s informed me that it will not be 1 against 4 and 2 against 3 but it will be a drawing of lots wow a drawing of lots that is ok that adds a bit of flavour to the whole situation a bit of je ne sais quoi literally je ne sais quoi I have no idea what's going to happen later it's going to be madness and we will try and get all that action for you on this channel so stick with us it's actually funny because I feel weird you know in our little studio here it always feels like everyone is more aware of what's going on literally people in the chat know more than us we have seen a couple of checks in the game black gave a check on c1, king b6 another check, king c7 another check, king d8 and the rook has come back to b1 that's right now what? now what indeed I would expect to see a transposition actually to this variation with a rook check on a6 meaning that when the king moves there we go rook a6 check, king c7 you can come back, now any checks you don't have to move the king, you can block with a rook and we'll actually just get a transposition after king c7, g3 rook b6 to this very this queen end game we discussed a bit earlier Parham I think is I mean he's manic at this point clock ticking we saw him stare down the clock a few moments ago maybe only two or three minutes left to make it the last few moves here yeah it's gonna be a tough I mean we've mentioned it before how losing the last round is always heartbreaking the opening went quite badly today for Parham but even later it felt like he still had some chances to hold even a pawn down the knight was in great shape against the bishop maybe we can show a moment or two I think maybe we weren't sure right now because some action is happening for those of you who do want to go and play through this game now I think the big mistake was on move let me find it move 16 for black the knight went passive it should have gone active to b4 and he would have had great compensation for the pawn but he's been on the defensive ever since and the big mistake on move 32 as well yeah mistakes on move 16 and 32 maybe Parham just doesn't like multiples of 8 and yeah two mistakes I think strategic mistakes long term they have hindered him yeah we're racing down that variation now so we will see this queen ending it looks like and Parham actually there's no need to rush they have maybe move 60 maybe he's forgotten that you get another 15 minutes on the clock because he is rushing but okay all the moves are forced I don't think we've barely seen any games all week where we went beyond it's because we went to have dinner before we had to look at the moves number 130 a good friend of ours Alex played I think till move 132 incredible over seven and a half hours that's right now just some accuracy from Maxim there's no need to rush Maxim I think he's okay he's got over 20 minutes on his clock there's an extra 15 in the bag once that takes down to zero and he has played 25 as we expected King C6 and if he plays King C6 or King C5 I think that will I mean that will sink to the end yeah so we see the queen I was just wondering no sorry I was just looking at the question in the chat wondering what the problem is with the youtube stream I think there is no problem at all I think the youtube stream is up and running and I like the pun there from Basmaniac he's not Russian he's Iranian he's not rushing I love my terrible puns I'm a sucker for a good pun but that was especially bad move by move is saying this is actually not trivial trivial at all Black has so many checks that is true yeah I mean the game will definitely go on it's just the last phase now and no doubt White is definitely winning it's just he has to maintain concentration he can't let what happen to Dennis Kadrich happen I was just going to say that I mean they had the same exact material balance at least queen and two puns but there Dennis eventually fell to a repetition he was still winning in the final position but his yeah repetitions happen all the time in queen end games you can't let your opponent's queen get onto the right circuit you have to be able to block eventually with your queen ideally without giving up one of the puns I'm just thinking again how insane it is that if I could play queen to F3 then okay maybe White would still be winning but it would be very difficult yeah good winning chances in a practical game but very difficult unfortunately the queen can't defend D5 while keeping an eye on E3 so we see queen to A1 I would expect to see Maxine maybe give a couple of checks now before taking this pawn on D5 just to make sure he's not walking into any repetitions David I think MVL will take this pawn maybe he will consider his choice as a little bit shall we take a couple of minutes as we see Parham walk away from the board let's briefly check in with board 6 and 9 let's remind everyone there are two games still going where the players are fighting to also join the tie for first no chances for a playoff but chances for a massive payday and let's start with board 6 yeah and Lekwanglian and there we see Lekwanglian having a think this again hasn't changed too much the only difference is that a few moves ago we did see White change the pawn structure on this king side giving himself an isolated pawn I'm not sure I'm so happy with that with White this E pawn it's a bit of a weakness Black's bishop is now a monster on E5 they are ticking down I mean the clock's ticking down they are on move 56 currently so four moves to make for White five for Black then they will also get their additional 15 minutes I think I predicted about two or three hours ago that this might be the longest game I think we predicted after half an hour of the game that it might be a draw it still looks draw-ish but Black is certainly the one pushing this bishop on E5 is just very strong I think the question is whether Black can activate this knight maybe via F7 to H6 to G4 maybe maybe just F7 to D6 but I mean a long, long way to go in this one and LeKwanglian I mean so much money on the line he has a good right I mean he's well within his right to push this as long as he can and he will let's go back to Prague and Procnananda and Ivan Chowich on board nine and when we last left it off I think we should show it again because it was such a nice move we're now in a pure woe did you see that too? Mark is taking some liberties at the production there that was actually incredible I mean nine days of practice with that camera is a dab hand I mean it was amazing that we even caught it that camera I didn't even know it could move that fast that's right another pun in the channel let's go back to Prague we mean Prague as in Prague, Nananda the young Indian one he's about to make a move but just to go back Black did play this wonderful idea after Bishop U2 Knight B7 and the rooks did come off the board and White thought he couldn't win this night now and he was correct because after B3 this pawn simply runs home Bishop F1 it's important that Knight B4 that's D3 I find this really like a stunning stunning piece sacrifice kudos to Ivan Sharich after such a long game and such a long tournament to still find this one very aesthetically pleasing by the way Rakesh has just made a very good point imagine what a fairy tale it would be if Magsut Lu first held yesterday imagine if he holds this one and goes on to win the playoff that would literally be insane we'll show this in a moment as well that there is an immediate draw if Maxime is careless, which he won't be he'll take his time here but just this Prague Nananda Sarich game it looks like a few pieces have come off the board and it's a knight end game now Black is a pawn up, this B pawn and it's surprisingly hard to win that pawn if White goes for it immediately with Kc3 then he'll drop some pawns on the king side for Prague Nananda to save this knight end games are like pawn end games and here Magsime is pawn up he will use that B pawn as a distraction, he'll try to distract the king in knight and then sneak his king into the game you've told us many times before this week I'm like a broken record knight endings are like pawn endings let's go back to MVL so it looks like I think if we had to make a prediction the draw would be most likely in the Kobalia game with Black pressing and it looks like Ivan Shai which is going to go on to score an all-important Black victory here and also enjoy the tie for first place that's right what do we think, should we check back in on board one? yeah, let's go back board three Fiona, keep doing it I need to kind of I need to write it down in front of me first of all show us where this draw trick was so we have seen Magsime played queen g3, check if he had played queen takes d5 this is the motif that is always a draw in a queen end game if your king and queen get skewed or if they're too close to each other now White's king is tied down defending that queen no matter where it goes this is geometry at its best for those who think chess and mathematics have something in common, you're correct for example, check wherever the White king goes it is tied down to the queen for example, it will keep going round in a circle and there's always attack on the queen behind it check check is that right? maybe I'm wrong now check and the king can't escape check so you have to be careful this is actually an incredible line this is a nice, look at this the geometry, I just love going round in circles like this check and if I want to d3, now what's that square called e6? actually I realised I've I'm getting confusing myself if king e5, the best, the safest is queen to h8 and now if king f4, queen h4 hoping for king f3 and then the power damn it's been a long day close enough so that's why mvl has to be careful I mean some lovely checks there but of course mvl saw all that, gave a check on g3 we're about to see king f5 from Magdoodlou although he's not so sure, his hand is still attached to the king David, I think in a second, maybe we can just take a 2-3 minute break I'm going to run to another room we all know what she means I might get another coffee to get ready for the playoffs shall we just take a very quick break we'll leave the camera on these guys this one will go on for a while so we won't miss the end of this we'll be back, 5 minutes, absolute max don't go anywhere we'll see you very shortly see you soon Maxime Varshel-Lagrab goes into round 10 with 6.5 points that puts him in a must win situation in the last round of the Gibraltar Masters we'll find out whether he can do it or not tomorrow, for now he joins us in our studio Maxime win in round 9 here at the Gibraltar Masters it looked pleasant for you but was it how bad was it for you? and we are back again it is still round 10 it feels like it's been on forever already but it's only we can't even talk we are only halfway through the emotional roller coaster or the chess roller coaster that is today we are going to have a playoff let's switch the camera back to Parham's game the suspense is building but we need to catch up on some moves here so on move 68 we can trip back a bit yes I have the moves white gave a check we left it around this moment he was about to gobble this pawn on d5 which he did and many checks later we arrive in the current position black didn't give any more checks here if the checks would not help they would just drive wett's king to safety on the king side so he played queen g2 and queen to f1 that was an odd one I've been told that the only thing people know about queen n games is that nobody knows anything about queen n games and look at Parham he was about to play queen c2 in fact our live ward there has already registered it but I think he will go there he didn't mess up our live ward also with queen n games queens obviously they want to be centralised if possible all the checks are the most effective way usually they're hardest to block I'm trying to think of all the things I know about queen n games there isn't that much normally it's pure calculation and here mvl will be just trying to find the most centralised square face queen bas maniac is asking if I got my coffee yes I did and while I was getting that I bumped into the main arbiter Laurent Freud I asked him what the situation about the playoffs was and he said as soon they will commence as soon as this game is over I mean not like the second but within minutes you know within 5-10 minutes of this game ending it looks like actually neither of these players will be in the playoff if Vashilygrav wins then he doesn't quite make it up there he does miss out by one performance point which is heart breaking and Parham either way will miss out unless he has a miracle hold speaking of miracle holds apparently Prague has gotten some holding chances should we keep these guys on camera and quickly go back to Prague on board 9 meanwhile Rakesh wants to know if you know of any books or tools to improve your queen ending I know books or tools to improve nearly any other endgame queen endgames probably the hardest let me think no work has been done because as I said you know nobody knows anything about queen endgames that's why there's been no pure published works on them I guess but they are tricky I mean there are general rules that you can follow but in the end it is just down to calculation and looking at all the checks yeah and phenomenon only so this there are only 5 6 6 pieces left actually I'm so tired I can't it is 6 well done Fiona you got that 4 for white 2 for black yeah that's the way I got there okay you're still talking about this queen endgame I just wanted to say that the table bases the 6 piece table base is informing us that there's apparently made in 35 but a player who has played 9 days of chess and 6 hours we have literally just entered the 7th hour here is a very different thing than the stone cold table base no that's right I think table bases I mean they're good reference point but nobody can memorize all of these things and okay I mean this one who nobody can calculate 35 moves in advance you don't need to for white you just need to find the next 4-5 moves get your king safe advance the pawn and you need to find the next 4-5 moves get your king safe advance another pawn and so on and so on until your pawns reach the end of the board or if you're able to find some tricks and swap off queens then you will be winning but this one it could take a while despite I mean everyone knows why it's winning Parham knows what he's losing it's just gonna take a while so let's go quickly to Prague and see if he has some drawing chances indeed so this one has changed quite a bit it's still a knight ending but now 2 against 3 and every pawn that comes off the board I guess brings Prague closer to that draw that's right now he's definitely made some progress I thought it might be difficult for white to get rid of black's 2 queenside pawns but he has done that at the cost of just one pawn on the kingside this is going to be incredibly hard for Sarich to win I mean theoretically I think it is a draw now I've looked at something very similar with 3 versus 2 it is a draw but again you have to be accurate you can't allow black to get too active with his king it's just hard for black to make progress because there is no room for error now you only have 3 pawns left and white will always have sacrifices sacrifice ideas to sacrifice white's knight for a couple of pawns and then go active with the king and get the last pawn we see that Anfiel has started pushing his pawns Prague who has been one of the main stories here when he beat Topalov I'd be very happy for him to see him hold that draw here again I would be happy for him but it's just Prague has been so impressive whatever I mean it would be nice for him to end the tournament on a high and take away some good memories and all the lessons he's learnt quick look at board 6 Kobalia against Leuq