00:00:00
this is chess Grandmaster hikaro
00:00:02
Nakamura and he's facing longtime rival
00:00:05
Magnus Carlson in a classical chess game
00:00:07
format at the bill B masters with the
00:00:09
black pieces hikaro would go on to win
00:00:11
this game and steal the point from
00:00:13
Magnus this however didn't matter as
00:00:15
Magnus would comfortably win the
00:00:17
tournament against a star studded field
00:00:18
by a comfortable Five Points this would
00:00:21
be the only time in both these players
00:00:22
illustrious careers that he car would
00:00:24
get the best out of Magnus In classical
00:00:26
chess as of 2024 Magnus has won for
00:00:30
meetings lost one and drawn 26 often
00:00:33
compared to the likes of Messi versus
00:00:35
Ronaldo or Federer versus Nadal Magnus
00:00:38
versus iaro is seen as the premier
00:00:39
rivalry that dominates chess but unlike
00:00:42
those rivalries this one doesn't have
00:00:44
such levels of equality on the stat
00:00:46
sheets Magnus has won five classical
00:00:48
World Chess championships five rapid
00:00:50
chess championships and seven World
00:00:53
Blitz championships and Hikaru he hasn't
00:00:56
won a single one in any of those
00:00:58
categories
00:01:00
the previously mentioned rivalries are
00:01:02
often considered so as they share
00:01:03
accolades and accomplishments that are
00:01:05
interchangeable and arguable for the
00:01:06
crown of their respective sports but if
00:01:09
it really isn't that close in chess then
00:01:11
why are they considered
00:01:14
Rivals it all started in 2005 at the be
00:01:17
chess Festival a young 15-year-old
00:01:19
Magnus Carlson ranked 416th in the world
00:01:23
facing off against a 17-year-old hikaro
00:01:25
Nakamura who is ranked 45th in the world
00:01:27
both battles they had would end in a
00:01:29
draw as both PR prospects would settle
00:01:30
for the last two places in the
00:01:31
tournament this marked the start of
00:01:33
something amazing as over the coming
00:01:34
years both towns would Bloom into Super
00:01:36
stardum in December 2010 the players
00:01:39
both found themselves within the top 10
00:01:41
of F's rankings in classical chess with
00:01:44
Magnus being first and Hikaru being 10th
00:01:46
over this time the parot built a sort of
00:01:48
rivalry they were both promising
00:01:50
youngsters coming up with Magnus showing
00:01:52
High upside and hiar practically
00:01:54
matching it at times hiar wasn't as
00:01:56
powerful but he had something else in
00:01:58
his favor the people One National Master
00:02:00
redditor wrote even all the way back
00:02:02
then hiar was one of the most popular
00:02:04
top players outspoken emotional and a
00:02:06
style just as firey it's almost worth
00:02:08
mentioning that his being American and
00:02:10
the first real world championship threat
00:02:12
in like four decades brought him a ton
00:02:13
of fanfare as well on top of that he was
00:02:16
the most popular online player by far in
00:02:18
the early to mid 2000s I'm talking like
00:02:21
when he logged on to the IC it was an
00:02:23
event top players would log on to play
00:02:25
him hundreds of people would spectate
00:02:27
his games every time he played years
00:02:28
before live streaming was even an idea
00:02:31
and he wasn't wrong the internet chess
00:02:33
club which essentially was the premier
00:02:34
place for online chess Back in the Day
00:02:36
held many of these with he car under the
00:02:38
name of Capilano Bridge the redditor
00:02:40
continued by saying everyone knew that
00:02:42
Carlson was insanely good but he was
00:02:44
more like fuja back then than he's
00:02:45
viewed today nobody knew he would be
00:02:47
basically unbeatable for a decade so as
00:02:50
the two youngest players in the top 10
00:02:51
in the early 10s Carlson Nakamura was
00:02:53
single-handedly the most anticipated
00:02:55
match up every time it happened so
00:02:58
clearly the Magnus hiar rivalry was
00:02:59
Brewing up despite both them being young
00:03:01
stars and hiar went as far as tweeting
00:03:04
