Hi all. I have another absolutely amazing game of magnus carlsen to show you from
bilbao tournament 2016 .His opponent here is Wesley So. Let's have a look
Magnus playing white plays e4 we have e5. Wesley So playing the ultra solid now
Berlin defense which if you remember Kasparov was actually defeated in a
match against Vladimir Kramnik which heavily popularized the Berlin defense
that was a brain games organised match which I actually saw one or two of the
games of and yeah ever since then the popularity of the Berlin defense has
been rising we see here d3 this is a special magnus carlsen treatment
avoiding the more theoretical lines Bishop c5 and white voluntarily gives up
the light squared Bishop to inflict structural damage
we have dxc6 and you might think the e5 pawn is vulnerable but
there's always Queen d4 this next move is quite rare but it does mean
Knight takes e5 is actually on so black protects the e pawn and now we see
Knight b-d2 - Bishop g4 it seems very logical play by black using the bishop
pair. The bishops seem quite aggressive but I can tell you what we're going to see
in this game is very very special indeed and there's a right piece on the horizon
this knight watch out for this knight on d2 and what it will do both during the
game and behind the scenes in the variations of the game so h3 we have
Bishop h5 - fine - black wants to preserve the bishop pair for a moment a3
and this is a very interesting move actually it's restricting this bishop
it's asking the bishop - is it going to go to b6 or d6 if b4 is allowed and
actually you know b4 is allowed here. a5 is only delaying things so we see
Knight d7 b4 Bishop d6 and you might also argue this structure doesn't it
seem quite fragile to you because a five there's already a battery here on b4
Doesn't it seem a little bit fragile?! but there's an incredible really
absolutely incredible thing which is going to be happening soon in this
position Knight c4 is played and that puts a seal actually on any a5 at the
moment on any a5 the Knights also controlling a5 here black plays f6 but
here we go Knight e3 and you might think White has
just released the pressure off a5 - Isn't a5 a good move but what about this
knight coming to f5 this is the thing already it's a big problem if g6 for
example then g4 winning the bishop and I kid you not
I've not seen such an amazing knight in the variations of a game I think ever
before Knight f5 we see Queen f8 here so black is kind of delaying his own
castling
you might think well why not Queen f7?! on Queen f7 we can take on a5 and then
castle and in this position let's just imagine this happened with Queen f7
because you might be interested in castling right?! A lot of us are still interested in
castling - we're told to Castle as early as possible what happens if black
castles here ?! And I'll start to show you a glimpse of this the power of this
knight on f5 guess what move White has in this position which guarantees a big
advantage so five seconds to pause the video starting from now Bishop h6 yeah
the knight on f5 means that it takes them we're going to fork the king and
queen here otherwise we're just going to win that g7 pawn and this is going to be
really dangerous because Queen d2 to h6 will follow it's very very dangerous so
the knight is already making itself felt in the variations here after Knight f5
this was an incredibly ingenious idea to let black play a5 against this
apparently fragile structure but now that it's here it's already caused black
a problem there black cannot routinely try and castle so incredible already so
let's carry on B takes a5 the thing is with this a-file with the King now
stuck in the center this is different winning material could always backfire
on the a file that could be a road in to blacks King via the Queen side we see
rook takes a5 - now white castles so White has the luxury of castling and
black has to suffer here and you might think ok let's just just test this
sanity test is in the game black played Queen f7 but let's see Bishop takes a3
Bishop takes rook takes rook takes and guess what this pesky knight again
wins a piece in this line Knight takes g7 check winning
the bishop the knight is everywhere in this game not only during in the game
it's in all the variations it's had a profound effect on the entire game this
knight on f5 and I assure you this is just the start
this is scratching the surface of the knight on f5 in this game we see black
playing Queen f7 if you might think ok kick the knight just kick the knight
instead the problem is Knight takes d6 is check and then we play g4 so it's not
possible to kick the knight - we're winning this bishop in that line okay so we see
Queen f7 so now a4 Nc5 you might think again -Can't black castle
here?! no Bishop h6 again is strong but even
even actually technically Bishop d2 first is slightly stronger and then Bishop
h6 rears its head again with this knight on
f5 being a major problem - black can't afford to have his King side chewed up
like that so this is absolutely horrible this knight on f5
we see Knight c5 and now an absolutely ingenious move which shows that the
knight just needs a left hook to Black's position you know via the Queen side and
we see the start of a left hook in the form of Queen e1 hitting the rook on
a5 okay it is a loose piece unprotected it's humbly protected in the game let's
explore a few things here if Bishop takes f3 isn't this dangerous because
the promise of Queen g6 well actually we can just take on a5 and if Queen g6
guess what yeah this knight like h4 protects g2 and just wins a piece there
at minimum I know I know this knight - I've not seen a knight like this I don't
know if I'm imagining this I have not seen a knight on f5 like this
having such devastating effect in all the variations of a game before we
see b6 I mean if Rxa4 Rxa4
Nxa4 Queen a5 is strong here because guess what?!