Wangliam that is now a pure opposite coloured bishop ending David does any side really still have any chances there I said that draw I'm afraid even if white can force the issue immediately with d6 and go after these king side pawns of blacks but even if he doesn't even if just king f3 I think white has enough squares white can just go passive king b4 there are enough squares for this bishop to defend this a4 pawn even if black were to win this d5 pawn is not enough black can't create a pass pawn I mean even if he were to create one that wouldn't be enough so it looks like he has played king f3 and draw any moment now I think I think out of the three games that remain that remain on the top ten boards I mean this should be the first two and let's go back to MvL by the way MvL's good friend Jean Moussard is also still going still trying to grind out his extra pawn in an opposite coloured bishop ending but Leon Leuq Mendonka is doing a great job holding on to that we can check in on that one maybe along the way yeah Mendonka I guess is praying for a miracle as well for his grandmaster norm but he will not win that one so let's check back in again on on MvL so MvL not too much has changed he's just played the move king to g3 there are no checks if black plays queen g6 check and the game if queens come off white will win the pawn endgame and I was not confused so someone said it's only the games have only been going for six hours but what I said is we're into the seventh hour of play so past the six hour mark that's right I mean Parham he looks like he's desperately searching for one last trick I would expect queen c3 but white can try anything even just e4 the pawns are slowly rolling now and mate in 35 they said earlier according to table base I would say that this game might go on another 10-20 moves but I think Maxine just needs to show he makes progress and Parham will throw in the towel yeah it's a very sad end to the tournament for Parham but I mean MvL was my pick he's unfortunately just gonna miss off on the play for oh by the way during the break David and I also saw David a power of yann he is following the games but not from the comfort of his room or getting some rest he's sitting in the middle of the hotel lobby in the middle of all the hustle and bustle everyone's running around preparing you know the gala dinner preparing the playoffs and he's just sat right in the middle of all the chaos looking at his phone nervously exactly he looked so nervous and he's just literally around the corner from us of course he must be here I was thinking why isn't he in his room he's of course not staying here he might even be staying you know who knows I haven't seen him at the holiday so yeah he actually has nowhere good to us I think players who who else is in the as he pankers in the same situation he's also not staying here he took the bus with me one house in the holiday and with us the players in the tie break I was staying in this hotel so that makes it a bit fairer at least yeah I mean they'll all be in limbo they'll all be thinking okay do I quickly prepare for my opponents do I save some energy do I just go relax have a drink non-alcoholic drink have some lunch and sit at the bar now I mean different strategies for different players I think some of them will be maybe just trying to get some quiet trying to close their eyes just knowing that there's a storm brewing and they will be actually very shortly with all of you guys watching them us watching them the whole world watching them absolutely we had who was just hurrying back to his game shall we very quickly have a look yes at his game he's on board 16 with the black pieces against Leon Luke Mandanka that's right and this one it looks like white is defending for now white has just blacks given a check on g1 white has moved the king d2 pawn is attacked and under control for now white covers this d1 square but it's still going to be difficult it's going to be a long long defense here I can imagine a move such as king g5 maybe such as bishop h6 or bishop b4 as long as black keeps that d2 pawn black will be doing okay and we'll put the pressure on for another 50 moves I'm sure and MVL has been blitzing out a few quick moves I guess one of the ways to end his game is if he can force a queen exchange somehow looks like queen d7 check king h8 queen e8 check queen e7 check I think he's actually just going to ignore his e-pawn use it as protection for his king and he's just going to push this d-pawn I mean it looks convincing to me David let's very quickly check back in with board 6 because I think we are really getting closer to that draw now there black has won a pawn but it's not going to be enough to win the game that's right board 6 I mean it's a typical classic opposite color bishop endgame these queenside pawns balance each other out meanwhile on the king side black just doesn't have enough to create anything if you could somehow the problem is you can never get your king around yes black to the to the queenside because the king is tied down to the defense of those to that g6 pawn that's right draw any moment now we saw bishop b4 king g2 and bishop e1 but this doesn't do anything king f3 simply even if black creates one pawn on the king side if we just play one variation ignore the fact that these aren't the best moves even if black creates a pass pawn this won't be enough because white will just put the king on h1, put the other bishop on c6 and you can even lose one more pawn you can even lose the a pawn you don't need it and easy draw and I think Leuq Wangliang maybe we will get all the way here but the Russian school of chess he is not going to lose this one I can guarantee it quick look at Pragg yes Pragg on board the 9 Pragg now earned her, not the capital of the Czech Republic we've seen a few more moves black's trying to get his king active Ivan Sarich hoping, I guess his hopes that he can somehow bring his king the whole way around but it will take a long long time to make this happen I mean black needs to maybe, let me get rid of those arrows black needs to get his knight to f5 somehow but again that's a long way from happening and even then white would have chances to exchange off another set of pawns Alejandro Ramirez who has lost pretty much all game has actually done a stunning job of defending his position and that game has ended in a draw against Tejaravi so kudos to Alejandro on a very stubborn defense to nature's stuff he was moaning about drawing all his games and today he drew again so well done to Alejandro and we never got there but captain Barbosa actually who we heard earlier that he was completely he was completely winning at some point but somehow let his opponent escape and it's been a great tournament for Pierre-Louis G. Basso yeah should we go back to the hell now I'm just seeing if I can see a few more top games I think the two let's remind everyone Tanjongri she played a great game to beat Maxime Lagarde she became the sole women champion on seven out of ten taking home 20,000 pounds she was followed in second position by her compatriot and friendly Tingzhe on six and a half actually I don't even know I think Tingzhe probably took second place on six and a half unfortunately went down as did Abdomalik we saw a bit earlier and Jovakishvili took a quick draw so six is the score to share a third place and there will be a lot on six there will be Jovakishvili on six there is also Anamusi Shuk let me see if there is any more there was a lot of women there were eight women on five points so if any of those Pia Kramling fantastic for Pia it's come joint third, four women also Beau Fantanetta, Stefanova and Elizabeth Pia so a big tie there for third shared third place a lot of money there as well I mean they will be sharing I think a few thousand among them so congratulations to those women we see a lot of quick moves now in our board one game board three game our remaining top board highest remaining board I need to stop saying board one I always feel like I could let you get away with it but I take too much joy and I'm loving in the chat that there is a pirate for the Caribbean discussion going on because those are some of my favourite soundtracks David does a fantastic impression you can sing hum the soundtrack in a great manner maybe if this game goes on until 10pm I'll lose patience and just start singing but it does look like black is running out of checks there is one or two checks on the back rank but those are easily guarded against it might be time for white to just make a dash with the king the chat wants to hear you sing no thanks please sing actually black is doing the only thing that might pay off I don't know if any of you guys in the chat saw the game oh gosh who was it again was it pantsalaya against Carlson or Carlson was black oh no it was this Russian guy Sergei in the world blitz a couple of years ago the first round who was it again this queen end game well done I'm impressed Sergei Gregorians against Magnus Carlson and Carlson did this fantastic trick he put his king and queen as far away from each other as possible he put his own king in the corner like maizulu is doing and he found a stalemate trick which was incredible I'll try and reenact something like that a bit later on maybe but there will be stalemating tricks for example if how can I do this if white was really careless how can I do this I'm trying to set up I'm trying to set up stalemate trap but anyway for those of you who do want to learn about queen end games check out that game Gregorians against Carlson Carlson saved it miraculously absolutely but this one I don't think maizulu will save it is two pawns rather than the one in that game do you think David that Maxime knows he will miss out on the playoff? probably I really hope he knows because it would be so heartbreaking for him to only find out after I mean he's put in such a long shift here I really hope he knows yeah and let's remind if you're just joining us now he's missing out on the playoff by the smallest possible margin one performance rating point that's incredible I mean you can gain or lose 20 points sometimes some players in one game and he's missing out by one performance point after 10 games I think of the average that must be and that deepon is now one square away from becoming another queen it will turn into Davina Davina the deepon will become Davina when it gets to D8 and yes we've seen the last few moves now La Rinda in the chat is saying this image so this lower camera shot looks like me on every club night everyone waiting to go home and we in time trial they're waiting to shut up shop and look at this lovely chess vest sported by former tournament director Stuart Rubin yeah on the right there he heard you talking about him and now he's just leaving shy yeah I mean there's we haven't seen it yet but queen itch 4 check I would expect if black goes to other squares queen g7 king f5 and white king is escaping not many more checks now queen g6 likewise white can decide whether to go forward or back both of them win quite easily this deepon is just she's going to be crowned soon the coronation will take place absolutely it will here's your first reminder so the playoff that's going to start momentarily now we have been told pretty much as soon as this game ends it's gonna involve four players I think we can go there pretty much confirmed are Wang Hao Yesi Panko and Dani Ljufa and unless there's an absolute miracle here the fourth player will be David Paravian these four players will be drawn so it will not be an all play all it will be two semifinals and a final so it will be a draw who is playing against each other can I explain that any player lucky draw draw is probably not the right word they will be picked at random the two semifinals it's not one against four and two against three and then they will play two games ten minutes plus five second increment per move if they are still tied after two games so one with each color they will play Blitz three minutes plus two seconds that will actually be very tricky to commentate on we might just have the camera and us talking I think an analysis board is super close there actually but I'm prepared for anything at this stage I don't know if you know but I did some commentary with Neil Squandelius on bullet games oh wow if you can commentate on bullet you can commentate on anything which was a lot of fun if it is still a tie after four games after those two three plus two games they will play an Armageddon and the two winners from the semifinal will move on to play the final for the title, for the money and for the glory we're about to see a handshake I think one more move here king to f8 and no more checks no matter where black checks now there will be a queen exchange queen c5 is met by queen e7 check there goes the king to f1 8 f8 and yeah I think no stalemates that's the only reason Maxine paused he still had his hand on his score sheet there waiting for resignation I can't see any stalemates I mean if black could somehow play if the black could somehow check on f6 it looks like stalemate but even that wouldn't be stalemate it wouldn't have to take it white could give a check on f7 no stalemates here today and white is queening next move Basmaniac arrived late wants to know who won the ladies prize Tan Zhangjie played a fantastic game to beat Maxime Lagarde and is the sole champion two years in a row defended her women's top prize she scored a fantastic 7 out of 10 incredible even more than her score last year I think impressive, impressive victory today very impressive and sole second place for the ladies Lei Tingzhe so another successful event for the Chinese after Zhu Vanzhun just defended her title in the women's world championship a few days ago it's funny timing just this morning I wrote a newspaper article about the Chinese Stranglehold on the women's world title and yeah more success today for those Chinese players just last couple of moves we did see queen a5 stopping d8 Maxime can make a new queen if he wants I mean queen a7 check looks like it will make a new queen queen f7 check first and then queen f6 check also looks like it will make a new queen I mean is there's no stalemates here for sure is Maxime Lu really going to play on a queen down yesterday he did but today it looks unlikely Hawaii pan pizza wants to know what happened to Pierre Kramling she is sharing joined the big tie for third place in the women's standings what happened to Malcolm Payne unfortunately there was some personal issues he had to leave the tournament after three rounds he did have a ticket for the Liverpool game I almost got my hands on it so close his brother will be going to that game with his season ticket Malcolm is in South Africa that's right yeah and he was saying he's been waiting years and years for me and Gibraltar and he finally managed to play a few games here hopefully next year he can complete his tournament Malcolm by the way himself is fine and if he's watching us Malcolm yo also there was a great picture of Malcolm there was a great picture of Malcolm during the blackout here earlier in the tournament the power cut David we're about to see him you're very funny and Maxime has the queen in his hand Davina is about to appear on the board Davina the deep one that's right will he promote now will he give a check first there we see another queen appear white second queen one more check queen f5 two queens should be enough here king g8 has been played no more checks now black's definitely not getting stalemated this king is far from the corner and handshake should we count down to 30 seconds yeah it will it will appear any moment Parham he caught a lucky break yesterday put up some not a lucky break actually he put up some great resistance but unfortunately for him today MVL proved a stronger player in the end