in 2013 starting to realize that I am
00:03:06
the only person who's going to be able
00:03:08
to stop saon in the context of Chess
00:03:10
history basically hinting at the fact
00:03:11
that he could be the only one to stop
00:03:13
Magnus from dominating the potential was
00:03:15
there and he car believed he could do
00:03:18
it going into the 2010 World Blitz
00:03:21
Championship both players had high
00:03:23
aspirations but after the players each
00:03:25
took a game off each other in their
00:03:27
head-to-head matchups both fell short of
00:03:29
the ultimate goal with Carlson getting
00:03:30
third and Nakamura getting fifth Magnus
00:03:33
however had other ideas as told by the
00:03:35
journalist mcau Peterson Magnus was
00:03:38
asked about his night plans after the
00:03:39
tournament to which he jokingly
00:03:41
suggested to play a 100 games against
00:03:43
Hikaru Hikaru surprisingly agreed mcau
00:03:46
rushed to help set up by borrowing a
00:03:48
clock in return to a glimpse at the
00:03:50
final score Magnus Hikaru and a few
00:03:53
others made their way to a hotel suite
00:03:54
at 10 p.m. to begin set duel the secret
00:03:57
match would go down in chess history in
00:04:00
a dimly lit room the match began the
00:04:03
quality of the games were questionable
00:04:04
as said by Magnus in a later blog but it
00:04:06
didn't matter too much and at 4:30 a.m.
00:04:10
the pair finally concluded their battle
00:04:12
at 40 non-stop Blitz Games the final
00:04:14
score remained a mystery to which only a
00:04:16
few knew the true answer luckily this
00:04:19
video filmed by Peterson gives us a
00:04:21
glimpse into what was one of the
00:04:22
craziest nights in chess history this
00:04:25
fragment of game 38 is All That Remains
00:04:27
for us today many claim Magnus won even
00:04:30
with some reporting a score of 24.5 to
00:04:33
15.5 but none of that was ever confirmed
00:04:36
but what went down that night in Moscow
00:04:38
lightly Chang chess history in some way
00:04:40
or another the legendary almost
00:04:42
forgotten encounter is a chess story
00:04:44
that will lightly go down into history
00:04:45
books he C says he regrets what he did
00:04:48
that night but not for the reason you
00:04:49
might expect I agreed to play this match
00:04:51
probably I should not have and actually
00:04:53
there nothing to do with like the state
00:04:55
of having been out had a few drinks
00:04:56
anything of that nature but the reason
00:04:58
that I probably should not have agreed
00:04:59
to play this match and why I very often
00:05:01
times reference it as one of the biggest
00:05:04
mistakes in terms of competitive chess
00:05:06
that I made is specifically because it
00:05:08
gave Magnus a chance to understand my
00:05:10
style of Chess and at the time I
00:05:13
actually had pretty good results against
00:05:15
Magnus I think maybe he was up one or
00:05:16
two games but there were many games
00:05:18
where I had been pressing and close to
00:05:20
winning against him prior to that match
00:05:22
and so when I went and played that match
00:05:23
there were a few things that happened
00:05:24
first of all Magnus really started to
00:05:26
understand my style because we played
00:05:28
all sorts of different openings um and
00:05:30
so I think he understood that at times I
00:05:33
wasn't so great in the opening and there
00:05:34
were many openings where I would play
00:05:36
slightly dubious variations as opposed
00:05:39
to the main lines heur states that he
00:05:41
thinks Magnus learned exploitable
00:05:43
weaknesses in this play during their 40
00:05:44
games which could be beneficial to him
00:05:46
in competitive games of classical chess
00:05:49
but is this really an advantage well
00:05:51
it's really hard to tell because they
00:05:53
only played 14 times peror with hear
00:05:54
leading with eight points to magnus's
00:05:56
six It Is theorized by some that Magnus
00:05:59
played these games to gain Intel on
00:06:00
hikaro but let's be real it's not that
00:06:03
deep but maybe magnus's greatest
00:06:05
Advantage from this game was