Nb6 - Guess what delivers the knockout blow here to have a completely winning
position?! yeah just simply Knight takes d6 this Knight again is just winning a
piece here it doesn't matter about Bishop f3 that's just a temporary check
that's it piece up thanks very much
so so that's no good rook takes a4 hmm so we have this b6 and now Knight d2 so
given that this Knights done so much work the brother light is also trying to
do something on the Queen side now to join forces and we see if it gets to c4
it will be threatening Nxd6 forking king and queen but isn't this a pawn sac?!
remember the King is in the center here
okay what is going on in this position it's too dangerous to allow Nc4
with tempo if black castles because then then there is Nxd6 after
We see Rxa4 so does white have to do anything about the rook on a1 in this
position can you see what magnus carlsen plays?! i've kind of hinted already
actually white to play - if I give you 5 seconds what would you play
okay you can ignore the rook because of Nc4 - yes both knights are
threatening Nxd6 now to win the queen with a fork so we have this
embarrassing situation now where bishop f8 again delaying any possibility of
castling - I'm not sure Bishop e7 is is any better so this is on move
19 - Nc4 so the bishop went all the way back if Bishop e7 Be3 is really
dangerous and again you know black is not castling in this position anyway
because of Bishop h6 all the time again it's a real nuisance there so yeah
farewell to the possibility of casting here. Bishop f8 if rook takes a1 yeah
we've got Nxd6 so as mentioned so Bishop f8 Bishop e3 is played and this this is
crazy stuff it looks like crazy stuff but king d7
is played here if b5 we can take on c5 and if rook takes then you see that the
queen is coming in via a8 here and picking up the rook on h8 that shows the
dangers of the a-file quite vividly - That this a-file is is is basically although
black won that pawn there - it's a route into the black King which is still stuck
in the center because the knight on f5 so we see King d7. If g6 on the other
hand we can take on c5 this position again that Queen just coming to a8 so
just horrible okay so we get the picture now I think that King d7 seemed
necessary I mean it's terrible necessities that black couldn't
castle and now king d7. Doesn't look right we see Queen c3 - it is an amazing
move in many respects it connects the rooks - it means that the a-file is more
likely to be used there's also some other ideas here and
black gets extremely desperate in this position it's just a very very difficult
position for King safety you can't have a rook coming to the seventh rank in
the variations so we see here Knight takes e4 it just it's not good with the
king there on d7. It's remarkable that anyone can really see this playing through
this game they wondering what why is the king of d7 here from such an innocuous
opening?! I don't know it's the Magnus Carlsen effect - he has this effect but in
particular than that knight on f5 it seems so far has had a major role in all this
White to play here doesn't have to just play dxe4 of course hmm on
d takes e4 black just plays Queen takes c4 and the king the queen is protecting the
rook and the King could even end up on b7 and that would actually be okay for
the first time for black but no we have another move here guess what Magnus
plays in this position
yeah just Nxb6 check - we don't have to lose the knight on c4 and
now this is much more favorable. Black's structure is weakened - the d-file apart
from the bishop at the moment holding d1 could be another Road in as well as the
a file. There's two roads in to black's King. We see Queen c4 Queen d2 check
gaining an important tempo and now yes technically the bishops holding d1 but
guess what what does white play here?!
just g4 - cut that Bishop away from d1 so we can then play a rook to d1 soon
Bishop g6 Rfd1 and here it's fatal - this battery is just absolutely
fatal in this position d8 and d7 are are just killers here in this position for
example Bishop c5. Black resigned. if Bishop c5 we can take and play all sorts
of things here like Knight d6 yes the knight could could could be delivering
another fatal blow threatening the Queen and b7
checkmate since it's overloaded the Queen. The Queen's also holding there I mean
this minimum stuff minimal example - but there's lots of other possibilities but
there's also the possibility of Queen d8 as well so this is this is absolutely
terrible there's also bouncing possibilities off b6 like check here for
Queen takes b6 is absolutely devastating stuff look at blacks King safety it's
like zero it's unbelievably bad so here either bouncing the Queen off d8
for b6 or Queen d7 for sometimes the knight coming in to d6
But yeah I don't know what you think but this knight on f5 had a profound
effect for me on the entire game that black couldn't easily castle because of
the variations of a Bishop h6 and then ended up just it seems as though Wesley So
was playing like beginner or something basically that that's one of the
profound effects of of the variations there which would
be avoided which needed to be avoided basically that you see black almost like
playing like a beginner as a result incredible stuff so it's three wins in
three days this is super Carlsen we're seeing - back - he lost that game against
Nakamura - and he sure has some fire in his belly at the moment pardon the
expression I don't know what you think - this is just amazing stuff to see from an innocuous
opening how the King can be subject to such bad king safety as a result after
okay I hope you enjoyed that. Comments questions likes always appreciated.
thanks very much.