and MVL will join the tie for first but unfortunately this will be the last time I say it just missing out on the playoff and there is the handshake and Parham is officially out of the playoff but congratulations to MVL who had a late surge he made the most of his double white to end the tournament he is sharing first place but he is missing out on the playoff that's right so no playoff for MVL I like that final trick by Parham bluffing his opponent queen disappears but it's not stalemate black does have one legal move so yeah he did and we see him take it with a smile Parham is such a lovely guy I'm sure we will see much much more of him such a great player and I mean overall you know it's always tough when you lose the last round but he is such a strong player still only 19 years old a bit like Dennis Cadridge I think when he gets over the initial disappointment he can look back at a great event big question though do you think Parham will allow himself a day off tomorrow or he'll be back studying 20 hours of chess a day he'll be in the airport on his laptop waiting for his flight maybe he should get a quarter point for this game it was almost stalemate David I think let's check in one final time with board 6 and 9 which are still on the way actually board 6 has ended in a drop one quick look at Pragnan and Da and then we will take a break we will leave you Prag on the screen while we take a bit of a breather to get ready for the playoff playoffs will be starting imminently we will need to get psyched, get ready, get fresh and we'll be keeping you company through all the action but we do see this final game Pragnan and Da against Saric if one of them wins they will come joint first as well and share in a huge amount of prize money but it's looking more and more like a draw and Kudos to Prag by the way Jean Moussard is also still I know he has literally just converted his game so Prag is well done as well for the French what long games ending they finish at the same time lovely touch to see MvL and Parham still at the board discussing their game guys I think we will leave you with this screen actually we'll just go away now leave you with Parham and MvL and Prag and Ivan Chowich and we'll be back for the playoffs in a very short while yeah thank you anyway and we're back as you can see just below us they're getting ready they're at the tables are you ready David? I was born ready actually I'm not sure this is no I mean nervy stuff three of our players are ready and Wang Hao has just arrived actually I got my wish so the games were drawn at random I'm hoping I don't know how bias I am hoping for a final between Wang Hao and Yesi Pengo but all four players deserve their plays in the playoff they all had a fantastic tournament one Chinese player Wang Hao he is one of the eight candidates we're off it's literally non stop at this point so Wang Hao will be playing against Dani Lufa and Yesi Pengo against Power of Yan do we have the games? I'm not sure we do at the moment so while we try and pull off the games on camera I'll let you talk through it and let me see I'll let you talk us through the opening I'll message Matt to find out where the games are on the top board I mean the top camera screen there we see Yesi Pengo and David Power of Yan it is the symmetrical English opening, very tentative stuff not too much action usually happens here early on that being said on the bottom board between Lufa and Wang Hao it is exactly the same opening that Wang Hao played in his classical yes, that's right there's classical game earlier today against Andreas Pengo I mean we're all lost for words we're struggling for breath here I think we have the games now so there we go we're looking at Yesi Pengo against Power of Yan and by the way as you can see we just need to change the analysis board Pragnananda is actually still playing still trying to hold that night ending and I think we are ready now Yes and we won't be analyzing too many variations this is a very short time control for those of you just joining us it is 10 minutes plus 5 seconds absolutely they will play two games one with each color if that ends on one they will be playing Blitz 3 plus 2 if they are still tied after two more games they will be playing an Armageddon where the white player is in a must win situation yes, white will have one minute more but needs to win Armageddon literally end of the world and it feels like that stitch now for all of these players who have been competing so well for the last 10 days David, before we get to the games quick who do you think is going to become the champion this year? I am a loyal kind of guy I picked Wang Hao on day one and here we are 10 days later I would still pick him how about you Fiona? My candidate MBL just missed out on this playoff I love Wang Hao as well but I am going to go with Jesse Panko just to disagree with you and I am still heartbroken for what happened yesterday I am glad he recovered he is in the playoff and let's see his game against David Paravian that's right we've got developed, got castled and a very standard English opening actually here I would be tempted to play D4 as white it feels like we've lost a move with D3, D4 but actually that position is normally quite a good one for white if blacks pawn were back on A7 black's ace removed doesn't really count for much we'll wait and see what he comes up with D4 would be high on my radar maybe he could play for A3 and B4 as well I wouldn't spend too long here if I were him in a rapid game looks like he's already spent a couple of minutes let's remind everyone Esi Panko is a specialist of fast time controls maybe not a specialist but he was first rose to fame when he beat Sergei Karajakin at the World Rapid and Blitz a few years back that's right, I think in 2017 so just over two years ago an amazing game Karajakin as white against the Karakan defense and Esi Panko just sacrificed a queen fashion and just to confirm for those in the chat wondering so yes the winner of each of these two semifinals they will play for the title in the final there will be no place for third place because the prices all the prices but first place are shared here in Gibraltar that's right so a huge amount of money on the line I think it's more than £10,000 difference between winning this playoff and the three others they will be dropping down and sharing with a huge bunch of players on 7.5 out of 10 David let's go back to the Wang Hao game let's do it this one is not so different from his game this morning if we do see for example Bishop takes f6 it would be very similar I would expect maybe knight bd2 first or maybe knight e5 if white is feeling a bit fruity knight e5 rook d8 and black is completely fine in these positions he doesn't look too bothered he just looks like I'm going to make a draw with black I'm going to crush you with white do you think that's a good strategy with black you're solid and you're waiting to bounce with the white pieces I think it's a decent strategy it's a big advantage to start with black in speed games especially in a pair of games it's a bit like in football you'd rather be in a two legged tie you'd rather be away from home first the second game you're at home then you can go all out if you only need to draw then great Patrick had tickets to go to the cinema to see parasite in about two hours but he's cancelled everything to watch this you should all be cancelling your plans I think we're in for at least another couple of hours of chess it's going to be a long long day it's touching go where the fiona and I are going to get any dinner we do see on the top board here I'm a bit worried actually he has made a move now on knight c3 we're having a long think there but knight c3, very standard stuff and Wang Hao having a think the top board has developed a bit more quickly black is a tempo up on some normal lines so black will be happy there David Paravian on the left we mentioned Espenko speed demon Paravian as well, extremely good at blitz and they will have to keep an eye on the clock I think in this ten minute game it's important not to fall too far behind no that's right I mean ten minutes it's a bit of limbo right it's a mix between rapid and blitz it can be a bit hard to I was literally just took the words out of my mouth they have been playing classical chess for the last ten days so this is of course a much faster time control but it's not quite blitz no that's right and actually I myself struggle I mean I really like blitz and I normally like rapid but anything in between it's difficult I mean do you play for tricks, do you just try and play as quickly as possible I mean, one house game here we do see progress quite quickly, black is just going to play C5 as he did in his classical game against Espenko and black is fine and if none of your business you're saying you're not sure if we're going to make dinner I think we really should have qualified for the closing banquet hopefully we can make it in time I think we deserve our spot I don't know, I feel we need another two, three hours of hard work before we deserve it we do see the move, 90 E5 I feel what you wish for David okay so the moves are coming in thick and fast let's go back to Espenko okay that's right and we'll update a couple more moves there we do see this very normal position but black has gained this X from move A6 because white spent two tempi on D3, D4 a couple more moves D6 was played and queen D3 and the bishop went to F5 hitting the queen hitting the queen and dropping back to E6 black's again wasted a move but white's bishop is now blocked by its own pawns I would expect to move like B3 here we're getting the maroxi-bind structure black is normally very happy once a set of minor pieces have been exchanged we have seen B3 and David Parapial is having a think white is I think slightly better in these positions but black is extremely solid Rakesh wants to know the format please I'm surprised he doesn't know let's remind you one final time of what the format is for this playoff so these two games you are currently watching these two matchups they are semi-finals they have been drawn at random and the two players who win their respective matches will advance to the final where the title of this year's Gibraltar Masters will be decided the time control for the first two games is 10 minutes plus 5 seconds and if the match is still tied after two games one with each color they will play Blitz 3 plus 2 so 3 minutes with a 2 second increment per move if they are still tied after those two games they will play an Armageddon that's right and I think the Armageddon will be 6 minutes against 5 minutes white will have 6 minutes black will have 5 no increment until move 60 but white needs to win and yes this is going to be exciting stuff it is a mix between Rapid and Blitz the first two games have actually started quite quietly I think the players as you said you know this difficulty to adjust from a classical time control to this tricky 10 plus 5 which is somewhere in between I think they are still just getting in the swing of things and I think do you think we might be seeing maybe two more quiet games by the way some big names among the spectators we see Shantzaya Abdumalik on the top cam also Nisha Mahota from India and just to let you know if we can switch the camera for or actually on the bottom camera you see Prague in the background with the purple jacket he is still playing his round 10 game classical game against Ivan Sharich they are nearing move 100 and Prague is still fighting Nadra will keep you posted about that one that is right a lot of money riding on the line I am not sure I would be too happy with some rapid games going on alongside but that is the way it goes and these players so far things have started quite slowly quite sedately we do see a couple more exchanges though after Bishop B to D4 Bishop is captured B5 I think we will see Cxb5 and a rook to C1 can I jump with my knight to D5 is that going to be an outpost for the knight eventually or what I am not sure if that is good or bad but I am glad to see the knight jump into D5 that is a good move I think sooner or later it will jump there anyway white has the queenside majority if white can get a queenside passport later especially on this a-file there is a distraction tactics will always happen when you have pass spawns and that can be very useful in rapid games I like white here me too I think white is just easier to play with white somehow with black you need to be resourceful you need to somehow create something whereas with white you just centralise your rooks get that pass spawn going on the a-file and black has also centralised his knight the knight has jumped D5 the players are down to 6 minutes there allocated time is gone we saw Yesipenko make another quick move work F2C1 and black has decided to give up his bishop for this monster knight on D5 that is right and B4 locking down this queenside I was a bit afraid of this as white I wanted to get my pawn going to A4 first now with A4 black will take on passant and white can capture but this B-pawn will be very weak on B3 we are seeing a lot of moves in the other game maybe we can check in there let's go back to Daniel Yuffa and Wang Hao yes and a few developments after knight to E5 black played rook FD8 white played knight E4 sacrificing his pawn on D4 and it looks like Yuffa has captured a knight on F6 but he doesn't look too confident in this position how is white playing for the draw white is a pawn down and can you immediately recapture on C6 possibly lots to figure out here tactically knight takes C6 I think might run into rook C4 and this would lose a piece because that's a double attack so maybe white has to recapture on D4 first but then knight takes C6 this B2-pawn hanging it looks like white might be yeah I mean it feels like maybe he can force a draw I'm not sure I can't see any tactics here for black really if queen takes B2 queen takes, bishop takes, rook B1 I think this is going to end in a draw very shortly but knight D7 instead okay I thought that this might force a draw for Yuffa but he's going for more, knight D7 Qd8 almost forced I think maybe he can take on D1 for check first so defending this bishop which can now be recaptured with the queen if white takes there I mean there's there's got to be some tactics now I mean at the very least white would just put a knight on C5 for a strong square and claim compensation for the pawn I think that's full compensation is there a way to win back to pawn and he has taken on F6 queen F6 rook takes, queen takes and rook D1 and that rook is jumping into the 7th rank next next, 7th heaven 7th heaven, the queen has dropped back to B6 after a moment's hesitation maybe we could see a draw here bit of calculation to do rook D7 is the most natural move at least, rook D8 and pieces come off the board there's no pins here, bishop B4 will get out of trouble for white we could see so many exchanges here let's, we'll keep an eye on the camera let's check back in with Panko and Paravyan that's right and more exchanges on this board too we have seen a pair of rooks leave the board H3 just being played after rook C2, king C7 H3, H5 more quick moves I mean these are kind of blitz moves that are just nice to play you get your king nice and safe tucked away so tactics don't work everything's protected now for white, everything's protected for black I mean you can tell they've both played a lot of blitz not allowing any tactics here I mean I still slightly prefer white chances, this knight in E5 looks nice, but it will get kicked away sometime soon that being said queen and knights are so dangerous especially at speed chess Rakesh Rakesh is saying that Yuffa has got to win in the rapid portion of this match he himself beat him in blitz recently in Abu Dhabi so he does not trust Yuffa's blitz