00:06:07
psychological as seen by this podcast
00:06:09
the game's clearly got to hikaro and
00:06:11
Magnus is known for his ability to play
00:06:13
psychological games like when he shows
00:06:15
up late at this point who knows this
00:06:18
arguably was the Catalyst to the Rivalry
00:06:20
and the turning point in their history
00:06:22
and from now on they would start to meet
00:06:24
more and more in
00:06:26
tournaments one month later in London
00:06:28
Magnus would take down car in the London
00:06:30
chess classic and then he would do it
00:06:32
again in tatas steel a month later and
00:06:34
then a couple months later in the 20th
00:06:36
Amber tournament in fact according to
00:06:38
chessgames.com after the 40 games in
00:06:41
Moscow it took heur till 2016 to beat
00:06:44
Magnus in a competitive chess game of
00:06:46
any time control not including online
00:06:49
meanwhile in that time span Magnus
00:06:51
managed to become the two-time nearly
00:06:52
three-time World chess champion while he
00:06:54
C could only sit from the sideline and
00:06:56
watch after failing to qualify for both
00:06:58
candidates tournaments
00:07:00
of course hikaro managed to stay top 10
00:07:02
in the world for that whole time and win
00:07:04
many tournaments like his third and
00:07:05
fourth us Chess Championship but Magnus
00:07:08
was clearly running away with it the
00:07:10
Rivalry had been built up when they were
00:07:11
younger and unproven and was clearly
00:07:13
getting dismantled Magnus Carlson had an
00:07:16
extra gear that not only he car did not
00:07:18
have but no one else in the chess
00:07:20
community did and over the next few
00:07:22
years Magnus would continue to dominate
00:07:25
despite not having the level of
00:07:27
excitement it previously brought in
00:07:29
every Magnus versus hearo match was
00:07:30
still high
00:07:32
level and by 2020 Magnus was a four-time
00:07:36
world champion and practically no one in
00:07:37
the community could take him down he had
00:07:40
clearly separated himself as a level
00:07:42
Above the Rest and hiar was on a decline
00:07:44
sitting closer to the 20th spot in the
00:07:46
world right now this is when a
00:07:48
Resurgence happened as the world was hit
00:07:50
with a pandemic forcing us all to stay
00:07:52
inside online chess saw a huge increase
00:07:55
in players in tournaments of course this
00:07:57
promoted the play of time controls of
00:07:59
chess which were much more popular
00:08:00
online like rapid Blitz and bullet over
00:08:03
slower classical ones this played into
00:08:06
karo's hand as historically he struggled
00:08:08
versus Magnus in a classical setting but
00:08:10
could often keep up and even play better
00:08:12
than him in faster time
00:08:14
formats throughout history the two have
00:08:17
battled for first and second in Blitz
00:08:18
chess in 2014 and 2018 hikaro had
00:08:21
finished third in the world Blitz
00:08:23
championships two championships in which
00:08:25
Magnus ended up winning and in 2019
00:08:28
looking to finally secure World Blitz
00:08:30
Championship he Kuru met Magnus in the
00:08:32
11th round of the Championship the
00:08:34
players made an easy draw and moved on
00:08:37
nothing much was really taken away from
00:08:38
the match but it ended up being crucial
00:08:40
as he cared Magnus with tie on points at
00:08:42
the end of 21 rounds a play that
00:08:44
previous draw meant the pair would need
00:08:45
tie breaks to decide the world Blitz
00:08:47
Champion the first game of the tie
00:08:49
breaks was a hardfought 62 move draw but
00:08:52
game two was much different Magnus
00:08:55
delivered an attacking masterclass
00:08:57
culminating in a blitz victory over
00:08:58
Hikaru
00:09:00
this was one of many tight bouts that
00:09:01
the two shared in quicker chest variants
00:09:04
and the pandemic it only made them meet
00:09:07
more online it also represented another
00:09:09
key piece set a puzzle Hikaru started
00:09:11
streaming more often Hikaru was already
00:09:13
a high ranking player in the world and
00:09:15
