Magnus Carlsen against Alireza Firouzja |Blitz Game|

3 Comments

1. i hate this board look dirty grass

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2. For anyone wondering about the knight move at 0:52, at depth 23 even Stockfish recommends not taking it. But it's not the end of the world whether you take it or not. White seems to have about a +0.2 advantage either way. If black takes the knight, white takes back with pawn which opens up the file for their rook, creating an attack. Black can just block with their knight (Nb8) but it's understandable why Magnus may have felt it to be more solid to not go for it. Stockfish seems to think that black will have to give back the material to avoid mate anyway. That all said I'm a trashcan 1100 who just started playing during the pandemic and plays like once a week and never studies so take what I say with a grain of salt lol

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3. For anyone wondering about 2:48 right before Magnus laments not going Bf1, black is already winning at -1.7 according to Stockfish before white made their knight move. But after white goes Ng4, black is winning at -4.3 (which leads into -4.8 after following that move with Bg7), so it's a massive blunder by white/Alireza to hang their rook.

   Stockfish recommended white to move the rook out of the way to attack black's bishop, which eventually diffuses the tension. But honestly even if black doesn't take the rook and does what Magnus did in the game, Bg7, black is still winning at -4.8 now. I don't see what Magnus was talking about what he said it's threatening mate however. White seems to be able to delay any kind of mate for quite a long time. It goes into end game and doesn't result in black mating for another 49 moves.

   So tl;dr: white is in big trouble either way and will have to give up the material later down the line regardless.

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