Reigning world blitz champion Maxime Vachier-Lagrave faces a tough first-round test against two-time Candidates winner and rapid chess champion, Ian Nepomniachtchi! Only one player can advance to the quarterfinals in the most stacked Speed Chess bracket ever!
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Mpl's Not Gonna Miss This Has had a great 2022 winning the Candidates in a dominant fashion and Following up with victory in the Chess.com rapid Chess Championship as The sixth seed he was favored slightly Over the Frenchman Maxine vashilagrove But mvl is the only player to have ever Defeated Magnus Carlson in a speed chess Championship match Nepo started excellently as he got Pressure with white and pressed for Victory in a pawn up in game and I think That white could promote winning now Right yeah you just make a queen and Then you easily tame the pawns he wins Yeah Wow what a game After a draw nvl sought Vengeance as he Also pressed nepo in a pawn up end game Ultimately securing the full point the Next game was balanced until suddenly Mvl's Queen and Knight formed a deadly Combo starting with the move Knight to E6 check Bishop he's allowed 96 while Hiding the king wait apparently why does Checkmate Queen d8 Knight G5 oh and Queen no Sevens Queen 27 because you can't play Queen no Way back no then we have fate 96 is a Fork so he's got to go King H6 and now He gets mated with Queen G8 Jana's lost another solid a straw was
Followed by mvl pressing for a third Consecutive win but nepo set a devilish Trap for mvl to fall into Looks slightly worse isolated Pawn oh Oh King G7 white loses is this Rook Trapped is that it well it shakes his Head angrily that's it yes And if the queen moves back to H3 then Black takes the Rook with his King to Keep the black Rook protected no way no Way out mvl has lost control of the game With the match level again the players Entered a rook end game that appeared to Be a likely draw but throughout this Match mvl would prove far superior in Rookend names drawing bad ones Comfortably and winning drawn ones MBL Convincingly secured the point and the Lead which he held on to through the 5-1 Time control as two more draws ran out The clock that is just not a game of Yawn was supposed to lose I mean he was Yeah I think better before it is good I Would just go C2 and put the Rook behind The pawn and then the problem is that Even if I wins the C Pawn this is Actually a lost end game this is Famously losing so just King E4 It is and it's over revenge is a dish Best served at the beginning of the 3-1 Time control according to mvl after Falling into nepo's trap in game six he Laid his own trap as Knight F3 check Looked to be winning for nepo but mvl
Had seen just a little bit farther I didn't see that though oh we missed it Going for some version of it has he Blundered he blundered queen d8 queen D3 And David Prince Mpl's Not Gonna Miss This Following my advice it's twice now that They're going for my blunders Another draw was followed by a clean win By nepo as he converted an extra Exchange to come within one point Rook D2 beautiful oh great knowledge of Theoretical end games that was not easy After King takes D4 first of all it's Important that black wins the punt you Get shouldered this is called Shouldering you keep getting pushed out Pushed out and pushed out eventually Lose the pawn and you say hey but I've Got opposition but when the king reaches The third ring and the pawn reaches the Fourth rank it's still winning King G3 King G1 F3 and then famously you go F2 Zugzvan for white now King E2 King G2 The following game was match defining Nepo had an extra exchange and looked Likely to convert again but then mvl Struck with the amazing and Brilliant Queen to D2 seeing further than Stockfish and setting up beautiful Threats Rook takes C2 I mean at this Point black has to go oh oh oh what a Move Queen D2 Can't take it because of the back mate
Did Nepal play like a really painful Wrong move order here Well I do not have to rotate first oh Now Bishop E3 attacking The Rook I I Think he did but white has Rook B8 oh Look at this queen takes G2 is the Threat Oh there's no time for Knight takes G6 Or Knight takes F7 or anything oh my God I think white might have to apparently Why does it draw No it doesn't have a draw why it's worse Because you don't have a good defense Against the queen takes G2 and rooksy When I'll show this really quickly boom That's insane boom mate goodbye I think that's what he should have done And this is Checkmate well Knight G1 I Guess technically but Bishop takes q1 MBL followed up with another Rook In-game win to take a three-point lead But nepo surged back in the next game Cutting the deficit to two points then Came another one of those rookkin games As nepo had a big Advantage when he went Pawn hunting while mvl placed all of his Hopes in the past D Pawn I mean he can't Lose he could always go back to Repeating Oh Oh I think he's gonna win King F3 there's King E1 and now there's repeat before He's gonna win the Pawn King C2 King C2
To D3 and a bridge no no no no yeah not Quite not quite where is the win is it Rook C4 is it Rook D4 oh One to B1 so you've gotta you've gotta Play now and give up the F Pawn and then You just then it's over then you build The bridge then you build the bridge It's over now three points ahead mvl was Looking to take a big Edge into bullet But a small shock concluded the 3-1 time Control as mvl blundered a piece to a Basic Discovery tactic that nepo Immediately capitalized on Wow something special C3 that was a blunder he blunders a Piece He's just flat out blundered a piece Before goodbye oh and we see a reaction From Maxine that was really the first of These in the match Seven seconds left Yeah that's it But that is the last game of the match Time is up Fortunately for mvl the break allowed Him to collect himself after the blunder And avoid tilt and it turned out that NEPA would begin the bullet time control By returning the previous favor in a Very similar fashion and black is up 20 Seconds as well See one Queen See one Queen you can just Queen yes but First but first Knight D7 to avoid like
You know Rook A6 or Bishop A6 and look At that move Quincy surgical Precision To force the Queens off the board and Now it's over he's up a full Rook Another nvl Victory preceded an insane Scramble that concluded with an Incredible miscalculation at the end Again he's a loud counter player he's Gonna throw an exchange at it what is he Wing he's getting himself mated MBL sandwiching his King on it oh Wait up Queen No Rook D4 Mvl then rapidly sees an opportunity to Head to another worst Rook end game and Yet again he proved much Superior in These positions Okay oh he's gonna lose another one of These he might it looks really really Dangerous no C6 Why didn't he C6 was winning oh Jan's Not even trying to help to hold this Rook D5 is this this is better this is It was clear that the wheels were coming Off for nepho and his frustration was Evident in the next game as he made a Major miscalculation there's Sparks but Is there if only he'd thrown in rookie One at some point wait what if black Just goes up oh I don't believe this F Takes E5 He's gonna leave it all on the board Here Bishop G5 now yeah he's throwing The kitchen sink at him a knight f4s and
A wait Bishop takes up three blunters Here The other one's like Jana's like Terminally until right now the next Striking moment was a beautiful inner Mezzo as mvl found that he did not need To recapture nepo's Rook these little Tactics always seem to go mvl's weight In this match oh oh He didn't even take oh what a move and Now he's up by six nepo showed strength In the next game as he smashed through Mvl's shattered kingside but the final Three victories were all by mvl as he Finished two games with pretty sequences Trapping nepo's monarchs first is King And then his Queen in the final game This is gonna be the last game of the Match Oh yeah Finally I gotta say for y'all finally It was entertaining up to a point but Once it's no fun for yawn it's no fun For me either you know like I need Everybody to be having fun I'm really Enjoying myself at this point for sure One point victories by MBL in both the Five plus one and three plus one time Controls had led to a remarkable Six Point Victory by MBL in the bullet the Final match score of 19 and a half to 11 And a half but lied the tension of the First two time controls but it is clear That mvl must be one of the speed Chess
Championship favorites if he can win his Next match against the Victor between Wesley so and Notre Beck Abdul sotorov He is on a collision course for a Semi-final rematch with Magnus Carlson [Music] Thank you [Music]