people loved him for how fiery he was
00:09:16
and played he had already built up a
00:09:18
decent following with some YouTube
00:09:20
videos he started posting in 2017 but
00:09:22
everyone being forced inside meant they
00:09:24
had nothing to spend their days doing
00:09:25
and Yaro stream grew from Gaining a few
00:09:28
thousand followers a month to gaining
00:09:30
168,000 in the month of May 2020 alone
00:09:33
hi Caro becoming a content creator tur
00:09:35
him into one of the most recognizable
00:09:37
faces in chess someone who knew fers
00:09:39
could easily identify new chess fans
00:09:41
came onto the scene and could easily
00:09:43
spaur as one of the best in the world
00:09:45
facing off against Magnus in all these
00:09:46
rapid and Blitz events the Rivalry as
00:09:48
mentioned before was coming back newer
00:09:51
chess fans that were unaware of the
00:09:52
previous years of play between these two
00:09:53
began labeling this as a rivalry and
00:09:56
truthfully it had turned into much more
00:09:58
of a rivalry than ever was before but
00:10:00
the influx of new chess fans and more
00:10:02
specifically hear fans added more to
00:10:04
this narrative and from now on it would
00:10:06
only grow as in October something big
00:10:08
was about to
00:10:10
happen the global Netflix hit the
00:10:13
Queen's Gambit debuted just over a month
00:10:15
ago in just 28 days the Queen's Gambit
00:10:18
was viewed in 62 million households a
00:10:21
Netflix record the onscreen matches
00:10:24
igniting a new offscreen interest in the
00:10:28
game the Netflix hit series Queen's
00:10:30
Gambit was released and everyone adored
00:10:32
it this had a direct effect on the chess
00:10:35
economy according to CNN the orders of
00:10:38
chess sets spiked by 87% and chess books
00:10:41
by
00:10:45
63% this of course gave chess a sort of
00:10:48
Chess Renaissance with new players
00:10:49
flooding chess websites like chess.com
00:10:51
to play and watch chess of course Hikaru
00:10:54
being one of the most popular and best
00:10:56
streamers attracted loads of fans who
00:10:57
helped push this Narrative of AAL with
00:10:59
Magnus when the two were fighting in
00:11:01
online chess and nothing embodied a
00:11:04
Magnus versus hikaro rivalry more than
00:11:05
the speed Chess Championship since its
00:11:08
Inception in 2016 by chess alcom either
00:11:11
Magnus or hikaro has won every single
00:11:13
Edition the varying between Blitz and
00:11:15
bullet in this format helped both
00:11:16
players keep within each other in 2016
00:11:18
when it was originally called The Blitz
00:11:20
battle Magnus got the better of Hikaru
00:11:22
one year later the pamed again in the
00:11:24
final and once again Magnus won the next
00:11:26
2 years hiar would absolutely smoke the
00:11:28
field and Magnus wouldn't
00:11:30
participate and in 2020 after the chess
00:11:33
boom Magnus and hiar were both partaking
00:11:36
in the speed Chess Championship
00:11:38
unfortunately for us fans though Magnus
00:11:40
got upset by mvl and hiar went on to
00:11:42
beat him in the final to claim his third
00:11:43
straight title 2021 saw Carlson not
00:11:46
compete again and he covered his thing
00:11:48
for the fourth straight
00:11:50
year just prior to the 2022 Edition
00:11:53
however another key piece of the puzzle
00:11:55
fell into place magnus's company play
00:11:58
Magnus was acquired by ches.com for $80
00:12:01
million this meant that Magnus Canal
00:12:04
play on ches Doom again as an ambassador
00:12:06
and it meant that he would participa in
00:12:07
chess.com tournaments and promotions
00:12:09
with Magnus as an ambassador for
00:12:11
chess.com they needed to find some way
00:12:12
to turn into profit and sales chess.com
00:12:15
used the Magnus hear rivalry as fuel to
00:12:17
feed their platform it was advertised
00:12:19
and pushed to audiences to add suspense
00:12:21
to chess.com tournaments they competed
00:12:23
in in which they both usually made the
00:12:25
finals so luckily for us fans in 2022 B
00:12:29
Karu and Magnus were participating and
00:12:31