skills that tongue-in-cheek of course of course, humble brag yeah, I mean I think of the four players Yuffa is maybe the least known for his speed skills and of Paravyan I mean this is pretty sad I've seen on YouTube him playing blitz in the Russian championships and world blitz championships too pretty pedigree and Wang Hao, just a phenomenally strong player so we've seen a few more moves in this game, F4, king back in the night and Rooksie 6 I like the way Esa Panko played Rooksie 6 drilling it into that square trying to show his opponent who's boss it's important to play that immediately before black establishes the knight Rooksie 6 I would expect to see queen A5 or queen B5 here maybe queen A7 actually queen A7 looks the most natural just keeping an eye on the spawner and the stygonal but queen A5 instead was played the time is taking down the players on now down under 5 minutes for the Pregnananda and even showerage fans out there, these guys are on move 97 even showerage has just pushed another pawn so we could see 50 more moves of that they could still be there when the playoff is over maybe we'll have to stick with the commentary of their game at 10pm actually Maxine Vashlygrav made his 100th move when black resigned and we will see 100 moves on that board too by the way for those of you in the chat asking if you can get both boards we will see after this first game if we can arrange that no promises but we will try yes and a big blunder not a blunder but a strategic mistake I said I like this queen A7 move instead he played queen A5 and he forgot that A4 is possible now black cannot take en passant because this queen is undefended on A5 and that gives white something to work with that backward pawn on A2 has now become a path to A pawn yeah Alfred or Alfred the A pawn, Alex the A pawn, Adam the A pawn yeah I mean either way he's going to run forward sooner or later what white has to be careful of is that this B3 pawn might be a target for black's knight but that's easily defended against the thing is for white this is pretty much a dream your king is safely tucked away on H2 your rook on C6 is doing a great job controlling the C file controlling the 6th rank you're probably going to double even if it gets hit with a move like I don't know knight B8 the rook can come maybe to C4 hitting B4 to C8 I really really like Esipenko's chances here now no that's right me too queen B2 treks always in the air somehow it feels like it's easier to improve white's position and that past A pawn now is a demon did this confirm Andre did you actually make that joke anything but Andre Andre of course Andre the A pawn I thought it was Ari the A pawn there's Andre that's right how the H pawn David the D pawn Daniel the D pawn so if we check in on the other game we haven't been in there for a while a couple more moves after rook D7 black played B4 why not black is a pawn up temporarily queen D2 rook F8 just over protecting F7 therefore ideas white played E3 bit mysterious not sure I understand that one so much but E3 useful waiting move and black played bishop A8 I'm a bit confused by the last pair of moves so bishop E8 I guess the idea is you want to activate your queen or the sort of I mean you want to I guess play C5 eventually and now this bishop is defended you can play C5 last move I would expect to move like queen D6 and we now have the two boards so I think we're going to stop analyzing so what you see now is the two life boards and we'll follow the action there on camera no that's right and a lot of moves being played there on the bottom screen Wang Hao against Daniel Lufa Wang Hao has played C5 the clock times David I mean Daniel Lufa with blitz it has to be said we're not sure to how accurate they are but roughly accurate so Daniel Lufa is already playing pretty much on increment while Wang Hao still has four minutes that's right and Wang Hao is so practical not just in classical games but also these speed games and there we see the bishops come off the board I mean Wang Hao is suddenly in the driver's seat he's still a pawn up white never managed to regain that pawn that he sacrificed early on what do you think his chances of converting this extra pawn? I think that's slim white is so active and controls the defile but I mean as we saw in his game against Pregnananda in the main tournament if you take a pawn, if you're AI able to hold on to it then later that does definitely become a factor what about Andrew Yesipenko's game what do you think of his chances? I think not too much has changed have we seen a repetition of moves possibly if white plays rook c6 now then the queen will drop back and repetition I think but it's just hard to make progress as white that a pawn looks so great it's just hard to push it further and the rook is going back to c6 we'll see queen a7 now and we've seen this position before David Paravian does not look so happy he's claiming with the arbiter he's claiming a three-fold repetition Andrew Yesipenko does not seem to agree otherwise he would shake hands I think he probably wants to try and this one will be very interesting because if it is a three-fold then the game will be over but if it is an incorrect claim time will be added to Yesipenko No that's right let me just try and figure it out so David is our three-fold expert I'm the pawn counter we're the three-fold expert I think they're going to step away from this board to check it Yes he is correct I think about this three-fold repetition and we've worked funnily enough we were just talking about this just yesterday about how tricky sometimes it is to verify these three-fold repetitions I don't know if we've seen a shake of hands yet no I think they are stepping away because on the Wang Hao game the queen has just dropped back to B8 and White can regain his pawn but he didn't want to, he didn't want to take on A5 he decided instead to maintain his bind by controlling the D-file and yeah I mean claiming a three-fold repetition when you don't have a score sheet to check especially in a speed game when you don't have time to think about it but I think he is correct on his claim And here do you still think that Daniel Lufi's pieces are so nice and central but do you think there's enough counter play? Yes, I think now he is okay I'm surprised by Wang Hao's last move I would have put my pawn on A3 as black it looks like he captured on B3 There we see Ace Panko standing by his board Oh I think the players are still waiting for Confirage and that's what we were saying yesterday sometimes it takes it takes a long time to check these things We have some of the best arbiters in the world here in Gibraltar but I found even the best arbiters do struggle sometimes with the three-fold repetition it's hard if you're not playing to imagine it in your mind so they have to take a step back and play it through on the board And the only score sheet that exists of course we have the PGN files meanwhile on the upper camera we see Ivan Chowich still trying to convert his extra pawn but he's down one pair of pawns have been swapped it's now just one pawn for Pragnananda two pawns for Ivan Chowich and it looks like we're headed towards a draw there and it isn't and wow I'm scared on tonight it would actually be incredible if yeah I'm going to try and work this out off-screen I really hope that the arbiters are not wrong because that would be a big big scandal so one two three yeah it's definitely a draw I think the arbiters have got this one mistaken I'm David we might have to send you upstairs some shocking scenes there I actually this one you know we were saying who would you trust for your life for this or that I think you are the number one man on the planet who I would trust with my life when it comes to threefold repetitions what people in the chat are conflicted something it's a wrong claim what does Rakesh think? Rakesh let us know there is some drama the game goes on and it turns out that Paravian was right I don't know what happens there yeah he could launch an appeal but he would have to do it immediately I mean the arbiters he seems very sure as well like he has been told to play on and he's like no I mean I would be the same I mean it's incredible and Jesse Panko with the smile I don't know if he knows I think he's I think he does know it's just he feels it's a draw because he won't go against you I mean maybe the arbiters okay it's better that they double check now we should look at the Wang Hao game Wang Hao has a winning end game now I'm pretty sure he's close to winning simply his two on the queen side are too strong for white's one white's rook is tied down keeping an eye on the c5 pawn and as soon as Rook takes f7 happens Rook takes b3 now Wang Hao frowning just wondering why and Wang Hao is about to win with black he's about to win with black which is a big big win all he will need with the white pieces in the next game is a draw to advance to the final he has recently won the big Isle of Man Open the Grand Swiss can he win all the big opens I mean he seems even said it on day one he was your pick he's such an expert he beat me so you know he must be he must be super strong and yeah I think Wang Hao he never seems to be in danger he's just so hard to beat and the draw has just been confirmed thankfully Paravyan was so certain yes and I was pretty certain too it's just surprising the arbiters took so long it seemed they went away and put it on the board but there we go a draw and a decent result for Paravyan I think he was a bit worse and he had black so white in the next game meanwhile Wang Hao's pawn are making a run for it but it's well known that when two pawns they do push forward themselves they do support each other and root c3 and we're going to see a handshake b3 and resignation so the first game is over we had a draw in the game between Yasepanko and Paravyan after some drama and a big win for Wang Hao it's never going to be easy was it Fiona no it's never going to be straightforward so I think well the players are sitting down already they're going to get a break I don't think they want a break yeah they probably don't want a break yeah I mean I've been there myself you don't want to kind of go outside for 10 minutes because actually you lose focus you lose concentration and meanwhile Pregnan and Das game is on move 106 David we're not going to bring it up but you can see it on our screen do you think that's going to be a draw I think that's a dead draw now for over 7 hours long may it continue chess is a tough game that's right I mean who says chess isn't a sport they should have had heart monsters on this place who said it was going to be easy nobody ever exactly I mean I've won heart monsters during my game I mean one of my opponents burnt I think one and a half thousand calories during the game there's one guy who's famous for having burnt so much I think it's a Russian grandmaster Rakesh was there in the Isle of Man he probably knows this he's a hero to Sam another fellow streamer one of these two guys should know there was one guy who burnt such an incredible amount of calories I doubt he was playing 7 hours and the playoff right I mean whoever you're talking about I doubt he was playing 7 hours and then playoff games as well with 30,000 pounds on the line incredible and the reason you feel resigned in that game is that Wang Hao is just making a new queen so I think it was actually anti-pov that is true it was Mihail Antipov who was playing here in Gibraltar we saw him a lot it's all that hair twiddling saw the hair twiddling I mean he burns maybe 5000 calories with his hands alone during the games no that's incredible I played against Abhijit Gupta as well and he was drinking so much coffee that somehow his heart rate was all over the place during our games and apparently it was his and Abhijit Gupta talking about him, their heart rates were through the roof I remember I played a game I blundered and my heart rate was still the same and the next game Abhijit Gupta he was spiking anywhere between 80 and 160 during that game incredible stuff so we see David Paravian is the first player to sit back down at the board I hope he, I mean I know that if this was you playing after this draw claim hopefully he can put that aside and I'm actually very impressed at how calm he remained in a tricky situation he was, they were close to making him play on but he said no I'm certain it is a threefold repetition they went back to check it again and it was confirmed he was correct and we see him there take a moment to refocus before his rematch he will be playing with the white pieces as you said you prefer and I think a lot of players prefer having the white pieces in game 2 you know what you need you need a win to go through in case of a draw they will be playing Blitz 3 plus 2 and other 2 games we shouldn't forget as well Paravian is 4 years I think older than his opponent he's very experienced he's played so many speed games in his life seeing a threefold repetition is kind of child's play for him and also you mentioned playing the second game with white is an advantage but for Wang Hao who won with black with the white pieces and I mean I had a black piece against him in the Isle of Man final round I knew I needed to win and it's just he never loses with white it's just so hard to beat he's got this one sewn up if he plays solidly there is another question in the chat about this play of Sua Daadi's guys playing for are they playing for the title or is the prize money divided equally no it is and it is the divided for every place behind first place but whoever wins this play of will take all the money the first prize £30,000 so that's the title to add to your CV it always looks nice to have won Gibraltar £30,000 and all the glory no exactly I mean it's a launching pad as well I remember being here in 2005 when Levan Ronin was one of the winners and then he went on to become one of the best players in the world we saw Artemiyov win here last year the European Championship some medals for Russia as well it's a real launching pad by the way I love how all the spectators who were looking at the playoffs just a second ago have all just turned around by 180 degrees and are now looking at Prague's ending which is meanwhile on move 113 but Prague is still holding his own incredible at 13 or 14 14 years of age he showed some incredible nerves Ivan Sharich put him to a real test today I mean imagine sitting there for more than 7 hours defending over 100 moves in a bad position, in a bad end game only 14 years old I mean that's a good sign for the future end games have always been a strong point Prague and Nanda but I mean that's incredible tenacity so that game well let's not write it off before it's over but it's likely to finish in a draw and if it does they will finish half a point behind the leaders Yassipenko and Paravian Yassipenko seems to be in a very light mood Paravian is probably saying I can't believe this took so long to verify he doesn't want to smile I think Yassipenko was asking whose water that was Paravian was like none of your business none of your business like none of your business in the chat who's been with us almost every day guys there's so many of you watching us right now shout out you've been here almost every day and this is the grand conclusion of this year's event I know and yeah the climax is approaching well if Wang Hao wins now or draws he will be through to the final but their chances are that the the other game might well go to the Blitz matches and I think we've just had a result in the Prague Nanda game I don't know if we can switch the camera for one second Prague Nanda that game has just officially ended in a draw and there we see Prague still putting back the pieces his last game it took 7 hours and 15 minutes but he did eventually manage to defend we see our arbiter there we see Tania