king d2 rook g1 he takes he takes i think here he might have had a faster
mate just slightly but he takes and it's the same situation as last game and there it is
two games in a row he doesn't let his queen do all the work he activates the rook he brings in
the rook and he just he just cleans i mean just the i got nothing to say i have nothing to say i
mean i'm very proud of of the way mr beast handled this given the hour of preparation that he had
but congratulations ludwig two fantastic played games and hopefully uh hopefully you all learned
from these games with the queen's gambit and the scandinavian defense and the two kind of best ways
and meta ways to play them hopefully you got some new opening inspiration and uh here is mr beast
uh mildly officially leaking that we did a little bit of work together but yeah you can like get to
this part and i asked like uh gotham i was like is this good for me and he's like yeah this is a
good position and so i was like all right i made it my objective just to get this board right here
so obviously very cool once again to see a match-up of this caliber with such amazing
creators i am going to be making videos like this hopefully every day of pog champs with kind of
the marquee matchup once again i cannot thank those of you enough who are just being positive
embracing this event uh a couple days ago we like i said we're the number one game on twitch
370 000 viewers between three channels chess is exploding like it never has before so i'll be
here every day i'll be making the content and uh hopefully you're going to be enjoying it take care