2021 World Chess Championship Game 9: Ian Nepomniachtchi vs Magnus Carlsen RECAP 

Sometimes I think even Ben hates his jokes, but he is compelled by a force of nature to make them anyway.

Ben: And he forgot about... Karen: Dre I'm so proud of Karen.

Everybody says this is the best recap, and it's true

THANK YOU Ben for pointing out that the people complaining about "chess is all draws, etc." are probably the same people saying "Nepo is terrible, get him out of here." People seriously underestimate the psychological element of chess. Case in point: Carlsen's "inaccurate" move (which won him the game). Humans will never play exactly like engines, which makes chess exciting! Also Go Carlsen!

"Such an explosive move" Classic Finegold, this is why this is the best recap 👍

so many wonderful insights in this recap. it feels like this was the absolute defining game of this match. c5 might haunt nepo for a while.

"Every Game changes the way that you complain .. xD" brutal .. and the truth hurts! Anyway, I would like to see a deserved win of Nepo (with no blunders) before the end of the match.

The number of jokes and references per minute is high with this one. Ben‘s on fire!

The Fischer Spassky 1972 match was not unlimited. It was limited to 24 games. The 1992 rematch was unlimited.

Before this championship you were definitely top 4 in commentary rankings but now you are my unquestionably my favorite ! thank you for your coverage

This recap explains why they made their moves in another level.

The 1972 Fisher-Spassky match wasn't quite "unlimited". From Wikipedia: "The match was played as the best of 24 games, with wins counting 1 point and draws counting ½ point, and would end when one of the players scored 12½ points. If the match ended in a 12-12 tie, the defending champion (Spassky) would retain the title."

12:00 "That's a lot of touching" Touching you, touching me Touching you, God, you're touching me I believe in a thing called love Just listen to the rhythm of my heart There's a chance we could make it now We'll be rocking 'til the sun goes down I believe in a thing called love, hoo-ooh

16:37 iirc, Ian said he did see early that magnus could trap the bishop but that he dismissed it because he could play knight c5 any time... and then forgot about having to be able to play Nc5

"I got you off of sugar" wtf I literally JUST watched that Seinfeld episode last night

I trapped my bishop in my zipper when i was 4. I suspect this one still hurt more

best recaps on youtube, thank you

Magnus is the wrong player to be up against when your back is against the wall and you need to squeak out a win. I am pulling for Nepo to take at least one game but the odds of that look very slim right now. Maybe Nepo can work a bit of magic now that the match is essentially over and the pressure is off.

B6. That’s a spurious reference to Sting v Kasparov in Maddison Square 2000. Sumner entombed his own bishop for the rest of the game.

Ben should have over a million subscribers. Why doesn’t he?

Came here for the last 5 mins. Worth it

Don't let this distract you from the fact that Gus Polanski and The Kenosha Kickers gave Kevin's mom a ride back to Chicago in their rental van.

Ben keeping it 100. Great clip, as always 👏👏

Ian is definitely one of the chess players in the world.

5:02 that’s a lotta latent potential

well at this point, at least the whole match turned out to be not a dead draw anymore 🤣 Superb analysis Ben, tank you very much!

His next book should just be a compilation of all of the Ben-isms

Ben. There weren’t unlimited games in 1972. Spassky only had to score 12 pts to retain the title while Bobby had to score 12.5 to become WC. I believe that you confused it with the first Kasparov v Karpov match. I remember the coverage on on NYC PBS at the time with an easel and magnetic chess pieces. It’s unbelievable how much better it is today.

This recap is a higher level than Magnus play

Not to mention that Nepo had more wins on classical until now.

Ben is the best. Competition: SGM Naka, GM Ben, IM Levy, NM Lopez and expert Agad

Let's go! Best recap of all. Also first or something

Bens arrows are right about 50% of the time. 😄 diagonal knights but no shets given

I responded Dre in less than a second 😂

objective truth tuesdays, over 1000 people in uk

On 21:00, what about rook to a6 before knight a4 and b6? Ends up with rook vs bishop a8 and queen ?