on the left I love the bold colors everyone is just waiting for Daniel Yuffa for the return game of the semifinals it's tight I mean he's the one player out of the four and there is Yuffa with the high five with Shanzaiya Abdul Malik that's right low five I think it was but yeah he's the one player who needed to get out of the room I think have some fresh air maybe wash his face and think okay let's forget I just lost with white but I still have a chance yes it's with black yes it's against one of the top 10 players in the world but I mean in rapid and fast anything can happen in any single game he played such a fantastic tournament to get to this playoff but Wang Hao he really looks imperturb... how do you pronounce that word? imperturbable I trust you Fiona I'm partival I can't even say that in French anymore David in our defence we've been here for over 7 hours as well that's right we've been here and there's a handshake Wang Hao and Yuffa are starting first and there comes the other handshake Wang Hao started with night of three actually we need to we are just waiting I think for the Pijians to come through for this game let's try and bring them up yes we will just get those boards up in a moment but on the right hand side we do see the video the live action of the players we see a Kings Indian defence in the game Wang Hao, Yuffa and our favourite opening David Karo Kahn sorry you go are we both shocked at how long Karo Kahn is taking? Espenko only plays the Karo Kahn it's his main opening it has been since he was born he's famous for it and that game that we mentioned Karajakin against Espenko in 2017 Espenko used it to win very nicely in 20 moves Queen Sacrifice if you haven't seen it do check it out so we have the boards now and he has played an exchange variation that's right a tricky move order by Paravyan just testing what set up Espenko wants to go for and on the other board though Kings Indian nice and active nice and contrapersonal opening Black is really just allowing to take the centre as we see Black will try and counter attack most likely on the Kings side we actually saw this position in the main tournament Black was a tempo up and the Kings Indian in the game Paravyan against Ansipov but here we see Yuffa who needs to win just trying to create as many imbalances as possible the bishop yep no you go Yuffa is using a line that's quite old and quite rare nowadays and I think what is supposed to be better but it's a test does Wang Hao know what he's doing I think Wang Hao it will take a lot of unconventional moves to somehow surprise him or at least take him out of you know he always looks so relaxed and I haven't do you remember when the last time was that Wang Hao was involved in a big playoff I wonder if he has played any actually none of these maybe none of these four players have ever played a playoff as big as this one I mean Wang Hao for sure has played at the World Cup I remember him recently having this kind of marathon much with Lenya Dominguez I think he went out in that game eventually I think he went just before the Armageddon games maybe it was even the Armageddon but Wang Hao yeah I mean he's had so much experience compared to these guys Wang Hao is the only guy in his 30s now I think he's just turned 30 and Rakesh has figured out the numbers so after the draw between Pragana Nanda and Saric so the winner will get 30,000 pounds and all the other players who shared first place on 7th and a half will get 10,500 each so basically this playoff the difference it's a difference of 20,000 pounds basically almost double twice as much for the winner compared to the three three times yes excuse me it's been a long day also the word is impertable impertable yeah that's right and for those of you in the chat it looks like my mic was off it ran out of battery we've been commentating for so long that we've had to change the battery in the mic hopefully I'm back by now MassMatch no no no I'm gonna go quite as well as long as they change it while they change my mic David over to you no that's right I mean imagine just some speed games decide 30,000 pounds for the winner just over 10,000 pounds for all the others no almost three times as much and that shows today's such a big day for these guys especially the three young Russians I mean I think Wang Hao won his fair share of money in the Isle of Man and will get a decent amount at the candidates but for the three others it's maybe not life changing but it's a huge amount it's such a huge difference like you said on the CV as well imagine what a boost this will be for their careers I mean Artemiev who won here last year and came on to become to win the European Championship as well this one we have three more Russians in the running I'm cheering I'm not cheering I'm not cheering for anyone I'm a big fan of Wang Hao I think Wang Hao should have the best chances I think Wang Hao on paper should have the best chances he has the most experience he has you know played these high tension games the most and the Russians are young and they are hungry that's right they're all very young Espenko 17 I think Paravian and Eufa both 22 Wang Hao 30 yeah I mean it's incredible chess is the young person's game nowadays for better or for worse I'm not sure in the chat I mean it's mentioned that Wang Hao is using his left hand but I think he might be a righty but just using his left I mean there are certain players for example Levon Oronian he is a righty and he writes all his moves with his right hand and he plays all his moves with his left and we saw Maxime Vashley grav do that earlier today as well a lot of moves though especially on the bottom board I mean not the bottom board but the bottom camera between Wang Hao and Eufa they're both rushing ahead with this King's Indian and quite likely Eufa's position I was just going to say how much of an issue is that hole on E3 can our knight have a jump in or our bishop and also what do we do with the light squared bishop that's still on C8 good question E3 bishop doesn't have so much of a job right now I think 93 doesn't really threaten much I'll just move my queen and it's not clear he actually put the bishop into E3 and they are about to be swapped Wang Hao responded with King G1 and he did make a hand movement towards the bishop and he has now taken on F2 that's right and Eufa will now try to put his knight into D4 now the dark squared bishops are off the board that is an outpost maybe he can try and play C6 or C5 first if he really wants to create more tension in the center long term if White can solidify and he just put a plant a knight onto E4 White is doing very well but right now it looks like Eufa's got a healthy enough position what about the caro kan that one the first game ended in a draw so it could match could and here with the decisive result you are our in-house caro kan expert what do you make of this one? I mean I actually do a lot of my caro kan I started using Espenko's game this one is actually transposed into a line that I had more than 10 years ago against Wesley So from the White side OK, White decides to take in D4 I was going to say I played Bishop D3 in that game and after Bishop H5 I played King to F1 and everyone thought it was a mouse slip but it was a real life over the board game Inspired by Vladimir Kramnik a big advocate for a new no-cancelling rule Inspired by someone who was pretending to be Alexander Morozovich ICC the internet chess club he told me it was a great move and then I played it over the board and I realised ah it's just a load of rubbish and it turned out to be an imposter but either way, White takes the Bishop H5 now in that game, Black castles it's this cars bad structure which is so rigid it usually appears from the Queen's gambit declined how much of an edge is the Bishop H5 here? a fair amount I think just in recent years people have started to realise that actually White can get an attack going on the King side but the Queen side minority attack doesn't get started anytime soon White has decent attacking chances so H3 I expect to see maybe a move that prepares Bishop D6 for Black Black needs to try and exchange off the remaining castles of the Bishops that Queen probably wants to find a more active square than C8 B7 is under attack so maybe Black will aim for B5 first Knight A5 maybe and then redeploy the Queen Bxp does not look too happy we saw him frown there as A4 appeared on the board making playing B5 that much harder I think Black really needs to challenge that Bx4 maybe with a move I mean it's sad to play but 98 and Bd6 or maybe D8 and Bd6 maybe even Bd8, Bc7 but you need to challenge that Bishop now Black is really struggling for space and activity in the Hau game Wang Hau put his knight to D4 which Yufei has just captured how is White going to recapture both knights and taking both taking with the knight and the pawn look quite tempting I think he will take with the knight if you take with the pawn the knight on F2 doesn't have such a great home we see Wang Hau frowning there as if he's shocked and confused I would take with the knight I think for sure take with the pawn just allows knight D4 yes he played the move that I had in mind for a while Queen D7 that's another way maybe a more natural way to challenge with Bd6 actually Bd6 is currently possible and I think he might play it Bd6 White cannot grab the pawn on B7 with Bxd6, Qxd6, Qxb7 the queen will get trapped on that square B8 picks it up immediately that's right and Wang Hau is predicted it has recaptured with the knight and I liked the look of that knight on E4 it's a great outpost and White is threatening to play C5 and really pushed through the advantage in the center so knight D4, I expect to see C5 appear maybe even F4 if Wang Hau is feeling fruity actually the more I look at White's position is just improving Black has made no progress at all in the last few moves he will have to find some winning chances so if you are just joining us this is game 2 of the semifinals Wang Hau won game 1 with the Black pieces so all he needs is a draw to advance to the final take one step closer to becoming the 2020 winner of the chip chess masters and taking home the first whopping prize of £30,000 actually all my years playing here in Gibraltar I've never known such a disparity in the first place and drawing first place that's an incredible amount of money they're playing for and we see some exchanges in the game between Paravian and Espenko so the bishops have come off the board that definitely helps Black but he's been forced to put his knight on the side of the board on the rim and the knight on the rim, David is sometimes dim what about this knight yes it's not great Bishop takes E5 the boards that we see on the live boards are slightly slightly behind the video but we did see Bishop takes E5 D takes E5 and knight takes H5 I would expect to see G3 from Paravian and that knight will have to reroute itself to G7 Fianceta knights are normally quite bad unless you're playing two bishops versus knights end games Espenko is also over 3 minutes down on the clock which at this time control is already quite significant that's right and we did see F4 from Wanghao and Black is captured on C4 I think this is really getting away from you for now after FxE5 D takes E5, rook takes C4 Bishop B5, I would expect to see rook takes D4, exchange sacrifice getting rid of that knight on D4 after FxE5 could Black consider taking with the board? the knight on D4 needs the protection of the board that is a very good point and there we see that has happened on the board FxE5, D takes E5 I think White will recapture that pawn on C4 now, it's very much in Wanghao's style to just play simple chess there we go and if the bishop jumps to B5 OK it jumps to F5 instead that's a better square attacking White's knight trying to get rid of that great knight on an outpost Wanghao do you expect him to move the knight or will he be happy to I think the bishop on E4 will also be doing a great job no that's right I mean Black's last move was very clever I was trying to sacrifice with rook takes D4 but I didn't think that would be enough now so maybe White will move the knight to C5 or just move to Qc1 OK so Qc1 doubling on the C5 putting some pressure against the pawn on C7 and Black's king just looks a bit airy just looks a bit weak Black's pawn structure is far worse than White's Black has 4 pawn islands, White has 3 it's looking great for Wanghao at the moment I think at the moment both positions actually look great for the players with the white pieces I think I would I wouldn't be too unhappy with Black in the S-Penko game just because I've played these Karakans and the space issue isn't so important now that a couple of minor pieces have been exchanged I'm just worried about that knight on H5 if it doesn't find any work anytime soon then it could become an issue later on and on G7 it isn't so great either so yeah, White's slightly better there but not a huge amount and we saw just put the rook to E8 what is it doing there David? mysterious it must be supporting the f6 break so Black would like to break with f6 but he is over protecting the pawn on E6 before he does it's very sensible in Blitz or Rapid Games you don't want to, if you're not sure about committing something to something, especially pawn breaks especially some tactics or forcing lines then just bringing all your pieces into the action makes sense, that rook wasn't doing too much on C8 now he gets it ready for the action later on and yeah, he's not committed he can always go back to the other side if he decides f6 isn't great he'll think on his opponent's time though in the Wang Hao game we see him take a sip of water he seems very calm and Yufa is in the very tricky spot of having to find some chances he's in a must win situation otherwise he is out of this playoff that's right I mean he doesn't look too happy as we mentioned he is possibly the least well known for his speed skills that showed in the first game he got outplayed from a roughly level position and here it's hard to find a move for black yeah I was just going to say it's very difficult he has played rook e7 it's hard enough to defend but creating some winning chances is going to be very difficult that's right and already there might be some tactics in the position I would imagine a move like d6 probably doesn't work right now but d6 is always in the air opening up that bishop on g2 David let's see the Sipeng and by c I mean watch so we have some change now in the structure white has broken with c4 which was captured and queen takes c4 is on the board yeah and that makes full use of the fact that black moved his rook away from the c file but I mean I'm not so sure that helps really and the rook is just coming back to c8 suddenly black's knight will have some outpost yeah I was just thinking I would love to get my knight so that knight on h5 is still not doing very much I guess it will go to g7 to f5 I mean white is still slightly better and naturally it does make sense to open the position because you do have a bishop and bishops love open lines the bishop wants to be on e4 now the queen has dropped back to b3 stepping out of that c file and keeping a knight on b7 the question I have is can the knight jump to e7 and try and jump into d5 yep that would definitely make sense I might even flick in rook fda first or maybe even queen c7 first to hit the a5 pawn and now we see d6 I mention this as a tactical idea now if black so Wang Hao captures on d6 with his knight that knight is loose but if queen takes knight the a8 rook will fall that pushponchi too sniping away on a8 is taking a moment to consider his options he's still 2 minutes down on the clock he's now under 3 minutes but I think at this moment it's important to figure out a plan what do I want to do in the next few moves that's right and I