Magnus Carlsen Solves HARDEST 'MATE in 2' PUZZLE and EXPLAINS the TRICK to Solve Those Puzzles

[chess]

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[Hauptstufe]

It would have been cool to see the puzzle while he thinks.

[xekind]

I found this puzzle really challenging. It wasn't until they actually showed the puzzle that I was finally able to figure it out.

[undulatingstrengthandfitne]

It took me longer to understand the solution than it did for Mangnus to find it.

[ARS]

“I just wanna solve it. I don’t care about the time”

True chess fan right there ✌🏼👑

[PranavGarg_]

Okay I feel blessed that I can at least understand his answer. After Qa8, black king has no squares to move to and the pawns can't move. So either the rook or the queen must move. If the rook moves, it would have to stop defending one of the c5 or d6 squares. Then moving the knight to the square that the rook no longer defends, we check the king, the queen can't take because she's pinned by our queen on a8 and that knight check is mate. Similarly, if the queen moves to a square where it can no longer defend both of c5 and d6, the same principle applies. The only exception is Qd4, because it defends both of c5 and d6 from there. But as magnus said, after Qd4, Re3# becomes possible as the king can no longer go to d4.

[janmazur]

Turns out world chess champion is pretty good at chess

[slpi]

Tania is a real master at distraction. Her "Are you sure" shook Magnus' depths. But the great Magnus defended himself even against such a temptation to error.😊

[ambikeyamohapatra]

Love how cleverly Tania put Magnus under pressure 😂😂

[truman]

Dang. We had to look at Tania for 2 minutes instead of the mate in 2 problem.

[vincenzo]

In reality, Magnus found the solution immediately but was quickly calculating all the 10^120 possible chess games just to make sure

[feedingfrenzy]

An explanation since they rushed over it. White plays Qa8. The threat is Nc5, Nd6, or Re3 on the next move because black is in zugzwang and can only move the rook or queen.

Right now, the rook and queen are defending c5 and d6 from the knight. If either of them moves, they will give up one of the squares and also allow the other piece that didn't move to be pinned by the queen on a8. The knight will deliver mate on whichever square they gave up.

The exception is if black plays Qd4. In this case, the black queen still defends c5 and d6. But as Magnus mentioned, this allows Re3 which is a double check. It wasn't mate before because Re3 blocks the dark-square bishop and allows the king to escape to d4. But if black plays Qd4, then it blocks that escape, so Re3 is mate.

[colinchesbrough]

Unbelievable! This puzzle really was intensely difficult, and he just steps up to the plate and does it in under 2 minutes

[albo_ar]

0:35 realizes it's a zugzwang and then the final answer at 1:47. An absolutely beast.

[DetectiveDeckard]

Apparently Hans solved this puzzle 4 seconds after Magnus, just in a completely different room and with vibrating trousers.

[Woto]

I want somebody to look at me the way Tania looks at Magnus

[Ali-wfef]

For those who didn't get it:
After QA8, black moves either rook or queen to anywhere. If black moves Qd4 then Rc3 is mate, otherwise based on black's move knight c5 or knight d6 is mate cause then either rook or queen is pinned by QA8

[AaronHillyer]

I love how they say Pragg figured out in 10 secs where he used some ideas from puzzles and shouted out the first move. Here we don't know how quick Magnus to get the first move but he actually solved it working through every possible scenario and probably double or triple checked his logic. I don't care what anyone says, Magnus can do any of this stuff better and faster. David might have solved it faster but Magnus a) probably didn't give a damn about speed and b) wanted to be certain

[PygmalionFaciebat]

If she would have asked Hans Niemann he would answered: ''The puzzle speaks for itself'', and go away

[tahmidrahmankhan]

Here is the Magnus's explanation,
Qa8 -> Qd4 -> Re3# (It's a double check from Re3 and Bg2)
Other option be like,
Qa8 -> Re6 -> Nc5#
or,
Qa8 -> Re3 -> Nd6#