5.58 nom you forgot he can t do that, because of "prise en passant'' move, that would destroy the defense

The creak is the fourth guy in the room. Love you ben

GM Finegold, after Be8, what do you think of 21. Bxc6 Bxc6 22. g4 Nd7 23. Nxf7!? ... ? My computer gives +0.00 after this sacrifice (and it would not take the piece).

Ben Finegold after doing everything right for the first 9:12 of this video incorrectly stated that the Fischer versus Spassky 1972 match required someone to win 6 games in an "unlimited" number of games. Well no one is perfect and further down below I'm going to heap some big time major league praise on Grandmaster Finegold for predicting that Viswanathan Anand might become World Champion decades before Anand actually did it. More on that later. And after all Ben is too young to remember Fischer's 1972 match with Spassky. But it's still quite a surprising historical error for someone like Grandmaster Finegold to make. But unlike e.g. the 1978 Karpov versus Korchnoi Championship match, the Fischer versus Spassky 1972 match was scheduled for 24 games or less. And victory was going to go to the first player to score at least 12.5 points. In the event of a 12 - 12 tie, Spassky would have kept his World Championship title. At least he correctly remembered that it was a forfeit that put Fischer down 2 - 0. The reason I'm so surprised is because Ben Finegold made an amazingly astute comment at some tournament in Philadelphia in I think 1984 when he mentioned Anand as a possible future World Champion. After all in 1984 Ben Finegold was only a teen ager, not yet an IM I don't think, and in 1984 most Americans had never even heard of Anand. There was no Internet to speak of. And in 1984 no one had 3000+ strength computer analysis engines to show them how amazingly promising the young rising star Anand actually already was.

in a long chess game i would be thinking arby’s also lol.

Double pawn!!! A huge taboo!!!

in the words of Lisa Simpson: a trapped Bishop is of little value

Thank you

You're awesome

Love it

Wow great

Always liked Finegold.

Better lose a piece than play f3! Next shirt.

1: loose a drawn endgame 2: blunder a pawn 3: blunder a bishop 4: blunder the queen??

CARLSEN'S ON FIRE NEPOMNIACHTCHI'S TERRIFIED CARLSEN'S ON FIRE NA NA NA NA NA NA-NA-NA NA-NA NA-NA

Kobe

9:27 I was under the impression that Fischer/Spassky was a best of 24, and that Kasparov/Karpov was a first to 6 wins, which was then abandoned for a return to the best of 24 after what a disaster it turned out to be.

22:10 what if Nepo plays Rb1

I feel like Spencer smokes a non-zero amount of weed Also Ben stopped drinking years ago by switching to Perrier

Spasky Fisher was 24 games

15mins in and I'm wondering why that woman is there. She reminds me of Yoko Ono in that new Beetles doco in Netflix, just sitting next to the talent and not contributing anything

I wish Ian pronounced his name "Een" like the Irish way ;) instead of Yan. An Irish "Een" would have been awesome. Also with the luck of the Irish maybe he wouldn't have blundered"

Ben! Never play f3!

Ben throws in some atheist humor

The real challenge will be Magnus vs Alireza in 2023

Yay! D-cisive!

Fischer / Spassky wasn't unlimited, it was first to 12 ( I think) points wins.

It's remarkable how Ben's evaluation of the position is waaaay off. Black was just worse after opening and had no plan. Former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik said that white's position was much better all the way until Rb1 move.

Gg

I knew Nepo would blow it. Hi Ben

third first!!!

Ian no good at positional play. Shocking move, bxa3. I would've played b3 without thinking, and a guy of Nepo's strength should've seen b4 was good.

First

And now chess commentators and chess fans alike are going to pretend that two preposterous "blunders" in two consecutive world championship games can mean something (or anything) other than a rigged match. Incredible.