love how the chat has to send it into a theoretical debate discussion about the Karakann lightsy guys saw your comment but there is simply no time to discuss these things Alex and I in our Karakann DVD recommend 3c5 so you can buy that to find out more about it check it out www.gingergm.com absolutely no Karakann the dynamic Karakann oh yeah that one I thought it was the killer Karakann so let's take with the games rook has dropped off the board black has sacrificed material and now e4 this is ambitious by you I don't think it's completely sound that pushponchi is on a8 stuck out there in Siberia but I don't know black has sacrificed some material at the very least white can sacrifice some back so it's a full exchange pawns are equal I did a quick count, 4 pawns each how do we stop I guess all we need to do is stop that pawn make sure that doesn't queen but it's a very long way away can I somehow get some play on the D file I think knight f3 check is black's oh that's a big threat I would suggest possibly a move like queen d1 to try and side step that and if knight f3 check just moving my king to the corner maybe you could put your king in the corner first just to a bit of prophylaxis just to be ready for the knight jumping into f3 I mean it feels like at the very least white can play rook takes d4 but that would be kind of a last resort and we think what else rook d1 I don't think works I think it's the first time in the game that we see Wang Hao really pause because it is a big threat but it feels like Wang Hao just needs a few accurate moves to parry all the threats let's remind everyone again all he needs is a draw to advance to the finals that's right he's a big big favorite what's it gonna be he's also ahead on the clock despite having a long think here I would play possibly queen d1 or f1 d1 maybe meanwhile we've had some big changes in the power of Yan Yasi Penko game whose favor is b7 dropping off David I think it is falling you have to be a bit careful with white b4 is coming 4 black but queen takes b7 it looks possible Wang Hao has played this move rook d1 that was my first instinct and then I thought I just allowed an e2 check with some forks but there's some counter tactics the queen is on d6 and it is undefended that's right so white is initiating some tactics that do look decent for white I can't see any immediate and there he goes knight e2 is on the board king f2 is he gonna catch the queen does he have a choice queen e6 check queen b6 queen e3 yeah I think you might have missed that one queen e3 maybe he was banking king takes knight and then bishop g4 check and some tactics but it looks like he might yeah I think he just missed that one body language wise he missed that queen b6 would be met by queen e3 now and the problem is what else both you hit your queen on d6 and your knight on e2 under attack black is already an exchange down and he is in a must win situation and this one is looking very tough for euphan yeah let's try and calculate this e3 check that doesn't work king takes knight and bishop g4 check is impossible because suddenly rook defense g4 covering g4 nice desperate for euphan now queen f6 okay e3 check and I think the knight will just disappear and there's no bishop g4 check we'll see a resignation now white has a rook up black has no more threats and euphan realises what he's done and Paravyan meanwhile took a long think before playing queen e3 these players white is down her to 2 minutes 1 minute 4 yes e panko David how do you like his position I'm surprised by that last move by white queen e3 trying to get the queens off I think white is the only one who can be better simply because black's knight is so bad on h5 not really participating at the moment but it feels like the pressure is slowly disappearing maybe e3 can get all the queenside pawns off he's gonna take b2 queen takes b2 is on the board and the bishop drops back to b2 how calm is that white simply wants to go rook b1 and take on b7 but now I think black's out of danger somehow there must be a way to somehow I mean prevent this rook b1, rook takes b7 idea oh and draw a greed wow so we are going to the blitz games we will see at least two more games between David Paravian and Andrei Espenko Yuffa is still I know he's not still thinking he has played queen f6 but all one how needs to do now it's just to make sure he doesn't get mated basically but I don't even see a threat for black at the moment bishop g4 check might be a threat but I think bishop d5 check first king g7 we'll see queen to c3 I'm going to swap queens off rook e5 I mean white can do anything at this point bishop back to f3 prevents any checks any nonsense on the f2 square there we go bishop f3 and I think we'll see Yuffa resign he's just a rook down and no compensation white's king is super safe and if when he does we see Wang Hao trying to to get a sight on what has happened on the other board and there we see the resignation so Wang Hao advances to the final where he will be facing either David Paravyan or Andrey Yesipenko the two Russians will decide who of them goes through to the final in a couple of blitz games at the time control will be three minutes and two seconds guys we'll just take a one minute breather we'll keep the cameras we'll just rearrange maybe the layout so we'll see you in just two minutes see you soon and we're back and the first blitz game between Paravyan and Yesipenko has just started so this one is now played at the time control three minutes plus two seconds we're just working on getting the board up for now we'll follow it on camera by the way if you are watching us on YouTube you can come over to Twitch where you can join a chat oh just think where you are but anyway welcome to all of you and here we will decide who is going to play against Wang Hao for the big final to decide the winner of this year's GYPCHAS Masters and who is going to take the first prize of 30,000 pounds David no that's right and actually on the board now we're seeing a very theoretical line Yesipenko we mentioned he's loyal to the Karakan he plays it all the time as black and he's shaking his head quite early on let's just hope that his predictability the fact that he doesn't switch things up let's hope it doesn't come back to bite him in the end it looks like he's been hit by some preparation and I mean the C3 and B5 line it's quite a rare one we'll just try and get that board up for you in a moment but what is having a think now does he capture the knight on D7 does he retreat his bishop and a couple of long things here considering it's a three minute game now a couple of long things I mean we mentioned before it's hard to adapt from the classical games to the ten minutes but also ten minutes to three minutes is also quite a big switch and even if we can just get one board that will be enough we're just trying to bring that back up Yes and a bit of an odd retreat but should be two four white I'm not a big fan of that one I mean I hope they start moving I mean they are starting to move quicker now the game will most likely be decided later in the middle game Esipenko knows these systems these setups very very well though I mean I studied many of his games in these lines we have a what is almost a French defense at this point but black has a decent I mean black's bishop on F5 is very nicely developed and we're about so what you see on the left hand side there is the life position it will struggle to keep up with the player's pace and we're just working on getting our analysis board back up as well so that maybe you can show us a couple of maybe just draw some arrows it will be hard to keep track and black has gone for a tactic we're going to see that on the board in the moment it looks like Esipenko has spotted an idea that Paravian had missed he's captured this pawn on B4 it's that knight is taken which it is bishop C2 attacking the queen and the knight and black is winning a pawn that's right and it's not okay it's not just a pawn it's also he will get his bishop round to the C4 square he's going to be positionally strategically better as well bishop takes knight and that bishop will land on C4 next move white now desperately has to create some open lines create some kind of counter play but it looks far fetched that will just take on B5, bishop takes B5 and bishop C4 so I think we're actually just going to bring up I think we can just stick with the live board if we can get the live board and the camera that will be enough it's struggling as it is so David Andrea Esipenko now a big favorite to reach the final I would say yes I mean he has a fantastic position B6 now I'm not hugely keen on that one I would have preferred to maybe put my knight on B6 to get it to the C4 square now black's knight is passive but then again black is a pawn up and black has got technically what is supposed to be the better bishop I can definitely see him bringing his pieces to the open files swapping off some rooks and winning long term and this is let's remind everyone I mean I shouldn't have written if I said Andrea was a big favorite to reach the final this is only game one of the two blitz games he will even if David Paravian goes down there will be the rematch he will have the black pieces but especially in blitz absolutely anything can happen of course that's right and actually just a really sad blunder to make he looks so confident in the opening and then as soon as he started to have these long things started to go wrong so yeah I mean white is not threatening much white is just going to sit and ask black to make progress so how do we make crores can we try and somehow hit that rook on B5 with the knight it will take a while to coordinate it but for now black is just doubling on the C file and when in doubt push Harry that's right Harry the H pawn running up the board there just trying to create some chaos some weaknesses later H6 if white's pawn was allowed to get to H6 there would always be tactics always mating ideas and you don't want to allow that in blitz so H6 for black H6 and black well he is up that pawn on B6 which is blocked for now but it is still it is still an extra pawn and white is trying to put up some counter play he's pushing forward g pawn yes I mean it's desperate but it makes sense in blitz you might as well scale your opponent you know your pawn down and struggling anyway and there we see the board now so g4 has been played queen c6 queen c6 and the queen goes to c4 yeah I mean c4 won't be the final square it goes to it wants to jump into d3 if black can force the queens off the board black will I mean be a massive favorite to win it's going to be very hard for white to stop that we'll go to d3 and e4 it will be 2 I expect queen d3 here let me see if I can I get an approximate clock white is down to 45 seconds and black has just over a minute so very soon the moves will be coming in thick and fast rook a8 is on the board so black is now occupying all the open files yeah that's right white's rooks look very nice doubled up but they are hitting this very well protected pawn on b6 it's just hard to find an active plan for white g5 will never work white's just too weakened he might have to try it I mean if g5 yeah I would eat my hat again the bishop has dropped back to d2 hitting the rook which has gone to a3 rook is on a3 now rook c1 and queen to d3 surely yeah the queen is actually coming around to e4 now to target the g4 pawn white is struggling white will either have to swap queens or allow some kind of attack on his king side and yeah the queens will come off the board now most likely and yeah as you said black white cannot allow that d4 pawn to drop off because it is the one thing that's sort of holding position together what's happening here what's the king doing on f3 the king is going for an adventure on g3 it's nice and safe at the moment but some tactics happening rook c7 trying to get to the 7th rank and esi panko says no he's going to challenge that 7th rank queen c2 so it turns out white is the one who has to desperately swap off the queens or else his king would come we're just getting the shot onto the clocks 4 seconds for david power vian let's remind you he just gets a 2 second increment per move and 30 seconds so andrei esi panko he is still a pawn up he is in the driving seat on the clock but I mean with nerves anything anything can happen here just taking a king f7 and just get everything solid defended worry about making progress later let your opponent have a think king f7 now he needs oh he's gonna drop down to 10 seconds taking on f6 and white is going for g5 just trying to create some desperate counter play surprised that oh okay knight takes g5 bishop takes g5 yeah I mean black's piece is going to be the better one long term as long as he can avoid white's bishop getting into e5 rook b7 a solid move just defending that b pawn which is now going to start running down the board rooks do belong behind pass pawns and after rook b2 I expect the move e5 here there it is to activate that knight so both players now down under 10 seconds this is the first of the two blitz games oh dear I remember recently watching Alireza lose two magnus on the clock in the driving seat so one second oh Christ oh this is insane I'm so this is crazy David both players struggling to even make the time I mean make a move now black is still a pawn up but he needs the number one thing he needs to be and the pawn has dropped off the board and the draw I said Penko has blown his advantage unfortunately we will see a dead drawn king upon the game we'll see king vs king in a moment oh wow drama and Fiona's heart rate is off the scales right now David what a game that was I think we need to make sure for the second game we'll try and keep exactly this formation on screen I think we need to see the clocks someone has to have a word with Kevin Winter there with his head blocking the camera oh yes he Penko looks so disappointed I mean he had found his night tactic he was in control on the clock as well but the problem is these 30 seconds they take down so quickly no that's right and one one long pause one misstep and that whole clock advantage disappeared and his board advantage disappeared very very quickly guys in the twitch chat welcome to true welcome to everyone watching us this is insane I need a moment to I need a sip of water I mean dramatic stuff and it's only going to get more dramatic now we will see colors reversed we will see Espenko on the white side this time and if this is a draw we will see Armageddon the dreaded Armageddon game when we will I mean literally I think Fiona is going to so I mean this is the first playoff I've ever commented on it's just too much I can't handle it David if you're just joining us now so this is the playoff for who's to decide who's going to win this Gibraltar Masters 2020 it is the semifinals Wang Hao has beaten Daniel Yufa 2-0 to advance to the finals and in this second Blitz game it will be decided who will be playing Wang Hao for the first prize for 30,000 pounds all other three players involved in the playoff will share the remainder of the prize money actually I think that might be Fide President by the way who we're seeing in the background by the home of women's just poster Akadi Vorkovich I think will be with us in Gibraltar tonight so all other three players will be working away with 10,000 pounds still a great payday but three times as much for the winner exactly I mean you can think of it that all of the players in the playoff they've always secured 10,000 pounds I mean that's all in the bank now they're all just playing for that remaining 20 and also as we said before adding the Gibraltar title to your CV always a nice bonus no exactly Power of Yan is back at the board we see Yasi Panko still facing in the background he needs to forget about this game he was probably winning as