made it to the finals it was an absolute
00:12:33
Thriller of a match but Hikaru dominated
00:12:35
the early Blitz section and Magnus
00:12:37
fought his way back but ultimately could
00:12:39
never truly catch up to Hikaru cring him
00:12:42
with his fifth straight speed chest
00:12:45
championship in 2023 the pair met once
00:12:47
again in the finals where they put on a
00:12:49
show Magnus would finally return to his
00:12:52
previous form narrowly taking the
00:12:53
championship away from
00:12:55
Hikaru point is these two are the speed
00:12:58
chest champions ship and this was one of
00:13:00
the many online championships and quick
00:13:02
format tournaments that they fought in
00:13:04
and with chess seeing Earth spiking
00:13:05
players in late 2022 and early
00:13:07
20123 even more faces were brought to
00:13:10
the game where these two were advertised
00:13:11
as the best
00:13:12
two with Magnus having surpass the car
00:13:15
well in career achievements by now their
00:13:17
rivalry was more friendly than anything
00:13:19
they regularly M online as said before
00:13:21
and it didn't necessarily have the
00:13:23
competitive importance it might have had
00:13:24
at the start of their
00:13:25
careers this level of friendliness also
00:13:28
added to their rivalry shouts as it
00:13:29
created Unforgettable moments that are
00:13:31
now iconic chess Clips such as the
00:13:33
classic double bone Cloud draw all this
00:13:36
craziness is happening with the
00:13:38
qualification it's it's kind of what and
00:13:41
Magus goes K don't don't do this the
00:13:45
time Magnus arrived late to their
00:13:47
game where's
00:13:52
Magnus imagine though because he's been
00:13:54
playing five days like this so it is odd
00:13:57
and there he is there he is
00:14:00
it looks like he just got out of the
00:14:01
swimming
00:14:02
pool or the numerous Armageddon draw
00:14:05
trolling they've done over the years
00:14:07
turn your boards let's see it Magnus oh
00:14:11
15 minutes I guess that means you win it
00:14:14
the Revival of their rivalry online
00:14:15
turned into something symbolic they had
00:14:17
met so many times over the years and
00:14:19
they had spent so much time at top the
00:14:20
Chess World and had so many
00:14:22
Unforgettable moments that represented
00:14:23
their chess similar to how Messi and
00:14:25
Ronaldo's dominance for years had led to
00:14:27
them being the faces of soccer this link
00:14:29
was only further supported when prior to
00:14:31
the 2022 World Cup designer band Louis
00:14:33
Vuitton launched a campaign portraying
00:14:35
the two soccer stars of Messi and
00:14:36
Ronaldo playing the game of chess the
00:14:38
fact that they were playing chess was
00:14:39
already interesting enough but something
00:14:41
larger was at play if you look at the
00:14:43
pieces on the board they aren't just
00:14:45
playing a random game they're in a
00:14:47
position that occurred between Magnus
00:14:48
Carlson and hikaro Nakamura in Norway
00:14:51
chess 2017 this not only showed the
00:14:53
Magnus car rivalry's popularity but also
00:14:56
how symbolic it was to the game of chess
00:14:58
these these guys aren't just any Grand
00:15:00
Masters they run the chess scene
00:15:02
magnus's dominance and hikaru's
00:15:04
personality were key pieces that put
00:15:06
them both into the spotlight and what
00:15:07
ultimately led to us comparing them and
00:15:09
in response to this Magnus would
00:15:11
jokingly tweet second greatest rivalry
00:15:12
of our time mimicking the greatest
00:15:14
obviously poking fun at the situation
00:15:16
but in a serious context in 2023 when
00:15:19
asked about his Rivals he said this so I
00:15:22
think there are in terms of Rivals there
00:15:25
are there are tear and so there's the
00:15:29
first tier is like no Rivals and then a
00:15:32
little bit after that is saru so he's
00:15:35
definitely the um he's definitely the
00:15:39
second after no Rivals I would say on
00:15:42
Hikaru side he had this to say I would
00:15:44
say first and foremost is that frankly
00:15:45