black up upon in control but yeah as the time takes down it's so tough to keep I lost mine here I don't even want to imagine what the players feel and yeah I think now that he's moved a tiny bit closer that is indeed Akadi Vorkovich in the background President of Fide yeah so if we're not getting there might be an issue with getting the feed for this if it is I think we'll just follow this game on full screen yes we can yeah we'll talk about the game as it goes along I think Espenko who was pacing in the background there a moment ago I think not only does he need to forget the last game he needs to forget yesterday where he was a queen up against Magzulu and failed to win he would most likely already be the tournament winner at this point we'll get all that just focus on this game easier said than done I think if we're struggling to get the PGN but we should not worry I think we should get the two camera angles if possible one with the clock times and this one and with the two angles we should be able to follow all the angles so Espenko is back this is the second Blitz game if there is a decisive result here the winner will advance to the final to face Wang Hao if it is a draw we can see an Armageddon next and they are off that's right I mean I'm curious which opening we're going to see Espenko it's always been a 1D4 player looks like we're going to see the queens government decline okay the Catalan I think let's just stick with this I think the camera is enough to follow all the action yes that's right we see this variation with Bishop b4 check and a5 I mean I'm pretty sure I've seen Paravian play this before okay lots of Catalan's this tournament as well we've seen I don't even know I was going to talk about approaches but I think at this point it's really all about just keeping you cool and trying to play the players have to rely on intuition that's right 3 plus 2 such a quick fast control is so hard to adapt this morning did I say that such a fast time control just this morning they were playing classical games they would see some first exchanges on b4 that's right I mean I think that's the big issue here they have been playing these 7 hour time controls 10 days in a row and suddenly they're playing super quick blitz okay Black has taken control of the center he sacrificed a pawn on c5 but he is advancing d4 and e5 look like a very strong center right now White will be forced to retreat sooner or later looks like Espenko is about to play knight to d2 e4 if he doesn't do that so knight d2 does make some sense instead okay we see castles and I would expect Black to think about e4 if not then maybe a move like rook e8 or bishop g4 maybe even queen e7 so much choice here by Paravian but he needs to play quickly David I'm I'm out of commission it's such a complex games and I don't even know who's better give me just a quick just tell me who's better and why it's too hard a question I'd prefer to spend 2 weeks studying this position I think it might be slightly easier to play with Black you have given up a pawn but you have this clear plan you want to advance in the center you want to get your pieces out to great squares White is the one who's slightly tied down defending c5 defending the a2 pawn as well Black has this semi open a file we saw the bishop just go 2g4 is that bishop going to stay there or is it maybe going to try and retreat to g6 I think you're right bishop h5, bishop g6 would be a very nice plan also it's just time for Black to bring the rooks to the center maybe later once that knight on g5 is kicked back Black will play knight to d7 and try and recapture on c5 and even here I mean even in those kind of games a 30 second time advantage on the clock is already a little something and yes a panko will have to to speed up we saw this in the first game though Paravyan was lower on time for the duration of the game but he handled it very well when he got down to under 5 seconds I mean as the panko a few times was so close to losing on time the previous game he dropped down to 1 second at some point Paravyan was under 5 seconds when the panko had all the most a minute but in general it's not clear at the moment who the faster player is knight to e4 2 and Black says no, no exchanges knight to e8 I think that's a good move, you don't want to allow White to kind of free himself does he want to play one of my favourite moves f5 he does if Black gets f5 and e4 and Black is doing extremely well White would ideally like to stop that h3 the bishop will drop back I mean it won't be nice if White has to play it's just hard to understand what White wants in this position can I play a3 at some point I don't like how tied down I am on the a file but I don't know if a3 resolves that you can do and it might be quite likely sooner or later we will see an exchange on a3 and White's queen side pawns will be shattered so despite being a pawn up those queen side pawns don't mean a huge amount I mean while Black is just playing in the centre Black's just forgetting the whole queen side yes White's 4 versus 2 up on that side of the board Panko is now down to under a minute lagging behind one minute and he has decided on the e3 push allowing d3 that's right I would be very worried about playing e3 I think d3 and f5 maybe f5 now even looks very tempting the knight jumps into d6 where it is taken and now what queen takes oh queen takes ok I thought maybe rook takes but push back 7 now so White can finally get rid of this strong d pawn but it will be at the cost of allowing some more exchanges I think queen takes d3 will happen ok maybe e4 I would be thinking about as well here for White but if queen takes d3 everything will be exchanged on d5 and Black will be slightly better but White does play e4 on these on these angles e4 is on the board trying to keep that stronghold on d5 Black has taken on e4 the bishops come off the board that's right so I mean that d3 pawn still lives White does have a very nice rook now on e4 attacking this backward e5 pawn but I don't know somehow the d3 pawn is always going to be tactics later White's queen is the queen is just the worst blockaders and White's queen is tied down on d2 yeah White would love to have time to rearrange his pieces put his knight on d2 but it's going to be very difficult to achieve yeah that's right and I mean with Black here I would just be looking to maybe somehow get the a8 rook into play and the queen swings to g6 attacking the rook on e4 do I have time now to play a move like queen e3 possibly queen e3 there might be a move like d2 instead f3 just keeping things nice and solid e4 square is a launching pad for White it is the only outpost that White can really use for his pieces and knight to e7 okay coming around to f5 so can I not take on e5 and he will take it knight f5 now we need to defend that g3 pawn queen f4 maybe 25 seconds I think Paravian is trying to up the ante he is trying to put pressure on the clock and he will play g4 so kicking away that knight it is pinned the knight jumps to h4 check in g3 second game in a row we see White put a king on g3 in a middle game and I mean it's I'm just surprised Paravian is playing all this so quickly and after the most forcing moves he is having a think White is now two pawns up and he will create enough counter play the White king is a bit out in the open but if White had all the time in the world he would probably be winning but with 20 seconds on the clock it's a different story and I think it's just one pawn for White at the moment oh it's just one pawn but Black's got the initiative okay I do think White is somehow consolidating but it's just not easy to play White at all he is taking it down to 10 seconds 11, 10, 9 what's it gonna be? f5 that's right and f5 it does allow Qd6 check I was gonna say and knight h4 check now maybe that king is in some serious trouble it goes back to h1 how does Black increase the pressure Qg3 doesn't quite work because I think White can just kick back with rook e3 and the queen has to retreat Qc6 looks like a pin and there it is Qc6 the rook is now under attack and it is pin the queen goes 2e3 to defend the rook and the king I think this is going to be winning for Black now it takes on a 2 okay that's slightly surprising I would have played rook I would have tried to attack the rook and e4 and suddenly more tactics and oh Black has missed something Qxh5 now he needs a he's down to White has to draw it if he wants it oh does White have more than a draw I think we will see draw 4 or 3 he needs to make a move and Black can play a draw now after king h7 he had one second again and here we go again Armageddon in the next game I think we nearly saw a full turn around there oh David this is too much for me my poor old heart I mean I think there must have been lost there that king was just too open and suddenly he got a perpetual Paravian rushed just a bit too much in the end even he looked disappointed not to have more it seemed to have turned around completely what a stress MSU in the chat I know we're going to see a toss of the coin now I think the winner of this coin toss will choose a colour it's always hard to say I would always prefer to choose White in an Armageddon it's nice to have more time and you've got to back yourself to win a draw in a blitz game is quite a rare result anyway so winning this coin toss is a big first step so it's a pity we cannot hear what is being said I think we won't even find out at least for now who has won the coin toss and what's he picking it looks like Paravian has won the coin toss just the way the arbiter is facing and talking but maybe not so just to explain the Armageddon I think White will have 6 minutes Black will have 5, there won't be any increment at all this time until move 60 after move 60 there will be White has more time White has the extra minute but White has to win a draw and Black will progress to the final in both those games by the way Yesipenko dropped down to one second I mean I my heart is racing my heart is racing so badly we are getting confirmation that Paravian was winning in this second Blitz game but ok who can blame them anything can happen with 10 seconds and we are getting a new clock maybe they have rushed it so hard I think they just had a clock ready for the Armageddon they could somehow sense that it was imminent and the clock gets plugged in I think we'll follow this game with the two screens again we need the view the clock times so we'll keep following it with the two videos of the players so yes as David said whoever gets White will find out in a second he is in a must win situation this will be the final game actually one how I think he's already had quite an advantage for the final huge advantage he has he has he has the what was I going to say the edge of having more experience in this high pressure situations but also it is quite it makes quite a big difference here to get a bit of a time off to catch a deep breath and not have to play immediately these guys after the Armageddon game I guess they will get maybe two three minutes but not more than that that's right so Wang Hao sitting there just literally laughing just watching the games I mean he must be feeling quite confident at this point just fully refreshed then again I mean he's had a few minutes break now Wang Hao and he might not be as much fit as the others I mean the others will be fully in the zone after these Armageddon games I think maybe one disadvantage is if the final and I'm getting ahead of my head but if the final goes to Blitz the others will have had the Blitz practice already I think Wang Hao is probably not too concerned about these things he's probably sitting somewhere with this calm and composed look on his face that we've seen him sport for the past 10 days he's never seemed to be too perturbed by anything at all maybe he's doing what he's been doing for there I mean for some of the other days here at the tournament sitting in the lobby playing some Blitz warming up but yes Wang Hao will be watching this with interest meanwhile he's definitely going to see a decisive result this is the final game of the semi-finals Esther Penko is he taking black? I think he is so I think it's likely maybe that Paravian won the coin toss no official confirmation and it looks like those are definitely the colours so Paravian will need to win this game and as you said there is no increment up to move 60 very often I think in an overwhelming majority of those Armageddon games we don't get there because the players one out of time before we reach move 60 yeah I mean 60 moves is a lot to make I mean physically it takes at least a second to move on average so players will need to move very fast especially Esther Penko to make up that one minute disadvantage from the start it's nice having draw odds but a draw is a rare result and white will be taking some huge risks but I didn't realise how stressful it would be sitting here I really feel for the players you have been in a lot more high pressure situations than I have but that's my mind everyone what is at stake is advancing to the final to play one how for the first place and 30,000 pounds for the title here in Gibraltar that's right yeah 20,000 pound difference between winning the final and getting knocked out and we do see a Karakan and a repetition of okay not quite a repetition of the last game white has tried, I mean Paravian this is his third game with white now against Esther Penko he's tried something different every time and last time when Esther Penko was black he found this nice tactic to win a pawn it wasn't quite enough in the end here all he needs is a draw actually a game like this is perfect for Esther Penko because he has black he knows his opening so well inside out he's played the Karakan his whole career and he won't be spending too much time in the opening at least he'll be trying to make up some valuable seconds apologies about the black and white screen on the right there's nothing we can do about that at the moment but anyway all we need from that one is to keep an eye on the clock times I like the mood lighting I see life in black and white not just because of the chess and oh there we see a bit of a hesitation I think Paravian was about to blunder if he had played 94 he would have lost immediately to Queen H4 and his knight would have been attacked and H2 would have been attacked so he's had to exchange off on D5 maybe not favourable for exchange for white he's had to commit too early in the centre he would have loved to have taken that back and played a move like G3 instead now black is very solid and we will see some action on the C-file very shortly B5 first maybe knight B6 I think he has a panko for this game one of the things he is solid he will have to play faster because in my experience once you drop down to let's say 30 seconds very often it just isn't enough they're currently on move 15 I will be keeping an eye out on the move number to let you know how close they are I think that increment the magical number is move 60 that's right I'm not a huge fan of what Espenko has just done but his king will be nice and safe if it gets to G7 while white is trying to open up the queen side I just feel Espenko has played a bit too slowly over the last few moves and maybe we can indeed see if one of our team could maybe go to the playing hall I know there's a lot happening but just ask that person on the right to move a tiny bit like the full view onto the board and someone is on their way and we'll try and keep the angle free that's right I think the more I look at it the more I think white is starting to take control I just don't understand this G5 and G6 idea by Espenko is he trying to drum up some play along the DH file he's not going to have time I think the idea was to put the king on G7 King F8, King G7 but it's so slow and look at that G5 pawn now and it's a weakness it's all going wrong for Espenko the king is still headed to F8 but rook rook A5 and the problem is there's a lot of issues now G5 is attacked, B5 is attacked and it's very difficult to see how to deal with all those threats and he's still half a minute behind on the clock I recently competed at a tournament and lots of juniors were coming up to me actually playing other games themselves for the first time and they said which color would you take and white is so nice to have that extra minute now he does not only have an extra minute but also an extra pawn as B5 has dropped off that's right he just needs to keep control now they quickly, confidently, no risks, no tactics still I mean okay I think objectively white is winning but let's remember there is no increment here as our producer is doing a great job because he can't actually know what the angle is but we now see the board is black going to be able to get anything at all on that H file David? no, I mean it's too far away it needs three or four moves to even create a threat on the H file and by that time white can just play Bf1 and H3 or even just F3 defend H2 with the queen the knight is headed back 2d7, where does it want to go? I think it's just nowhere better to go unfortunately at this point we'll put another rook on the 7th rank I mean white is in complete control black has no chance to play, black is the one who's passive and a pawn down they are currently on move 26 I think we can predict already we won't be reaching move 60 here can white be able to keep his calm so much at stake he has a winning position he is 40 seconds up on the clock and he needs to win to advance the two define a two face one how? that's right, so we see an exchange of one pair of rooks whites other rook might land on the 7th rank black has played Qc8 that queen still doesn't have any real entry squares on the C file though white's king is super safe struggling to believe that this game will even continue the next 510 moves and there he goes attacking two pieces we saw him desperately look over at the king's side there Qc3 looks active but it doesn't quite work white can at the very least play Bf1 keeping king nice and safe black is just running out of moves unfortunately the time is also ticking down he's trying to get some counter play Qc3 but just a very calm Bf1 black is losing a piece along the 7th rank and his king is also on that rank I mean there's no way out here black can even create a threat Bc5 desperate it's just a free piece though which white will take he's a minute up, he's just checking there are no tricks I mean I guess the only idea is that if white takes this bishop then knight takes e5 there might be one check on f3 I don't think it's so deadly even if you allow a check on f3 I can't see any finish there 4 black but yeah I would just take that bishop I think it happens if you take the knight instead attacking f7 the queen is attacked on a7 white should drop his queen hopefully he sees that and he does not take the queen drops back to a2 I mean that makes some sense as well nice and solid and black still has 2 pieces under attack so we're now on move 31 only half way to the magic mark of move 60 the players are not going to get there and for Andrea Sipenko he is objectively lost he just lost the piece but can he find any tricks at all he'll take on e3, he'll have a check I mean the problem is after queen takes e3 there was queen f2 and the queens would have to come off the board so he took on e5 instead but the queen is on f2 anyway and white is up a piece and completely solid that's right if he wasn't on the board black would have decent drawing chances but unfortunately that B pawn will win the day black is just going to have to play instantly just throw all the pawns up the board and hope for the best f4 is coming for black he wants to open up some lines in front of white's king but unfortunately it does open lines in front of his own king as well and with his last move it's threatening queen d4 to get the queens off the board if the queens come off it's very hard to see how to avoid it queen dropped back to d6 and the queen goes to d4 anyway threatening checkmate on g7 an e5 I think is the only sensible way to stop that rook f7 will not help under 20 seconds for ace panko he's played queen f7 but he is going to go down here rook f7 and after rook exchange just b6 put the queen on b2 and I mean this is just over queen takes e5 now even if you give up the b pawn you'll win the d pawn, you're a piece up and a pawn and also 30 seconds up on the clock as the panko is down to 8 seconds I think he will resign shortly yes it's physically impossible I think to get to move 60 by now and white is also winning on the board 20 seconds he's just trying to make some moves but even if he did reach move 60 he wouldn't although the queen has come in what's happening here 3 seconds white can play bishop f3 bishop g2 queen is still in no man's hand and his checkmate next move queen f8 some drama there towards the end paravan prevails and advances to the final where he will be playing Wang Hao the 30,000 first prize here in Gibraltar and the title guys we're going to take a one minute breather and we'll be back with the final in a few minutes yeah, they go anyway and we are back and we're now watching the final where the winner of this edition of the Gibraltar masters will be decided David, will it be Wang Hao or David Paravian I picked him in round 1 and I still think Wang Hao is the big favourite in this game he's had the break he's fresh, Paravian still has to calm himself down his heart rate must be off the charts at this point after the Armageddon game that being said, if he does survive to the Blitz games he'll be fresh, he'll be ready he's already played a few warm up games for the player to make it to the playoff just one performance point higher than MVL and he's now playing the biggest the biggest couple of games of his life by quite a margin there's 30,000 pounds at stake it's like one of those computer games you level up and then you play another bigger boss and here he's playing Wang Hao but that's often how it works sometimes you're a bit lucky to get into it at the last minute entrance the pressure's off, somehow you think actually I'm just lucky to be here you enjoy it more and then things start to go your way so Paravian actually extremely impressive in that last round and here we see him use the Berlin defence and anti-Berlin and we, since we finally have one minute I mean that Blitz playoff followed by the Armageddon I almost I almost didn't make it David but since we have one minute to take a breather now and let's remind everyone the time control here is 10 minutes for the game and a 5 second increment per move they will be playing two games one with each colour, if they are still tied after that we'll come back to the Blitz madness 3 plus 2 and if still tied a final Armageddon that's right, it'll be fun wouldn't it actually Wang Hao has used this exact system against me here in Gibraltar in the final round he did play this anti-Berlin system with bishop g5 and a quick c3 d4 it's not the most common but it is quite testing for black black has to decide now does he open the centre, does he take everything on d4 and risk being slightly worse slightly behind in development or as he does in the game play queen e7 nice and solid I personally quite like black's chances just because two bishops nice flexible structure but I know that these double pawns on the queen side can play a factor and black's bishop on d6 isn't always the best piece I would expect maybe d takes e5 here maybe d5 or knight bd2 if Wang Hao is feeling solid and I think we now have the board back so we'll be able to show you some lines I think this game it's maybe not going to be decided who is the better chess player by waiting and by experience Wang Hao is the favourite over the board but I think the players have played 10 games of classical chess it is local time 7.30 they started playing 8.5 hours ago I think it will all come down to who is in the better physical shape and who can keep his cool when it matters the most that's right so what do you think Fjernar will they be able to keep that cool it's been 8.5 hours as you said I think I lost my cool a long time ago I'm not sure about losing my cool but we've definitely lost our voices I think after 8.5 hours I was just thinking during our last break the very next time I'll be very careful what I wish for I wanted I wanted a playoff and I got a lot of value for my money how has your first time been it's been emotional David it's been emotional 8.5 hours black now again if black is feeling super ambitious I would recommend FxE5 just aiming to eventually get this push about later with a pin that keeps more tension as well but maybe the more solid option is to take with the knight there we go FxE5 I think white will now be looking to try and get Wai Wenhao will he get his knight into the game so knight bd2 So where is the knight, where is the knight's idea of square d5? White's knight would love to sit on e3 at least to eye up those two squares you mentioned. Just to tease black, it might go either way. I think long term black's big issue is this bishop on d6, but if white can't do anything in the center or the queen side, black might be the one with the attacking chances. Whoops, me and my arrows again. Black might be the one with the attacking chances down this f-file. And if e5 is always solidified then this bishop on g3 doesn't have much work to do. I would pick black, David, just because I like the semi-open f-file. I like the attacking chances as well. Who would you pick? I'm used to these types of positions as black, but because you said black, I would say white. I mean, I think this one's really in the balance.  If white can swap off a pair of knights, get this knight in f3 to e3, then I think white would be very healthy, especially if the queens come off the board. The more pieces off the board the better, but Paravian pinned this knight on f3, h3, bishop h5, rook fe1, slightly mysterious. I'm not really sure what the last move does, but okay, I mean, rook on e1, can't be worse than f1. King h8, very nice solid move. I'm starting to like black a bit more now. This is just very awkward, this pin, actually. So he's stepping out of it, queen e3 is on the board. But it still takes a while for white to get organized. I mean, this knight h4 might be an idea, but maybe the knight has to run away to h2. I mean, as black, I would be very tempted to just start doubling my rooks on the f-file. So what? Well, maybe queen e6 first. Which way do you go on about it? I would love to play rook f6, but I have just spotted it. It fails to bishop h4, so that would be an oops moment. Rook f7? Rook f7 possibly. The conservative. Yeah, maybe we could prepare rook f6 with queen e6. But it looks like he's played h6. I'm trying to guess from the camera. Yep, h6. Yeah, there we go. So there we see the clock times. The game messages just started, what, five minutes ago? Yes. But once again, even with the ten minutes, he eventually picks out so quickly, and black has now put the queen on f6. Yeah, and we'll see knight f5, I think. Wang Hao was about to reach over for that knight. That's right, he does. So that knight on f3 was a bit of a target a few moves ago. Now it's on f5, a better square. Whoops, a better square. But it doesn't necessarily want to capture on d6. That is black's bad bishop. We'll see bishop g6 for short. And I'm hoping we don't see knight h4, bishop h5, knight f5. Yeah, I mean, I'm not sure, because I think in general, as we said before, a draw as black is a fine result, and then you have your own destiny. Oh, knight is. I drew the arrows. While you were talking, I wanted to show I might have seen this idea in advance, queen e6. And is he thinking about g4 here, Wang Hao? That's super ambitious, a bit weakening, but I mean, g4 would be the ambitious way to play. If white's feeling super safe, then maybe knight takes d6. But then his advantage, if any, would be minimal after c takes d6. Crucial moment. Sleepy Mario was with us earlier, and he's back now. He's wondering, is this the final of the tie break? Yes, it is. The winner of the 2020 Gibraltar International Chess Festival will be Ida Wang Hao from China, or David Paravian from Russia. This is game one of the playoff final. So no matter what happens here, they will play a second game with inverted colors. No, that's right. Wang Hao did go for g4. It shows that he's in ambitious, in an ambitious mood. G4 creates some weaknesses around the white king, especially if black can get a knight to f4, but that's a long way away, and this knight on f5 is very strong. What is the route to f4? Fire e6, but even getting there is f8. Long, long way. Long, long way away. Meanwhile, Wang Hao rewoods his knight to f3. That's right. So maybe one idea is to put the bishop back on g3 now, and put the other knight on h4, or to push h4, h5. White will be the one attacking on the king side now. This is quite a thematic idea. We see it in a lot of these types of structures of the Spanish exchange and in this anti-Berlin. I liked black just a couple of minutes ago. I'm suddenly starting to like white. I think especially at faster time controls, knights are so tricky, and those white knights are getting dangerously close to the black king for my liking. That's right. I just have a feeling Paravian will keep ignoring threats on that side of the board. Maybe with a move like a4. Whoops. I mean, my arrow is today. It's bad, bad. David, we've been here for eight and a half hours. I think you're excused. I'm clumsier than ever. Yeah, he does play h4, a4. Knight takes h6. I think it doesn't quite work at the moment. So therefore, Wang Hao plays for Kd1. Okay. So allowing queen takes a2, but this would drop something after knight takes and rook takes with a double attack. Although even then, knight c4. Super sharp. Actually here, white has lots of options. Maybe it should be seven as well. I mean, if queen takes a2, that queen does get very offside. And knight takes h6 might be an idea. So I doubt Paravian will have the courage to capture that pawn. I wouldn't. I mean, I wouldn't even think about it. I mean, it's a blitz game at this point. I mean, seven minutes versus six minutes. You don't want to waste two of those minutes calculating moves that may or may not work. If he doesn't take it, what are his other options? That knight to c4 looks decent. White might just play Qc1, protecting b2 or maybe even Qe2. And he has snatched a pawn on a2. Well, now it looks a bit surprising. What? You really took my pawn on a2.    Well, I certainly wouldn't have taken it. I'm greedy, but I'm not brave enough. I mean, that is courage. And fortune does normally favor the brave. Let's look at knight h6, which is the big question here. So knight c4 isn't really effective now because Qg5 looks a bit scary. So, okay, let's say we take this. Qh6 has to drop back. There is a few candidate moves. I really want to play d5 or something to block this queen. To block the queen from coming back. But I don't think it quite works. Knight g5. Maybe I can drop back here. And everything is under control. That's right. Wow, scary stuff, though. So instead, Qh7. So knight g5. Maybe there's a queen back to g8 idea. David, do you think Qh7 is going to take on h6? Yes. The problem is it's a very committal decision. If you give up the knight, well, you might deliver a checkmate. But if black can parry all the threats and to lose as white is very tough. And there he goes, knight h6. And we're in for a treat, David. It's too tempting. I mean, it feels like somehow we must see a decisive result in this game. Black has two moves. Black could, well, I was going to say he could take on f3 as well. Rxf3 does distract the white q