it was not a rivalry until probably the
00:15:47
pandemic if I'm being completely honest
00:15:49
Ian Magnus had a great score against me
00:15:51
he won pretty much every match I would
00:15:53
say that we played like he won the SEC
00:15:54
in 2016 and 2017 um so you know Magnus
00:15:58
just just a great score against me so I
00:16:00
think saying it'si a rivalry is a little
00:16:01
bit sort of questionable cuz it was very
00:16:04
very one-sided but certainly since the
00:16:05
pandemic began uh I've done a lot better
00:16:08
overall against him and um so I I think
00:16:10
it's fair to say that now it is pretty
00:16:12
close to rivalry because like even today
00:16:14
if if you were to take this match after
00:16:16
the first few games and go back five
00:16:17
years I would have completely folded and
00:16:19
lost this match basically admitting that
00:16:21
prior to the pandemic even somewhat
00:16:22
juring this rivalry was frivolous in
00:16:25
some
00:16:26
ways as part of this so-called rivalry
00:16:29
hiar was portrayed as a second Fidel to
00:16:30
Magnus in the Chess World so when Magnus
00:16:32
gave up his world championship title
00:16:34
after 2021 you'd expect hiar to dominate
00:16:38
right well this only made the comparison
00:16:40
of the two look worse in the two
00:16:42
candidates since magnus's withdrawal
00:16:44
hear has failed to qualify for the World
00:16:46
Championship both times and a
00:16:49
nail-biting fashion for both in 2022
00:16:52
going into the final round of games yiai
00:16:55
had already secured first place and has
00:16:57
spawned the World Chess Championship in
00:16:58
a dominant
00:17:00
fashion there were questions about
00:17:02
whether or not minus would defend his
00:17:03
title so there was a mystery surrounding
00:17:05
second place in the tournament and in
00:17:07
his final game of the tournament hiur
00:17:10
was set to face off against dingly Ren
00:17:13
hiur was in second place with seven and
00:17:14
a half points while ding was on his tail
00:17:17
with seven all he car needed to do was
00:17:19
win or Draw against ding to secure to
00:17:20
Second spawn the
00:17:22
candidates and from a completely drawn
00:17:24
position on move 33 he car moved the
00:17:27
same Bishop multiple times
00:17:29
this handed the initiative over to ding
00:17:31
which he converted leaving hio to resign
00:17:33
on move 58 ding sealed second place in
00:17:36
the candids and at the end of all this
00:17:39
Magnus did refuse to defend his world
00:17:41
championship title causing the second
00:17:43
place in the tournament which had been
00:17:45
taken up by ding to be invited to the
00:17:47
world championship match making Hikaru
00:17:50
just 20 moves away from the world
00:17:53
championship and of course hiar does
00:17:55
deny this by saying I think if I had
00:17:57
finished second Magnus would have played
00:17:59
I I don't think there's any world that
00:18:00
Magnus could could could live with where
00:18:03
I could be world champion and he's not
00:18:04
world
00:18:05
champion this is pretty symbolic of how
00:18:07
one-sided his rivalry has been at times
00:18:09
hiar believes that Magnus would spend
00:18:11
months practicing and working on a world
00:18:13
championship match to prevent hiar from
00:18:15
participating while Magnus quite frankly
00:18:17
just didn't feel the need to play the
00:18:19
match many in the community think this
00:18:21
is just him coping but let me know what
00:18:23
you guys think but all things considered
00:18:26
the Rivalry was somewhat true at the
00:18:27
start of their careers and eventually
00:18:29
turned into a somewhat frivolous
00:18:30
competitive rivalry over the pandemic it
00:18:33
truly was more symbolic for the game of
00:18:34
chess than anything else Magnus was by
00:18:37
far the best and hiar was the most
00:18:39
entertaining in the end these two are
00:18:42
impossible to compare as they provide to
00:18:43
the chess community in their own ways
00:18:46
these narratives are a stretch and they
00:18:48
never truly were Rivals thank you for
00:18:51
watching
